Yes! Yes! I'm off to visit the place I've known what it means to miss for 46 years.
Have good clean fun while I'm away. I'll see you when I get back.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Gone For The day
Yes! Yes! I'm off to visit the place I've known what it means to miss for 46 years.
Have good clean fun while I'm away. I'll see you when I get back.
From The Crowd At Yankee Stadium
Here for your reading pleasure are a few comments from the crowd at Yankee Stadium for Pope Benedict's mass:
"I have never seen Yankee Stadium so beautiful, and I have season's tickets," said Philip Giordano, 49, a tax attorney from Greenwich, Conn., who won seats in the loge section behind home plate through a parish lottery. "It sure beats sitting in my local church.
How's that for gratitude?
Added his wife, Suzanne: "I'm hoping to feel something from (Benedict). Everyone who has seen him says they crumple, their knees buckle. You come away just feeling different."
And my favorite from my home boy and sweetie:
New Orleans crooner Harry Connick Jr., on the pre-Mass concert program, remarked that he is often asked if he's a practicing Catholic.
"Practicing?" he said. "I'm playing for the pope today." (my emphasis)
From the Associated Press.
"I have never seen Yankee Stadium so beautiful, and I have season's tickets," said Philip Giordano, 49, a tax attorney from Greenwich, Conn., who won seats in the loge section behind home plate through a parish lottery. "It sure beats sitting in my local church.
How's that for gratitude?
Added his wife, Suzanne: "I'm hoping to feel something from (Benedict). Everyone who has seen him says they crumple, their knees buckle. You come away just feeling different."
And my favorite from my home boy and sweetie:
New Orleans crooner Harry Connick Jr., on the pre-Mass concert program, remarked that he is often asked if he's a practicing Catholic.
"Practicing?" he said. "I'm playing for the pope today." (my emphasis)
From the Associated Press.
Rose - Friedman - Incredible!
Watch this clip from The Charlie Rose Show with his guest Tom Friedman, from May 30, 2003, three months after we invaded Iraq.
Charlie Rose: "Now that the war is over, and there's some difficulty with the peace, was it worth doing?"
Friedman says yes it was. We could have invaded Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, or just pick a country, any country in the Middle East to invade, but we had to prick that bubble and show our muscle and show we meant business.
They said the war was over five years ago. Well, our president, dressed up in his sexy flight suit, had told us all that the mission was accomplished on May 1, 2003, so can you blame them?
Do they ever replay the shows that display them uttering such blithering idiocies?
Tom Friedman still writes for the New York Times, and Charlie Rose still has a show on PBS.
And Bush is still president for 273 more days.
Video clip from Atrios at Eschaton.
Let's Celebrate Monday Morning!
My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion and I kept staring at a drunken woman swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table.
My wife asks, "Do you know her?"
"Yes,"' I sighed. "She's my old girlfriend. I understand she started drinking right after we split up those many years ago and I hear she hasn't been sober since."
"My God!" says my wife. "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?"
So you see, there really are two ways to look at everything....
From Doug.
My wife asks, "Do you know her?"
"Yes,"' I sighed. "She's my old girlfriend. I understand she started drinking right after we split up those many years ago and I hear she hasn't been sober since."
"My God!" says my wife. "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?"
So you see, there really are two ways to look at everything....
From Doug.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Looking Inside
Clumber at Barkings of an Old Dog started me off with a link to a blog post by a woman, a former member of the Episcopal Church, who has now withdrawn from the church. I will not name her, nor will I give a link. If you want to read her post, Clumber has a link at his site.
She said this:
The Gospel of the Church of Self Affirmation just doesn't make sense to me. At some point, if you're an average priest or church leader or social activist in a church like TEC, do you reach the bottom of yourself and find that there's nothing there? That there's not enough? And when you get there, what do you do? More work?
You look inside yourself, honestly find that you fall short, that you have a dark rotten mess for a heart and guts, throw yourself on the mercy of God, find that he forgives you, covers you with his righteousness and gives you the Holy Spirit. So that the next time you look down into your heart, you might still see the dark rotten mess, but you also see the power of God making it better. So when you come to a point of not having Enough, of not being able to Save yourself, God gives you the measure that you need and you actually get to rest, not do more work.
But since this isn't available to so many clergy in TEC, having to be good on their own power, in themselves, what takes them that extra distance?
Other folks left comments and then my friend Jane left a comment"
Jane R said...
