If the Fed mandated that States spend this money as fast as they can and on "shovel ready" projects, how can the LAUSD put ONE-HALF of it's stimulus money away for next year!

This in lieu of keeping teachers employed!!

The LAUSD plan to put one-half of their money under a mattress, as it were, appears to violate both of the Federal-mandated directives for stimulus spending by the States?

The history of the catholic church has been that when convents cease to be of use, the nuns are told to leave their convents. I am afraid that this will be a culling of orders throughout the US and that those found wanting will be cast to the wind....often after years of service to the church. They do not have a history of "taking care of their own"

Perhaps this is ti...

FYI:

ENCYCLICAL LETTER
CARITAS IN VERITATE
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS
PRIESTS AND DEACONS
MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS
THE LAY FAITHFUL
AND ALL PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL
ON INTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
IN CHARITY AND TRUTH

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html

I am 32 and was raised Catholic. When I was little, my mother's friend told me, with all sincerity, that I would be the first female pope. That calling is off the table for me now and I highly doubt I will see a female pope in my lifetime. Women, both lay and ordained, do make incredible contributions to their individual parishes and the church as a whole. With women not being allowed to serve as priests, though, Catholic women aren't allowed to fully contribute to their church. A pastor is like a CEO, the priests his VPs. Catholic women are allowed to work for the corporation but can never aspire to truly lead. Opening up priesthood to Catholic women will hugely benefit the church as a whole. Sadly, with the fiercely dogmatic men currently running the church, I don't see that change coming any time soon, at a loss to Catholics everywhere.

RE: NAME CHANGE:
Please note, Pat, that in 1992-93, Marvin Braude (then Councilman of District 2 before Wendy Greuel) unilaterally annexed the section of Van Nuys south of Burbank and north of Magnolia and re-joined it to Sherman Oaks! We are not the first group of homeowners to re-join Sherman Oaks.

Boy, does that apologist for the Catholic heirarchy piss me off. He reminds of the guy who says he likes black people - everybody ought to own one. His arrogance and disconnect with the reality of the destructive nature of sexism is breathtaking. His implication that females should be happy with their lot in the catholic boys' club - on their knees, either scrubbing floors or in front of priests - is obscene. I have attended mass at the Vatican and guess what! Nary a woman in sight in the procession that included bishops, cardinals, and the pope. It is a bold-faced lie to say that women participate at all levels. (Unless maybe he meant women washed the floors of St. Peter's Cathedral.) Your guest is blinded, not by faith, but by a myopic and self-serving view of the world. I am the father of three daughters and a granddaughter, and imperfect as I am, I am thankful they are not of this man's household. That's the opinion of one former Catholic.

more RE: NAME CHANGE
How does Jill Banks Barad NOT know how this affects the people who live in the area? She has someone on her BOARD who lives just south of Burbank in what was Van Nuys 15 years ago. They know exactly what it means to us to be a part of Sherman Oaks and we'll continue to work for the betterment of Sherman Oaks because that's who we are: RESIDENTS OF SHERMAN OAKS!

correction: The next to the last sentence should have read, "I am the father of three daughters and the grandfather of one granddaughter . . . " The smug bastard irritated me so much I couldn't even type straight.

As a homeowner in the affected area, it angers me to called racist and elitist. nothing could be further from the truth.

I take offense to the racial comment. I live in the area that would be annexed. I am Mexican and my neighbors are from all ethnicities. This has NOTHING to do with race. We simply feel that we deserve to be formally called Sherman Oaks as we share the same zip code. Nothing more.

I did not have a chance to say this on the show but it is clear that the reservation of priestly ordination to men is perhaps the sorest spot among contemporary critics of the Catholic Church’s treatment of women and religious sisters. Many people understandably believe that the Church feels that women are less holy, less intellectually capable, less pastorally sensitive, or less capable of leadership than men. None of this is true. It is true that medieval theologians defended male priestly ordination with just such arguments, but the reservation in and of itself does not imply the inferiority of women. Catholic belief is that Christ himself established what constitutes the sacraments. The Church, in obedience to the Lord, is free only to follow what Christ has ordained.

Baptism must make use of water and not sand. This does not imply that sand is in and of itself less than water; indeed, those lost at sea need sand much more than they need water. The Eucharist must make use of bread and wine and not sausage and beer, even in Germany, where presumably those celebrating the Eucharist may prefer a meal of sausage and beer to one of bread and wine. Similarly, the Church teaches that Christ established that the proper recipient of the sacrament of holy orders is a baptized male; similarly, this in no way implies that men are better than women. The teaching itself does not imply in any way inferiority on the part of women.

It is almost always assumed by advocates of women’s ordination that the "full and active participation" in the Church called for by the Second Vatican Council (Sacrosanctum Concilium 14) requires priestly ordination. The view that only priests are called to holiness or to important roles or to "full and active" participation in the Church is often called clericalism, an idea rejected by the Council. The lay person can participate actively and fully in the Church—as a lay person. The Spirit bestows different gifts on different people. As the first letter to the Corinthians indicates, just as the human body has different members and each member a different purpose, so, too, the various parts of the body of Christ—successors to the apostles, prophets, teachers, healers, helpers, administrators—are all essential, valuable, and vital (cf. 1 Cor. 12:4–30). The clericalist view implies that Mother Teresa, St. Thomas More, St. Francis of Assisi, and the Virgin Mary did not fully participate in the Church because they were not priests, obviously an absurd conclusion.

Why not compromise and call it Sherman Nuys?

