In Memoriam - John F. Kennedy

Let the word go forth
From this time and place
To friend and foe alike
That the torch has been passed
To a new generation of Americans.

Let every nation know
Whether it wishes us well or ill
That we shall pay any price - bear any burden
Meet any hardship - support any friend
Oppose any foe to assure the survival
And the success of liberty

Now the trumpet summons us again
Not as a call to bear arms
- though embattled we are
But a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle
A struggle against the common enemies of man Tyranny - Poverty - Disease - and War itself

In the long history of the world
Only a few generations have been granted
The role of defending freedom
In the hour of maximum danger
I do not shrink from this responsibility
I welcome it

The Energy - the Faith - the Devotion
Which we bring to this endeavor
Will light our country
And all who serve it
And the glow from that fire
Can truly light the world

And so my fellow Americans
Ask not what your country can do for you
Ask what you can do for your country
My fellow citizens of the world - ask not
What America can do for you - but what together
We can do for the freedom of man

With a good conscience our only sure reward
With history the final judge of our deeds
Let us go forth to lead the land we love - asking His blessing
And his help - but knowing that here on earth
God's work must truly be our own.

Inaugural Address - January 20, 1961

This is one day late. Thanks to SusanKay for the reminder.

They Want Us Gone

And so do I.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's call to followers to hold a mass prayer and protest in central Baghdad to denounce the new Status of Forces Agreement reached between U.S. and Iraqi negotiators brought tens of thousands of people swarming into central Baghdad's Firdos Square on Friday. This is none other than the place where U.S. forces helped Iraqis joyously pull down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein back in April 2003.

This time, the crowd gathered at the square was just as frenzied, but there were no American forces in sight. And this time, the protesters dragged down something very different: an effigy of President Bush. Their anger is over the SOFA, which would keep U.S. forces in Iraq through December 2011. That's far too long, according to the anti-U.S. cleric Sadr, and according to those in the crowd Friday.

Haven't we heard that the pulling down of the statue of Saddam was something of a staged event, heavily assisted by US troops?

They included young men like 19-year-old Ali Mohammed, who said the pact won't serve Iraqi interests if it is passed by the parliament next week, when a vote is expected. "We want the occupiers to leave. We don't want to form agreements with them," he said as he and a friend entered the rally site. There were plenty of old people in the crowd as well, including a woman who called herself Um Hadhi, who had walked for hours by herself from Sadr City to attend the protest. "We are against the Americans. We want them to get out. Let them just say goodbye and leave us in peace," she said, deep wrinkles creasing her face. Sadr_march9 She refused to give her age. "I'm still young!" she said with a laugh as she headed for home after the rally.

There you have it.

UPDATE: From Jim in the comments:

Who woulda thought that the POTUS would start a GWOT that would beget a SOFA?

Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth Inhibited

According to Katie Sherrod at Desert's Child:

Jack Iker has been inhibited from sacramental acts by the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. He now has 60 days to recant his abandonment of the Episcopal Church. If he does not change his mind, the House of Bishops will most likely depose him at their next meeting, which means he will no longer be a bishop of the Episcopal Church.
....

Please pray for those of us who will reorganize the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.

Katie posted a link to the letter of inhibition.

H/T to Mark at Preludium

UPDATE: The statement from the Steering Committee North Texas Episcopalians.

Fred Astaire - "Puttin' On The Ritz"

Fred Astaire is well celebrated for his dancing, but I believe he is greatly underrated as a song stylist. Here he is demonstrating both to wonderful effect.

On The Other Hand....

From Chris Bowers at Open Left:

Let's say that all of the leading contenders for Obama's national security team end up in his administration. This would give him a core foreign policy team of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano, Jim Jones, and Robert Gates. That is, overall, a center-right foreign policy team lacking any clear progressives (at least, foreign policy and national security progressives). All of them, with the possible exception of Jones, supported the Iraq war from the outset. At least two of them, Gates and Napolitano, opposed withdrawing troops as recently as 2007 (although the new agreement with Iraq has rendered that debate moot). Also, two members of this group, Gates and Jones, supported McCain. This team would oversee roughly 60% of discretionary federal budget spending, military operations, and all diplomatic relations.
....

It is just so very frustrating. It seems like the only place progressives are making any gains is in the House. We are being entirely left out of Obama's major appointments so far. I guess everyone gets to play in Obama's administration, except progressives.

I told all the screamers who said Obama was a socialist that he was a right-leaning centrist, but they didn't believe me. Perhaps, they will now. I feel frustrated, too.

My Hero, Rep. Henry Waxman, Is In!

From MSNBC News:

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., will take over as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, which has sweeping jurisdiction over energy, the environment, consumer protection and health care programs such as Medicaid and the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Yeeessss!!! Rep. Waxman has long been one of my heroes. Throughout the years, even when the Republicans were at the height of their power, he never ceased to battle for the environment, clean energy, consumers, and health care for children and the elderly. I'd receive his emails and think to myself that he's our modern day Don Quixote. His battles seemed doomed to failure, but he never gave up fighting for the causes he believed in.

The former chairman of the committee, Rep. John Dingell, too often kept Waxman's proposals bottled up in committee. Dingell is 82 years old and has health problems. I wish him well. Many consider the committee to be the most influential in the Congress. Sometimes dreams come true. Waxman will serve as a goad to the Democrats in Congress, when they falter in working for real change, which is why we voted them in.

