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By John Basher
The average U.S. highway speed is 70 miles per hour. A 450 four-stroke can reach upwards of 65 mph on a motocross track. Aside from speed, these transportation devices have little in common. A father of four, toting his precious cargo inside a minivan bound for grandma's house, is more worried about getting to his destination on time than beating the other drivers to the inside line on the next bend on Interstate 5. Yet in driving, as well as riding a dirt bike, the mind must properly judge distance and speed. This commonality is true in all sports—from NASCAR to baseball to curling. However, the senses are heightened when speeds are increased and distances are shortened. The mind must act as a super-processor by deciphering information and reacting with lightning-fast precision as the time-space continuum changes.
The orange MXA lid isn't just for motocross.
Don't believe me? Drive on the highway and maintain the speed limit. Then, drive on a curved road while maintaining the speed limit. If you're a speed junkie, you'll love the rush of adrenaline as the tires squeal and the car slides. For many, the thrill is worth the risk of careening off a mountainside. That's why motorsports are so popular. NASCAR, Formula 1 and MotoGP are huge markets, with exorbitant television packages and millions of fans. The average person can relate to the car stars because they also drive a car. Granted, it's a 180-degree difference from what Jimmy Johnson and Sebastian Vettel drive, but they feel the bond. On a smaller scale, everyone who has ever ridden a Harley, Goldwing or Vespa thinks he is the next Valentino Rossi. It's not hard to see that sports get their followers from those who have a personal connection to the activity. Every kid in America played baseball and football. Those are mainstream sports. Very few have ever jumped out of an airplane, thus the dearth of skydiving fans.
The Musgrave Racing father-son combo—Willy (on the left) and Billy.
Motocross riders are a small but passionate bunch. We thirst for the speed, danger, challenge and the competitive atmosphere that comes with riding a dirt bike. There is no substitute for motocross. Or is there? That's exactly the question that MXA test rider Willy Musgrave asked himself eight years ago. A former AMA National Pro, after almost 40 years of racing motocross, Willy started to feel complacent. He'd done and seen it all, investing his life into a sport. Musgrave had won a round of the World Supercross Championships in India, worked as the production manager at a motorcycle company, built exhaust pipes for the White Brothers and DR.D, ran a major distributing company, and has been an MXA test rider for decades. Willy should have been pleased with his accomplishments.
As in motocross, getting a shifter kart properly set up takes time and money.
Do the same thing long enough and you might eventually grow tired of it. That's obvious for an accountant, but not for a motocross rider. But Willy wanted to add more excitement to his life. So, in 2008, Willy decided to buy a shifter kart and split his attention between dirt and asphalt. Don't get us wrong, Willy was still racing and testing bikes, but his energies were divided. So was his bank account. Willy spent $9500 each on two new Arrow karts and convinced his son Billy, a 250 Pro, to try something new.
Willy Musgrave has been a long-time MXA test rider. Here he puts the 2006 KTM 450SXF through its paces.
Most people associate go-karting with the rickety bumper cars that are prevalent at county fairs and children's entertainment centers. That couldn't be further from the truth. Karting, with shifter karts in particular, is intense. It requires cognitive, cerebral and physical competence to pilot a 200-plus-pound kart around a track—let alone race it with any success. Going over 80 miles per hour sitting 2 inches off the ground with only a plastic bumper protecting you from a concrete wall is insane. Covering 117 feet per second and entering a chicane with tires lining the track will make you think twice about overcooking the corner. Shifter karting isn't for the faint of heart.
Billy Musgrave was a 250 Pro who never switched to four-strokes. He finished fourth in the 2012 World Two-Stroke Championships.
Willy Musgrave fell in love with the four-wheel sport almost immediately. He said, "After racing motocross for so long, I was looking for another competitive outlet. I was initially leery of shifter karts, because the upfront cost was expensive and I didn't know if I would like it. Once I made the investment and drove a few times, I was blown away. There wasn't any way that I could stop doing it."
The MXA wrecking crew had reservations about Willy's decision to pursue a new activity when he asked if he could start an MXA kart team made up of motocross racers. We wanted him at the motocross races with us and wondered what was so mystifying that he would skip the occasional motocross race to drive around in a parking lot. Willy said that we would understand if we went with him. So, we met the Musgraves at California Speedway to get a better understanding of shifter karting.
Old age and treachery don't always overcome youth and skill. Willy's son Billy is on the fast track to kart stardom; he has already arrived as a National Kart Championship.
