Posted by Pip Dawkins:
Well bless my 'eart and call me Cromwell! The yank election 'as come to an end at last. Isn't it wonderful? A new leader across the pond. And without even cutting off the 'ead of the old president! Blimey, those Americans sure know 'ow to pick a ruler, don't they? Did it with class they did. I only wish I knew 'oo they picked.
It's my own fault, that is. Time and time again Mr. Greystone 'e told me not to bleed on 'is things, but I never listen. So until I clean every last speck off 'is brick, 'e won't utter one word to me about a winner. In my defense, chaps, I didn't know I was bleedin' at the time, as I'd made the unwise decision to faint on the sidewalk in front of 'is 'ouse. I don't see why 'e should 'old it against me. The front stoop is 'ardly inside the 'ouse. And my blood can't be that 'ard to clean off, being as though I'm right iron deficient.
Poor Pip. Read the rest. Perhaps Mr Greystone's heart will melt, and he'll let Pip know the outcome before too long.
Pip was orphaned at age three when his parents died of cholera. He resides at the Bethnal Green Workhouse in London, and is ever so excited for this year's election in America.
From The Onion.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Padre Mickey Speaks
From Padre Mickey's fingers to Wounded Bird:
Hi everyone,
I rarely send out a single email to a group; that's Mona's department with our Missionary Newsletter thang, but I wanted to notify you all that Mona and I will be in los estados unidos on a sabbatical of some four months this year. After the sabbatical, we'll return to Panama for one year to wrap up our ministry here and, hopefully, return to a new position in the U.S.A.
We are really looking forward to the sabbatical, but we're a little concerned about funding. Our income here in Panama is small but we're able to live simply as the standard of living is not so high, but four months in EEUU would be next to impossible on our income. We are looking for grants to help, but since I hates to beg, I came up with another idea. I'm writing you folks as you are all familar with my blog Padre Mickey's Dance Party and many of you are fans of that silly Friday Red Mr. Peanut Bank and Gallito Mescalito Blogging thang I try to do every Friday. I've opened a Cafe Press store which sells t-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, etc, which have Gallito Mescalito or Red Mr. Peanut Bank or Miss Egyptian Hippo of Love on the front. I'm hoping that this stuff will sell and that this income will help us fund our sabbatical. Of course, we'll also take donations to our Missionary Fund at St. Francis' website, too.
Click here to check out the Dance Party Store of Love, and if interested, please purchase some stuff.
I'm sending this email as I am well aware that you all have lives and aren't able to visit the blog every day.
So, thanks for any help you can give, and maybe we'll see you while were in los estados unidos, hopefully!
Gracias a todos,
Michael aka Padre Mickey
--
Padre Mickey's Dance Party
Padre Mickey is an Episcopal priest and missionary who has served the Parroquia San Cristóbal for three terms. He and his wife, the Lovely Mona, sacrificed a great deal in their years of ministry in Panama. I have enjoyed the crazy, but occasionally serious, blog of El Padre for some years now. If you haven't checked it out, you should, especially his Friday evening dramas with the fascinating assembly of characters, some of whom are pictured above and featured in the merchandise at his store.
Padre Mickey posts many pictures of the parish activities at San Cristóbal. If you visit his blog, you will see the beautiful members of the parish in which he serves. The children are adorable.
UPDATE: Regarding the Dance Party Store of Love. Please! The "Store of Love" part is not what you're thinking.
Kentucky Ghost Story
This happened about a month ago just outside of Owensboro, Kentucky, a small town on the banks of the Ohio River, and while it sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock tale, it's indeed real.
An out of state traveler was walking along the side of the road hitchhiking on a dark night in the middle of a thunderstorm. Time passed slowly and no cars went by. It was raining so hard he could barley see his hand in front of his face.
Suddenly he saw a car approaching, moving slowly and appearing ghostlike in the rain. It slowly and silently crept toward him and stopped.
