I am passing this on to you because it definitely works, and we could all use a little more calmness in our lives. By following simple advice heard on the Dr. Phil show, you too can find inner peace. Dr. Phil proclaimed, 'The way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started and have never finished.'
So, I looked around my house to see all the things I started and hadn't finished, and before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of White Zinfandel, a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a package of Oreos, the remainder of my old Prozac prescription, the rest of the cheesecake, some Doritos, and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how freaking good I feel right now.
Pass this on to those whom you think might be in need of inner peace.
From Stringer Doug.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Carl Levin and John Dean On Torture
Apparently, today is to be video day.
Sen. Carl Levin with Rachel Maddow.
Maddow: "One of the things I think has been so I guess challenging to the American debate about this is that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have essentially argued that they have legalized waterboarding. That they have legalized torture. They think that the actions of their Justice Department made things like waterboarding not war crimes any more. Are they right?"
Levin: "You can't just suddenly change something that's illegal into something that is legal by having a lawyer write an opinion saying that it's legal. Things can't work that way or else someone could get a lawyer to say a crime is not a crime and then that would be a defense. That is not a defense and I just, I was astounded frankly when I heard the Vice President of the United States sort of just blandly, blithely saying that oh he thought that was an appropriate thing and yes he was involved in the discussions about it."
Senator Levin, why are you shocked about this when no one who has been paying any attention to what this administration has done is shocked? And can we get a straight answer that there should be prosecutions and not hedging?
From Heather at Video Café
John Dean with Kieth Olbermann on Countdown.
Keith talks to John Dean about whether we might ever see prosecutions for war crimes after Cheney's public admissions and the findings from the Senate Armed Services Committee. He rightfully notes that a commission to determine if there were any crimes committed is just a way to kick the can down the road and make sure no one is prosecuted for anything before the statute of limitations runs out. It's a sad state of affairs when we have to be wondering yet again if this country is going to allow crimes to go unpunished for political reasons rather than caring about the rule of law. We still have a two tiered system of justice in America. One for the rich and politically connected and another one for everyone else.
Again from Heather at Video Café.
UPDATE: For one reason (excuse?) or another, I predict that there will be no prosecution of the top officials of the Bush maladministration for the crime of ordering torture techniques. The statute of limitations will be allowed to run out.
If a commission is set up, as John Dean says, it will kick the can down the road. However, if there are no prosecutions, then perhaps a commission would, at least, shed light on the dark deeds of those at the highest levels of government, just for the record.
Sen. Carl Levin with Rachel Maddow.
Maddow: "One of the things I think has been so I guess challenging to the American debate about this is that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have essentially argued that they have legalized waterboarding. That they have legalized torture. They think that the actions of their Justice Department made things like waterboarding not war crimes any more. Are they right?"
Levin: "You can't just suddenly change something that's illegal into something that is legal by having a lawyer write an opinion saying that it's legal. Things can't work that way or else someone could get a lawyer to say a crime is not a crime and then that would be a defense. That is not a defense and I just, I was astounded frankly when I heard the Vice President of the United States sort of just blandly, blithely saying that oh he thought that was an appropriate thing and yes he was involved in the discussions about it."
Senator Levin, why are you shocked about this when no one who has been paying any attention to what this administration has done is shocked? And can we get a straight answer that there should be prosecutions and not hedging?
From Heather at Video Café
John Dean with Kieth Olbermann on Countdown.
Keith talks to John Dean about whether we might ever see prosecutions for war crimes after Cheney's public admissions and the findings from the Senate Armed Services Committee. He rightfully notes that a commission to determine if there were any crimes committed is just a way to kick the can down the road and make sure no one is prosecuted for anything before the statute of limitations runs out. It's a sad state of affairs when we have to be wondering yet again if this country is going to allow crimes to go unpunished for political reasons rather than caring about the rule of law. We still have a two tiered system of justice in America. One for the rich and politically connected and another one for everyone else.
Again from Heather at Video Café.
UPDATE: For one reason (excuse?) or another, I predict that there will be no prosecution of the top officials of the Bush maladministration for the crime of ordering torture techniques. The statute of limitations will be allowed to run out.
If a commission is set up, as John Dean says, it will kick the can down the road. However, if there are no prosecutions, then perhaps a commission would, at least, shed light on the dark deeds of those at the highest levels of government, just for the record.