Willy's no slouch either. The older Musgrave has won his fair share of races in the Vet class (just as he has in motocross), and he's also bringing his entrepreneurial skills into karting. Willy started Musgrave Racing Company (www.musgraveracing.com) out of his race shop in Corona, California. He sells complete Honda CR125 engines (either 1999 or 2001 model years), as well as radiators, exhausts, cables, batteries and a host of other kart-specific products. Naturally sales skyrocketed after Billy won the Super Nationals on an MRC privateer kart.
Aside from the MRC race team, Musgrave delves into shifter-kart rentals and track-test days. For $250 for a half day or $400 for a full day, you can meet Willy at any of the SoCal kart tracks and spin laps on a supplied shifter kart. Jody arranged with Willy for Daryl Ecklund and me to go to California Speedway to try our luck at shifter karting. Fortunately, since Willy has been an MXA test rider for 26 years, he took special joy in showing us the ins and outs of karting.
We quickly discovered that there are many similarities between motocross and shifter karting. Both use dirt bike engines—although in shifter karts, the power source of choice is almost totally two-stroke. They make four-stroke karts, but it isn't the hot setup in the karting world. Both motocross and karting rely on shifting as well as using a clutch. What they don't share is suspension. In motocross we spend long hours trying to get the forks and shocks dialed in, while a kart doesn't have suspension. It depends on frame flex and a myriad of intricate setup tricks to fine-tune the performance of the vehicle. In fact, during the day of our test, Willy swapped out the rear-axle diameter in an effort to make the rear of the kart more rigid for better handling. It did the trick.
As with motocross, line selection and shifting points are also vital. Much to our surprise, the six-speed CR125 was eye-watering fast. That engine might strain on a motocross track, but on asphalt, with incredible traction, the engine ripped. The meat of the powerband was from 8500 rpm to 12,500 rpm, and there was a lot of shifting to keep it there. We shifted, with a hand lever located next to the steering wheel, around 50 times on a 45-second course. Willy plugs up the power valve, because otherwise they would never shut.
We quickly discovered that fractions of a second make all the difference in the world. Unlike in motocross, where it's possible to regain time from a blown corner by riding harder and deeper into the next corner, it's hard to mask any mistakes when karting. Failing to properly set up for a corner will add time. Overcooking a turn will slow you down. Not keeping the engine running at the optimum rpm range will really hinder a lap time. Of course, Daryl and I did all of the aforementioned no-nos and several more.
A shifter kart retails for around $9500. It very well might be the best money that you've ever spent.
Musgrave admitted that there was a 50-percent success rate among first-time kart drivers. People either take to it like a fish to water, or they flounder on the asphalt. Luckily for Daryl and me, there is a positive correlation between motocross experience and achievement in karting. It makes sense, but Willy also mentioned that he has taught several top Pro riders (names withheld so as not to cause embarrassment) who were terrible behind the wheel. Our resident AMA National Pro Daryl Ecklund immediately grasped the concept of going fast in a shifter kart. He knocked off several 48-second lap times in his first driving session. Meanwhile, I struggled to find any modicum of comfort inside the kart. I dogged it in with a measly 54-second time.
Ever the teacher, Willy pulled us aside and offered advice. He recommended several better lines to Daryl and suggested that I shift out of the granny gear and wind out the engine. Billy Musgrave led us out for the second session. It was kind of like having Ryan Villopoto say, "Follow me." Billy went slow enough for us to follow his swooping lines and zero in on his shifting points. The tactic worked, because Ecklund shaved two seconds off his time, and I knocked a full six seconds off my previous time. Eat your heart out, Michael Schumacher!
If you're interested in learning how to drive a shifter kart, then Willy Musgrave is your man. He offers half- and full-day programs.
After logging 15 laps, we pulled into the pits, tired but excited at the prospect of further improving. I found it interesting that we were so fatigued, complaining about having a sore back and weak left forearm. In karting, most of the strain is put on the left arm, while the right hand takes care of shifting. The hand-operated clutch, located behind the left side of the steering wheel, is mostly used for starting and stopping.
In the third and final session we entered the track a bit cocky. Shaving time was going to be a breeze. I figured that we both could dip into the 44-second range and threaten young Billy Musgrave's track record time of 43 seconds. How delusional we had become! I'll admit that we were overzealous, lacking proper technique and forethought to keep the tires gripped and moving forward. The rudimentary approach might work in motocross, but not in karting. Consistent, mistake-free laps add up, but we were going backwards. Frustrated, we pulled into the pits with half the rubber worn off the MG tires — which, at $200 for a set, are quite expensive — and gasped for air. Daryl asked, "How could I not improve? I was holding the gas on extra long, hitting the brakes late, and I kept the engine revving." That's when Willy Musgrave cracked a smile and said, "This isn't motocross. Smoothness and precision are important. You both have the talent to do well at shifter-kart racing. Maybe with a few years of practice you could really do something." We looked at one another with a puzzled look, flabbergasted by wily Willy's response.