Where in the world did you get the idea that people in TEC don't believe in grace? (I'm not being snarky.) We might not all have a Calvinist understanding of it, but I haven't run into any lay or ordained people who don't have a sense of God's gracious initiative. I do think TEC and the Anglican Communion have within them some significant divides, and some of them do involve soteriology, but I think that is different from what you are saying. Are you saying TEC leaders are all Pelagians? Or don't pray? (Actually, Pelagians and semi-Pelagians do pray, but that is another conversation.) Or don't rely on God in their daily lives?
And then other comments came in culminating in the seemingly inevitable conclusion that Bishop Katharine is a heretic. Discussions so often seems to end up with that conclusion. And then I left a comment:
Grandmère Mimi said...
...I know that I often fall short, and I know that I am in need of God's saving grace every single day of my life, but, honestly, I don't look inside myself and find "a dark rotten mess for a heart and guts". Jesus became man and lived and walked among humans just like us. He taught them and healed them and loved them. Then he was nailed to the cross and died and rose again giving to them and to us who follow him the victory over sin and death. I am redeemed by Our Lord Jesus Christ. I am God's beloved. How can I look inside myself and find what you describe? What is redemption, then? What does it count for?
Do Jane's comment and mine sound like the Gospel of Self Affirmation? The two of us say grace is vital to our lives as Christians. Do we, indeed, all of us in TEC, fall outside the bounds of God's grace? Do we reach for the gift of grace only to have it withheld from us? Do we reach down to the bottom of ourselves and find nothing there? Must we be good on our own? In a word, no.
Indeed, God's gift of grace is given freely; it is lavishly bestowed, poured out in abundance, before we even ask. If we quiet ourselves and center ourselves and reach down inside, we will find not a "dark rotten mess for a heart and guts", but the very presence of the living God, the same God who is always present, if we will only take note.
She said this:
The Gospel of the Church of Self Affirmation just doesn't make sense to me. At some point, if you're an average priest or church leader or social activist in a church like TEC, do you reach the bottom of yourself and find that there's nothing there? That there's not enough? And when you get there, what do you do? More work?
You look inside yourself, honestly find that you fall short, that you have a dark rotten mess for a heart and guts, throw yourself on the mercy of God, find that he forgives you, covers you with his righteousness and gives you the Holy Spirit. So that the next time you look down into your heart, you might still see the dark rotten mess, but you also see the power of God making it better. So when you come to a point of not having Enough, of not being able to Save yourself, God gives you the measure that you need and you actually get to rest, not do more work.
But since this isn't available to so many clergy in TEC, having to be good on their own power, in themselves, what takes them that extra distance?
Other folks left comments and then my friend Jane left a comment"
Jane R said...
Where in the world did you get the idea that people in TEC don't believe in grace? (I'm not being snarky.) We might not all have a Calvinist understanding of it, but I haven't run into any lay or ordained people who don't have a sense of God's gracious initiative. I do think TEC and the Anglican Communion have within them some significant divides, and some of them do involve soteriology, but I think that is different from what you are saying. Are you saying TEC leaders are all Pelagians? Or don't pray? (Actually, Pelagians and semi-Pelagians do pray, but that is another conversation.) Or don't rely on God in their daily lives?
And then other comments came in culminating in the seemingly inevitable conclusion that Bishop Katharine is a heretic. Discussions so often seems to end up with that conclusion. And then I left a comment:
Grandmère Mimi said...
...I know that I often fall short, and I know that I am in need of God's saving grace every single day of my life, but, honestly, I don't look inside myself and find "a dark rotten mess for a heart and guts". Jesus became man and lived and walked among humans just like us. He taught them and healed them and loved them. Then he was nailed to the cross and died and rose again giving to them and to us who follow him the victory over sin and death. I am redeemed by Our Lord Jesus Christ. I am God's beloved. How can I look inside myself and find what you describe? What is redemption, then? What does it count for?
Do Jane's comment and mine sound like the Gospel of Self Affirmation? The two of us say grace is vital to our lives as Christians. Do we, indeed, all of us in TEC, fall outside the bounds of God's grace? Do we reach for the gift of grace only to have it withheld from us? Do we reach down to the bottom of ourselves and find nothing there? Must we be good on our own? In a word, no.
Indeed, God's gift of grace is given freely; it is lavishly bestowed, poured out in abundance, before we even ask. If we quiet ourselves and center ourselves and reach down inside, we will find not a "dark rotten mess for a heart and guts", but the very presence of the living God, the same God who is always present, if we will only take note.
Naughty Saintly Ramblings
During the absence of MadPriest, who is spending the weekend at an undisclosed location, Saintly Ramblings is taking his appointment as chief bad joke supplier very seriously. The thing is that he is posting very funny jokes and very funny real life stories. See his latest on "mouse cleaning".
