DAVID KATO - 1964-2011 - WE REMEMBER...

David Kato, Ugandan LGBT rights activist, was beaten to death one year ago today (Jan. 26). He is considered a father of Uganda’s gay rights movement.

Some blame religious rhetoric for his death. American evangelicals helped stir up the hostility that led to Kato’s death because they promoted a law imposing the death penalty for homosexuality. Shortly before his murder Kato won a lawsuit against a Ugandan magazine for identifying him as gay and calling for his execution.

More at Jesus in Love.

Blessed are you, gracious God,
creator of heaven and earth;
you are glorified in the assembly of your saints.
David Kato and all your martyrs bless you and praise you,
confessing before the powers of this world
the great name of your only Son.
Therefore we join our voices with theirs,
and with all who have served you in every age,
to proclaim the glory of your name.

(Preface of a Martyr, Book of Alternative Services, Canada)

THE NEW BOSS

If you've ever worked for a boss who reacts before getting the facts and thinking things through, you will love this!

Hamson Metal-Steel, feeling it was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO. The new boss was determined to rid the company of all slackers.

On a tour of the facilities, the CEO noticed a guy leaning against a wall. The room was full of workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business. He asked the guy, "How much money do you make a week?"

A little surprised, the young man looked at him and said, "I make $400 a week. Why?"

The CEO said, "Wait right here." He walked back to his office, came back in two minutes, and handed the guy $1,600 in cash and said, "Here's four weeks' pay. Now GET OUT and don't come back."

Feeling pretty good about himself the CEO looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone want to tell me what that goof-ball did here?"

From across the room a voice said, "Pizza delivery guy.”

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

PREJUDICE IS PREJUDICE IS PREJUDICE

Andrew Brown in the Guardian:

The Church of England's House of Bishops – for which, read the archbishops of Canterbury and York – has explained how they hope to mollify the opponents of female clergy. The proposals are breathtaking.

From the Code of Practice suggested by the two archbishops:

The House of Bishops does not wish to see any outcome that would entrench radical division or give any impression of a 'two-tier‘ episcopate. Because of their commitment both to this principle and to the most adequate and sustainable provision for theological dissent over the ordination of women, they are seeking a balanced provision within the overall framework that will allow all members of the Church of England to flourish and to pursue the mission to our nation and society that we share.

We are aware as bishops that there are very difficult decisions ahead for many of our clergy and faithful; we want to honour the desire of all who wish to remain loyal Anglicans, fully engaged in this mission. And we are not thinking in terms of a time-limited provision, mindful that such a suggestion was rejected at the Revision stage of amending the legislation under discussion.

Despite the statement above, in the suggested 'Code of Practice' the two archbishops in the Church of England are quite determined to enable prejudice against women bishops and, further, to assure that prejudicial attitudes and practices remain entrenched in the church.

Andrew Brown:

The archbishops envisage that the Church of England, once it has female bishops, will continue ordaining men who do not accept these women, finding them jobs they will deign to accept, and promoting some of them to be bishops who will work to ensure the continued supply of male priests who refuse to accept female clergy. In fact, the church will pay three bishops (the formerly "flying" sees of Ebbsfleet, Richborough, and Beverley) to work full time against their female colleagues, and to nourish the resistance.

Funds are scarce, and yet the CofE will support three bishops to continue to ordain priests who would not consider ordination by a female bishop as valid, because, not only would the women not be real bishops, but they were never even real priests in the first place. How is the support of bishops to prevent candidates for ordination from besmirchment by the laying on of hands by a woman bishop not entrenchment of division?

Code of Practice

In the light of our discussion, the House will continue to uphold these three principles:

• Bishops will continue not to discriminate in selecting candidates for ordination on the grounds of their theological convictions regarding the admission of women to Holy Orders;

• In choosing bishops to provide episcopal ministry under diocesan schemes for parishes requesting this provision, diocesan bishops will seek to identify those whose ministry will be consistent with the theological convictions concerning the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate underlying the Letter of Request;

• The archbishops and bishops commit themselves to seeking to maintain a supply of bishops able to minister on this basis. This will obviously have a bearing on decisions about appointments and on the role of bishops occupying the sees of Beverley, Ebbsfleet and Richborough (which will, as a matter of law, continue to exist even after the Episcopal Ministry Act of Synod has been rescinded).

Andrew Brown

Despite all these concessions, there will be female bishops, as there are already female priests, and these will be treated exactly the same as male ones – except by the men who don't want to treat them equally and who believe that God has called them to undermine women's authority wherever it appears.

This is apparently Rowan Williams's idea of justice.

