Perpetual Templates

Perpetual Templates Blogger Templates by Patrick J. Simmons

Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Welcome to Perpetual Templates

Perpetual Templates is a blog used for the testing and occasional displaying of Blogger templates created by Patrick J. Simmons.

Now, to fill space, here is a reflection from Saint John Bosco: No matter how good food is, if poison is mixed with it, it may cause the death of him who eats it. So it is with conversation. A single bad word, an evil action, an unbecoming joke, is often enough to harm one or more young listeners, and may later cause them to lose God's grace.

For more filler, here is a news article:Tests on more than 1,200 children's products, most of them still on store shelves, found that 35 percent contain lead — many with levels far above the federal recall standard used for lead paint.

A Hannah Montana card game case, a Go Diego Go! backpack and Circo brand shoes were among the items with excessive lead levels in the tests performed by a coalition of environmental health groups across the country.

Only 20 percent of the toys and other products had no trace of lead or harmful chemicals, according to the results being released Wednesday by the Michigan-based Ecology Center along with the national Center for Health, Environment and Justice and groups in eight other states.

Of the 1,268 items tested, 23 were among millions of toys recalled this year.

Mattel Inc. recalled more than 21 million Chinese-made toys on fears they were tainted with lead paint and tiny magnets that children could accidentally swallow. Mattel's own tests on the toys found that they had lead levels up to 200 times the accepted limit.

The Consumer Action Guide to Toxic Chemicals in Toys, which is available to the public at http://www.healthytoys.org, shows how the commonly purchased children's products rank in terms of containing lead, cadmium, arsenic and other harmful chemicals. It comes in time for holiday shopping — and amid the slew of recalls.

"This is not about alarming parents," said Tracey Easthope, director of the Ecology Center's Environmental Health Project. "We're just trying to give people information because they haven't had very much except these recall lists."

Easthope said 17 percent of the children's products tested had levels of lead above the 600 parts per million federal standard that would trigger a recall of lead paint. Jewelry products were the most likely to contain the high levels of lead, the center said, with 33.5 percent containing levels above 600 ppm. Among the toys that tested above that limit was a Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game, whose case tested at 3,056 ppm.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a level of 40 ppm of lead as the maximum that should be allowed in children's products. Lead poisoning can cause irreversible learning disabilities and behavioral problems and, at very high levels, seizures, coma, and even death.

A spokeswoman for New York-based Cardinal Industries Inc., which sells the Hannah Montana game, said Tuesday that Cardinal was unaware of the environmental groups' tests or procedures but the product has passed internal tests.

"We test every (product) before it ships numerous times," Bonnie Canner said. "We have not tested this product high for lead."

Easthope said the product is manufactured in China. Canner declined further comment until she had more information.

The center and its testing partners found The First Years brand First Keys, Fisher-Price's Rock-a-Stack and B.R. Bruin's Stacking Cups were among the 20 percent that contained none of the nine chemicals.

"There's a lot of doom and gloom about lead in the products — people only hear about the recalls," said Jeff Gearhart, the Ecology Center's campaign director. "Companies can make clean products. Our sampling shows that there's no reason to put lead in a product."

Gearhart and Easthope said the products, while not necessarily representative of everything on the market, were considered among those commonly bought and used. Testers purchased most at major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us.

The testing began in 2006 but most of the items were checked in the past six months, Gearhart said.

Calls to a Mattel spokeswoman were not immediately returned Tuesday. A Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman declined to comment because the company had not seen the report.

Toys "R" Us Inc. spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh also declined to comment because she needed to fully review the report's findings, referring questions to the Toy Industry Association.

Joan Lawrence, the association's vice president of standards and safety, said the group and its members support limiting accessible lead in children's products. But she said the industry and standard-setting bodies are struggling with how to measure exposure, accessibility and what limits to set.

She said she hasn't seen all of the Ecology Center's findings but called them misleading because the testers did not appear to follow recognized test procedures for lead and other substances. The two most common ways are to use solutions to simulate saliva and digestion, and another to attempt to dissolve the surface coating.