A+ For Alliteration
Our dear friend, Paul, the Byzigenous Buddhapalian, has been noticed by The Kate Middleton Report, a blog dedicated to the current girl friend of Prince William. His skill in alliteration brought him the prize. Imagine! The lesson here? Persevere in Friday Prince Blogging and you will bring honor upon yourself.
Perish any thoughts that he appears too young to blog. He's a prodigy.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
How To Clean The House
HOW TO CLEAN THE HOUSE
1. Open a new file in your PC .
2. Name it ' Housework '
3. Send it to the RECYCLE BIN.
4. Empty the RECYCLE BIN.
5. Your PC will ask you, 'Are you sure you want
To delete Housework permanently?'
6. Calmly answer, ' Yes ,' and press mouse button firmly......
7. Feel better?
Works for me!
Another KBR Employee Raped In Iraq
From The Nation:
Houston
It was an early January morning in 2008 when 42-year-old Dawn Leamon, a paramedic for a defense contractor in southern Iraq, woke up to find her entire room shaking. The shipping container that served as her living quarters was reverberating from nearby rocket attacks, and she was jolted awake to discover an awful reality. "Right then my whole life was turned upside down," she says.
What follows is the story she told me on Monday in a lengthy, painful on-the-record interview, conducted in a lawyer's office in Houston, Texas, while she was back from Iraq on a brief leave this week.
The story is ugly and it's graphic. You need a strong stomach to read it.
Over the next few weeks Leamon would be told to keep quiet about the incident by a KBR supervisor. The camp's military liaison officer also told her not to speak about what had happened, she says. And she would follow these instructions. "Because then, all of a sudden, if you've done exactly what you've been instructed not to do--tell somebody--then you're in danger," Leamon says
This is sickening. What's worse is that Dawn's story is not unique.
Leamon felt very alone. But she was not.
In fact, a growing number of women employees working for US defense contractors in the Middle East are coming forward with complaints of violence directed at them. As the Iraq War drags on, and as stories of US security contractors who seem to operate with impunity continue to emerge (like Blackwater and its deadly attack against Iraqi civilians on September 16, 2007), a rash of new sexual assault and sexual harassment complaints are being lodged against overseas contractors--by their own employees. Todd Kelly, a lawyer in Houston, says his firm alone has fifteen clients with sexual assault, sexual harassment and retaliation complaints (for reporting assault and/or harassment) against Halliburton and its former subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root LLC (KBR), as well as Cayman Island-based Service Employees International Inc., a KBR shell company. (While Leamon is technically an SEII employee, she is supervised by KBR staff as a KBR employee.)
The contractors seem to operate outside the law, any law. But then, why not? Certain members of the Bush maladministration operate outside the constraints of the law, and our Attorney General Mukasey explains it for us at TPM via Adventus.
Another case:
Many victims of sexual assault find themselves without meaningful recourse when they work for US defense contractors that are powerful companies on foreign soil. "It's one big battle over where to fight the battle," said Leamon's attorney Ross, who is considering if and how and against whom to file charges on behalf of his client.
Take Jamie Leigh Jones's case, for example.
Since Jones alleged she was gang raped in 2005, while KBR was still a Halliburton subsidiary, her case is covered by an extralegal Halliburton dispute-resolution program implemented under then-CEO Dick Cheney in 1997. The program has all the hallmarks of the Cheney White House's penchant for secrecy. While Halliburton declared the program's aim was to reduce costly and lengthy litigation (and limit possible damage awards in the process), in practice it meant that employees like Jones signed away their constitutional right to a jury trial--and agreed to have any disputes heard in a private arbitration hearing without hope of appeal. (While two lower courts declared the tactic illegal, in 2001, the Texas Supreme Court overturned those rulings.)
What have we become? That victims of sexual assault have no recourse within the law is despicable. I have no more words.
Houston
It was an early January morning in 2008 when 42-year-old Dawn Leamon, a paramedic for a defense contractor in southern Iraq, woke up to find her entire room shaking. The shipping container that served as her living quarters was reverberating from nearby rocket attacks, and she was jolted awake to discover an awful reality. "Right then my whole life was turned upside down," she says.
What follows is the story she told me on Monday in a lengthy, painful on-the-record interview, conducted in a lawyer's office in Houston, Texas, while she was back from Iraq on a brief leave this week.
The story is ugly and it's graphic. You need a strong stomach to read it.
