"Deep American Thoughts"

From Counterlight.

On Blinking - Or Not Blinking

Two funnies on "I didn't blink".

"My Gal" from the New Yorker and "S.... P..... Won't Blink" from Jon Stewart at Comedy Central.

I had resolved not to mention her name for a while, but I broke my resolution. Well, on second thought, not really. I (Mimi) did not mention her name.

The Church Militant

From the Albany, NY, Times-Union:

GREENWICH -- Over a salad lunch on an outdoor patio, Assistant Bishop David Bena is so positive and chipper it's hard to connect him with the words of a letter to the editor on the table.

"Well, that's interesting," Bena says cheerfully. "I've never been called a guerrilla warrior."

This is life on the front lines of an emotional rift cleaving the Anglican Communion, the 77-million-member Christian federation that encompasses the U.S. Episcopal Church.

Five years ago, Bena was serving as assistant bishop in Albany when Episcopalians took what he considered a misguided step: electing the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Bena was one of three people to stand up and protest at the consecration ceremony where Robinson, who has received death threats, wore a bulletproof vest.

Today, Bena still wears a bishop's ring, but he no longer belongs to the Episcopal Church. Since last March, the Mechanicville resident and former Marine has worked as assistant bishop in an upstart group called the Convocation of Anglicans in North America.

The Virginia-based outpost of the Nigerian church was established to shelter breakaway conservative Episcopalians, who were outraged over Robinson's consecration and clash with the Episcopal Church on doctrine and interpretation of scripture.

Bishop Bena serves under the authority of the staunch anti-gay Archbishop Peter Akinola, leader of the Nigerian Anglican Church, who apparently believes that he is contaminated by the mere touch of a gay person:

ABUJA, Nigeria, Dec. 20 — The way he tells the story, the first and only time Archbishop Peter J. Akinola knowingly shook a gay person’s hand, he sprang backward the moment he realized what he had done.

Archbishop Akinola, the conservative leader of Nigeria’s Anglican Church who has emerged at the center of a schism over homosexuality in the global Anglican Communion, re-enacted the scene from behind his desk Tuesday, shaking his head in wonder and horror.

“This man came up to me after a service, in New York I think, and said, ‘Oh, good to see you bishop, this is my partner of many years,’ ” he recalled. “I said, ‘Oh!’ I jumped back.”

Whence such fear?

In the Albany diocese, Bena helps run the Welcome Home Initiative, a Christian healing program for combat veterans held at the diocese's spiritual retreat here in rural Washington County.

The bishop draws on his experience as a former Marine bombardier/navigator who flew 252 missions in Vietnam. He dropped 3 million pounds of bombs over 13 months. Over a 27-year military career, he also served as an Air Force chaplain.

Bena was in his element leading prayer during a recent retreat, his right arm elevated and his podium surrounded by symbols of the two institutions that dominated his life. A flag- and gun-bearing honor guard stood behind the altar, while a cross hung on the wall overhead.

The church militant, indeed! While I applaud Bishop Bena's outreach to combat veterans, I would have hoped that he could have done without the "gun-bearing honor guard" behind the altar during the service.

UPDATE: I see that I neglected to give credit to my good friend, Fran for the link to this article.

"Dollar Got The Blues" - "Gatemouth" Brown

From the Houston Chronicle:

ORANGE, Texas — Hurricane Katrina chased bluesman Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown from his adopted home in New Orleans -- to the Texas Gulf coast.

Brown died in exile in Orange, where he grew up.

Now another hurricane has disturbed his rest.

The 1982 Grammy Award winner's casket was one of dozens belched up by the ground when Gulf and rain from Hurricane Ike flooded Hollywood Cemetery.

Gatemouth did not R.I.P. Here's Gatemouth performing in Hamburg, Germany, in 1983, and here we are again, 25 years later, with the dollar blues.

Thanks to Paul (A.) at OCICBW for the tip.

Joe "The Mouth" Biden Gets Going

In a conversation with a friend this morning, I discovered that she used the same pet name for Sen. Joe Biden that I did. I assume that he was chosen as Obama's running mate for his vast knowledge of foreign policy and because he would use "The Mouth" to enlighten the electorate on many issues. I've been getting a little impatient waiting for "The Mouth" to get to work. Well, he did today in Michigan, according to TPM. Her's a quote from his speech:

Eight years ago, a man ran for President who claimed he was different, not a typical Republican. He called himself a reformer. He admitted that his Party, the Republican Party, had been wrong about things from time to time. He promised to work with Democrats and said he'd been doing that for a long time
....