The center and its testing partners performed what they describe as a "screening" of chemicals using a handheld X-ray fluorescence device that detects surface chemical elements.

"The mere presence of any substance alone is only half of the answer — you need to know if it's accessible to the child," Lawrence said. "We can't tell that from what I know of the tests that have been done by this group."

Easthope said her group's tests aren't meant to replace those tests, and that's noted on the Web site. She said it's important for people to know what's in these products since nobody else is providing this data.

"We're not saying that ... all of it will come out into a child," she said. "We're saying it's a concern that so much of these products have these chemicals of concern in them.

"We shouldn't have lead in kids' products. We can make products without lead in them."

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesman Scott Wolfson said he also hasn't seen the Ecology Center's tests but said the federal agency would seek to verify its findings and initiate recalls if warranted.

He said the commission has been meeting with ASTM International, which spearheads voluntary safety standards for toys, to discuss crafting standards specific to lead in plastics. He said there also is movement on Capitol Hill to revise laws on lead in children's products.

Wolfson said the commission launched 40 toy recalls in fiscal year 2006, three involving lead-paint violations. In 2007, there were 61 recalls, 19 involving lead-paint violations.

"What we would like to consumers to know is more recalls are on the way," he said.

-Newsvine.com

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An Example Post from Quezon

The following is a post stolen from Fat Penguins:

That's write everyone... get it? WRITE? Instead of right... Okay, it's not funny, but anyway, I'm attempting to write a 50 thousand word novel, in one month because apparently that's cool now. So, all these people try and write ridiculously large books in a short period of time for who knows what reason, it's supposed to be a great achievement, but as far as I'm concerned, it's time taken away from more important things like sleeping, living, and repairing the couch. (Seriously, that's what I end up doing on the weekends.)

So continuing on, here's some website that a bunch of weirdo's sign up to in an insane attempt to help them with this unrealistic quest. www.nanowrimo.com
It does amaze me though, that some people actually have managed to hit the half-way point before the month is half over, and when I say that, I mean nothing past half the month matters if you haven't already finished half. In fact, it doesn't matter if you actually finish, because you won't. The whole second half of the month is pointless, no one actually has that long to spend writing, not to mention, most people run out of pencils by the seventh page and everyone who uses computers will either have died from lack of sun, or will have stopped paying the electric bill and will have no power. Not to mention these poor souls won't even notice when their screen turns black and will continue typing with no result.

Now you may be wondering why I would try and do something this ridiculous, but I have to. I'm physically being forced by my ego, in the form of a larger version of my head. After all, how could I spend all the month sewing the couch while Patrick rubs his novel in my face?

So, November will be very interesting for me, but not for you... your boring I'm sure...

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An Example Post from Patrick

This post stolen from Perpetual Thursday:

Father Peter Daly has one of those smiles that makes me want to punch him just to get him to stop smiling. I'm sure you know the kind of smile I'm talking about. (The guy who does the television advertisements for eHarmony.com has one too. I'm not really sure why, there is just something about the way he smiles that I absolutely cannot stand.)

Father Daly is a writer for the Catholic News Service. I've never really paid him much attention until just recently, when he decided to write a short column about the Tridentine Mass and the motu proprio.

As you may have guessed, it wasn't a very nice column... In fact, it painted a completely negative view of the both the Tridentine Mass and those who go to it. It also gives false impressions about the Mass and people's reasons for attending it.
Father Daly accomplishes all of this using his own research into the subject: "The parish just west of mine has been celebrating the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass for more than 15 years...Almost nobody comes."

Before going on, let me establish that his research ends conveniently with this one parish. This is a very popular method of supporting one's argument: 'Well, it's like that close to me, so it must be like that everywhere.'

Now that he has implied that almost nobody wants to go to the Latin Mass, he moves on to say who does want to go, and why: "Most of the people who come are elderly. They like this Mass because it is quiet and short."