The two archbishops could not get their desired legislation through the previous General Synod and are aware that church members, bishops, and clergy are embarrassed and weary of efforts to cater to the prejudicial "theological convictions" of the squeamish, so now they attempt a new tactic by calling the effort to prolong discrimination against women by a different name, a 'Code of Practice'. Do the archbishops think that by this blatant attempt at subterfuge through name change, they will get the code passed? Perhaps they will. I hope not.

UPDATE: The official title is 'The Illustrative Draft Code of Practice'. I was tempted to omit the letter 'r' from one of the words in the title. The word starts with 'D'.

STORY OF THE DAY - RESET BUTTON

He discovered his reset button early on
& there were not many things that
bothered him all the rest of his days just
because of that.

From StoryPeople.

Like.

ROMNEY WISHES HE WAS POORER...

From the Wall Street Journal:

If elected president, Mitt Romney might consider ending a tax break that helped the former Massachusetts governor accumulate his fortune, an aide suggested Tuesday.

The comments came as the Romney campaign made available more than 500 pages of tax-return data for 2010 and 2011 amid signs the issue was hurting him with some voters.

No, wait! He's happy to be richer.

Later in the day, in a signal of how the tax issue is roiling the GOP campaign, the Romney camp tried to step back from the aide's remarks, underscoring that the former Massachusetts governor didn't want to raise anyone's taxes.

Romney closed down his Swiss bank account but retains accounts in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and other tax havens.

How rich is Romney?

Also from the WSJ.

So rich, that he makes the one percenters look like the 99 percent.

According to a calculation from Emmanuel Saez, the economist at the University of California at Berkley, who has become the top expert on top incomes, Mitt Romney’s income of $21.7 million puts him well above the 1%.

In fact, his income puts him in about the 99.9975% income bracket. Put another way, Mitt is in the top 0.0025%.

Whoa! That IS rich. But we all knew Romney was extremely wealthy. He should have released the tax returns early on and not shown such reluctance. Who did he think he was kidding?

Picture from Wikipedia.

UPDATE: And further, I hear complaints that the Occupy Wall Street folks have no coherent message. Well, at least one coherent message seems to have been sent out that even the Wall Street Journal understood: the 1% compared to the 99%. I don't remember seeing the percentages mentioned in the media before the OWS movement. "We are the 99%," is brief, pithy, and quite easy to understand. Yo, everyone! OWS has a coherent message.

H/T to Charles Pierce, who sees evidence that President Obama also understands the message.

PONDERISMS - PART 4

11 * Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

12 * The second mouse gets the cheese.

13 * When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

14 * Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

16 * Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

17 * We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box

18 * A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

19 * Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY

20 *Save the earth..... It's the only planet with chocolate !*

More ponderisms from my brother-in-law, Frank.

See No. 18? I did that. My plan was to go by train from Manchester to Leeds in the UK, and I took the wrong train. The train stopped seemingly at every village along the way, some of them quite pretty, with interesting old train stations. The views of the Pennines were gorgeous. I thought I had mistakenly taken a commuter train to Leeds, but I ended up in Sheffield at the end of the line. When I told the conductor where I'd intended to go, he said, "Oh, there's a train for Leeds in 5 minutes on the next track over." How about that? I didn't even have to buy another ticket. Although, I was twice as long reaching my destination, I would not, for the world, have missed my wonderful detour.

I traveled southeast instead of northeast on, I believe, the Hope Valley Line, which passes right through the Peak District National Park. A mistake? Maybe, but a mistake that I would not have wanted corrected.

THEY HAVE NAMES

Total Coalition War Deaths: 7678

Iraq: 4802
-no casualties this past week

Afghanistan: 2876

BATEMAN, Jon-Luke, 22, CPL, USMC, Tulsa, OK, I Marine Expeditionary Force
COCHRAN, Kenneth E., 20, LCPL, USMC, Wilder, ID, III Marine Expeditionary Force
WISE, Benjamin B., 34, Seaman, US Army, Little Rock, AR, 1st Special Forces Group
BENSON, Keith D., 27, SPEC, US Army, Brockton, MA, 172nd Infantry Brigade
McGEATH, Phillip D., 25, CPL, USMC, Glendale, AZ, II Marine Expeditionary Force
LOGAN, Joseph D., 22, CPL, USMC, Willis, TX, III Marine Expeditionary Force
McHONE, Nathan R., 29, CAPT, USMC, Crystal Lake, IL, III Marine Expeditionary Force
STITES, Jesse W., 23, CPL, USMC, North Beach, MD, III Marine Expeditionary Force
BARTLE, Daniel B., 27, CAPT, USMC, Ferndale, WA, III Marine Expeditionary Force
REINHARD, Kevin, 25, CPL, USMC, (home not reported), III Marine Expeditionary Force
RIDDICK, Travis, 40, MSGT, USMC, Centerville, IA, III Marine Expeditionary Force

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

May God give comfort, consolation, and the peace that passes understanding to those who love the service members who died.