Wanting a ride very badly, the guy jumped into the car and closed the door; only then did he realize that there was nobody behind the wheel, and no sound of the engine to be heard over the rain.
Again the car crept slowly forward and guy was terrified, too scared to think of jumping out and running. The guy saw that the car was approaching a sharp curve and, still too scared to jump out, he started to pray and beg for his life. He was certain the ghost car would go off the road and into the river, and he would surely drown! But just before the curve, a shadowy figure appeared at the driver's window and a hand reached in and turned the steering wheel, guiding the car safely around the bend. Then, just as silently, the hand disappeared through the window and the Hitchhiker was alone again.
Paralyzed with fear, the guy watched the hand reappear every time they reached a curve. Finally the guy, frightened nearly to death, had all he could take and jumped out of the car and ran through the storm to the nearby town.
Wet and in shock, he went into a lighted tavern and with voice quavering, ordered two shots of whiskey, and then, shaken, he told everybody about his supernatural experience.
A silence came over those listening and everybody got goose bumps. They realized the guy was sober and was telling the truth. And the sounds of the storm continued outside.
About half an hour later, two guys walked into the bar and one says to the other, 'Look Billy Bob, there's that idiot that rode in our car while we was pushin' it in the rain.'
Who is the idiot here?
Today is a lazy Monday blogging day, but trusty Doug comes to the rescue.
Once upon a time, I played a fairly decent version of "On the Banks of the Ohio" on my mountain dulcimer, which is pictured below.
Isn't it a beauty? It was handcrafted by Lynn McSpadden, from Mountain View, Arkansas, in 1975. The McSpadden family still operates The Dulcimer Shoppe.
An out of state traveler was walking along the side of the road hitchhiking on a dark night in the middle of a thunderstorm. Time passed slowly and no cars went by. It was raining so hard he could barley see his hand in front of his face.
Suddenly he saw a car approaching, moving slowly and appearing ghostlike in the rain. It slowly and silently crept toward him and stopped.
Wanting a ride very badly, the guy jumped into the car and closed the door; only then did he realize that there was nobody behind the wheel, and no sound of the engine to be heard over the rain.
Again the car crept slowly forward and guy was terrified, too scared to think of jumping out and running. The guy saw that the car was approaching a sharp curve and, still too scared to jump out, he started to pray and beg for his life. He was certain the ghost car would go off the road and into the river, and he would surely drown! But just before the curve, a shadowy figure appeared at the driver's window and a hand reached in and turned the steering wheel, guiding the car safely around the bend. Then, just as silently, the hand disappeared through the window and the Hitchhiker was alone again.
Paralyzed with fear, the guy watched the hand reappear every time they reached a curve. Finally the guy, frightened nearly to death, had all he could take and jumped out of the car and ran through the storm to the nearby town.
Wet and in shock, he went into a lighted tavern and with voice quavering, ordered two shots of whiskey, and then, shaken, he told everybody about his supernatural experience.
A silence came over those listening and everybody got goose bumps. They realized the guy was sober and was telling the truth. And the sounds of the storm continued outside.
About half an hour later, two guys walked into the bar and one says to the other, 'Look Billy Bob, there's that idiot that rode in our car while we was pushin' it in the rain.'
Who is the idiot here?
Today is a lazy Monday blogging day, but trusty Doug comes to the rescue.
Once upon a time, I played a fairly decent version of "On the Banks of the Ohio" on my mountain dulcimer, which is pictured below.
Isn't it a beauty? It was handcrafted by Lynn McSpadden, from Mountain View, Arkansas, in 1975. The McSpadden family still operates The Dulcimer Shoppe.
Happy Chinese New Year!
Good Luck Chinese New Year Ox Year 2009
People born in the Chinese New Year of Ox, 2009 will preponderantly have the below mentioned traits in their character: Leadership qualities, dependable, great organizers, loyal, patient as well as strong and responsible. They are also some of the best people one can have as colleagues in the work place as they are believed to posses strong work ethics and display their creative side as well, especially when it comes to decorating their home.
