I said I probably wouldn't blog for a while, but some stories are irresistible and easy.
From the Times-Picayune:
Taking his second out-of-state fundraising trip in a week, Gov. Bobby Jindal left for Fayetteville, Ark., on Friday to attend a fundraiser at a private residence in support of his gubernatorial re-election campaign.
....
Jindal held two fundraising events in North Carolina on Wednesday. Jindal has held fundraisers recently in Florida, Texas, Connecticut and Mississippi.
Folks all around the country really, really, really want Bobby Jindal reelected governor of Louisiana. His emergence as a rising young star in the Republican firmament has nothing whatever to do with any of these events. His ethnicity as an Indian-American is also completely irrelevant, as is that of Michael Steele, the new chairman of the RNC, who is African-American.
Of course, since nothing's happening here in Louisiana that requires the governor's attention, the fundraising gives him something to do.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Family Troubles Again
I'm not quite ready to make this news public, but I probably won't be blogging very much for a while, and some of you will worry, so here goes:
My son-in-law told my daughter that he wants a divorce. They told their children last night, and the three boys and my daughter are devastated. They need prayers desperately. He wants out of the marriage. The marriage didn't look made in heaven, but it didn't look that bad either. In less than three years, it appears that the lives of 5 of my grandchildren will be devastated by the separation of their parents, and 2 of my children devastated by being cast off by their spouses. My son and his wife split nearly 3 years ago, and everyone is just about settling down after that, and now another marriage in the family falls apart.
I welcome all prayers and good thoughts for my daughter, my three grandsons, and Grandpère and me. Pray for my son-in-law, too. We will all get through this by faith and with the help, prayers, and support of our family and friends, in our real and virtual lives.
To you, my virtual community, you have, in the past, been a great source of help, strength, and support, and that means more to me than I can say.
UPDATE: Many thanks to all of you! I feel the prayers. Truly, I do. It's an amazing thing!
UPDATE 2: My daughter sounded much better tonight than this morning, but it's going to be a roller-coaster ride for her and the boys.
My son-in-law told my daughter that he wants a divorce. They told their children last night, and the three boys and my daughter are devastated. They need prayers desperately. He wants out of the marriage. The marriage didn't look made in heaven, but it didn't look that bad either. In less than three years, it appears that the lives of 5 of my grandchildren will be devastated by the separation of their parents, and 2 of my children devastated by being cast off by their spouses. My son and his wife split nearly 3 years ago, and everyone is just about settling down after that, and now another marriage in the family falls apart.
I welcome all prayers and good thoughts for my daughter, my three grandsons, and Grandpère and me. Pray for my son-in-law, too. We will all get through this by faith and with the help, prayers, and support of our family and friends, in our real and virtual lives.
To you, my virtual community, you have, in the past, been a great source of help, strength, and support, and that means more to me than I can say.
UPDATE: Many thanks to all of you! I feel the prayers. Truly, I do. It's an amazing thing!
UPDATE 2: My daughter sounded much better tonight than this morning, but it's going to be a roller-coaster ride for her and the boys.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Light Posting Today
This morning we're going to Grandparents' Day in New Orleans, and in the afternoon, I'm due to pick up my grandchildren in Thibodaux after school. In between, Grandpère and I may grab a lunch at Mimi's Restaurant, which is across the street from the school.
Arrivederci!
UPDATE: The picture above shows the mural on the wall of Mimi's Restaurant.
Guys, Get With The President's Program!
It's important. Really, really important. Remember. Obama is popular. Congress is not.
He's Baaack!
See President Obama at his bully pulpit. It's a grand sight. Check it out at C-SPAN.
And now the Blue Dog Democrats are giving him grief! Aaarrrrgh!
And now the Blue Dog Democrats are giving him grief! Aaarrrrgh!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Inauguration Day From One Who Was There
A friend of Ann's, who viewed the inauguration day ceremonies from the Washington Monument sent a play-by-play account of getting to their spot on the Mall, watching the events on the Jumbotron, and getting back to where they were staying. It's a wonderful long story, and I've picked out a few quotes to share.
While in line for the john, the Jumbotrons showed footage from the kick-off concert at the Lincoln Memorial. When Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger did “This Land is my Land,” I sang along, tears streaming down my face, feeling the fullness of The Movement and its culmination at that moment. Halfway into the song, I realized that I and the guy in front of me – the only other white person in sight at that moment -- were the only ones belting out Woody’s lines. It was a cultural reality check.
I noticed as I watched TV that few of the African-Americans and not all of the young people, no matter the color of their skin, seemed to know the words of "This Land...." Reality check, indeed!
You have all seen footage of the ceremony by now, probably more than I could see at the time. But I can offer one personal anecdote that was not captured on film: in the middle of Obama’s address, a great blue heron flew over the Mall, northeast to southwest. It was way up there, not obvious, but I happened to look up at the right moment and focus on the sky enough to notice that it was not one of the many gulls circling the Mall that day. Its long legs trailed behind, and it flew with that telltale reptilian wingbeat.
