From Bob Marshall in the Times-Picayune:
Ugly doesn't change, even when you see it coming. Neither does stupid.
I'm talking about the decision by LSU to fire Ivor van Heerden, the head of the LSU Hurricane Center who earned world-wide renown for his work before and after Hurricane Katrina. This move had been rumored and threatened almost since van Heerden began his post-storm work, but it was no less repulsive for its inevitability.
As someone who covered that story, I always thought the state should be rewarding van Heerden, not chasing him away, because metro area residents -- indeed, citizens of any U.S. community currently relying on federal levees to keep them safe -- owe Van Heerden a huge debt.
Bob, that makes, at least two of us, but I expect there are many more who feel the same way.
Please read the entire editorial. It's difficult to pick and choose more quotes. Marshall lays out, step by step, the debt the people of New Orleans and south Louisiana owe to Ivor. Don't forget that the original story from the press was that Katrina flooded New Orleans. It was only when Ivor and his team began investigating that the truth began to emerge.
What they found was something else: Signs of catastrophic engineering failures.
In other words, the floodwalls and levees failed not because they were too small, but because they had been either poorly designed, poorly built -- or both.
But for Ivor and Team Louisiana, would we even know this?
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Don't Let The Door Hit You On the Way Out!
Shall I tell you about my Easter Day after church? I shall. My three children and my six grandchildren came over for Sunday lunch. Many years ago, I'd plan a sit-down meal, not formal, but all gathered around two tables at the same time. I should say that my plan was to have that happen, but it never did. Someone or ones always drifted in late. On each holiday, we faced the question of whether to wait for the missing, or to go ahead and start eating without them. Finally, one of my children told me that my plan wasn't working, which was quite true.
The new plan is that we prepare a meal and people drift in whenever, sort of like an open house. The cousins like to be together, so I ask my children to try to be there at least part of the time AT the same time. Plus, we have an Easter egg hunt. This seems to work, and I'm a lot more relaxed than on the former, more structured occasions.
My daughter arrived first with her three boys. Grandpère had already started his meal. The food is ready. Why wait? I ate with the first shift. The next shift came, my son, his two children and his girl friend. I don't think his children ate a meal. They may have eaten while they were with their mom earlier. They plunged right in to the Easter candy. Then came the third shift, my son, his wife, and their son. They had already eaten, but my son ate again.
The children behaved decently for a good while, but then the sugar highs kicked in, and the scene began to get wild. We tried to get them to keep their wildness outside, but they continued to drift back in. We had a few clashes, some hysterical crying and consoling to be done, but no major injuries.
Diana, our dog, escaped from the yard only twice, and on one of the occasions, she took a swim in our neighbor's pool, returning home dripping wet. She thrives on all the excitement. I could see that Grandpère was becoming agitated, but I had my wine, so I was chillin'. He should drink on these occasions.
He tried to settle them down with a video - Wait! - "Fawlty Towers". Needless to say, that did not work, and soon all drifted away and back into mischief. When the wildness peaked, their parents decided that it was time to go, and I couldn't disagree.
God bless them all. I love to have them come, but it's a bit of a relief when they go, too.
The new plan is that we prepare a meal and people drift in whenever, sort of like an open house. The cousins like to be together, so I ask my children to try to be there at least part of the time AT the same time. Plus, we have an Easter egg hunt. This seems to work, and I'm a lot more relaxed than on the former, more structured occasions.
My daughter arrived first with her three boys. Grandpère had already started his meal. The food is ready. Why wait? I ate with the first shift. The next shift came, my son, his two children and his girl friend. I don't think his children ate a meal. They may have eaten while they were with their mom earlier. They plunged right in to the Easter candy. Then came the third shift, my son, his wife, and their son. They had already eaten, but my son ate again.
The children behaved decently for a good while, but then the sugar highs kicked in, and the scene began to get wild. We tried to get them to keep their wildness outside, but they continued to drift back in. We had a few clashes, some hysterical crying and consoling to be done, but no major injuries.
Diana, our dog, escaped from the yard only twice, and on one of the occasions, she took a swim in our neighbor's pool, returning home dripping wet. She thrives on all the excitement. I could see that Grandpère was becoming agitated, but I had my wine, so I was chillin'. He should drink on these occasions.
He tried to settle them down with a video - Wait! - "Fawlty Towers". Needless to say, that did not work, and soon all drifted away and back into mischief. When the wildness peaked, their parents decided that it was time to go, and I couldn't disagree.
God bless them all. I love to have them come, but it's a bit of a relief when they go, too.