Since the people born in the Ox year are also trusted to be reliable and logical, people generally turn towards them for suggestions and guidance. Their honesty and eye for details also helps them to prove their worth both in the workplace as well as in their personal lives.
Sounds good to me. But wait!
However there are a few negative traits associated with the character of the Ox that also is reflected through the people born in the ox years. Attributes like being narrow minded, stubborn, with low public relations skills and also very far from being emotional are generally associated with people born in this year.
From 123 Chinese New Year.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Inner Peace
If you can start the day without caffeine,
If you can get going without pep pills,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
...Then You Are Probably The Family Dog!
And you thought I was going to get all spiritual.
Thanks to Doug.
If you can get going without pep pills,
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,
If you can conquer tension without medical help,
If you can relax without liquor,
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
...Then You Are Probably The Family Dog!
And you thought I was going to get all spiritual.
Thanks to Doug.
New Rector And Son Of Proud Mom
From the Daily Chronicle:
"Don’t let this be your next ride to church."
A bumper sticker displaying a hearse, and those words, is one that the Rev. Dave Hedges remembers a fellow seminarian having on his car when they both attended seminary.
The flip side of that message, Hedges said, is that priests and other church ministers need to do their part in inviting people back more often, so that the Sunday morning ride to church isn’t their only contact with ministry.
A week ago, Hedges affirmed this clerical duty. He was instituted – meaning permanently placed – as rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Sycamore [Illinois].
The handsome young dude in the picture is the son of our own Susan S, who is bustin' her buttons with pride. After serving as a curate in Crystal Lake, Fr. Dave served as "priest-in-charge" at St. Peter's for 18 months. Now he is rector of the 150 year old church.
When serving as a curate at a Crystal Lake church, Hedges assisted a priest who had been there for 31 years. The priest acted as Hedge’s mentor, and made Hedges realize the value of visiting members outside of the once-a-week sermon.
“There’s a lot of people in the congregation; their contact comes on Sunday morning and that’s pretty much it,” Hedges said. “But you have to be a presence in people’s lives. He taught me to value that and to strive for it.”
Congratulations to Fr. Dave, the parishioners of St. Peter's Church, and last, but not least, to Susan S.
Let us pray for Fr. Dave and the members of St. Peter's:
Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent. Grant them all things necessary for their common life, and bring them all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer), p. 817
Continuing On The Theme Of Guantanamo
From the Washington Post again:
President Obama's plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials -- barred until the inauguration from examining classified material on the detainees -- discovered that there were no comprehensive case files on many of them.
No comprehensive files? We shouldn't be surprised, but, once again, I am. If there was a way to get things wrong, you just know that the Bush maladministration would do it.
Several former Bush administration officials agreed that the files are incomplete and that no single government entity was charged with pulling together all the facts and the range of options for each prisoner. They said that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were reluctant to share information, and that the Bush administration's focus on detention and interrogation made preparation of viable prosecutions a far lower priority.
I'm surprised that I continue to be surprised by these people.
In a court filing this month, Darrel Vandeveld, a former military prosecutor at Guantanamo who asked to be relieved of his duties, said evidence was "strewn throughout the prosecution offices in desk drawers, bookcases packed with vaguely-labeled plastic containers, or even simply piled on the tops of desks."
He said he once accidentally found "crucial physical evidence" that "had been tossed in a locker located at Guantanamo and promptly forgotten."
What other shocking leftovers from the Bush maladministration await discovery, as the new administration moves forward? Probably not just a few. Remember Cheney's secret meetings with the oil barons early in Bush's first term? The battle goes on for the documents which disclose who attended and what was discussed. We're not really done with the Bushies, and we won't be for a very long time, more's the pity.