Ah lovely. The great blues fly here, and they are a grand sight to see.
When Obama’s address ended, people danced,...jumped, shook their booties, and high-fived. It was an Ode to Joy.
The Exit Strategy from the Mall was another matter. Once we got to the edge of the Mall, there wasn’t any choice about which direction to go. You just had to follow the flow, and the flow became a river of people, moving slowly but forcefully as it was funneled between buildings, barriers, blocked busses, and National Guardsmen. We followed this river for about 2 hours, wanting to go east, but forced north towards Dupont Circle. It sent us through landscaped areas (we bushwhacked through the DAR shrubbery), over low concrete walls. We were cold – everyone was cold. And we had no way of knowing when or where the river would ever fan out and let us free. And yet, everyone – EVERYONE – stayed patient and courteous and amazingly quiet. I have never heard so many people be so hushed, due in part to the cold. I would never have thought it possible for so many people to be so patient and kind while being so crammed and cold for so long. We were living The Dream.
Beautiful! Ann, thanks for sending this.
One phrase in the last quote made me laugh, but I'm not saying which.
While in line for the john, the Jumbotrons showed footage from the kick-off concert at the Lincoln Memorial. When Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger did “This Land is my Land,” I sang along, tears streaming down my face, feeling the fullness of The Movement and its culmination at that moment. Halfway into the song, I realized that I and the guy in front of me – the only other white person in sight at that moment -- were the only ones belting out Woody’s lines. It was a cultural reality check.
I noticed as I watched TV that few of the African-Americans and not all of the young people, no matter the color of their skin, seemed to know the words of "This Land...." Reality check, indeed!
You have all seen footage of the ceremony by now, probably more than I could see at the time. But I can offer one personal anecdote that was not captured on film: in the middle of Obama’s address, a great blue heron flew over the Mall, northeast to southwest. It was way up there, not obvious, but I happened to look up at the right moment and focus on the sky enough to notice that it was not one of the many gulls circling the Mall that day. Its long legs trailed behind, and it flew with that telltale reptilian wingbeat.
Ah lovely. The great blues fly here, and they are a grand sight to see.
When Obama’s address ended, people danced,...jumped, shook their booties, and high-fived. It was an Ode to Joy.
The Exit Strategy from the Mall was another matter. Once we got to the edge of the Mall, there wasn’t any choice about which direction to go. You just had to follow the flow, and the flow became a river of people, moving slowly but forcefully as it was funneled between buildings, barriers, blocked busses, and National Guardsmen. We followed this river for about 2 hours, wanting to go east, but forced north towards Dupont Circle. It sent us through landscaped areas (we bushwhacked through the DAR shrubbery), over low concrete walls. We were cold – everyone was cold. And we had no way of knowing when or where the river would ever fan out and let us free. And yet, everyone – EVERYONE – stayed patient and courteous and amazingly quiet. I have never heard so many people be so hushed, due in part to the cold. I would never have thought it possible for so many people to be so patient and kind while being so crammed and cold for so long. We were living The Dream.
Beautiful! Ann, thanks for sending this.
One phrase in the last quote made me laugh, but I'm not saying which.
"Is $500,000 A Year Enough?"
Juan Cole's voice is much-respected on Middle Eastern affairs, but his words on the salaries of the Wall Street lenders make a lot of sense to me.
Is $500,000 a Year Enough?
A common response from the Right to President Obama's capping of CEO salaries and bonuses at $500,000 a year in companies that take big USG bailout money has been to warn that it will be difficult to attract the best management talent to run those firms.
Uh, wasn't it those geniuses, the 'top management talent' making $20 million a year who ran those companies into the ground in the first place?
Tell you what, just promote a good middle manager who had been making $100,000 a year, and she or he will be very grateful for the job. And before you let them take over, you just give them a three-part test:
1. Fill in the blank:
Buy cheap and sell _________.
2. True or false:
A loan should not be offered to a prospective buyer if the monthly mortgage payments will come to more than 28 percent of the buyer's monthly income.
3. True or false:
A mortgage loan should not be given to a prospective home buyer unless the buyer can put down at least 10% and preferably 20%.
If the incoming CEO can get those three right, the person will be heads and shoulders above the $20-million-a-year screw-ups who destroyed the American economy.
Good-bye, Tom Daschle
Tom Daschle is gone, withdrawn as a nominee for the position Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Good. He waited too long, received too many late expressions of support from the president on down to his former club members in the Senate. In fact, he should never have been selected. I could have told President Obama that.