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

List from The Daily Office.

Source: iCasualties.org

THE FRAT BOYS OF WALL STREET

From the New York Times::

The chandelier-filled ballroom was teeming with 200 men in tuxedos — and a smattering of women — whose daily decisions can collectively make or break the global financial markets. Most were picking over a lavish dinner that included rack of lamb and crème brûlée. Others were preparing to sing bawdy show tunes.

Kappa Beta Phi, an exclusive Wall Street fraternity whose members include big-name bankers, hedge fund billionaires and private equity titans, met at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan on Thursday night for its 80th annual black-tie dinner and induction ceremony.

As always, the event was held in strict secrecy, with members being told that “what happens at the St. Regis stays at the St. Regis.”

But wait!

A reporter, however, was able to walk in unquestioned and observe the proceedings.

At least this year the secret is not so well kept. The name of the fraternity is the reverse of Phi Beta Kappa. Once a year, the merry band of hard-working rich men and a "smattering" of rich women let off steam at a jolly party which includes performances by the members. According to the report, most of the jokes are at the expense of the members themselves, but they also move out of their own circle to find humor.

The Occupy movement was fodder for several after-dinner skits. In one, a documentary filmed during the protests, James Lebenthal, a bond specialist, joked with a protester whose face was appeared to be tattooed.

“Go home, wash that off your face, and get back to work,” Mr. Lebenthal told the protester.

Several anonymous members did not attend the gala, because they feared to appear insensitive to those adversely affected by the dismal state of the economy, and one admitted that he found the skits offensive. Why not resign? I guess it counts for something to be able to mingle with the likes of "Ace" Greenberg, formerly of Bear Stearns, and Robert H. Benmosche, chairman of AIG.

Fellas and "smattering" of gals, you've had your "lavish dinner" and your fun, but I hope you feel a little ashamed now that your fun time is exposed to the light. You raise my ire when you mock the Occupy Wall Street folks who put themselves out there to awaken the rest of the citizenry, the 99%, to the mess you and the politicians who are indebted to you have made of our country. Shame on you.

H/T to Occupied Bishop George Packard for the the link posted on Facebook.

GATHERING UP THE CHICKENS

The farmer's son was returning from the market with a crate of chickens his father had entrusted to him, when all of a sudden the box fell and broke open.

Chickens scurried off in all different directions, but the determined boy walked all over the neighborhood scooping up the wayward birds and returning them to the repaired crate.

Hoping he had found them all, the boy reluctantly returned home an hour late, expecting the worst. "Pa, the chickens got loose," the boy confessed sadly, "but I managed to find all twelve of them."

"Well, you did real good, son," the farmer beamed. "We only had seven to begin with."


Cheers,

Paul (A.)

Does the farmer keep the extra chickens? THAT is the question. Never mind, "To be or not to be..."

Picture from Wikipedia.

ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER - 'THERE IS A HAPPY LAND'

Today Ormonde Plater remembers the anniversary of the death of Yona Kanamuzeyi, deacon and martyr, killed in Rwanda on 23 January 1964. Yona walked to his death singing the 1938 Scottish hymn “There Is a Happy Land”.

There is a happy land, far, far away,
Where saints in glory stand, bright, bright as day.
Oh, how they sweetly sing, worthy is our Savior King,
Loud let His praises ring, praise, praise for aye.

Come to that happy land, come, come away;
Why will ye doubting stand, why still delay?
Oh, we shall happy be, when from sin and sorrow free,
Lord, we shall live with Thee, blest, blest for aye.

Bright, in that happy land, beams every eye;
Kept by a Father’s hand, love cannot die.
Oh, then to glory run; be a crown and kingdom won;
And, bright, above the sun, we reign for aye.

[Source: Proposition Sound Track] [Original Source: There Is a Happy Land" 1850] [Music by Leonard P. Breedlove (1850)] [Words by Andrew Young (1838)]

After I read the lyrics of the hymn, I looked on YouTube to see if here was a version of the hymn and found the video above. The hymn, along with other sad and haunting music, which was composed (except for the hymn) and performed by Nick Cave and violinist Warren Ellis, is on the soundtrack album of the movie "The Proposition".

UPDATE: Sadly, the soundtrack album includes only an instrumental version of the hymn.