Behold three members of the MXA kart team: Greg Nelson (222), Billy Musgrave (622) and Willy Musgrave (black kart). These six-speed, Honda CR125-powered karts can go over 100 miles an hour.
Willy was right. Shifter karting certainly isn't motocross. Even so, it's relateable in so many ways. And, without a doubt, it's a very addictive hobby. I understood why the Musgraves caught the shifter-karting bug. As the day wound down, Daryl and I pulled out of California Speedway and looked one last time at the track. Daryl said, "That was so much fun! I can't wait to do it again. I bet that I could go even faster."
I smiled, then noticed Billy Musgrave out on the track running hot laps. He took the hairpin so smooth that the kart seemed to be glued to the asphalt. I gasped and said to no one in particular, "So that's how it's done. I could totally do that!" Just then we laughed. It so happens that motocross riders share another trait—overconfidence.
MRC has a complete stable of shifter karts that they use for racing, training, teaching and fun days at the track. If you live in SoCal or just want to fly in for a vacation—consider spending a day driving a shifter kart.
Would you like to see if your motocross skills would make you a successful car racer. Musgrave Racing Comnpany (MRC) is the place to find out. The Southern California-based company has a successful "arrive and drive" program. MRC offers a driving school that includes one-on-one lead/follow driving sessions that will get you up to speed in no time. They use data acquisition to chart a students progress and fully explain the details of kart set up. The driving school are offered on a half day, full day or race day basis.
Musgrave Racing Company sells and maintains Praga, CRG & TonyKart chassis. MRC specialize in completed karts, chassis, and engine kits. In a ddition to their successful race team, they offer engine leasing, driving training, kart rentals and kart storage. Aside from the omnipotent Honda CR125 two-stroke that is the lifeblood of shifter kart racing, MRC also builds and service other karting engines (such as the IAME X-30, IAME KZ, IAME Mini-Swift, IAME Leopard, etc.).
Run by Willy and Billy Musgrave, the former father/son Pro motocross racers spend many years racing motocross and shifter karts at the same time, but when Billy Musgrave became a factory sponsored professional kart racer, they not only shifted from motocross to shifter karts full-time, but took all that they had learned working in the motorcycle industry and applied it to their own kart company. No doubt this was mad easier by the prevalence of Honda CR125 engines in shifter kart racing. Willy a skilled mechanic, who graduated from MMI (Motorcycle Mechanics Institute) and has a Honda Pro Technician certificate, knows the CR125 inside and out. Not just from working on it, but from racing it.
Billy Musgrave is a three-time kart Supernationals Champion.
MRC is now of the powerhouses in CR125 engine tuning—and their race team, led by Shifter Kart National Champion Billy Musgrave, is major force in the karting world. You couldn't be a better hands. And, as Willy and Billy prove, motocross racers are naturals at kart racing. If you'd like to learn more about kart racing, attend a kart school, take private lessons or just spend a day at a SoCal kart track call (951) 278-8885. Willy will answer all of your questions (and, if pushed, he will tell you what it's like to be an MXA test rider for two decades).
For more info go to:
Web: www.musgraveracing.com
Phone: 951-314-4595


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Thermalright (Silver Arrow SB-E) Dual Fan CPU Cooler for Intel
Socket 775/ 1156/ 1155/ 1366/ 2011 and AMD AM2/ AM2+/ AM3/ AM3+/FM1
8 X 6mm
sintered heat-pipes effectively takes away excessive heat from the CPU
when overclocked, Nickel Plated heat-pipes, slower Oxidation and
deterioration of the heat-pipes, provides longer period of Thermal
Double fin design , each side with 154mm*120mm heat
dissipation area, can be used with 14 or 15 cm fan ( fan clips included).
Special Arrow fin design, which allows cool air to
pass through and take heat away rapidly, effectively provide cooling for
the cpu.
Support Multiple-Platforms. Can be used on Socket
2011/1366/1155/1156/775 Platform, and AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1 Sockets.
Including TY-150&TY-141 Ultra low noise PWM fans and PWM Y-Cable. With
the compatibility of up to 3 fans maximum.
