REAGAN - NO LOOPHOES FOR MILLIONAIRES

Priceless! Thank you, Fr Jake.

HOW MANY OF YOU USE MY BLOGROLL?

How many of you would be upset if I removed the entire list? The blogroll is so long as to be nearly useless, and I don't keep up to see who is still blogging. I'd save the list in the event that some time in the future (I won't say when!) I add an active blogroll which showed updates.

UPDATE: The blogroll is gone. If there is great demand to have it back, I'll return it to its place.

Thanks to all of you who responded.

'COME THOU LONG EXPECTED JESUS'

St John's College Choir, Cambridge University

I love this hymn.

STORY OF THE DAY - TEETH IN A BOX

These are teeth in a box & it swallows up
all the mean things in the world & holds
them in its jaws until times start to
change.

From StoryPeople.

BOROWITZ REPORTS...

SURPRISING LOVE ADVICE

Falling in Polls, Romney Considers Adultery

Huddles with Advisors About Possible Affair

Read the rest at Borowitz Report.

Ha, ha, ha! Andy's wonderfully, bitingly funny.

WRONG BED

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

HOBOKEN JUSTICE

From the ABAJournal:

A law school graduate who works as a Bulgarian translator has refused to accept a plea bargain stemming from an accusation of improper staring and a refusal to answer a question about his country of origin.

Vesselin Dittrich, 64, says his troubles began after he stared at a heavily tattooed woman on a train in the station at Hoboken, N.J., and refused her demand to leave the car, the New York Times reports. Dittrich, who has faulty eyesight, says he was staring because the woman appeared to be blue. Dittrich tells the newspaper he has law degrees from Bulgaria and the United States, but he failed the New York bar exam.

I can't stop laughing, and it's wrong all wrong. The poor fellow has poor eyesight.

Plus, I sincerely hope I have not gone beyond fair use with my quote. I would not want to be sued by the ABA Journal. If I am sued, I have an idea who will defend me pro bono.

YOU ARE GOD'S BELOVED - I AM GOD'S BELOVED

I saw that God
never began to love us.

For just as we will be
in everlasting joy
(all God's creation is destined for this)

so also we have always been
in God's foreknowledge,
known and loved
from without beginning.

Julian of Norwich

I love the Book of Common Prayer. I love both Rites for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and all the Eucharistic prayers. I love the "Prayer of Humble Access", although a good many folks I know don't care for the prayer because of the emphasis on "We be not worthy...." There are people who have been so beaten down by "the changes and chances of this uncertain world" that they do not want nor do they need to hear that they are not worthy, and I fully understand. Still, I love the prayer for myself.

We do not presume to come to this thy Table (O merciful Lord) trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We be not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the Flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his Blood, in these holy Mysteries, that we may continually dwell in him, and he in us, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his Body, and our souls washed through his most precious Blood. Amen.

Sometimes I say the prayer before communion, because the words express what is in my heart at the moment. I sing "Amazing Grace" without cringing at "a wretch like me". What I am, I am by the grace of God, who says to me, "You are my beloved." All is grace. All is love. That I am God's beloved trumps all.

I know what I was without God in my life, and I see what I am with God in my life. To express in words the difference between living in hope and living with little or no hope, between knowing the love of God surrounds me and is within me and knowing the emptiness when I believed God had not much to do with me is close to impossible.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you....

The knowledge that I am God's beloved is my salvation every day of my life. Therein lies my strength and my song. Yes, I have my moments (even hours and days!) of discouragement, but the secure knowledge of God's love and God's grace at work in me draws me back into the circle of hope.

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

Thanks be to God!

Image from Wikimedia Commons.

HILLARY CLINTON'S GREAT SPEECH

Hillary Clinton gave a great speech at the UN meeting in Geneva on Human Rights Day. Watch the video and read the transcript at the Advocate. Perhaps Clinton would have given the same speech three years ago, but since she holds her position at the pleasure of the president, she may not have been permitted to give the speech by the Obama administration. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton came late to support the repeal of DOMA. During her campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination, she supported repeal of only Part 3 of DOMA.

Now we are heading into an election period, and you will hear many brave speeches by members of the administration, so pardon me if I'm a bit cynical and don't join in the celebration with unalloyed joy. Pardon me if I think, 'Better late than never'.

Now, there is still, as you all know, much more to be done to secure that commitment, that reality, and progress for all people. Today, I want to talk about the work we have left to do to protect one group of people whose human rights are still denied in too many parts of the world today. In many ways, they are an invisible minority. They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed. Many are treated with contempt and violence by their fellow citizens while authorities empowered to protect them look the other way or, too often, even join in the abuse. They are denied opportunities to work and learn, driven from their homes and countries, and forced to suppress or deny who they are to protect themselves from harm.

I am talking about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, human beings born free and given bestowed equality and dignity, who have a right to claim that, which is now one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time. I speak about this subject knowing that my own country’s record on human rights for gay people is far from perfect. Until 2003, it was still a crime in parts of our country. Many LGBT Americans have endured violence and harassment in their own lives, and for some, including many young people, bullying and exclusion are daily experiences. So we, like all nations, have more work to do to protect human rights at home.

Now, raising this issue, I know, is sensitive for many people and that the obstacles standing in the way of protecting the human rights of LGBT people rest on deeply held personal, political, cultural, and religious beliefs. So I come here before you with respect, understanding, and humility. Even though progress on this front is not easy, we cannot delay acting. So in that spirit, I want to talk about the difficult and important issues we must address together to reach a global consensus that recognizes the human rights of LGBT citizens everywhere.

The first issue goes to the heart of the matter. Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct; but, in fact, they are one and the same. Now, of course, 60 years ago, the governments that drafted and passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were not thinking about how it applied to the LGBT community. They also weren’t thinking about how it applied to indigenous people or children or people with disabilities or other marginalized groups. Yet in the past 60 years, we have come to recognize that members of these groups are entitled to the full measure of dignity and rights, because, like all people, they share a common humanity.

This recognition did not occur all at once. It evolved over time. And as it did, we understood that we were honoring rights that people always had, rather than creating new or special rights for them. Like being a woman, like being a racial, religious, tribal, or ethnic minority, being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.

Secretary Clinton strikes all the right notes, and her words will be quoted time and again, as they well deserve to be. The words were spoken, and they cannot ever be blotted out from history. Congratulations due, Madame Secretary.

STORY OF THE DAY

doesn't really want to punish anybody,
but it seems to be the only way they'll
admit she's right

From StoryPeople.