"FANTASTIC NEWS FROM BP"

From the Borowitz Report:

BP Develops Technology to Convert Lies into Energy

‘Totally Renewable Resource,’ Says CEO

Read all about the new discovery at Borowitz's website.

SOW YOUR MUSTARD SEEDS

From the Daily Comet:

A few dozen people stood on a stretch of Grand Isle beach Sunday afternoon, hoping that what they were about to receive in their cupped hands would end the oil spill that has caused so much suffering and uncertainty.

Six volunteers put mustard seeds in their waiting hands, a visible reminder of the biblical tale recounted moments earlier by Jeff Dorson, executive director of the Humane Society of Louisiana. Each was asked to plant the seeds upon his or her return home.

In a parable found in the New Testament, Jesus told his disciples they could move mountains if they had the faith of a mustard seed. After repeated and failed attempts to cap the BP well responsible for the weeks-long spill that has polluted beaches, coated marshes and felled coastal wildlife, Dorson said he began to view prayer as the only way to save south Louisiana's economy and environment.

“Have this seed be your symbol, your truth, your power of prayer,” he told the crowd. “When this seed starts to grow, a miracle is going to happen.”

We feel helpless down here in south Louisiana. BP's response to cleaning up the mess they've made is slow and disorganized, and the oil gusher still gushes. Nor are we pleased with the response by the federal government, whose main thrust seems to be plead with BP to do more, faster. Richard Nixon's "pitiful helpless giant" metaphor comes to mind - again.

And then, there's this, also from the Daily Comet:

Arthur Eschete, owner of Sea-Go Seafood in Houma, is flying his flag upside down these days. On the open seas, he says, it’s a traditional way to signal to passing vessels that you’re in distress.

Like many others affected by the spill, Eschete can talk at length about his fears and stresses. There are worries grounded in everyday life, like how water closures linked to the Gulf oil spill affect his seafood business, finances and family.

But other things weigh on his mind too. He used to work in the oil-and-gas industry, and he fears what the ban will do to the local economy, and what a crippled economy will do to life on the bayou, where his family has lived for 250 years.

“No one knows where we’re at right now, and that’s the scary thing,” Eschete said. “I’m 65 years old, and this is the first time in our lifetime that me and my wife have no idea what’s going to be down the road in 2 to 3 years.

“I try to look at what could happen to turn it around, but all you have to do is go on the Internet and look at those dead birds and dead dolphins — how can we just bounce back to where it doesn’t devastate us for a decade? ... The future is very grim.”

Arthur's right. The future is very grim.

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

NO MITRE OR CROZIER FOR YOU, KATE!

Although Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams did not stop Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori from presiding and preaching at Southwark Cathedral this past Sunday, he would not permit her to wear her symbol of office, the mitre, and carry her crozier, because the Church of England does not yet allow women bishops.

As Hugh Muir says at the The Guardian:

A bit petty, some say, as Jefferts Schori is indeed a bishop and head of her national church – but in any event, she carried the mitre. And the subject for her sermon: God welcomes everyone, regardless of dress or condition.

Well yes! But what's even more distressing to read is the following:

And, with women clergy in the C of E looking forward to next month's vote in the general synod in York – which is expected finally to agree that women can become bishops here – word comes of a last-minute attempt to scupper the plans. And who is responsible for that? Step forward again, Williams, who with fellow archbishop John Sentamu is framing an amendment to put off yet again making any decision. Synod headed off their attempts to delay progress last year, but the archbishops are trying it on again. The world moves on but somehow time stands still. Welcome to the C of E.

Amazing! Well, not really. The plot to delay women bishops is right in line with the ABC's strategy to freeze frame the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. He'd like to hit the reverse button for the Episcopal Church in the US, but he doesn't have the power. Thank Goodness!

"TOUCHDOWN JESUS" DESTROYED BY LIGHTNING AND FIRE

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Lightning struck and ignited a fire late Monday that destroyed a 62-foot-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms stretched toward the skies, according to Monroe police.