President Obama's plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials -- barred until the inauguration from examining classified material on the detainees -- discovered that there were no comprehensive case files on many of them.
No comprehensive files? We shouldn't be surprised, but, once again, I am. If there was a way to get things wrong, you just know that the Bush maladministration would do it.
Several former Bush administration officials agreed that the files are incomplete and that no single government entity was charged with pulling together all the facts and the range of options for each prisoner. They said that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were reluctant to share information, and that the Bush administration's focus on detention and interrogation made preparation of viable prosecutions a far lower priority.
I'm surprised that I continue to be surprised by these people.
In a court filing this month, Darrel Vandeveld, a former military prosecutor at Guantanamo who asked to be relieved of his duties, said evidence was "strewn throughout the prosecution offices in desk drawers, bookcases packed with vaguely-labeled plastic containers, or even simply piled on the tops of desks."
He said he once accidentally found "crucial physical evidence" that "had been tossed in a locker located at Guantanamo and promptly forgotten."
What other shocking leftovers from the Bush maladministration await discovery, as the new administration moves forward? Probably not just a few. Remember Cheney's secret meetings with the oil barons early in Bush's first term? The battle goes on for the documents which disclose who attended and what was discussed. We're not really done with the Bushies, and we won't be for a very long time, more's the pity.
The "Good" Guantanamo?
With the help of Arkansas Hillbilly, I'm proud to say that Wounded Bird scooped the Washington Post on the story that Guantanamo was once a relatively decent place.
When Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert and his unit were assigned to Gitmo to meet the first 300 prisoners, they had 96 hours to draw up procedures and rules. They decided to go with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, other U.S. laws, and the Geneva Conventions.
Lehnert said he had been told by the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Geneva Conventions would not technically apply to his mission: He was to act in a manner "consistent with" the conventions (as the mantra went) but not to feel bound by them.
What the hell does that mean? When Lehnert tried to bring in the International Committee of the Red Cross, his request was turned down. However, the call to the ICRC had already been made, and they arrived at Gitmo. With their help, Lehnert began to improve the conditions of the prisoners. The military, including the head of the JAG group tried to do the right thing, but Rumsfeld had other ideas.
By late January 2002, according to Brig. Gen. Galen B. Jackman, Lehnert's chief contact at Southern Command, the defense secretary told officers on a video conference call with Southern Command that he was frustrated by the absence of such information [actionable intelligence].
A displeased Rumsfeld seems to have decided to create a second command, one that would exist side by side with Lehnert's. It would be devoted solely to gathering intelligence and would be headed by a reservist major general, a former U.S. Army interrogator during the Vietnam War named Michael Dunlavey. Jackman told me that he considered the idea of two parallel commands a "recipe for disaster." At the same time, Navy Capt. Robert Buehn, the commander of the naval base at Guantanamo, recalled, the Gitmo task force's initial expectations of orders to build a courtroom began to fade.
For two years, the reporter, Karen Greenberg, gathered information through interviews, which essentially supports Arkansas Hillbilly's contention:
I believe in due process, and I am ashamed of what GTMO became, but when it started we were trying to sort the bad guys from the good,treat all the wounded and hopefully get information WITHOUT torture. When I was there the mere mention of that word was shunned for fear of being accused of it. I used to be proud of the things I did there... and still am of the accomplishments. But all the allegations of torture after I left, what it became, I am horribly ashamed of the whole mess. You shouldn't be ashamed to serve your country, but there it is. Thank you Mr. Bush and Chaney.
Thank you again, Arkansas Hillbilly.
President Obama ordered that Guantanamo be shut down within a year. Where will the prisoners go?
And there is a final irony on the horizon.
One of the places now being considered as a new U.S.-based destination for the remaining Gitmo detainees is Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base in Southern California. The base's commanding general is none other than Michael Lehnert, now a major general. The detainees might well be returned to his custody. In several senses, we could wind up right back where we started. This time, however, we should have the law on our side -- not to mention a conscience.