Amazing Grace - Just The Black Notes
This man explains the song's history first, so for those of you
who already know the history, be sure to stick with it or fast
forward until he sings. You will never think of the song Amazing
Grace the same way again after you have heard him sing it. Gives
you goose bumps! I promise you will rewind to hear it again.
From Doug.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Obama On His Choice Of Rick Warren
Had Obama asked me, I'd have suggested the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Alas! He did not ask me, and I know he would never do that anyway.
Rick Warren Obama's ChoiceTo Give Invocation
Scott had it first.
Then from The Huffington Post:
On Wednesday, the transition team and Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced that Rick Warren, pastor of the powerful Saddleback Church, would give the invocation on January 20th.
....
"My blood pressure is really high right now," said Rev. Chuck Currie, minister at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ in Portland, Oregon. "Rick Warren does some really good stuff and there are some areas that I have admired his ability to build bridges between evangelicals and mainline religious and political figures... but he is also very established in the religious right and his position on social issues like gay rights, stem cell research and women's rights are all out of the mainstream and are very much opposed to the progressive agenda that Obama ran on. I think that he is very much the wrong person to put on the stage with the president that day."
I'm Grandmère Mimi, and I agree with the Rev. Chuck Currie's message.
UPDATE: Letter sent by Paul, the BB:
Dear Mr. Mehta:
I have noted, via several blogs, that Rick Warren is being asked to give the invocation at the inauguration.
I am sure you will hear many voices, pro and con, about this. Here are my thoughts.
Rick Warren is famous and comes across as affable. He is also, that veneer notwithstanding, not all that different from Don Wildmon or James Dobson. He is a well-known homophobe who equates gay relationships with incest and bestiality. His thinking in this area is ignorant and, because of the influence he wields in conservative circles, harmful to the LGBT community as it undergirds their oppression and continued second-class status among the American citizenry.
He is entitled to his view, of course, but that the Obama team would give a man like this such a platform and validation is a slap in the face to all LGBT Americans.
Make no mistake about it; this is a visceral insult.
I have had to cope with my own sister putting a Yes on Prop 8 sign up on her lawn. She is a conservative evangelical and a Republican, so although this was a gratuitous insult to her own brother it was not surprising.
But to have a Democratic transition team that proclaims "hope" and "change" to sponsor an affable bigot really comes as a surprise, a disappointment, and an insult. We would expect this of a Republican administration catering to the religious right.
I urge President-elect Obama and the transition team to reconsider. You should not be inviting distrust, disappointment, and a feeling of betrayal in such a large segment of your supporters so early on. This hits us where we live, it is an issue of millennia of injustice being perpetuated in our own time, and you will lose huge amounts of good will.
It may be too late. I hope it is not.
Please do not betray your friends and supporters.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Paul E. Strid
Then from The Huffington Post:
On Wednesday, the transition team and Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced that Rick Warren, pastor of the powerful Saddleback Church, would give the invocation on January 20th.
....
"My blood pressure is really high right now," said Rev. Chuck Currie, minister at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ in Portland, Oregon. "Rick Warren does some really good stuff and there are some areas that I have admired his ability to build bridges between evangelicals and mainline religious and political figures... but he is also very established in the religious right and his position on social issues like gay rights, stem cell research and women's rights are all out of the mainstream and are very much opposed to the progressive agenda that Obama ran on. I think that he is very much the wrong person to put on the stage with the president that day."
I'm Grandmère Mimi, and I agree with the Rev. Chuck Currie's message.
UPDATE: Letter sent by Paul, the BB:
Dear Mr. Mehta:
I have noted, via several blogs, that Rick Warren is being asked to give the invocation at the inauguration.
I am sure you will hear many voices, pro and con, about this. Here are my thoughts.
Rick Warren is famous and comes across as affable. He is also, that veneer notwithstanding, not all that different from Don Wildmon or James Dobson. He is a well-known homophobe who equates gay relationships with incest and bestiality. His thinking in this area is ignorant and, because of the influence he wields in conservative circles, harmful to the LGBT community as it undergirds their oppression and continued second-class status among the American citizenry.
He is entitled to his view, of course, but that the Obama team would give a man like this such a platform and validation is a slap in the face to all LGBT Americans.
Make no mistake about it; this is a visceral insult.
I have had to cope with my own sister putting a Yes on Prop 8 sign up on her lawn. She is a conservative evangelical and a Republican, so although this was a gratuitous insult to her own brother it was not surprising.