We saw how that story ends. A record number of home foreclosures. Home values, tumbling. And the disturbing news that the crisis you've been facing on Main Street is now hitting Wall Street, taking down Lehman Brothers and threatening other financial institutions.

We've seen eight straight months of job losses. Nearly 46 million Americans without health insurance. Average incomes down, while the price of everything -- from gas to groceries -- has skyrocketed. A military stretched thin from two wars and multiple deployments.
....

Eight years later, we have another Republican nominee who's telling us the exact same thing:

This time it will be different, it really will. This time he's going to put country before party, to change the tone, reach across the aisle, change the Republican Party, change the way Washington works.

We've seen this movie before, folks. But as everyone knows, the sequel is always worse than the original.
....

Barack Obama believes that progress in this country is measured by how many people have a decent job where they're shown respect. How many people can pay their mortgage. How many people can turn their ideas into a new business. How many people can turn to their kids and say "It's going to be okay" with the knowledge that the opportunities they give will be better than the ones they received.
....

That's why his tax cuts - benefit the middle class. That's why he'll make it easier for families to afford college for their kids. That's why he says everyone should be able to have the same health care that members of Congress have. That's why his energy plan will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, bring down gas prices, and, in the process, we'll create five million new green jobs. Those are the changes we need.

Yo, Joe! State in simple, straightforward words what has happened over the last eight years of the Bush administration. Then ask, "Do we want four more years, or eight more years of the same?"

In plain English, Obama will not increase taxes on anyone earning under a quarter of a million dollars a year. If anyone tells you different, then they are lying.

Thought For The Day

Before the oil and gas companies contributed in large part to the destruction our wetlands in Louisiana, with their criss-crossing pipelines, we were much better protected from hurricanes. Therefore the oil and gas companies, who are, even now, raking in record profits at your expense and my expense, should pay for the restoration of our wetlands.

We Both Missed It

As if our lives haven't been eventful enough, we had another event this morning. It's not Christmas, and it's not Easter, but Grandpère announced that he was going to church with me. I said, "Really!" He said he thought he should go to give thanks to God that the members of our family are all safe and our homes made it through Gustav and Ike with no damage or relatively light damage. And isn't that exactly right?

At the time in the service for prayers for birthdays and anniversaries, GP turned to me and asked me what was the date of our anniversary. He did know it was this month. I thought for a minute and said, "It was yesterday." We both missed the anniversary of 47 years of wedded bliss, and the rest of the family forgot, too. We are all still rattled and revved up from the serial hurricanes. GP and I went up for prayer with the hope of spending further years together. Afterwards, we went to lunch in a local restaurant for a quiet celebration with just the two of us. I got a little buzz from my one glass of wine, and all is now cool.

"For Cynthia and Grandmère Mimi"

Jim at JindalWatch put together this video in honor of his niece, Cynthia, and me. Cynthia lives in Houma, Louisiana, and we both left our homes to escape Gustav. It's beautiful. Jim, I loved that you used the picture of Our Lady of the Driveway and that you posted the Latin for the "Hail Mary".

Thank you. You made me cry. I seem to be crying quite a bit lately. People are so very kind.

"America's Joyous Future"

Thanks to Lapin.

R. I. P., Ruthie The Duck Girl

Ruthie the Duck Girl, a French Quarter eccentric who zoomed from bar to bar on roller skates, often wearing a ratty fur coat and long skirt and trailed by a duck or two, died Sept. 6 at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge. She was 74.

Ruthie, whose real name was Ruth Grace Moulon, had been suffering from cancer of the mouth and lungs when the residents of her Uptown New Orleans nursing home were evacuated to Baton Rouge as Hurricane Gustav approached, said Carol Cunningham, a close friend who watched over her for nearly 40 years.

"I've always looked at Ruthie like a little bird with a broken wing," Cunningham said. "She was always so dear to me."

If you have visited the French Quarter in New Orleans, you may well have spotted Ruthie, and you would not easily forget her. She zipped all over the Quarter on her roller skates. She was a typical New Orleans eccentric, my kind of woman.

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune.