THE THREE BISHOPS

Bishop Gerard Mpango, of the Diocese of Western Tanganyika in Africa, Bishop Michael Perham, of the Diocese of Glouscester in England, and Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves, of the Diocese of El Camino Real in the US, in all their splendor (including mitres), preside together at the Eucharist at Glouscester Cathedral. Check out the wonderful photo at The Three-Legged Stool.

FEDERAL JUDGE RULES AGAINST DRILLING MORATORIUM

From NBC News:

NEW ORLEANS - A federal judge Tuesday ruled against the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the wake of the BP oil spill. The White House, which had hoped the ban would provide time to ensure other wells are operating safely, immediately said it planned to appeal.

The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by drilling companies to reverse the ban imposed by the Department of Interior, which halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling at 33 exploratory wells in the Gulf.
A federal judge in Louisiana granted the drillers' request for a preliminary restraining order that would prevent the ban from taking effect.

District Judge Martin Feldman said the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reasoning and that the moratorium seems to assume that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs countered that "continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense and ... potentially puts the safety of those on the rigs and the safety of the environment in the Gulf at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford right now."

I state up front that I am not unbiased on the drilling moratorium. I believe that posturing and hypocrisy are involved in Obama's decision. Deep in my heart, I believe that deepwater drilling is not safe and will not be safe any time soon, if ever, but certainly not in six months. The ban on deepwater drilling would need to be open-ended to permanent.

Since clean-up and mitigation technology is between 30 to 50 years old, with little progress over the years, I doubt that industry and governments can catch up in six months.

Drilling can surely be made safer than the type of operation by BP on the Horizon well. Several warnings that all was not well were ignored. BP eliminated several safety steps which could have forewarned of trouble, and the company used cheaper technology and equipment that made the well less safe. Making production a priority over safety, pervaded the culture of BP. Stricter regulations and vigorous enforcement of regulations already in place by government agencies would have made drilling the well safer.

As I've said, in my humble opinion, deepwater drilling cannot be made safe, only safer. So the question is, are we ready, as a country, for the consequences of a permanent or open-ended ban on deepwater drilling? Or will we take the risks associated with ending the moratorium in six months or a year? That is the question stated in an honest way.

One thought I've had is a rig by rig thorough inspection for safety, with the rig closed down temporarily, or permanently, if necessary, if the well is shown to be unsafe during the inspection.

I freely admit that the fact that tens of thousands of people in south Louisiana stand to lose their jobs, and hundreds of small businesses that provide jobs will be adversely affected during the moratorium influences my thinking. I am not unbiased, but I do give serious thought to safety and the environment, and I know that it is urgent that we begin to wean ourselves off oil as a major source of energy and find safer, cleaner, and renewable sources of energy.

BP - KING OF THE GULF OF MEXICO - WHY, MR PRESIDENT?

From Michael Snyder at Business Insider:

There is one question that I would really like an answer to. Who died and made BP king of the Gulf of Mexico? In recent weeks, BP has almost seemed more interested in keeping the American people away from the oil spill than in actually cleaning it up.

Journalists are being pushed around and denied access, disaster workers are being intimidated and abused and now BP has even go so far as to hire an army of private mercenaries to enforce their will along the Gulf coast. Are we suddenly living in occupied Iraq?

How in the world did a foreign oil company get the right to start pointing guns at the American people? The last time I checked, BP did not own the Gulf of Mexico and did not have the right to tell the American people where they can and cannot go. The truth is that BP could have avoided all of this by running an open, honest and transparent operation from the start.

They could have welcomed help from all sources, they could have tried to be open with the media, and they could have tried to be fair with the volunteers and rescue workers. But instead BP has been conducting this whole thing as if we are living in a totalitarian dictatorship and they are the dictators.
....

But it is not just the media that are being pushed around. The Louisiana Environmental Action Network is reporting that BP is actually threatening to fire fishermen hired to help with the oil spill cleanup for using respirators and other safety equipment that wasn't provided by the company.

Seriously.

The workers say that they are only using their own safety equipment because BP has not provided what they need. It is a fact that a large number of rescue workers have already gotten sick enough to be admitted to the hospital, so it certainly makes sense that those working to clean up the oil would want to do whatever they can to stay safe.

But no, BP has to be a bunch of jerks about the whole thing.
....

So this crisis may keep getting worse for months.

By the time this is over, will anything in the Gulf be left alive?

Even now, hordes of dolphins, fish, sharks, crabs, rays and other sea creatures find themselves trapped between the rapidly advancing oil and the shore. Unprecedented numbers are showing up just off the Gulf coast in an attempt to escape certain death, but once the oil reaches shore there will be nowhere else for them to go. The tragedy will be unspeakable.

Things did not have to turn out this way. BP and the Obama administration could have done things much differently. But they didn't.

Read more: Business Insider.

Good grief! I've heard most of the above information in bits and pieces, but seeing it gathered in one article is truly shocking. Why are these strong-arm tactics permitted?

We intended to visit Grand Isle, Louisiana, today, to see for ourselves what's happening there, but our dog, Diana, is not well. She is avoiding using her right front leg, and she is just not herself, very lethargic, perhaps from pain. She has an appointment with the vet this afternoon. I'll keep you posted.

Image from MadPriest. H/T to Tracie in the comments at the same post for the link to the article.

LONE STAR STATE GOP - GAY AGENDA

From The Huffington Post:

Texas Republicans recently unveiled a policy platform that includes a statement of support for legislation that would make it a felony to issue a marriage license to same-sex couples as well as for an official to perform a marriage ceremony for gay partners wishing to wed.

Read it all with links to the text of the platform at HP.

BUDDY THE HORSE

A city slicker drove his car into a ditch in a desolate area. Luckily, a local farmer came by to help with his big strong horse named Buddy.

He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, "Pull, Nellie, pull!". Buddy didn't move.

Then the farmer hollered, "Pull, Buster, pull!" Buddy didn't respond.

Once more the farmer commanded, "Pull, Coco, pull!" Nothing.

Then the farmer cried out, "Pull, Buddy, pull!" And the horse easily dragged the car out of the ditch.

The motorist was most appreciative and very curious. He asked the farmer why he called his horse by the wrong name three times. The farmer replied, "Oh, Buddy is blind, and if he thought he was the only one pulling, he wouldn't even bother to try!"


Don't blame me. Blame Paul (A.)

WHAT FUN!

My son and his children are vacationing in Galveston, Texas. Their hotel has a webcam in the lobby, and there they are soon after their arrival as I captured them in a screen shot.



Big Sister and Not-So-Little Brother.



Daddy on the phone talking to guess who? Moi, of course, as we coordinate.



The kids again. Big Sister on the phone this time, with moi again.

WOMEN BISHOPS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND - SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL?

Thinking Anglicans posted the full text of the amendment which will be offered by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the draft legislation which will permit women to become bishops in the Church of England. Read it over there to see what you make of it. I'm not a member of the Church of England, and it's up to the members of Synod to decide whether the amendment will be passed. As far as I can make out from the wording of the amendment, and I'm the first to admit that I'm not good at deciphering such language, the amendment seems to offer a separate, but not quite equal, status for women bishops.

The commentary to the language of the amendment at TA is instructive.

Dear old Solomon in all his glory could not split the proverbial baby in two any better than this.

Of course all you have is a divided baby but then it is easier to maintain the pretense of unity, even when certain folks refuse to be ministered to or receive communion from certain other folks who apparently have “the same legal rights” if not the same standing as God’s ministers.

Falderal.
....

What provision is there for those who cannot accept the ministry of male bishops? Come on - fair's fair.
....

As someone noted years ago, this is totally equitable: the rich are as prohibited from sleeping under bridges as are the poor. Will a parish in a male-led diocese be allowed to request episcopal function from a female bishop?
....

I suggest that ‘co-ordinate’ bishops carry their mitres under their arms, and single bishops can put them on their heads.

And noting that Pluralist posted the final comment which I quoted, you may want to check out his blog post titled Two for Tea, which, of course, has nothing whatsoever to do with the subject of this post.

UPDATE: Andrew Brown in the Guardian.

Note: Both Andrew and Adrian (Pluralist) are English.

SEND IN THE NAVY!

 

A dead Gulf menhaden floats in oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak in Bay Jimmy on Sunday. Matthew Hinton - Times Picayune.

From NOLA:

Two senators wrote a letter to President Barack Obama on Sunday arguing it's time to bring in the Navy to attack the 2-month-old scourge of oil menacing the Gulf of Mexico.

Coming from Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the letter argues the Navy could focus and speed up the crisis response, which is currently managed by a unified command that includes several agencies and companies.

"For the long term," wrote Nelson, "you really need a military command-and-control structure where orders are given and things get immediately implemented."

And I say, "Send them in!" I've mentioned to Grandpère that we need the Navy down here to take charge. The senators surely channeled my thoughts. I'm quite grateful for the efforts of folks from all over the world to mitigate the damage from BP's oil gusher and clean-up the Gulf Coast and the Gulf waters. They work hard under difficult conditions, and they, and all of us, deserve better than the mess of disorganization under which the workers function. When "a unified command that includes several agencies and companies" is in charge, there will be questions about which agency or company is in charge of particular tasks and, when something goes wrong, which group has the authority to try to fix the situation. And let's not forget the opportunity to pass the buck.

I've seen comments around and about that those of us on or near the Gulf are strident, that we whine and complain. The oil gusher story goes on far too long, and people lose interest. What about Haiti? I don't read much about Haiti any more, and many there still live in desperate conditions. And the US Gulf Coast and Haiti face the hurricane season.

From Frank Rich in the New York Times:

PRESIDENT Obama is not known for wild pronouncements, so it was startling to hear him liken the gulf oil spill to 9/11. Alas, this bold analogy, made in an interview with Roger Simon of Politico, proved a misleading trailer for the main event. In the president’s prime-time address a few days later, there was still talk of war, but the ammunition was sanded down to bullet points: “a clean energy future,” “a long-term gulf coast restoration plan” and, that most dreaded of perennials, “a national commission.” Such generic placeholders, unanimated by details or deadlines, are Washingtonese for “The buck stops elsewhere.”
....

The president had it right the first time — this is a 9/11 crisis — and only action will do. The sole sentence that really counted on Tuesday night was his prediction that “in the coming weeks and days, these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well.” He will be judged on whether that’s true. The sole event that mattered last week was his jawboning of BP for a $20 billion down payment of blood money — to be overseen, appropriately enough, by Kenneth Feinberg of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

Rich's entire column is worth a read, as he goes on to assess the Obama presidency, not just to do with the oil gusher, but what else needs to happen on the presidential front.

Just so you'll know, this whining, complaining, ungrateful inhabitant of the Gulf Coast region has no plans to shut up.

BISHOP ALAN ON "MITREGATE"

From Bishop Alan's Blog:

This bizarre story indicates that the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church was seriously told, as a guest, that she could have a Mitre in Southwark Cathedral, but not on her head. Forrest Gump’s mum used to say, stoopid is as stoopid does, and the whole mentality of such a request, if it was ever made, is profoundly stoopid. The whole thing stinks of hypocrisy. It bears the fingerprints of blind officialdom rather than the Archbishop himself.
....

As a bishop I learn that, loaded with creative potential and myth as my job can be, when all is said and done I am just a driver of the Lord’s Number 49 bus, and the more I can rememeber it’s his bus not mine, saints preserve me, the less likely I am to get too far up myself. This makes me easier to live with, and learning it daily is worth a day of anybody’s wages…

Bishop Alan's final paragraph is a cautionary word for us all. We're not all bishops, but if we claim to be Christians, we must remain ever mindful to whom we belong.

Please read his entire post.

JESUS AND MO

Click on the strip for the larger view.


From Jesus and Mo

Lisa had it first. She blames Ann for getting her hooked on Jesus and Mo. I blame Ann, too.