Happy Birthday To Me!

Step right up folks and wish me a "Happy Birthday!". I know you will anyway, so I'll give you a place to send your good wishes. Can you imagine! I've been on God's not-so-green-anymore earth for one year short of three quarters of a century. That's a loooong time.

I've had my ups, and I've had my downs. I've taken the high road, and I've taken the low road, but, all together, it's been a good run.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you....

Thanks be to God!

And it's Ruth's birthday, too!

Economy a "Mixed Picture"

I heard on NPR that Dana Peroxide said the economy was a "mixed picture". This after Bush and McWorse have been consistently saying that the economy is "fundamentally sound". Could they actually be slouching toward reality?

The Word From Houston

My friend in Houston came through Ike quite well. She lost power for a only a few hours, and her internet connection is back up. She has an elderly friend staying with her until her power is restored, and also another friend's dog. My friend is my age, so, of course, she is not elderly - yet. She'd better not be, because that would mean that I am elderly, too. Here's what she had to say:

But it's sunny and cool - much more pleasant for "clearing brush".

I'm sure that Poppy and Barb are hard at work, too.

Feast Day Of Hildegard Of Bingen

Illumination from the "Liber Scivias" showing Hildegard receiving a vision and dictating to her scribe and secretary

Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God. Hildegard of Bingen

Readings:

Psalm 104:25-34
Sirach 43:1-2,6-7,9-12,27-28
John 3:16-21

PRAYER

O God, by whose grace your servant Hildegard, kindled with the fire of your love, became a burning and shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Please go read It's Margaret's post on Hildegard. It's beautiful.

UPDATE: More lovely music on the feast day of Hildegard from Tobias Haller.

Hildegard's words from the Lectionary.

Image from Wiki.

"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.