Back better, but not there yet. Going to take a few more days. Lip the same. Black eye blacker.
Actually, I feel good except for the back.
I put together this week’s KONK Life column yesterday. Off and on. Could not sit in one position too long. I opted for lighter material. The world is heavy and my columns have been heavy lately. Enough. This week a bit of humor. The Minie Ball Pregnancy.
My bocce team did well thursday night. Won 2, lost 1. We are now 8-1 for the season. Best start ever!
Not only was I absent, so were Don, Norm and David. Don was in California for his sister’s wake. Norm had some minor surgery earlier in the week. David only was available for two games. He had to be at work for the third. His company is doing some runway work at the airport which can only be done night time.
There is a Catholic archbishop in California raising hell with the Church’s position on such things as abortion, gay marriage, etc. The usual. He has imposed some severe rules on lay persons teaching in Catholic schools. Even those not Catholic. I view his actions a step too far.
Ergo, I was searching the internet for situations where the Catholic Church did something wrong which resulted in pain and suffering to many. I am not referring to the Inquisition which speaks for itself.
Witchcraft was in vogue from the 1200s through the 1600s. The Catholic cry was to get rid of the witches. They were the Devil’s representatives on earth. Good people were burned at the stake.
Cats got involved. Witches and cats go together. In 1232, Pope Innocent VIII declared cats diabolical, associated with the Devil.
That was it for cats. They were executed in large numbers. Very few, if any, cats were around for 400 years.
Cats are the #1 rat predators. Without cats, the rat population flourished. Rats were the ones that spread the bubonic plague aka black death.
It took 100 years for the effect of the slaughter of the cats to be felt. Europe experienced its first bubonic plague outbreak in the early 1330s. Three more thereafter. It is estimated 50 million died. The number represented 50-60 percent of the world’s population at the time.
All because a Pope assumed cats were evil.
Proof again that even the Catholic Church can err.
Enjoy your Sunday!
There was just a story out that rats were not responsible for the plague.
I prefer to focus on my own problems.
And, if I’m so smart, how come I’m not rich, employed, thin, young, and handsome?
Argh!
fjohn68
Supposedly recent research shows it was big Great Gerbils and not rats. Also in the mix were marmots and ground squirrels.
Anyway, they were rodents and the people back then had about the same sanitary habits as a pig in slop.
How did Innocent VIII declare this in 1232 when he was pope in 1432? He could not have caused the plague by condemning cats, unless of course he was a witch with time travel powers.
I wrote this blog some time ago. I went back to my notes. We are both wrong. Innocent was born in 1432. I am assuming I was looking at 1432 and for some reason hit 1232. I really do not recall why I struck 1232. Perhaps a typo. You are in error also. Innocent was not Pope in 1432. He was born in 1432. His Bull re cats was issued in 1484 in the first year of his papacy. Thanks for bringing the error to my attention.
you got your popes mixed up not the years, Gregory IX