For me, the worst of it was not so much the $140,000 in taxes that somehow never were paid, although the lowly amongst us are required to pay our taxes in a timely manner. It was the lobbying that really made me queasy. According to the Los Angeles Times:
Though not a registered lobbyist, the South Dakota Democrat over the last two years earned more than $2.1 million as a "special policy advisor" at Alston & Bird, a law firm with more than 50 lobbying clients in the healthcare industry.
According to financial disclosure forms filed with the Office of Government Ethics, Daschle also took in $153,200 in 2008 for giving speeches to healthcare companies and industry groups such as GE Healthcare, a leading manufacturer of medical devices.
That's far too great a conflict of interest to be acceptable. That, along with Daschle's sometimes weak performance as a leader in the Senate, was enough to give me great concern when Obama chose him. I couldn't see Daschle as tough enough to lead the fight to pass a bill providing health care for everyone.
I'm not running with the folks who are in a panic two weeks into the Obama administration, nor am I with those who already call his administration a failure, however it was a stumble by Obama that could easily have been avoided. He said, "I screwed up." All right then, lets move on.
I do wonder why President Obama is not making his case for the stimulus bill with the sort of passion that we saw him make his case for being president. The Republicans are speaking out, and the press covers their opposition quite well. He shouldn't forget that he owns the bully pulpit.
For me, the worst of it was not so much the $140,000 in taxes that somehow never were paid, although the lowly amongst us are required to pay our taxes in a timely manner. It was the lobbying that really made me queasy. According to the Los Angeles Times:
Though not a registered lobbyist, the South Dakota Democrat over the last two years earned more than $2.1 million as a "special policy advisor" at Alston & Bird, a law firm with more than 50 lobbying clients in the healthcare industry.
According to financial disclosure forms filed with the Office of Government Ethics, Daschle also took in $153,200 in 2008 for giving speeches to healthcare companies and industry groups such as GE Healthcare, a leading manufacturer of medical devices.
That's far too great a conflict of interest to be acceptable. That, along with Daschle's sometimes weak performance as a leader in the Senate, was enough to give me great concern when Obama chose him. I couldn't see Daschle as tough enough to lead the fight to pass a bill providing health care for everyone.
I'm not running with the folks who are in a panic two weeks into the Obama administration, nor am I with those who already call his administration a failure, however it was a stumble by Obama that could easily have been avoided. He said, "I screwed up." All right then, lets move on.
I do wonder why President Obama is not making his case for the stimulus bill with the sort of passion that we saw him make his case for being president. The Republicans are speaking out, and the press covers their opposition quite well. He shouldn't forget that he owns the bully pulpit.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Some Puns!
1. Two vultures board an airplane, each carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at them and says, "I'm sorry, gentlemen, only one carrion allowed per passenger."
2. Two boll weevils grew up in South Carolina. One went to Hollywood and became a famous actor. The other stayed behind in the cotton fields and never amounted to much. The second one, naturally, became known as the lesser of two weevils.
3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it, too.
4. A three-legged dog walks into a saloon in the Old West. He slides up to the bar and announces: "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."
5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? He wanted to transcend dental medication.
6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to leave. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer."
7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're identical twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
8. These friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest, most vicious thug in town, to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that Hugh, and only Hugh, can prevent florist friars.
9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him ....what? (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good) A super callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
10. And finally, there was a woman who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.
* * *
Sent by Susan S.
Now there are excellent puns in the list, for which you can thank me, but there are really bad ones for which you know the drill: Don't blame me....
2. Two boll weevils grew up in South Carolina. One went to Hollywood and became a famous actor. The other stayed behind in the cotton fields and never amounted to much. The second one, naturally, became known as the lesser of two weevils.
3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it, too.
4. A three-legged dog walks into a saloon in the Old West. He slides up to the bar and announces: "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."
5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? He wanted to transcend dental medication.
6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to leave. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer."
7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're identical twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
8. These friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest, most vicious thug in town, to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that Hugh, and only Hugh, can prevent florist friars.
9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him ....what? (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good) A super callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
10. And finally, there was a woman who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.
* * *
Sent by Susan S.
Now there are excellent puns in the list, for which you can thank me, but there are really bad ones for which you know the drill: Don't blame me....
Back To Bishop Training School, +Clumber?
Is it possible that our good friend Bishop Clumber, the bishop of the One True Diocese of Pittsburgh, may be due for spell in a refresher course in obedience at Bishop Training School? He posted on his blog, Barkings Of An old Dog, an illustrated series called "Ticks on the Body of Christ". Read all about it over there. Start with the original story and then jump to the most recent illustration in the series, and work your way backwards to see the others.
I'm not passing judgment on +Clumber, but only wondering if perhaps he has not given the proper example of discretion that one expects of a bishop. Of course, he would not be the first bishop to be guilty of a minor indiscretion, or even of a major indiscretion.
As you see above, I am one of the "Ticks", but according to the good bishop, it is a great honor to be so designated.
I leave it to you, my readers. Should we applaud +Clumber, or is it back to school for him?
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