"HAVE YOUR CANDLE AND EAT IT"

From Lapin, who says. "Guess you remember those inventive 50's magazine recipes."

I do. I do.

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE FOR MATT'S TREES

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PRAY FOR THOSE IN THE PATH OF THE FLOODWATERS IN AUSTRALIA

From Cathy:

Would you terribly mind posting an urgent prayer request for this tonight:

If the Wivenhoe Dam breaks or overflows in any serious way, thousands of people in Brisbane could die. The 1974 floods were disastrous. It seems to be doing its job at the moment, as they say, but it is holding a horrendous amount of water. My dad's house is in one of the suburbs that has been warned to expect flooding,

cathy x

From the Couriermail.com:

A BODY of floodwater larger than Sydney Harbour threatens Brisbane, with only the Wivenhoe Dam's 2.3km-long earthen wall standing in its path.

Police are advising people near the Brisbane River at West End to move to higher ground.

"The Brisbane River has risen and we are starting to see the water enter streets in the low lying areas of West End." a police spokesman said.

This comes after Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman warned yesterday that more water was flowing into the Wivenhoe Dam than the Brisbane River had received in the 1974 floods.

The Brisbane City Council last night issued a warning for residents in more than 30 suburbs to expect flooding.

Read the rest at the link above.

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayers and protect the people threatened by floodwaters in Australia. Among all the changes and chances of this life, defend them by your gracious and ready help, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

UPDATE: Brian at Noble Wolf posted a video of floodwaters inundating the city of Toowoomba in Queensland. 8 are dead, and 70 are missing.

REMEMBERING THOSE WHO DIED

Clockwise from top left (AP):

Christina-Taylor Green: A "Face of Hope," this 9-year-old politician often wore red, white and blue in honor of her country.

Dorothy Morris: The 76-year-old retiree, Dorothy Morris, attended the event with her husband and high school sweetheart George Morris.

Judge John Roll: A widely respected federal judge, Roll received death threats in 2009 after his decision allowed a case brought forward by illegal immigrants to proceed to a jury trial.

Gabe Zimmerman: Recently engaged and one of Giffords's aides, he was known as a master in dealing with other people.

Dorwin Stoddard: A fixture at the Mountain Avenue Church of Christ, Stoddard blocked his wife from gunfire, eyewitness reports said.

Phyllis Schneck: A great-grandmother, the 79-year-old retiree admired Giffords's stance on border safety.

From the Washington Post.

Heartbreaking pictures.

O God, whose beloved Son took little children into his arms and blessed them: Give us grace to entrust this child Christina-Taylor to your never-failing care and love, and bring us all to your heavenly kingdom; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

O God, whose mercies cannot be numbered: Accept our prayers on behalf of your servants Dorothy, John, Gabe, Dorwin, and Phyllis, and grant them entrance into the land of light and joy, in the fellowship of your saints; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

SENIOR CODES FOR TEXTING...

ATD: At The Doctor's

BTW: Bring The Wheelchair

BYOT: Bring Your Own Teeth

CBM: Covered By Medicare

CUATSC: See You At The Senior Center

DWI: Driving While Incontinent

FWBB: Friend With Beta Blockers

FWIW: Forgot Where I Was

FYI: Found Your Insulin

GGPBL: Gotta Go, Pacemaker Battery Low!

GHA: Got Heartburn Again

IMHO: Is My Hearing-Aid On?

LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out

LOL: Living On Lipitor

LWO: Lawrence Welk's On

OMMR: On My Massage Recliner

OMSG: Oh My! Sorry, Gas.

ROFL... CGU: Rolling On The Floor Laughing...Can't Get Up

TTYL: Talk To You Louder

WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?

WTFA: Wet The Furniture Again

WTP: Where's The Prunes?

WWNO: Walker Wheels Need Oil

All right!!! I needed a laugh, even at my own expense. Thanks to Canon Itchy. Or no thanks? Which is it?

"A RIGHT TO BEAR GLOCKS?"

From Gail Collins at the New York Times:

Today, the amazing thing about the reaction to the Giffords shooting is that virtually all the discussion about how to prevent a recurrence has been focusing on improving the tone of our political discourse. That would certainly be great. But you do not hear much about the fact that Jared Loughner came to Giffords’s sweet gathering with a semiautomatic weapon that he was able to buy legally because the law restricting their sale expired in 2004 and Congress did not have the guts to face up to the National Rifle Association and extend it. (My emphasis)

If Loughner had gone to the Safeway carrying a regular pistol, the kind most Americans think of when they think of the right to bear arms, Giffords would probably still have been shot and we would still be having that conversation about whether it was a sane idea to put her Congressional district in the cross hairs of a rifle on the Internet.

But we might not have lost a federal judge, a 76-year-old church volunteer, two elderly women, Giffords’s 30-year-old constituent services director and a 9-year-old girl who had recently been elected to the student council at her school and went to the event because she wanted to see how democracy worked.

Even if you accept that we are all militia, as the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled, and we all have the right to bear arms according to the 2nd Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, what about regulation of automatic weapons? That in certain areas, there are no laws against the purchase of automatic weapons seems insane to me. What citizen needs an automatic weapon for self-protection? But our Congress stands immobilized by fear of the N.R.A. As Collins says:

Most politicians won’t talk about it because they’re afraid of the N.R.A., whose agenda is driven by the people who sell guns and want the right to sell as many as possible.

Doesn’t it seem like the least we can do?

ANOTHER CHANCE FOR MATT'S TREES

Today, I received a lovely email from Matt Sloan's mother, Judy, thanking me for my posts last month on behalf of Matt's Trees in the contest to win $50,000 to replant trees in New Orleans. Sadly, Matt passed away last June, and his family chose to continue the work he started in New Orleans by establishing the nonprofit.

Since Pepsi carried the top 100 vote-getters in December to the January competition, the organization has another chance to win the contest and more time for us to vote. Matt's Trees stands at no. 68 now. Let's get him higher. The contest runs until January 31. The links on the flyer above are not live; please use the widget below to reach the site to cast your vote. You may vote once a day, every day until the end of January. If you have more than one email address, you may vote more than once.


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THE INTERN WHO HELPED REP. GIFFORD

From AXCentral.com comes the account by Daniel Hernandez, an intern for Gabrielle Giffords. Daniel was near Rep. Giffords when she was shot and gave her first aid until the paramedics arrived.

Daniel Hernandez had been U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' intern for five days when she was shot Saturday outside Tucson.

The junior at the University of Arizona was helping check people in at the "Congress on Your Corner" event when he heard gunfire. He was about 30 feet from the congresswoman. When the shots began, he ran toward them.

Read his moving account of helping Giffords and of the scene of the shooting.

Thanks to Ann V. for the link.

QUOTE OF THE DAY - FEAR OVER REASON

"It's very hard to unscare people.... [P]eople are far more compelled by their fears than by their reason." (Dr Paul Offit)

As Athenae at First Draft reminds us, it's not just Sarah Palin, and I add, Glenn Beck, and their ilk, who speak out in public forums in misleading or outright false statements, laden with militaristic references and imagery, with the intention to promote fear and deep distrust amongst the American people, but also those who supply the money, some of whom prefer to remain in the background, out of the limelight:

It's about the people who fund the tea party and every other ultra-right-wing movement in this country.

Jane Mayer in The New Yorker writes at length about the billionaire Koch brothers, David and Charles:

In Washington, [David] Koch is best known as part of a family that has repeatedly funded stealth attacks on the federal government, and on the Obama Administration in particular.

Bear with me as I take a detour to address an article in USA Today which concerns the study that linked certain vaccines for children to autism, which has since been proved to be "an elaborate fraud," but which nevertheless caused, and still causes, many parents to avoid having their children vaccinated.

Last year, The Lancet issued a formal retraction. British medical authorities last year also found the study's lead author, Andrew Wakefield, guilty of serious professional misconduct, stripping him of his ability to practice medicine in England.

Now, the BMJ (a British medical journal) reports that Wakefield, who was paid more than $675,000 by a lawyer hoping to sue vaccine makers, was not just unethical — he falsified data in the study, which suggested that children developed autism after getting a shot against measles, mumps and rubella.

Vaccination rates fell in Britain and the US, leading to outbreaks of measles in Britain and Ireland, which caused many children to become ill and even a few deaths. Paul Offit, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, says:

...it may take years to rebuild trust in vaccines. "It's very hard to unscare people. You can do study after study, but people are far more compelled by their fears than by their reason."

Now, turn your attention to the myths and falsehoods promulgated about health care reform:

1: There is no health care crisis

2. Health care reform will impose rationing

3: Health care reform provides for euthanasia, "death panel"

4: Health care reform legislation will cover undocumented immigrants

5: Health care reform will raise your taxes

Cont....

Altogether, Media Matters lists 15 myths about health care reform. Read the rest at their website. No matter how many facts were offered to those who spread the falsehoods around, they persisted in their beliefs(?) and their versions of "the facts".

Which leads me back to my quote for the day. Slightly edited, Dr Paul Offit's quote applies to the political situation in the US today"

"It's very hard to unscare people.... [P]eople are far more compelled by their fears than by their reason."

Thanks to Canon Alan Perry, who blogs at Insert Catchy Blog Title Here, who called my attention to the quote. He applied the quote to the situation today in the Anglican Communion, where it seems just as pertinent. Dr Offit's words seem very wise to me.

OFF TOPIC UPDATE: Alan Perry has a series of excellent posts on the Anglican Covenant which are well worth reading.

TIME TO "DO A LITTLE SOUL SEARCHING"

From the AP via the Times Picayune:

[Gabrielle] Giffords has drawn the ire of the right in the last year, especially from politicians like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin over her support of Obama's health care reform bill.

Her Tucson office was vandalized a few hours after the House voted to approve the health care law in March, with someone either kicking or shooting out a glass door and window. In an interview after the vandalism, Giffords referred to the animosity against her by conservatives. Palin listed Giffords' seat as one of the top "targets" in the November elections because of the lawmakers' support for the health care law.

"For example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the thing is, that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have to realize that there are consequences to that action," Giffords said in an interview with MSNBC.

Image from Sarah Palin's Facebook page, which I posted back in March 2010.

From Crooks and Liars:

[Sheriff Clarence] Dupnik called the shooting a "very sad day for Tucson" and a "horrendous, horrendous, senseless, unbelievable crime." And then he blamed the crime on the rhetoric -- presumably political rhetoric -- in the country.

"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government," he said. "The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on this country is getting to be outrageous and unfortunately Arizona has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

Mr. Dupnik said it is time for the country to "do a little soul searching."

He added: "The vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business ... This has not become the nice United States that most of us grew up in."

Later, he said: "It's not unusual for all public officials to get threats constantly, myself included. That's the sad thing about what's going on in America: pretty soon we're not going to be able to find reasonable decent people willing to subject themselves to serve in public office."

Watch the video of Sheriff Dupnik's press conference.