Thought For The Day - Not Mine
God forgiving us, and our forgiving others, are parts of the same act. There is not forgiveness of one without forgiveness of the other.
(James Alison in Knowing Jesus)
(James Alison in Knowing Jesus)
Monday, April 13, 2009
An Easter Tale
A man is driving along a highway and sees a rabbit jumping across the middle of the road. He swerves to avoid hitting it, but unfortunately it's too late.
The driver, a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulls over and gets out to see what has become of the rabbit. Much to his dismay, not only is the rabbit dead, but... it's also the Easter Bunny.
The driver feels so awful that he begins to cry. A beautiful blonde woman driving down the highway sees him crying on the side of the road and pulls over. She steps out of her car and asks him what's wrong.
"I feel terrible!" he explains. "I accidentally hit the Easter Bunny with my car and KILLED HIM."
The blonde says, "Don't worry."
She runs back to her car and pulls out a spray can. Then she walks over to the limp, dead Easter Bunny, bends down, and sprays the contents onto it.
The Easter Bunny jumps up, waves its paw at the two of them, and starts to hop down the road. Ten feet away he stops, turns around and waves again. He hops down the road another 10 feet, turns and waves, hops another ten feet, turns and waves, and repeats this again and again, until he has hopped out of sight.
The man is astonished. He runs over to the woman and asks, "What's in that can? What did you spray on the Easter Bunny?"
The woman turns the can around so that the man can read the label.
It says...
(Are you ready for this?)
(Are you sure?)
(You know you're going to be sorry.)
(Last chance.)
(OK, here it is.)
It says, "Hair Spray: Restores life to dead hair, and adds permanent wave."
Don't credit me. Credit Doug. I think this one is quite funny, and I'd like to claim it as my own discovery, but that wouldn't be right.
The driver, a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulls over and gets out to see what has become of the rabbit. Much to his dismay, not only is the rabbit dead, but... it's also the Easter Bunny.
The driver feels so awful that he begins to cry. A beautiful blonde woman driving down the highway sees him crying on the side of the road and pulls over. She steps out of her car and asks him what's wrong.
"I feel terrible!" he explains. "I accidentally hit the Easter Bunny with my car and KILLED HIM."
The blonde says, "Don't worry."
She runs back to her car and pulls out a spray can. Then she walks over to the limp, dead Easter Bunny, bends down, and sprays the contents onto it.
The Easter Bunny jumps up, waves its paw at the two of them, and starts to hop down the road. Ten feet away he stops, turns around and waves again. He hops down the road another 10 feet, turns and waves, hops another ten feet, turns and waves, and repeats this again and again, until he has hopped out of sight.
The man is astonished. He runs over to the woman and asks, "What's in that can? What did you spray on the Easter Bunny?"
The woman turns the can around so that the man can read the label.
It says...
(Are you ready for this?)
(Are you sure?)
(You know you're going to be sorry.)
(Last chance.)
(OK, here it is.)
It says, "Hair Spray: Restores life to dead hair, and adds permanent wave."
Don't credit me. Credit Doug. I think this one is quite funny, and I'd like to claim it as my own discovery, but that wouldn't be right.
MadPriest's Longest Day
On the day that MadPriest and I were to meet in Newcastle, I left Leeds on the 9:05 AM train. MadPriest told me that I had to be on that train. We'd had the near miss in our previous plan to meet at Thornaby, and neither of us wanted a repetition of that.
Before the alarm went off at 6:00 AM, I awoke at 4:00 AM, anxious about the train, I suppose, and there was no falling back to sleep. I had lots of time to get dressed and drink my tea in my room and eat my cereal bars and an apple in good time to get to the train station by 8:00 AM, which I thought would be enough time to buy my ticket and find the right platform. It was. Once I boarded the train, I dutifully called MP to tell him that I had caught the right train at the right time, and that I was on my way to Newcastle.
I'm not sure I remember the exact sequence of events after I arrived in Newcastle, but I believe we walked from the station to the River Tyne, along the river (a lovely walk!) to the pedestrian bridge to the Sage Music Centre. The picture at the head of the post shows the river, the Tyne Bridge, a graceful structure, and the arched roof of the Sage beyond the bridge.
We bummed around in the city center, saw one of the oldest buildings in the city, a timbered structure, and many handsome buildings in the classical style, which were built in the 19th century. Newcastle is a compact city, and I liked that. MadPriest is an excellent guide. You'd have thought he was a professional.
If memory serves, The Cathedral of St. Nicholas was the next stop. The cathedral calls for a post of its own. There's so much to see there that this would be the post without end if I described and linked to the highlights there. It's well worth a visit. All this before lunch.