Loving Versus Virginia And Gay Marriage

Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving

From Anna Quindlen in Newsweek:

Opponents will scream that the issue should be put to the people, as it was in Arizona, Florida and California. (Arkansas had a different sort of measure, forbidding unmarried couples from adopting or serving as foster parents. This will undoubtedly have the effect of leaving more kids without stable homes. For shame.) Of course if the issue in Loving had been put to the people, there is no doubt that many would have been delighted to make racial intermarriage a crime. That's why God invented courts.
....

The last word here goes to an authority on battling connubial bigotry. On the anniversary of the Loving decision last year, the bride wore tolerance. Mildred Loving, mother and grandmother, who once had cops burst into her bedroom because she was sleeping with her own husband, was quoted in a rare public statement saying she believed all Americans, "no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry." She concluded, "That's what 'Loving' and loving are all about."

Yes, Mildred. We hear you. What an appropriate name for such a decision. The opponents of gay marriage use many of the same excuses as the opponents of mixed race marriages, but the excuses won't work forever. The sunny day is coming for gay marriage, "don't know where, don't know when", as the old song goes, but it will come.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Church Of England Can't Sign The Covenant?

From the Episcopal Café via Thinking Anglicans:

"Note this response from the Secretary General of the Church of England to a written question from a Synod member:"

Mr Justin Brett (Oxford) to ask the Secretary General:

Q2. What research has been undertaken to establish the effect of the Church of England’s participation in an Anglican Communion Covenant upon the relationship between the Church of England and the Crown, given the Queen’s position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and the consequent tension between her prerogative and the potential demands of a disciplinary process within the proposed Covenant?

Mr William Fittall to reply as Secretary General:

A. The Church of England response of 19 December 2007 to the initial draft Covenant noted on page 13 that ‘it would be unlawful for the General Synod to delegate its decision making powers to the primates, and that this therefore means that it could not sign up to a Covenant which purported to give the primates of the Communion the ability to give ‘direction’ about the course of action that the Church of England should take.’ The same would be true in relation to delegation to any other body of the Anglican Communion. Since as a matter of law the Church of England could not submit itself to any such external power of direction, any separate possible difficulties in relation to the Royal Prerogative could not in practice arise.

If I read this opinion correctly, the Church of England cannot sign away its authority to the primates of the Anglican Communion. This seems nearly incredible, because I can't believe that the Archbishop of Canterbury could have overlooked this. I hope, with all my heart, that it is true. I wondered, with the reigning monarch as head of the Church of England, if the British Parliament and the consent of the Queen would be required before the C of E could sign the Covenant.

I never liked the idea of the Covenant at all, no matter what the wording. We have the New Covenant of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Baptismal Covenant. Why do we need another Covenant? Would the Design Covenant Group come up with something vital that is lacking in the two covenants we have?

The commentary at EC and TA are both worth reading. My favorite is at TA, "Thank God for the Crown."

Did You Know...?

The Great Cloud of Questionable Witnesses

Bishop Clumber, the one true bishop of the real Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, writes icons. I did not know that. Above is one of a series of three four icons. It is exquisite, no? I believe he surpasses even Tobias with his masterpieces.

+Clumber is a dog. I know that it may be difficult for many humans to accept that a member of the canine species produces such beauty, but it's true. +Clumber successfully fought his way to acceptance as the one true bishop of Pittsburgh, and I hope the path to recognition of his genius as an iconographer is easier. If you go to +Clumber's site, Barkings of an Old Dog, you will find the other icons in the series.

It's difficult not to succumb to the sin of pride at being included in the series and depicted with such eminent notables, but I'm trying very hard not to let it go to my head.

They're Not Going Away

From the Times-Picayune:

The Republican Party's return to power depends on staying anchored in traditional anti-abortion and pro-family policies, while making inroads among Hispanics with enlightened immigration rules, a leading conservative figure said Tuesday in New Orleans.

And the four-year process of finding the next GOP leader starts now, as potential stars, including Govs. Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin, hit the speaking circuit to collect political IOUs and test themselves on the stump, said Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Others expected to make the rounds include former governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

"You'll note there's not a pro-choice Republican among them," Land said.

Land, a graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, was back at his alma mater in Gentilly on Tuesday to preach and to teach a graduate school class on the intersection of faith and politics.

A graduate of Princeton and Oxford as well, Land is the public spokesman for Southern Baptist values both to the masses via CNN and to Beltway insiders who shape campaigns and public policy.

In the weeks since Barack Obama's election, conservatives have opened a vigorous debate over their future. Some advocate a return to ideological purity; others argue that they must shift to the center to build a winning coalition with social and economic moderates.

Land's office is the public policy arm of the 16 million member Southern Baptist Convention. These folks are not going away. Through groups like Land's, they get a forum on CNN and, no doubt, access to politicians on the local and national level.

I read a bit on their website about the role of women in public life. It seems that women are permitted to serve in positions of power in public office, but in the church and in the home, they must serve under the authority of men.

Not everyone agrees that a woman's place is outside the home. I found this wonderfully contorted logic in the comments to the article on the role of women in public life:

With Palin and others who serve the public as a ‘Christian evangelical’ figure, are we going to affirm her in abandoning her family roles? I haven’t heard a single person say that they think Palin can be a biblical mother and wife while being VP (and possibly Pres.). I believe that to be the crux of Voddie’s message. We are being hypocritical as evangelicals if we affirm a woman’s role in the home, but support removing women from that role. You can’t have it both ways.

That being said, I’m voting for Palin. (not so much McCain)

But it seems that he will have it both ways. Delicious.