*The TY Series Fan can be pluged into the
3 pin; you can tell from the jack, there is fool-proof design on the jack
so wrong installation of the pins are avoided.
*This fan is designed with PWM function, so full speed will apply when
pluged into 3 pins instead of 4 pins .
Thermalright (Silver Arrow SB-E) Dual Fan CPU Cooler for Intel Socket
775/ 1156/ 1155/ 1366/ 2011 and AMD AM2/ AM2+/ AM3/ AM3+/FM1
Cooler Dimension: Length 155mm x
Width 105mm x Height 165mm (without fans) 170mm x Width 130mm x 170mm
(with both TY-141 and TY-150 fan installed)
Cooler weight: 1124g (including two
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Heat-pipe: 6mm Sintered Heat-pipe*8
Cooler Base Material: C1100 Pure
Copper with Nickel Plating.
Fan Dimension:
TY-150 Length 170mm x Width 26.5mm x
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TY-150 Fan Speed: 500~1100 RPM (PWM)
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Fan Airflow: 38~84CFM
TY-141 Length 170mm x Width 26.5mm x Height 150mm
TY-141 Fan Speed: 900~1300 RPM (PWM)
TY-141 Fan noise level: 21~25dBA
Fan Airflow: 28-74CFM


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This afternoon we are talking wedding music. So important right!? I mean it's the soundtrack for the most important day of your life. :) Well as soon as I heard the song Hey Pretty Girl from Nashville singer-songwriter Kip Moore I totally fell in love. And so perfect for your wedding! If you love a singer with a raw voice that is a great storyteller, like that of a younger Bruce Springsteen, I think you'll love Kip too. Check out Hey Pretty Girl (off his debut album, Up All Night, which came out this week) below:
So, I'd love to hear from you. What songs are you thinking about using (or did you use) for your wedding day? To me the most important song for me was the song that played as I was walking down the aisle. Our first dance song was a close second. :) I'd love to hear your picks. And since we're sharing, here are the songs that were the soundtrack to our wedding :)
Processional: Bridal Party – Reign of Love by Coldplay; Bride – The Luckiest by Ben Folds
Song during our ceremony: Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard
Recessional: Lovesong by The Cure
First Dance: Crush by Dave Matthews Band


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I just came across this awesome list of 20 Pain Cures You Can Find in Your Kitchen and I just had to share it.
The list includes natural remedies like:
- Ginger for muscle pain
- Cloves for a toothache
- Apple cider vinegar for heartburn (such a great one!)
- Garlic for earaches
- Cherries for joint pain and headaches
- Fish for stomach troubles
- Yogurt for PMS
- Turmeric for chronic pain
- Tomato juice for leg cramps
I can attest to trying most of these natural remedies and they really do work!


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Pisgah Inn allowed to reopen along Blue Ridge Parkway
Feds asked owner to drop legal complaint
A private hotel and restaurant forced to close during the partial federal government shutdown because it leases a federal government building on federally owned land is reopening its doors along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that owner Bruce O'Connell says the U.S. Department of Interior agreed to let him reopen the Pisgah Inn Wednesday in exchange for dropping a legal complaint.
The government owns the building and land. He leases it and runs the business.
Park rangers began blocking the inn's entrances off the parkway Oct. 4.
The 470-mile federal road that winds through the North Carolina and Virginia mountains remains open to traffic but National Park Service visitor centers, campgrounds, picnic areas and restrooms are shuttered because of the budget dispute on Capitol Hill.


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Super-strong jaws and super-weak skulls. Normally you can't stab through the front of somebody's skull with a knife. And if you stomp on a skull it doesn't split open like a watermelon. And a shovel won't cut through one like butter. Makes me wonder if the virus somehow reduces the bone density of the skull (while simultaneously increasing the bone density of fingers...).
It was an awesome episode. Glenn is such a romantic. "Every kiss begins with Kay a pair of garden shears."
I can't crush someone head closing a hatchback?
my only complaint is that in the beginning of the episode the Merle compilation in the beginning gave it away that he was going to die
**** Lori.
and Superman 3 and 4 never happened.
Quote from: Scockery on March 27, 2013, 08:25 PM and Superman 3 and 4 never happened.I like that part best.
Lori and T-Dog's deaths were fakes and they are hiding in the prison, because they hooked up and didn't want anyone to know about it. Lori loaded Carl's gun with blanks.No one died this season, not even Merle. We flashback and see that Daryl killed some other zombie with a prosthetic arm that he imagined was Merle.There were no living prisoners, either. They found 5 corpses in the cafeteria and Beth wrote stories about them interacting with Rick's group (turns out she's been chronicling events and what we've seen is her fictionalized account of the survivors' struggles).Then Bobby Ewing steps out of the shower and discovers that JR is a zombie and Superman 3 and 4 never happened.