You can't make this stuff up. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their minions came together in a perfect storm which resulted in disaster.
When Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert and his unit were assigned to Gitmo to meet the first 300 prisoners, they had 96 hours to draw up procedures and rules. They decided to go with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, other U.S. laws, and the Geneva Conventions.
Lehnert said he had been told by the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Geneva Conventions would not technically apply to his mission: He was to act in a manner "consistent with" the conventions (as the mantra went) but not to feel bound by them.
What the hell does that mean? When Lehnert tried to bring in the International Committee of the Red Cross, his request was turned down. However, the call to the ICRC had already been made, and they arrived at Gitmo. With their help, Lehnert began to improve the conditions of the prisoners. The military, including the head of the JAG group tried to do the right thing, but Rumsfeld had other ideas.
By late January 2002, according to Brig. Gen. Galen B. Jackman, Lehnert's chief contact at Southern Command, the defense secretary told officers on a video conference call with Southern Command that he was frustrated by the absence of such information [actionable intelligence].
A displeased Rumsfeld seems to have decided to create a second command, one that would exist side by side with Lehnert's. It would be devoted solely to gathering intelligence and would be headed by a reservist major general, a former U.S. Army interrogator during the Vietnam War named Michael Dunlavey. Jackman told me that he considered the idea of two parallel commands a "recipe for disaster." At the same time, Navy Capt. Robert Buehn, the commander of the naval base at Guantanamo, recalled, the Gitmo task force's initial expectations of orders to build a courtroom began to fade.
For two years, the reporter, Karen Greenberg, gathered information through interviews, which essentially supports Arkansas Hillbilly's contention:
I believe in due process, and I am ashamed of what GTMO became, but when it started we were trying to sort the bad guys from the good,treat all the wounded and hopefully get information WITHOUT torture. When I was there the mere mention of that word was shunned for fear of being accused of it. I used to be proud of the things I did there... and still am of the accomplishments. But all the allegations of torture after I left, what it became, I am horribly ashamed of the whole mess. You shouldn't be ashamed to serve your country, but there it is. Thank you Mr. Bush and Chaney.
Thank you again, Arkansas Hillbilly.
President Obama ordered that Guantanamo be shut down within a year. Where will the prisoners go?
And there is a final irony on the horizon.
One of the places now being considered as a new U.S.-based destination for the remaining Gitmo detainees is Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base in Southern California. The base's commanding general is none other than Michael Lehnert, now a major general. The detainees might well be returned to his custody. In several senses, we could wind up right back where we started. This time, however, we should have the law on our side -- not to mention a conscience.
You can't make this stuff up. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their minions came together in a perfect storm which resulted in disaster.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Feast Of The Ordination Of Florence Li Tim-Oi
First Woman Priest In The Anglican Communion, 24 January 1944
Florence Li Tim-Oi was ordained a priest by Bp. Ronald Hall of Hong Kong in 1944, primarily because of difficulties occasioned by the Japanese occupation of China. A storm of protest after the war forced her to refrain from exercising her role as a priest. Towards the end of her life, she emigrated to Canada where she was able to resume her priestly duties. She died in 1992.
More is available in a short article about her from the Anglican Journal of Canada, and from the Li Tim-Oi Foundation.
James Kiefer at The Lectionary
Readings:
Psalm 116:1-2
Galatians 3:23-28
Luke 10:1-9
Prayer:
Gracious God, we thank you for calling Florence Li Tim-Oi, much-beloved daughter, to be the first woman to exercise the office of a priest in our Communion; By the grace of your Spirit inspire us to follow her example, serving your people with patience and happiness all our days, and witnessing in every circumstance to our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
UPDATE:
Ann has left a new comment on your post "Feast Of The Ordination Of Florence Li Tim-Oi":
Here is what was on Episcopal Cafe today.