The only thing visible this morning is the charged frame of the structure.

“It burned to the ground. The whole statue is gone,” said Kim Peace, a police dispatcher.

The large “King of Kings” statue was a Butler County landmark since it was erected in 2004 outside Solid Rock Church, 904 N. Union Rd., along northbound Interstate 75 in Monroe just north of the Ohio 63 exit.
....

The sculpture stretches 40 feet wide at the base. It was made of plastic form and fiberglass over a steel frame. The frame is the only thing visible this morning.

According to the evangelical church's website, there are about 4,000 members. The church was founded by former horse trader Lawrence and Darlene Bishop of Middletown.

I'm pretty much speechless about this story. Maybe something will come to me later.

Thanks to Ann.

Top image from Wiki.

AS IF WE DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT

From NOLA:

As if the Deepwater Horizon oil-well blowout wasn't enough to threaten Gulf Coast communities with oil, scientists with the Naval Research Laboratory at the Stennis Space Center say waves as tall as 91 feet and strong underwater currents generated by major hurricanes create massive forces that can wreak havoc on the more than 31,000 miles of pipelines connecting oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico to the coast.

"Major oil leaks from damaged pipelines could have irreversible impacts to the ocean environment," conclude the authors of a study of the underwater effects of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 published last week in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

The report is one of several scientific studies using data gathered during Ivan, which traveled across an array of underwater instruments the scientists had moored in several locations along the Gulf of Mexico shelf just south of the Alabama coastline to measure current flows.
....

"It's well known that pipelines are damaged by hurricanes," Teague said. "Statistics published by the Minerals Management Service after Hurricane Ivan stated that there were 168 pipeline damage reports. In Katrina, there were even more.

"The damage reports ranged from dented to kinked pipelines, to pipelines that were pulled apart and ruptured," he said. "The reports refer to pipelines that are buried or damage that is caused by underwater mudslides. Based on our research, they equate to a snow avalanche under water -- imagine a big mound of mud rolling toward you."

The scientists may have been surprised that the underwater currents remained strong for a week after a hurricane, but apparently they were not surprised that pipelines could be damaged during a hurricane. What will we do to protect the coastline and Gulf waters against damaged pipelines during and after a hurricane?

Imagine! 31,000 miles of pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico.

"...WE MOURN THE SUFFERING AND DESTRUCTION...."

Click on the images to enlarge.

LORD, HAVE MERCY
CHRIST, HAVE MERCY
LORD, HAVE MERCY

From i-church.

Thanks to Ann.

UPDATE: Oh my goodness! Go read the post and see the picture at Jesus in Love. Both picture and post are strong stuff.

STORY OF THE DAY - KNEES

 

These knees have stories, she said, but
they'd have to be a mouth to tell you.


Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!!!


From StoryPeople.

THE MORITORIUM WILL HURT LOUISIANA - BADLY

From NOLA:

With three shuttered oil rigs preparing to leave the Gulf of Mexico for foreign waters, Gov. Bobby Jindal ratcheted up the rhetoric Thursday against the Obama administration's moratorium on deepwater drilling, saying the White House still doesn't understand the economic pain the forced stoppage is causing Louisiana workers.

Jindal said he had a conference call with President Barack Obama's senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett, and appealed to her to shorten the six-month moratorium, arguing that a half-year pause would force oil companies to move drilling operations overseas for years and that the federal government could easily impose new safety standards and monitoring in a shorter time frame.

"She asked again why the rigs simply wouldn't come back after six months," Jindal said. "What worries me is I fear they think these rigs can just flip a switch on and off."

The economy of south Louisiana will take a bad hit from the six-month moritorium. Due to the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, fishermen, shrimpers, seafood processors, marinas, bait shops, and other small businesses are already suffering. With the drilling moratorium, a good many more folks who work for oil companies, oil service companies, and marine construction companies will likely lose their jobs, perhaps as many as 38,000.