Quote from: BillCable on March 25, 2013, 12:16 PMIt was an awesome episode. Glenn is such a romantic. "Every kiss begins with Kay a pair of garden shears."LOL, I think that puts at least one or both Glenn and Maggie high on the next to die list. Can't have happily wedded bliss in the end times.
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The death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in August 1997 prompted RoadPeace to designate August as National Road Victim Month.
She was killed on August 31, the very same day the world's first motor vehicle victim, Mary Ward, was killed in Ireland in 1869.
Britain's first road death also occurred in August; Bridget Driscoll was killed in Crystal Palace on August 17, 1896, with the coroner pronouncing "this must never happen again".
Sadly, it has continued to happen – more than 500,000 people have been killed on the roads in Great Britain since Bridget's death.
In 2017, there were 9391 road casualties in Scotland, 1514 (14 per cent) fewer than 2016 and the lowest number of casualties since records began in 1950.
But one stark fact remains – 33 people are still killed or seriously injured on Scottish roads every week.
When the worst happens, there are two organisations in Scotland on hand to help – RoadPeace Scotland and Brake. Both offer a helpline for victims and their families, advice and information on the justice system and campaign for changes in the law.
And together their vision is a united one: a time when there are zero casualties on our roads.
Joshua Harris, director of campaigns for Brake, said: "Every road crash is preventable, tragic and causes devastation to the families of those affected.
"We owe it to them to ensure we learn from the lessons of the past and eliminate the tragedy of road death.
"The 2017 figures show encouraging progress in the safety of Scottish roads and this trend should hearten all road safety campaigners.
"Any reduction in casualties is to be welcomed.
"However, tragically 33 people are still killed or seriously injured on Scottish roads every week, so our work is far from done.
"Brake's vision is a world of zero road deaths and serious injuries and this can only be delivered through strong and bold leadership.
"We urge the government to build on its momentum and implement policies which will trigger the next step-change in road safety.
"We need safer speeds in towns and rural areas, we need Graduated Driver Licensing to protect novice drivers and we need far greater investment in cycling and walking infrastructure."
It would be fair to say Brake is the first point of contact for road victims and their families, as Police Scotland's liaison officers provide the group's details as a matter of course.
However, RoadPeace Scotland is hoping a similar arrangement can be reached with Police Scotland in the near future.
The UK charity was founded in 1992 by a mother whose son was killed by a red light offender.
But the Scottish arm of the charity was only founded in September last year.
Leading the charge here is Joan Strachan, who had her own personal reasons for championing the charity.
She explained: "My sister Moira Ward died in a road crash in Northumbria in June 2008.
"She was a children's nanny and was only 43 when she died so the whole family was traumatised.
"At the time, we didn't seek answers to the causes of the crash but, with the help and support of RoadPeace, we finally discovered that she had a heart attack.
"A lot had been said about Moira and her driving skills prior to that but after six long years we finally got the answers we were looking for.
"That is really what inspired me to help other people who may find themselves in a similar situation.
"The Scottish support group is still very much in its infancy but we meet every two months at the Watermans office at 9 The Shore in Leith.
"We're also meeting with Police Scotland in the near future in a bid to ensure our information leaflet and helpline details are given out to victims and their families.
"But we are already working to help victims and families across Scotland."
Joan is now organising the second RoadPeace Scotland Remembrance Service at St Andrews and St George's West Church in George Street, Edinburgh, on November 18 at 2pm.
Families of fatal road crash victims and people who have been seriously injured on Scotland's roads are invited to attend.
To find out more about RoadPeace and its work in Scotland, call the RoadPeace helpline on 0845 4500 355, Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm or visit http://www.roadpeace.org.
Brake's accredited, expert helpline – operating Monday to Friday from 10am to 4pm on 0808 8000 401 – supported 633 families last year alone. The team can also be contacted via email at email@example.com.
To find out more about Brake's work, visit http://www.brake.org.uk.


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Issues that matter: U.S. Catholic through the years
In 1961 Robert E. Burns, the executive editor of the Voice of St. Jude, told a group of editors at the Catholic Press Association Convention in Vancouver that "the Catholic press has suffered too long at the hands of well-meaning but untrained and unskilled practitioners."
He called for attractive layout, meeting the readers' needs, and "teaser titles" to pull the reader in.