We stopped for a cuppa, tea for me, coffee for MadPriest, and to rest the feet, and then we were off to meet Mrs MadPriest for lunch at the university.
After lunch, it was on the bus to MadPriest's
At first, one of the guides took us around. She was pleasant enough except when it came time for us to go down into the crypt.
For visitors who come to Hexham Abbey in search of the past the greatest thrill of all is the Anglo-Saxon crypt. A steep stone stair descending from the nave takes you back thirteen hundred years, into rooms and passageways left intact from St Wilfrid’s original church. The only comparable crypt is beneath Wilfrid’s other great church at Ripon. Everything that he built above ground at Hexham has gone, except for carved fragments set in the walls of the nave. Only his crypt is essentially as it was first built.
She blocked the gate to the stairs down to the crypt until she recited her entire long-winded spiel. What an inspiration to watch MadPriest fight a valiant inner battle for restraint, as the lady droned on and on. In the end, he won the battle and did not shove the old lady out of the way. She did not even mention some of the coolest things we would see down in the crypt. Once again, MadPriest was an excellent guide, much better than the real guides.
Inside Hexham Abbey Crypt. Note the various stones in the wall... all reused from the Roman settlement at Corbridge, some 3 miles away.
Photo and quote from Sokabs at Flickr.
The decorative stones set in the midst of rough stones took my breath away. I know that sounds like hyperbole, but it is not.
Below is the stone stairway in the abbey.
Thirty-five worn stone steps rise from the south transept of Hexham Abbey, leading to a broad gallery behind a stone parapet, with three doorways opening from it. People have used this Night Stair through eight centuries. It was probably built early in the 13th century by masons working for the team of canons who then lived and prayed in the Priory.
I won't say an unkind word about the other guide lady in the abbey, because when nature called rather insistently, she permitted me to use the church choir's private loo, which is through one of the doors at the top of the the worn, uneven stairs. She volunteered that the choir, along with the crucifer, processed down the stairs at the beginning of services. The stairs are quite a challenge without a cross in hand. Just sayin'.
I'm giving just a few of the highlights of the riches to be found in a visit to Hexham Abbey. What can I say? Read more about it, or go visit yourself.
The post is running long, so I will hurry through the visit to St. Oswald's Church, which I was quite pleased to see, although, to get there, I had to walk across a field in a gale wind which included a light rain on the way back to the car. My knees are bad, but I can still walk.
The Battle of Heavenfield, between Oswald, King of Northumbria, and his soldiers, against the Celtic king Cadwallon and his men in the 7th century was fought on the site of the church. Oswald prayed to God to win the battle, and he did, although he fought, it is believed, against superior forces. God was on his side.
The earliest church was built in 1140, with reconstructions over the years. At the time of the visit to the church, I couldn't keep the history straight, and I probably caused MadPriest a good bit of frustration, but after doing some homework, I believe that I have a better grasp of the sequence of events.
After our windy and wet walk across the field to the car, we returned to MadPriest's
Before I left, I managed to break their towel bar, (or re-break it, for Mrs MadPriest told me that it had already been mended) and nearly forget my HANDBAG at their house, which would have meant that I'd have missed my train, which I caught with only minutes to spare, and stretched out the day even longer and caused further complications in the lives of MadPriest and his missus.
Thanks again for a lovely day, you old curmudgeon. I became a bit soppy there for a spell, and I know how you hate that.
Pastor Rick Warren - Exhausted!
From Attaturk at Eschaton:
And Rick Warren...the day his "Savior" allegedly rose from the dead, finds him too tired to rise out of bed?
I think Attaturk is one of them atheists, but ya gotta say this is funny.
UPDATE: See The Huffington Post for a possible alternative explanation.
And Rick Warren...the day his "Savior" allegedly rose from the dead, finds him too tired to rise out of bed?
I think Attaturk is one of them atheists, but ya gotta say this is funny.
UPDATE: See The Huffington Post for a possible alternative explanation.
This Is Not Good
TPM Muckraker:
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantanamo had the right to appeal their detentions in federal courts. But since then, only a few cases have been completed. And in an interview with TPMmuckraker, David Cynamon -- a lawyer for four Kuwaiti Gitmo detainees who are bringing habeas corpus claims against the government -- said that the Justice Department has been consistently dragging its heels in the case, denying detainees their basic due process rights and furthering what he called the "abandonment of the rule of law."
"The Department of Justice has been doing everything in its power to delay and obstruct these cases," said Cynamon, whose clients were picked up in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in the period after the 2001 U.S invasion of Afghanistan. "They're not doing anything to move the case along, and doing everything to avoid it."