But to have a Democratic transition team that proclaims "hope" and "change" to sponsor an affable bigot really comes as a surprise, a disappointment, and an insult. We would expect this of a Republican administration catering to the religious right.
I urge President-elect Obama and the transition team to reconsider. You should not be inviting distrust, disappointment, and a feeling of betrayal in such a large segment of your supporters so early on. This hits us where we live, it is an issue of millennia of injustice being perpetuated in our own time, and you will lose huge amounts of good will.
It may be too late. I hope it is not.
Please do not betray your friends and supporters.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Paul E. Strid
O Radix Jesse
December 18
O Root of Jesse, which standest for an ensign of the people,
at Whom the kings shall shut their mouths,
Whom the Gentiles shall seek,
come to deliver us, do not tarry.
Latin
O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum,
super quem continebunt reges os suum,
quem Gentes deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.
Isaiah 11:1, 11:10
A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
....
On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.
Antiphon sung by the Dominican student brothers at Oxford.
Text from Fish Eaters.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
In My Own Country
From the Houma Courier:
Publicity hog that I am, I draw your attention to an article about me in the newspaper from a neighboring town. The reporter, Laura McKnight, did an excellent job with the interview and with the article. We seemed to hit it off right away, so I thought she might do right by me, and she did. I don't know about holding court with the world. I believe that I'm not quite there, yet.
Wait till I get hold of Abby, the photographer. I know Abby, and I told him to make me look beautiful, but he did not. I even look bald in the picture. Trust me, I have hair on the front of my head. It is white, but it is there. I won't be too harsh with him, since he was limited by what he had to work with.
UPDATE: Sorry, but I had to post another picture of me to show that I'm not bald. Peace to you, Abby Tabor.
Feast Day Of Dorothy Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was an English writer and scholar, born at Oxford in 1893, the only child of an Anglican clergyman. She studied medieval literature at Oxford (Somerville College), being one of the first women to graduate (1915) from that university.
Here (from memory) is the start of a poem from the former volume:
"Christ walks the world again, his lute upon his back,
his red robe worn to tatters, his riches gone to rack.
The wind that wakes the morning blows his hair about his face,
and his arms and legs are ragged with the thorny briar's embrace,
for the hunt is up behind him, and his sword is at his side.
Christ the bonny outlaw walks the whole world wide,
singing: 'Lady, lady, will you come away with me,
to lie among the bracken, and eat the barley bread?
We shall see new suns arise, in golden far-off skies,
for the son of God and woman has not where to lay his head.'"
She worked for several years writing advertising copy, until she was able to support herself by the sale of her books and stories.
James Kiefer.
Prayer
Almighty God, who gave to your servant Dorothy L Sayers special gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth as it is in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
I've read and reread the Lord Peter mysteries and The Mind of the Maker, but I have not read her poetry, nor have I read Are Women Human? Reading those two will go on my to-do list.
Thanks to Ann.
Perhaps Al-Zaidi Has Suffered Enough
From the Guardian:
Muntadhar al-Zaidi will go down in Arab folklore as the man who dared to throw his shoes at George Bush but his immediate problem is how to recover from the reprisals he suffered after his bold gesture. His older brother, Dargham, has told reporters Muntadhar suffered a broken hand, broken ribs and internal bleeding, as well as an eye injury, and is in hospital.
News reports from the scene described al-Zaidi "screaming", as he was dragged out. Perhaps, he was screaming from his injuries, rather than at Bush. Watch the video clip from the Guardian.
Now he's a cult hero all over the Arab world.
H/T to Juan Cole.
Muntadhar al-Zaidi will go down in Arab folklore as the man who dared to throw his shoes at George Bush but his immediate problem is how to recover from the reprisals he suffered after his bold gesture. His older brother, Dargham, has told reporters Muntadhar suffered a broken hand, broken ribs and internal bleeding, as well as an eye injury, and is in hospital.
News reports from the scene described al-Zaidi "screaming", as he was dragged out. Perhaps, he was screaming from his injuries, rather than at Bush. Watch the video clip from the Guardian.
Now he's a cult hero all over the Arab world.
H/T to Juan Cole.
First Try At Creating A Human
Thanks to Lapin, who found this while cleaning out his office. He found another cartoon, which is very funny, but which I shall not publish.
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