The Voice of St. Jude--which two years later would morph into U.S. Catholic and thereby complete its transformation from a "devotional magazine"--was already on that track. And as the magazine has negotiated to adjust course for each new generation, the goal of reaching out to both practicing and disaffected Catholics--has held it steady.
Fifty years ago, at age 25, the Voice was 52 pages and cost 35 cents; its layout echoed that of Life and of Jubilee, a daring and beautiful journal founded in 1953 that emphasized photojournalism and intellectual challenge. In its last few years as the Voice and after it became U.S. Catholic, the magazine dealt with day-to-day itches and larger pains that vexed average Catholics: pornography, financial aid to Catholic schools, evolution, racial justice, the morality of nuclear war, and why girls, "out of respect for Our Lord," must wear hats.
A 1961 series of the Voice deals with professional men who may not be Catholics but are still "responsible" models for the readers: political cartoonist Bill Mauldin, Chicago Daily News foreign correspondent George Weller, and film director Stanley Kramer. Profiles introduce us to Romano Guardini, H. A. Reinhold, Karl Rahner, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
The turning point
Today American Catholics remember 1968 as a turning point in history: the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the riots at the Democratic convention in Chicago, the escalation of the Vietnam War, and Pope Paul VI's birth control encyclical Humanae Vitae, which effectively alienated a great part of the generation. For U.S. Catholic 1967 and 1968 were strong years.
In December 1967 the magazine, in a blazing three-page editorial, became one of the first Catholic publications to declare: "The war in Vietnam is immoral."
In the same issue, Father Gerard S. Sloyan praises the new Dutch Catechism, which summarized the church's teaching at the end of Vatican II, as the "compendium of Catholic faith worthy of our time." It quotes scripture rather than Vatican documents and concludes that both the pope's and the council's silence on family planning is a sign that the Catechism's teaching that "people must remain free in the matter" had been accepted.
In June 1968 an exhaustive 14-page special report on the "current status on birth control" reaches the same conclusion. When in the following month Humanae Vitae contradicts them, the editors republish an interview with Karl Rahner from the German news magazine Der Spiegel, in which, with lots of circumlocutions and spins, Rahner still says the woman's conscience is to be respected.
A cultural revolution
The transition from the 1960s to the '70s was marked by a change in the cover design, from photographs to multicolored typographical displays shouting the hot topics of the month and "teaser" questions like "Pesticides: Who are we killing?" There are arguments for women priests, instructions on how to use the new rite of penance, and suggestions that we abolish the Mass obligation, Mother's Day, and Santa Claus.
Executive Editor Robert E. Burns, who signs his column R.E.B., laments that the American bishops behave like a men's club, allow a handful to dominate their meetings, and are afraid to lead. Then he publishes articles on the new generation of bishop leaders--Detroit's John Dearden, Chicago's Joseph Bernardin, and Newark's Peter Gerety, who at this writing is 98 and the last one of the group still making the rounds.
The 1973 profile of 45-year-old theologian Joseph Ratzinger offers few clues to the man who will emerge at the turn of the century, except his fear that some theologians have overstepped their bounds in criticizing the structures of the church and his feeling that the liturgy has become "too preoccupied with social involvement."
In contrast to the "company men" American bishops, Robert Johnson in 1978 profiles another model in "Third-World bishops: Blood, sweat, and fear," a tour of bishops who risk their lives to stand up for human rights in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Where church leaders were once in league with rich land owners and the military, they have been moved by both the mandates of Vatican II, the Latin American bishops' 1971 meeting in Medellín, Colombia, and the 1971 Synod of Bishops, which focused on justice as vital to evangelization.
Because two interviews with Father Eugene A. LaVerdiere, S.S.S. on scripture and Jesus' early life were so popular, the editors bring him back in April 1977 for "Christ Has Died, Christ Has Risen, So?" with a cover depicting just the arm of a cross with a big nail sticking in it. He tells us what we seldom hear in church, that the resurrection of Jesus is not a restoration to a former state of life but a transformation into a new way of being, which is unrelated to space and time. Some priest readers were upset and accused LaVerdiere of breaking with the church.
In the public mind, and deep in the consciousness of today's older generation of Catholics, a strict sexual moral code seems to have been the "brand" that distinguished Catholics from their fellow citizens; but as the impact of the sexual revolution swept through the culture, Catholic families needed help to apply their religious principles to daily life.