Asked whether he had observed a shift of any kind in the government's approach since the Obama administration came into office, Cynamon flatly replied: "None whatsoever."
Nor is this.
TPM Muckraker:
Is the Obama administration mimicking its predecessor on issues of secrecy and the war on terror?
During the presidential campaign, Obama criticized Bush for being too quick to invoke the state secrets claim. But last Friday, his Justice Department filed a motion in a warrantless wiretapping lawsuit, brought by the digital-rights group EFF. And the Obama-ites took a page out of the Bush DOJ's playbook by demanding that the suit, Jewel v. NSA, be dismissed entirely under the state secrets privilege, arguing that allowing it go forward would jeopardize national security.
....
Ken Gude, an expert in national security law at the Center for American Progress, supported the administration's invocation of the state secrets claim when it was made earlier this year in an extraordinary rendition case. But its position in Jewel is "disappointing," Gude told TPMmuckraker, calling himself "frustrated."
Gude confirmed that the Obama-ites were taking the same position as the Bushies on state secrets questions. "They've taken the maximalist view that the judge has hardly any role in determining whether national security" would be compromised by the release of classified information," he said. "There's going to be people who are very unhappy, and justifiably so."
He added: "I'm very uncomfortable with the notion that the people who get to decide [whether national security would be jeopardized] is the government."
Obama is getting bad advice, and he should know better than to listen to it. We did NOT elect him to mimic Bush on habeas corpus or state secrets.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantanamo had the right to appeal their detentions in federal courts. But since then, only a few cases have been completed. And in an interview with TPMmuckraker, David Cynamon -- a lawyer for four Kuwaiti Gitmo detainees who are bringing habeas corpus claims against the government -- said that the Justice Department has been consistently dragging its heels in the case, denying detainees their basic due process rights and furthering what he called the "abandonment of the rule of law."
"The Department of Justice has been doing everything in its power to delay and obstruct these cases," said Cynamon, whose clients were picked up in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in the period after the 2001 U.S invasion of Afghanistan. "They're not doing anything to move the case along, and doing everything to avoid it."
Asked whether he had observed a shift of any kind in the government's approach since the Obama administration came into office, Cynamon flatly replied: "None whatsoever."
Nor is this.
TPM Muckraker:
Is the Obama administration mimicking its predecessor on issues of secrecy and the war on terror?
During the presidential campaign, Obama criticized Bush for being too quick to invoke the state secrets claim. But last Friday, his Justice Department filed a motion in a warrantless wiretapping lawsuit, brought by the digital-rights group EFF. And the Obama-ites took a page out of the Bush DOJ's playbook by demanding that the suit, Jewel v. NSA, be dismissed entirely under the state secrets privilege, arguing that allowing it go forward would jeopardize national security.
....
Ken Gude, an expert in national security law at the Center for American Progress, supported the administration's invocation of the state secrets claim when it was made earlier this year in an extraordinary rendition case. But its position in Jewel is "disappointing," Gude told TPMmuckraker, calling himself "frustrated."
Gude confirmed that the Obama-ites were taking the same position as the Bushies on state secrets questions. "They've taken the maximalist view that the judge has hardly any role in determining whether national security" would be compromised by the release of classified information," he said. "There's going to be people who are very unhappy, and justifiably so."
He added: "I'm very uncomfortable with the notion that the people who get to decide [whether national security would be jeopardized] is the government."
Obama is getting bad advice, and he should know better than to listen to it. We did NOT elect him to mimic Bush on habeas corpus or state secrets.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Easter Day - St. John's In Thibodaux
Before the hungry hordes arrive, here is my little church on Easter morning. I love my church building. It's a beautiful church where people have worshiped since 1844, full of prayers of the saints who have passed on, and the saints who pray there now.
According to legend, the emperor Diocletian once tried to poison John by ordering him to drink a cup of poisoned wine. Saint John blessed the wine and the poison slithered away in the form of a snake.
The stained glass behind the altar depicts the legend, with John holding a cup with a snake rising up from it. If you click on the picture for the enlarged view, you can see the cup and the snake.
The picture below shows the Easter cross. At the beginning of the service, the children process to the front and decorate the cross with flowers. The flowers cover a plain white cross wrapped with chicken wire to hold the flowers. A former rector disliked the cross rather intensely and wanted to get rid of it, but his side of the battle was lost almost before it began, because the protests were so many and so loud that he quickly gave up his idea.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Alleluia, alleluia.
Thanks be to God. Alleluia, alleluia.
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