Over the next few weeks Leamon would be told to keep quiet about the incident by a KBR supervisor. The camp's military liaison officer also told her not to speak about what had happened, she says. And she would follow these instructions. "Because then, all of a sudden, if you've done exactly what you've been instructed not to do--tell somebody--then you're in danger," Leamon says
This is sickening. What's worse is that Dawn's story is not unique.
Leamon felt very alone. But she was not.
In fact, a growing number of women employees working for US defense contractors in the Middle East are coming forward with complaints of violence directed at them. As the Iraq War drags on, and as stories of US security contractors who seem to operate with impunity continue to emerge (like Blackwater and its deadly attack against Iraqi civilians on September 16, 2007), a rash of new sexual assault and sexual harassment complaints are being lodged against overseas contractors--by their own employees. Todd Kelly, a lawyer in Houston, says his firm alone has fifteen clients with sexual assault, sexual harassment and retaliation complaints (for reporting assault and/or harassment) against Halliburton and its former subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root LLC (KBR), as well as Cayman Island-based Service Employees International Inc., a KBR shell company. (While Leamon is technically an SEII employee, she is supervised by KBR staff as a KBR employee.)
The contractors seem to operate outside the law, any law. But then, why not? Certain members of the Bush maladministration operate outside the constraints of the law, and our Attorney General Mukasey explains it for us at TPM via Adventus.
Another case:
Many victims of sexual assault find themselves without meaningful recourse when they work for US defense contractors that are powerful companies on foreign soil. "It's one big battle over where to fight the battle," said Leamon's attorney Ross, who is considering if and how and against whom to file charges on behalf of his client.
Take Jamie Leigh Jones's case, for example.
Since Jones alleged she was gang raped in 2005, while KBR was still a Halliburton subsidiary, her case is covered by an extralegal Halliburton dispute-resolution program implemented under then-CEO Dick Cheney in 1997. The program has all the hallmarks of the Cheney White House's penchant for secrecy. While Halliburton declared the program's aim was to reduce costly and lengthy litigation (and limit possible damage awards in the process), in practice it meant that employees like Jones signed away their constitutional right to a jury trial--and agreed to have any disputes heard in a private arbitration hearing without hope of appeal. (While two lower courts declared the tactic illegal, in 2001, the Texas Supreme Court overturned those rulings.)
What have we become? That victims of sexual assault have no recourse within the law is despicable. I have no more words.
Ignorance And Foolishness In Louisiana
From the Advocate:
A Senate panel approved a bill Thursday to revamp the way evolution and other topics are taught in public schools despite charges it could inject biblical topics into science classes.
Senate Education Committee Chairman Ben Nevers, sponsor of the bill, denied that his proposal was a bid to promote creationism — the view that life began about 6,000 years ago in a process described in the Bible’s Book of Genesis.
Nevers and other backers said the bill would promote wide-open classroom discussions that students are hungry to hear.
Opponents said that, if the Legislature approves the bill, it will make Louisiana a target of national ridicule as an outpost of anti-evolution views.
Whenever the Louisiana Legislature is in session, we the citizens, risk having mischief and foolishness thrust upon us. We're much better off when they're at home.
Of course, this bill will make Louisiana the object of ridicule. If the students are hungry to discuss faith theories of how life began, then they can do that outside school science classrooms. Here's an opportunity for the churches to seize the moment. All that's required of the teachers, if the subjects come up, is for them to say that creationism and intelligent design are not scientific theories.
More times than I want to, I have had discussions with people who should know better, but who can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact that there is a difference between what we believe by faith and what we know because scientific methods lead us to that knowledge.
The revamped bill would require the state to assist teachers, principals and others in encouraging students to pursue “critical thinking skills, logical analysis and open and objective discussion of scientific theories.”
You see. They don't get it. The bill will be encouraging students to pursue ignorance. Is that what you want from your education system?
The legislation would allow teachers to use approved materials that supplement school science textbooks in any examination of those theories.
What, indeed, will the supplementary materials contain? I shudder to think. Who will write them? The clergy? Surely not scientists in good standing in their communities.
Nevers said teachers need wider latitude to discuss scientific theories, especially because textbooks are used in seven- to 10-year cycles.
I don't know what the 7 to 10 year cycles have to do with this bill, but I'd say to Nevers, CREATIONISM AND INTELLIGENT DESIGN ARE NOT SCIENTIFIC THEORIES!
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana creationism bill in 1987. Critics said Thursday that Nevers’ bill would spark another costly lawsuit.