The editors take risks to help readers deal rationally with sexual morality, particularly homosexuality. Most daring is long-time U.S. Catholic columnist Father Henry Fehren's 1972 pastoral response to Pope Paul VI's teaching that every sexual act must be open to conception. "Homosexual love," he says, "can be as noble, beautiful, and holy as heterosexual love or the love of friends or between members of a family."
As the 1970s close, R.E.B. laments the failure of the biennial Synod of Bishops in Rome to come to grips with the reality of the birth control situation. Archbishop John Quinn of San Francisco bravely stood up at the beginning, told the assembly that "nearly 80 percent of Catholic women use contraceptives while only 29 percent of American priests are reported to believe that contraception is intrinsically immoral," but then the group clammed up. Its final statement blames birth control for euthanasia, abortion, divorce, and "almost everything but psoriasis and stopped-up drains in the home," says R.E.B.
One of U.S. Catholic's qualities during these turbulent years is its ability, based on its editorial policy of presenting all sides of an argument, to stay ahead of public opinion. It did this in three ways: It interviewed respected progressive theologians; in Sounding Board it could float a controversial idea on sex, abortion, liturgy, and so forth as "one opinion" and watch the feathers fly as readers responded; and it could stick its neck out in an editorial, but it did this rarely. At America and Commonweal, the editorial was the voice of the publication, but reading U.S. Catholic, we get a sense that the people of God are raising a collective voice.
Into the 1980s
U.S. Catholic covers not only issues but also culture. A series on American Catholics categorizes them as rural, conservatives, blacks, Hispanics, social justice advocates, and suburbanites. It notes the emergence of American Catholic novelists: Edwin O'Conner, J. F. Powers, Mary Gordon, and John Gregory Dunne.
Paging through the years I have chafed at the many captionless photos. But the magazine also has a track record of outstanding photo stories-especially by award-winning photographers Ed Lettau, Paul Conklin, and Martin Lueders.
In the October 1984 issue, for example, a full-page shot by Conklin for "Religious communities, putting their lives in order" works brilliantly. An elderly nun in a work apron at the end of a convent's Gothic corridor scrubs the marble floors with a long mop. There's a big bucket in the foreground, another at her feet, and a crucified Jesus hangs on the wall behind her.
Ordained in 1967, I began teaching at Fordham in 1969 and joined those fellow Jesuits who had stopped wearing the Roman collar in the classroom. I have worn it since only for special occasions like fundraisers and wakes. In a 1983 Sounding Board column Dan Herr and 63 percent of the readers say I'm wrong.
Tim Unsworth, in a January 1989 Sounding Board, proposes canceling the creed at Sunday Mass. The Nicene Creed has become like the Pledge of Allegiance, he says. It is a too-long booster shot, a bulwark against heresies long dead. Only 25 percent of the readers claimed to be aware of the meaning of the words when they recite it.
Providing a forum for ordinary Catholics to give their two cents in response to such Sounding Board articles has been one of the hallmarks of U.S. Catholic. For more than 40 years now, the magazine has used often provocative opinion pieces to poll its readers on everything from supporting Cesar Chavez' grape boycott to kids misbehaving at Mass and from building low-income housing in the suburbs to ordaining women. Sounding Boards are often fun.
But perhaps the more long-lasting impact comes from the interviews with theologians, including Joseph Martos on the sacraments, Richard McCormick on matters of life and death, and scripture scholar Raymond Brown on Jesus.
Martos teaches us that, except for baptism and the Eucharist, there is no evidence that Jesus instituted sacraments and that in the 16th century the Council of Trent decided that there were then and always had been seven.
Richard McCormick, S.J. suggests that since a fertilized ovum takes seven to nine days to implant, one need not treat it the same as an established pregnancy. Indeed at least half of the fertilized ova never implant. Therefore in "cases of urgency like rape and so on," the ovum can be disposed of "during the first eight days." But it wouldn't follow that there is "open season" on the ovum during that period, he says: One could still be against morning-after pills or IUDs, which prevent implantation, "because they're not just contraception-they're something more."
What is unique about Christianity? Ray Brown says: "I may be wrong, but I don't think that Jews are ever asked to love Moses, or Muslims asked to love Mohammed. But Jesus is not just someone to be believed in. He is personally present to the believer; I love him and he loves me.
Entering a new century
As U.S. Catholic moves into the 1990s it continues to hammer away at its basic dozen pastoral themes-nourishing spiritual lives, dull sermons, confession, gays and lesbians, passing the faith to younger believers, marriage and divorce, birth control, justice, death, judgment, heaven, and hell.
But it also zeroes in on the bigger issues that dominate the headlines: Sexual abuse reveals a rotten core in the clerical establishment; the first Afghanistan and Iraq wars again put the Christian conscience to the test; abortion grows as a political issue.
