Things that are starting to irritate me

• The Haitian coverage. Reporters and photographers are treating the Haitians like animals. I saw a photograph of an elderly woman sitting on the ground topless. She didn't look happy about having her picture taken. I know Haiti is a primitive place but people haven't walked naked in public there in centuries. Imagine you're sitting in your tub or lying in bed or shampooing your hair when the earquake hits. You run outside and find yourself half dressed but alive. And then some foreigner comes along, gapes at you and takes your photograph as if you are a dumb beast on the saharra. I have seen photos from Hurricaine Katrina, the last Japanese earthquake and the last American one and I never saw such disrespect for human pride before.
  
  
• People who knock Michelle Obama for her looks instead of her politics. Yes, the poor woman is unattractive and I don't think she spent much time reading Emily Post as a child but she's not the president and attacking her for her appearance is ungracious, unserious and unmanful. And the people who pick on her children -- there is one blogger who seems to delight in this-- are beyond repulsive. Minor children are out of bounds. Americans used to know this. The people at my job who made fun of Bristol and her baby brother, Trigg Palin are dead to me as far as a social relationship goes and I dont' like snotty cracks about Sasha and Malia Obama either. They can't help having a jackass for a father.
  
  
• Activist Catholics in church. I came to Mass to worship the Lord, not sign your petition. Maybe I'll listen to you after Mass and in the parish hall or the parking lot but save your cause for later.
  
  
• Folks who insist on holding hands during the Our Father. Dude, I only hold hands with blood kin and my husband. You are neither. And the next man who tries to give me a "holy kiss" and a butt squeeze is getting a knee to the groin.
  
  
• Catholics who nitpick every good thing they see. A few days ago four Benedictine postulants took their vows and recieved their novice veils. One guy wrote in and complained that the young ladies in their white gowns were too attractive. I wanted to write in but decided not to. All I could think was that if this indvidual finds nuns on their espousal day too sexy then he has ...issues and had better book himself a one way flight to Saudi Arabia. I think he and his loins would be happier there.
  
  Another gloomy gus of a person wrote in to say that she hopes none of the nuns stay in the convent out of perseverence. That's like remarking to a couple on their wedding day, "I hope you don't stay married out of duty to God and your vows to Him." What kind of a whack thing is that to say?
  
  Then there's the people who bitch for the sheer joy of it. This happens quite a lot on New Liturgical Movement blog, I'm sorry to say. Someone will post pictures of a TLM and then readers will filood the comment boxes with petty complaints: the vestments don't fit the priest (never mind the fact that the church in question only has one set), there were six candles when there should've been three, somebody is upset because the bishop has on a blue habit, despite the fact that this particular bishop's order always wears blue from the time of their founding two or three decades ago, someone is pissed because of the priest's high and tight haircut-- turns out that the priest is a military chaplain, (I personally prefer short haired priests, if you have a Samson fetish, get thee to the Byzantines), someone attended the Mass and says that the priest's Latin wasn't good enough-- ungrateful wretch! How good is your spoken Latin, really? Most of us never get to attend a TLM, many people prayed and died waiting for the chance and you pick on a priest who is brave enough and kind enough to say the Mass---ugh!