A hundred years ago a baby was about to be born in the fishing village of Aberdeen on Hong Kong island. Its gender was not known. Boy babies were highly prized. At that time, in that culture, a bowl of ash could be at hand to smother unwanted new-born girls. The baby who was born on 5 May 1907 was wanted. Her Christian father, a doctor turned headteacher, valued his new daughter and called her Tim-Oi, “Much Beloved.” That decision began a chain of events which has changed the Church.
Tim-Oi completed her primary schooling at 14, but her five brothers and 2 sisters meant there were no funds for further schooling until she was 21. She left school aged 27. While a student she joined an Anglican church, and at her baptism took the Christian name Florence, because her birth-month, May, is a month of flowers, and because she admired Florence Nightingale.
In 1931 she was at the ordination in Hong Kong cathedral of an English deaconess. The Chinese preacher asked if there was a Chinese girl also willing to sacrifice herself for the Chinese church. She prayed: “God, would you like to send me?” That call never left her. In 1934 she started a four year course at Union Theological College in Canton, where her New Testament tutor was Geoffrey Allen, later to be Bishop of Derby, England. Her family couldn’t afford the college fees which were paid by the Anglican church. While at college she led a team of students rescuing the casualties of Japanese carpet bombing, and narrowly escaped being a casualty herself.
Time does not allow to tell her full story: of her licence to preside for two years at Holy Communion in the absence of a priest in Macau; of the bishop brought up in a Tractarian [High Church] vicarage who was not happy with lay celebration and ordained her a Priest of God on 25 January 1944, because God had clearly shown that He had already given her the gift of priesthood. After the War, pressured by what I call a “Purple Guard,” to the dismay of the Bishop, she resigned her licence as a Priest, but not her Holy Orders. She was put in charge of a parish near Vietnam, and there she started a large maternity home to ensure that new-born girls were not smothered at birth. Her witness to the value of every child, girl and boy, made many friends for Jesus—making friends for Jesus was her mission in life. But also she showed that “It Takes ONE Woman” to change the culture of her community.
From “Memories of Li Tim-Oi” by Canon Christopher Hall, Lambeth Palace, 30 April 2007.
Thanks, Ann.
Where We Eat - Tony Angello's
On Tuesday, Grandpère and I went to dinner with our daughter and son-in-law at Tony Angello's in Lakeview in New Orleans. That's Tony up there between GP and me. He is 80 years old and still cooking. The restaurant does not have a website, but here's a review from Brett Anderson in the Times-Picayune.
Tony Angello's is still the dimly lit residential-looking ranch house where diners are known to order by simply saying "Feed me," the signal that you desire a seemingly never-ending parade of Angello's creations: eggplant Tina, meatball-tender braciola, crab in red gravy, rabbit braised in a lemony tomato sauce. Angello's take on Creole-Italian is idiosyncratic in a city with no shortage of idiosyncratic Creole-Italian restaurants. Many in New Orleans figured the magnitude of the damage coupled with the age of its owner meant Tony Angello's was gone for good. They were wrong.
I can't find a menu online to aid my memory, but the food was delicious. GP and SIL had all-you-can-eat dishes, and even they could not eat it all. Amongst their dishes, which I tasted, were an artichoke salad and a steak dish that were both out of this world and chicken rosemary that was quite good. I had an Italian salad, minestrone, eggplant Tina (ummm, delicious!), and manicotti in a tomato sauce. Only my daughter ordered dessert, a bread pudding, but we all tasted, and it was to die for.
The folks next to us had the rabbit dish mentioned above, and they said it was wonderful. Altogether a satisfying evening. GP said that the restaurant was like a scene from "The Sopranos".
Lakeview was flooded by breaches in the 17th Street Canal in the aftermath of Katrina. The neighborhood is coming back slowly, but I'm quite pleased that Tony Angello's is back and flourishing, and that it is still a favorite. The business was brisk on a week night.
Below are the youngsters.
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