The magazine's tradition of the theological interview holds. Notre Dame theologian Catherine Mowry LaCugna says the Trinity, which wasn't taught till the fourth century, is key to our understanding God as personal. R. Scott Appleby explains how God is fully present in the communion wafer.
A 1993 cover on the sex abuse controversy depicts a white Roman collar against a black clerical suit and a lollipop-the bait for the victim child. And a striking 1999 cover on Generation X shows the priest's hand placing the host on the tongue of a young woman with a big silver stud protruding from her tongue.
Sex talk becomes bolder. A gay man argues against same-sex marriage. Because his and his partner's sexual relationship could never produce offspring, he says, their sex lives were ultimately empty, leaving "two naked guys, a bed, and four walls." A lesbian reader replies that she and her partner find God in their love-making.
Photo-essays feature the blackened, rugged hands of a coal miner in Wales, a street procession of Hispanic children in Chicago in their first communion garb, and the Bosnian refugee children of Vagoni, who live in abandoned train wagons. The hands of a groundskeeper folding palm leaves in India in Martin Lueders' September 1996 photo story featuring "The Work of Human Hands" in Asia is, by my count, the magazine's first full-color photograph, other than on the cover.
The new look
In May 1999 Executive Editor Tom McGrath introduces the magazine's new design-a "fresh approach" aimed at the younger generation-warns that "change can be jarring," and allows the reader to dissent.
Color is everywhere, including art masterpieces as focal points for meditation and Franklin McMahon's epic drawings of great events. My dissent: The continuing use of cartoon drawings sometimes gives the magazine a Disneyland feel, thus trivializing the mature content.
Yet the marriage of cute and deep pays off in the answer to the child's question, "Can God see me when I go to the bathroom?" The answer: Yes, but God sees you the way your mother sees you when she nursed you and changed your diapers.
In 2001 Heidi Schlumpf tells the stories of five women who want to be priests. In response, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith initiates an inquiry that ends with an agreement that U.S. Catholic reprint the 1994 letter of Pope John Paul II declaring that "the church has no authority to confer priestly ordination on women," because, says the pope, Jesus did not include women among his apostles nor did he ordain his mother.
Predictably, this inspired some dialogue. Two typical letters say: "We must always remind ourselves that Jesus could not satisfy the religious authorities of his day," and "I hope you were able to laugh when you received this communication from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith."
The 9/11 trauma
On September 11, 2001 I stood on the roof of the St. Peter's College Jesuit residence and watched the World Trade Center on the other side of the Hudson River crumble in a volcano of smoke. A few weeks later a Frontline PBS documentary asked where God was when this happened. U.S. Catholic's first response is McGrath's November essay, "What do you do with such pain?" He warns that "vengeance becomes more real to some sufferers than the taste of a lover's kiss or the tender breath of a newborn baby."
In an interview with the editors, Lisa Sowle Cahill of Boston College and Father Michael Baxter, C.S.C. of Notre Dame compare the just war and pacifist traditions and raise questions about the morality of our invasion of Afghanistan.
In the June 2002 special issue on the sexual abuse crisis a heartbreaking article includes photos of the abusers posed with their victims, some of whom committed suicide later. A summary article in August 2007 reports that between 1950 and 2006 more than 5,500 priests have been credibly accused and that the final cost for the U.S. church will be $2 billion.
In March 2008 the editors interview eight persons-soldiers, mothers, a chaplain, and an Iraqi refugee-whose faith helped them through the Iraq War. Notre Dame theologian William Cavanaugh takes on torture, which, he says, nearly everyone admits is wrong, but no one can stop the government from doing it.
The October interviews with presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama hold few surprises, but the session with the Washington Post's E. J. Dionne puts the abortion issue in perspective.
Why has U.S. Catholic thrived for so long? Because it keeps its feet in the shifting culture, sometimes jogging to keep up, while keeping its head in the latest scholarship-never fearing where the search for truth might lead.
Last week I had dinner with a young married couple whom I told about U.S. Catholic and suggested they subscribe. It will, I hope, bring them closer to a church from which they have been alienated by rotten homilies and scandals. Above all, especially with the interviews and coverage of the worldwide suffering of the poor, it will convince them that being a Catholic is a rewarding intellectual adventure and a challenge that will test their generosity and love.
This article appeared in the August 2010 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 75, No. 8, pages 18-22).
Image: Tom Wright


text:
Sunday, May 10, 2009
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