It has to do with identifying with the community they are already a part of.
I live in the proposed area and my land deed says Sherman Oaks.

Just call the entire Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks. It will help with property values and makes everyone feel better.

The Neighborhood Councils do not accurately represent the neighborhoods - they represent less than a couple hundred people who voted for them.
What about the 2000 people in Van Nuys and Sherman Oaks who support this?

This will not hurt Van Nuys - the area is too small to have any real impact. The proposed area is not responsible for saving Van Nuys.

Lydia speaks of property values at one of the main motives, yet she led the movement creating the first historical district in Van Nuys and is quoted by the LA Times in November 23, 2004 issue that she thinks this historic district designation would boost real estate values, her home is included in the historic district.

Here is the L.A. Times link to the article wherein Marvin Braude annexed 45 blocks of residential real property into Sherman Oaks bordered by Van Nuys Blvd., the 405 fwy, Magnolia and Burbank Blvds. It was 1991 - my bad:
http://articles.latimes.com/1991-08-22/local/me-1234_1_van-nuys
Check it out people! We are not the first to re-join Sherman Oaks!!

I live in the area wanting to be annexed to Sherman Oaks. Besides all the comments about why we desire it, let me add that when we vote on election days, the boundaries given for our voters is alway South of Oxnard and including voters south of Burbank in Sherman Oaks. And if there are cynical observations that it is about property value, then that should be a good thing. Think of the higher property taxes we get for our coffers when a house is sold!
But please, do not inject racism into this. Our area is extremely multicultural and multi-racial.

I live in the proposed name change area and wholeheartedly support it. My neighborhood school is in sherman oaks as well as the closest post office,dry cleaners,and grocery store. Clearly,sherman oaks is the neighborhood I identify with. The purpose of having a local city council person is so the rest of the council people can take their recommendation. There is so much to be done in Los Angeles and if each city council person was to research each issue, nothing would get accomplished. Wendy Greuhl looked at the issue and her opinion should be respected by the rest of the council.

The city council should allow the name change with one condition...that the area remains under the aegis of the van nuys neighborhood council jurisdiction.

This part of Sherman Oaks group say that they have over 600 signatures of approval from people in the area, 500 from supporters in Sherman Oaks, the over 1000 supporters who have emailed, the now past Councilmember Wendy Greuel, support of all the affected businesses in this area and the Sherman Oaks Chamber of Commerce, and now the support of recent Council Member Wendy Greuel. Besides the 15 approximate people from each neighborhood councils, do they have any oppositions on paper from the people in the neighborhoods surrounding this area. They are relying on the supposed "power" of their neighbohood councils but these neighborhood councils have not reached out to the people and asked their opinions (door to door) who are the people they are there to help and support. For over a year this has been in the public eye, so there is no excuse for anyone not to know about it between the TV, Radio, Newspaper and signs in the proposed area. This has been plenty of time for people to chime in. I think the neighborhood councils need to find a better way to reach out to the community. Ask people on the street if the even know when the next meeting is for their "neighborhood" council and most will have no idea, some will say they did not even know that there was such a thing. It is time to stop attacking and find solutions. Re-focus your neighborhood council energy on reaching out and creating more of a community togetherness like this group has done.

The neighborhood name change is entirely logical and one need only drive through the neighborhood to see the vast similarities between our neighborhood and the Sherman Oaks neighborhood to the South and the vast differences between our neighborhood and the wide industrial divide to the North - an area which along with the Orange line and a mammoth DWP facility isolates us and cuts us off from the rest of Van Nuys. We were once a part of Sherman Oaks and it's time we returned. The urban landscape of Van Nuys looks nothing like our neighborhood landscape and we do not border anywhere, on any side, a residential area of Van Nuys. However, our entire Southern border is a residential area of Sherman Oaks. We share a zip code, elementary schools, deeds, voting booths, land deeds, an L.A. City Council Member with Sherman Oaks, etc.

We are hurting absolutely no one and are boosting community morale and unity by making official the identity we so clearly already possess. A true and triumphant example of the civic process at work.

I have to ask - what are the personal and political motives of the handful of people who oppose us and what is their relationship to one another?

Thank you, Patt from many fans worldwide for having Jeffrey Combs and Stuart Gordon on your show. It was absolutely amazing hearing Jeff recite Poe's poem in character live on air. If this doesn't entice people to go to "Nevermore," nothing will!

For anyone who is interested in attending, Sunday July 12th is opening night (and official fan night!), previews are tomorrow and Friday, and the show will run Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through August 2nd.

Ok this one time I will share a cafepress link to my Edgar Allen Poe t-shirt.
It's a black raven with the head of Edgar Allen Poe
http://www.cafepress.com/nevermore_shirt
The show is over, I know, I couldn't get to the PC in time.

Correction: Preview nights are this Friday and Saturday, July 10th and 11th.

Christopher,

"The Church, in obedience to the Lord, is free only to follow what Christ has ordained."

Christ ordained Mary Magdallen.

Of course sand is different from water. But sometimes it is better to use sand to put out a fire.

You are lying to yourself if you think the Catholic Church treats women equally. Yes the Catholic Church has plenty of oppurtunity for women. Holy Family in S Pasadena ca would be nowhere without the help of women. That goes for most parishes in Los Angeles.

The Relious Education Conference is pretty much run by women. LMU has great female proffesors. So you can talk all you want and spout out plenty of pretty words to convince yourself that you are being fair But and here's the big but, The Catholic Church teaches, by it's practice and actions, that women can never be equal to men.