So. All of this foolishness seems to be nothing more than posturing, because the state will surely face a lawsuit and will then have to spend our money to defend a stupid law that should never have been passed in the first place, and they will, in the end, likely lose once again. Is there no one in the legislature who will stand up and introduce sanity into the process?
Oh, and I almost forgot.
The legislation, which is a substitute for Senate Bill 561, was first sought by the Louisiana Family Forum, which describes itself as a group that promotes traditional family values.
Would you like to know the mission of the Louisiana Family Forum? I'm going to tell you anyway.
Our Mission
To persuasively present biblical principles in the centers of influence on issues affecting the family through research, communication and networking.
* Persuasively: in a manner that compels a change in thinking which results in action.
* Biblical principles: foundational values derived from transcendent scriptural truth.
* Issues affecting the family: factors that strengthen or diminish family structure, nurture or sustenance.
* Centers of influence: church, business/industry, government, media, arts, law, medicine and academia.
* Research, communication, networking: compiling and evaluating data from the most reliable sources; developing well-reasoned arguments disseminated through publications, broadcasts and speaking; connecting churches, pro-family organizations and influential professionals.
There you have it. Those are the folks who want to influence what is taught in the science classrooms of public schools. Experts all, I'm sure.
A Senate panel approved a bill Thursday to revamp the way evolution and other topics are taught in public schools despite charges it could inject biblical topics into science classes.
Senate Education Committee Chairman Ben Nevers, sponsor of the bill, denied that his proposal was a bid to promote creationism — the view that life began about 6,000 years ago in a process described in the Bible’s Book of Genesis.
Nevers and other backers said the bill would promote wide-open classroom discussions that students are hungry to hear.
Opponents said that, if the Legislature approves the bill, it will make Louisiana a target of national ridicule as an outpost of anti-evolution views.
Whenever the Louisiana Legislature is in session, we the citizens, risk having mischief and foolishness thrust upon us. We're much better off when they're at home.
Of course, this bill will make Louisiana the object of ridicule. If the students are hungry to discuss faith theories of how life began, then they can do that outside school science classrooms. Here's an opportunity for the churches to seize the moment. All that's required of the teachers, if the subjects come up, is for them to say that creationism and intelligent design are not scientific theories.
More times than I want to, I have had discussions with people who should know better, but who can't seem to wrap their heads around the fact that there is a difference between what we believe by faith and what we know because scientific methods lead us to that knowledge.
The revamped bill would require the state to assist teachers, principals and others in encouraging students to pursue “critical thinking skills, logical analysis and open and objective discussion of scientific theories.”
You see. They don't get it. The bill will be encouraging students to pursue ignorance. Is that what you want from your education system?
The legislation would allow teachers to use approved materials that supplement school science textbooks in any examination of those theories.
What, indeed, will the supplementary materials contain? I shudder to think. Who will write them? The clergy? Surely not scientists in good standing in their communities.
Nevers said teachers need wider latitude to discuss scientific theories, especially because textbooks are used in seven- to 10-year cycles.
I don't know what the 7 to 10 year cycles have to do with this bill, but I'd say to Nevers, CREATIONISM AND INTELLIGENT DESIGN ARE NOT SCIENTIFIC THEORIES!
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana creationism bill in 1987. Critics said Thursday that Nevers’ bill would spark another costly lawsuit.
So. All of this foolishness seems to be nothing more than posturing, because the state will surely face a lawsuit and will then have to spend our money to defend a stupid law that should never have been passed in the first place, and they will, in the end, likely lose once again. Is there no one in the legislature who will stand up and introduce sanity into the process?
Oh, and I almost forgot.
The legislation, which is a substitute for Senate Bill 561, was first sought by the Louisiana Family Forum, which describes itself as a group that promotes traditional family values.
Would you like to know the mission of the Louisiana Family Forum? I'm going to tell you anyway.
Our Mission
To persuasively present biblical principles in the centers of influence on issues affecting the family through research, communication and networking.
* Persuasively: in a manner that compels a change in thinking which results in action.
* Biblical principles: foundational values derived from transcendent scriptural truth.
* Issues affecting the family: factors that strengthen or diminish family structure, nurture or sustenance.
* Centers of influence: church, business/industry, government, media, arts, law, medicine and academia.
* Research, communication, networking: compiling and evaluating data from the most reliable sources; developing well-reasoned arguments disseminated through publications, broadcasts and speaking; connecting churches, pro-family organizations and influential professionals.
There you have it. Those are the folks who want to influence what is taught in the science classrooms of public schools. Experts all, I'm sure.
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