In addition, the state budget has a large hole in it, and with the additional job losses from the moratorium and oil business moving out, tax revenue will decline, and further lay-offs from state jobs are inevitable. Along with the ripple effect on other businesses, such as retail sales, car dealerships, etc, which will lose out because, those who are laid off will not have money to spend, the losses to our economy could be catastrophic.

I doubt that deepwater drilling can be made safe. It can be made safer than BP's operations, surely, because the company culture was to value production over safety, and we've discovered that over the years, BP cut many safety corners in the name of increasing production and profits. Even with the weakened regulations that the US was left with after Cheney and his oil company cronies loosened things up, BP broke several rules on the Horizon rig that, had they been followed, might have prevented the explosion.

That Louisiana has not diversified and is so very dependent on a single industry, the oil and gas companies and the oil service companies is our own doing, and we should have gone in a different direction, but we didn't, and now here we are. Remember that we do not use all the oil and gas produced here in Louisiana. The bulk is shipped out to keep other parts of the country humming. We have not kicked our addiction to oil, so what we don't get from our own wells in the US or US waters, we will need to buy elsewhere. Jobs will go elsewhere.

Since I'm nearly as distrustful of government agencies as I am of large corporations, I wonder whether the agencies will achieve the goal of actually making deepwater drilling safer. If we must suffer here in Louisiana, I want us, at least, to suffer for a good cause, and I'm not sure that the end result will be safer drilling.

As a country, we are not yet serious about conservation of energy. We are not yet serious about weaning ourselves off our dependence on oil and other polluting and declining sources of energy, nor are we serious about finding alternative, clean sources of energy. And Louisiana must get in on the action of developing and producing clean energy, because when the oil and gas run out, we'll be in an even sorrier state than we are now.

ADOBE PHOTO SHOP - LITERALLY

Thanks to that rascal, Paul (A.)

PRESIDING BISHOP KATHARINE AT SOUTHWARK CATHEDRAL

Thinking Anglicans posted the entire text of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's sermon at Southwark Cathedral in south London this morning.

That woman who wanders into Simon’s house comes with her hair uncovered – “oh, scandal! She’s clearly a woman of the street!” And she starts to act in profoundly embarrassing ways, crying all over Jesus’ feet and cleaning up the tears with her hair. And, “oh Lord, now she’s covering him with perfume! We can’t have this in a proper house – what will people think? And I guess now we know just what sort of person this fellow is!”

The scorn that some are willing to heap on others because we think they’ve loved excessively or inappropriately is still pretty well known. Yet it is this woman’s loving response to Jesus that brings her pardon, and Jesus’ celebration of her right relationship with God. She doesn’t even have to ask. Jesus seems to say that evidence of her pardon has already been given – full measure, pressed down, and overflowing – just like her tears and hair and cask of nard.

It’s the same message Jesus offers over and over: “perfect love casts out fear” (1Jn 4:18). It’s actually our fear of the wretchedness within our own souls that pushes us away from our sisters and brothers. Fear is the only thing that keeps us from knowing God’s love – and we most often discover it in the people around us. Jesus wasn’t afraid to eat with sinners, either Simon or the other dinner guests, and he wasn’t afraid of what the woman of the city was going to do to his reputation.

Read the rest of the sermon at TA.

Photo from LondonSE1 whence cometh news of this sour note:

15 evangelical clergy from the Diocese of Southwark signed a letter to The Times criticising the Dean's decision to invite Dr Jefferts Schori to preach in the cathedral.

"We, the undersigned clergy of Southwark diocese, distance ourselves from Bishop Schori’s teaching and presiding in our cathedral.

"We seriously question the judgment of those who have not withdrawn their invitation to her after her recent consecration of Mary Glasspool."

The list of signees is at the Times.