warm Casserole of Adulterers” who hadrn”trickled into the wrong beds in automaticrnresponse to sexy advertisements”rnbut are wholly without any trace of “defiant,rnrebellious, insatiable lust.”rnIt bears mention that Archbishop Levadarndid more than merely miss a chancernto set his Church apart from the world.rnHe missed a chance to defend marriagernand the family. He might, for example,rnhave dismissed the city’s new ordinancernby succinctly declaring that his diocesernwould not knowingly employ anyrn”domestic partners” (hetero, homo, orrnotherwise), but that he would use thisrnopportunity to clean his stables justrnthe same. He might also have defendedrnthe many small—presumably familyownedrn—businesses in San Francisco, forrnwhich doing business with the city trulyrnis a question of survival. How are they tornweather the additional expense of insuringrna profligate community—its identifyingrnbehavior and attendant health risksrnaside—that abuses drugs at twice thernrate of the general population?rnThere are legitimate reasons for thernChurch’s involvement in Corporal andrnSpiritual Works of Mercy. Natural Law,rnalone, requires that societies look afterrntheir wretched. In the end, however,rneach wretched person with whom thernChurch comes in contact is a soul to bernsaved. That way is narrow, difficult, andrnunpopular with the world. A Church unwillingrnto tread that path cannot hope tornlight the way for others.rn—Christopher CheckrnEPICYCLES;rn• Well, Hello Dolly: The announcementrnin late February that a sheep hadrnsuccessfully been cloned was greetedrnwith both surprise and debate. At first,rnthere seemed to be agreement thatrncloning technology should never bernused on humans. Why a country whichrnaborts 1.3 million babies a year and toleratesrnserial killers like Jack Kevorkianrnshould be so concerned about the use ofrncloning technology is unclear (perhapsrnbecause cloning brings life into thernworld?). But the consensus quickly brokerndown. A Chicago talk radio show spentrnan entire day discussing the virtue ofrncloning 100,000 Michael Jordans (yes,rnthe majority of callers were white).rnMeanwhile, while liberal and atheistrnethicists insisted that the federal governmentrnshould ban human cloning, andrnPresident Clinton quickly complied,rnreligious leaders began to prepare for thernpossibility of human cloning. OnernMethodist minister weighed in with thernopinion that humans should not berncloned, but that, if they were, the onlyrnreal danger would lie in the possibilityrnthat some clones might be “programmed”rnto think themselves betterrnthan others. Apparently man may usurprnthe prerogatives of God, but he may notrnquestion the egalitarian dogmas ofrndemocracy.rn• More Legalized Extortion: Citibankrnis the latest corporation to be sued forrnracial discrimination because of a tastelessrnjoke. Two white Citibank employeesrnhave been fired and two others suspendedrnfor transmitting via e-mail a supposedlyrnracist joke which a white workerrnthen showed to two black employees.rnThe e-mail was sent from a white employee’srnhome terminal and was neverrnsent to the black workers who filed thernlawsuit; nor did the joke in any way castrnaspersions specifically on the blackrnemployees who stand to make millionsrnoff this suit. But no matter. As the attorneyrnfor the plaintiffs said, “Thesernwere all white people saying bad thingsrnabout black people and trying to keep itrnsecret.” Forget the lesson about “sticksrnand stones,” and throw out “due process”;rnwords can bring a windfall.rn• Reality Check: “Cybercommunity”rnis all the rage, and Americans are goingrn”on-line” in record numbers, ignoringrntheir neighbors and families for thosernthey have met on the World Wide Web.rnTaking a mechanistic understanding ofrnhuman life to the extreme, the proponentsrnof “cybercommunity” have reducedrncommunity to a series of electronicrnimpulses, devoid of any real humanrncontact. Not surprisingly, then, pornographicrnsites have proliferated on thernWeb. At the 1997 Consumer ElectronicsrnShow, the biggest attraction was thern”Adult Software” section, which promotedrnWeb sites featuring live sex acts.rnAccording to the Associated Press, menrn”waited for up to half an hour for thernchance to embrace scantily clad pornrnstars and get them to autograph a free Tshirtrnor photograph.” The report didn’trnmention where their wives and girlfriendsrnwere.rnOf course, none of them may havernfound a “cybersoulmate” yet. Perhapsrnthey will have more luck than the Virginiarnwoman who, after four months ofrnmarriage, discovered that the man shernhad met in an America On-Line “chatrnroom” was really a woman. Apparentlyrnlove can conquer all differences.rn• State Sovereignty: The Confederaternheritage groups in Maryland have won arnPyrrhic victory. As noted in these pagesrnin March, the Maryland Motor VehiclernAssociation, under pressure from “civilrnrights” groups, recalled 78 Marylandrnlicense plates bearing a small logo of thernConfederate Battle Flag. One memberrnof the Sons of Confederate Veterans, determinedrnto keep his license plate, tookrnthe State of Maryland to federal court—rnand won. But in using a federal court torntrump states’ rights, a more importantrnbattle was lost.rnO B I T E R DICTA: chronicles is illustratedrnthis month by Stephen Anderson,rna folk artist based in Rockford, Illinois.rnMr. Anderson, who is self-taught, is affiliatedrnwith the Phyllis Kind Gallery inrnChicago and New York,rnJohn Frederick Nims, a poet andrntranslator living in Chicago, has contributedrnfour of his translations ofrnMichelangelo to this issue. The authorrnof Sappho to Valery: Poems in Translation,rnMr. Nims has also written eight volumesrnof original verse, the latest of which isrnThe Six-Cornered Snowflake. Mr. Nimsrnhas been Phi Beta Kappa commencementrnpoet at Harvard and a Fulbrightrnscholar in Florence, Italy.rnChronicles is now sold in the followingrnstores in Oklahoma: Steve’s Books &rnMagazines, 2612 S. Harvard St., Tulsa;rnHastings, 1133 Lonny Abbott, Ada;rnHastings, 38th and Cache Rd., Lawton;rnHastings, 104 Sunset Plaza, Enid; Hastings,rn2300 West Main St., Norman;rnHastings, 1105 Garth Brooks Blvd.,rnYukon; Barnes & Noble Superstore,rn13800 N. May Ave., Oklahoma City. InrnLouisiana, the magazine is available at:rnBarnes & Noble, Tulane Bookstore, NewrnOrleans; Lakeside News, 3323 SevernrnAve., Metairie; Barnes & Noble Superstore,rn5705 Johnston St., Lafayette;rnBookstar, Inc., 610 N. Peters, Suite 103,rnNew Orleans. In Alaska, look forrnChronicles at Borders, 1100 E, DiamondrnBlvd., Anchorage; and, in Canada, atrnWindsor News, 3350 North Talbot Rd.,rnOld Castle, Ontario; Emma MarianrnLtd., 2677 E. Hastings St., Vancouver,rnB.C.rnMAY 1997/9rnrnrn