Ah yes, quiet and short. Now, just in case you get the wrong idea here, he is implying that "quiet" is a bad thing. Silent meditation, reflection, and prayer apparently don't count for anything. Someone ought to tell the monks...

Now for one of my two favorite parts of his column: "My neighboring pastor is a bit exasperated by the whole thing. It means a lot of work for him. Under the old liturgy, the priest did just about everything...For my neighbor the extra liturgy means has had to move the alter for the Mass facing the people...Then he has to set out different books and change into different vestments. Most inconvenient of all, he has to prepare and preach a different homily."

Now, rather than point out that if we ditched the Novus Ordo, none of the above would really be problems, I'd like to focus on the words "most inconvenient of all." A very poor choice of words on Father Daly's part, even if the perfectly express what he's getting at here: the less work the priest has to do the better. We're happy to server God, provided it's not inconvenient.

Here's where it gets really good: that's EXACTLY the same argument he used against people who go to the Tridentine Mass! "Under the old liturgy, the priest did just about everything. The people who come to the Latin Mass like that part of the tradition just fine. They don't think they should have to do anything but show up."

There it is, in between complaining about how hard the Tridentine is for priests, he makes the utterly bogus statement that the reason lay people go to it is because they think the Novus Ordo is too hard. Brilliant.

As the column moves on, he continues this line of thought: "A few folks from my parish go over to my neighbor's parish for the Latin Mass...They don't like all the singing at my parish. They don't like shaking hands. They don't like Communion in both forms. They don't like having three readings. They tell me what they like most about the Latin Mass is that they can get in and out in less than 45 minutes."

"They don't like all the singing at my parish."
Two things to note: there is singing at the Tridentine Mass. Not always, but often. Almost every Latin Mass I've gone to has had at least two songs. Even when they don't, I don't see a problem with it. No singing is better than the Protestant hymns they are very likely hearing at your Novus Ordo.

"They don't like Communion in both forms."
First off, it's Holy Communion. Secondly, what's better: people kneeling down and taking the Holy Eucharist reverently on their tongue, or people sauntering up, taking the Holy Eucharist in their dirty hands, popping into their mouth and hopping over to drink His Most Precious Blood out of a cup full of germs from every other person at the church? It's not just about reverence, it's about the spread of germs too.

"They don't like having three readings."
Let me think... The Epistle, the Gospel, and the Last Gospel... One, two... Well, maybe I'm just an ignorant Traditionalist, but it certainly seems like that makes three readings to me.

"They can get in and out in less than 45 minutes."
This is true for your average Low Mass, but not a High Mass. A High Tridentine Mass can take up to 2 hours. But on the subject of the Low Mass - which is better, a 30-45 minute reverent celebration of the Mass, or a one hour long huggy handshake party?

Now Father Daly goes on to tell us more about those nasty, lazy Traditionalists: "For them, a good liturgy is also one where they don't have to speak to anyone or do anything. Their whole attitude says 'I want no commitment and I want no communication.'"

By the time I read this, I was already feeling sorry for Father Daly, and this only made me feel worse. It's like he's trying to make himself look like a complete ass. Cleaning alter linens (there are a lot more for a Tridentine Mass), cleaning the church, caring for all of the many sacred vestments and objects used, serving the Mass (High Masses can have 10 or more servers, easily) - not to mention church socials or stopping for a chat after mass (outside the church, of course). They is quite a bit of commitment necessary for a Tridentine Latin Mass.

To close his article, Father Daly says the following of the Latin Mass: "We can offer it. But almost nobody will come."

Ignoring both the old who come to the Mass they were raised with and the young families who come looking for a truly reverent Mass, Father Daly ends with what almost sounds like a vain hope that the Tridentine will fail.

Father Daly obviously doesn't like the Tridentine Mass, and even shows contempt for those who do. Maybe he hopes to show traditionalists the light with his article, so that they may come to the Novus Ordo he loves so much. If that is is goal, I can confidently say that "almost nobody will come."

However, I don't think that is his intention. I think, more than anything, he is simple trying to pacify his own fears that maybe, just maybe, somebody will come.

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