SHAME ON YOU, SEN. VITTER

From my inbox today:

Dear Friend,

The Supreme Court decision on Obamacare is obviously an extremely disappointing ruling. But I am more committed than ever to repealing Obamacare outright.

  

Obamacare may have been judged constitutional in this clumsy way, but I think it's also been proved a bad idea since its passage that's making things worse.  It continues to increase the cost of health care services and puts the federal government between patients and doctors.

I’m sure President Obama and his liberal allies that forced this law through Congress will try to spin the Supreme Court ruling as a major victory, but the bottom line is Obamacare is a disaster.
 
This decision is misguided - it rewrites the Obamacare mandate as a tax in order to uphold it. But that also makes clear that President Romney and a Republican Congress can repeal this all through reconciliation - with a simple majority in the Senate. That's what I'll demand, what I'll fight tirelessly for.
At the beginning of this Congressional session I introduced leading bill in the Senate to fully repeal Obamacare, and I’ll continue to work tirelessly to get that passed.
Sincerely,

David Vitter
United States Senator

Dear Sen. Vitter,

I am not your friend, nor have I ever voted for you.

A member of my family has a job that provides no health insurance benefits  Greater numbers of people are finding themselves in a similar situation.  What you call the Obamacare disaster is already helping her buy health insurance.  What would you offer to replace Obamacare?  You have your safe government health care plan for you and your family.  Would you call your health insurance socialized medicine?  The government pays.  Why should not every American citizen have access to the same health care benefits as you and your family?

Shame on you and your fellow Republicans and your announcement of your intentions to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  Where is your compassion and concern for the common good of your fellow citizens?

Your constituent, but not your friend,

June Butler

OBAMA HEALTH CARE UPHELD

Esquire Politics ‏@ESQPolitics

From SCOTUSblog - bottom line: entire ACA is upheld, with exception that federal govt's power to terminate Medicaid funds is narrowly read.

MSNBCNews:

In a dramatic victory for President Barack Obama, the Supreme Court upheld the 2010 health care law Thursday, preserving Obama’s landmark legislative achievement.

The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, who held that the law was a valid exercise of Congress’s power to tax.

R. I. P. NORA EPHRON

Obituary in the New York Times.

Nora Ephron, the essayist, author and filmmaker who challenged and thrived in the male-dominated worlds of movies and journalism and was loved, respected and feared for her wit, died on Tuesday of leukemia. She was 71.
....

She was tough on others — Bernstein's marital transgressions were immortalized by the horndog spouse in "Heartburn," a man "capable of having sex with a Venetian blind" — and relentless about herself. She wrote openly about her difficult childhood, her failed relationships, her doubts about her physical appearance and the hated intrusion of age.
....

Her screenwriting credits included "Heartburn," the nuclear power drama "Silkwood" and the romantic comedy "When Harry Met Sally ..." She twice directed the team of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, in "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail," and also worked with John Travolta (in the fantasy "Michael"), Steve Martin ("Mixed Nuts") and Nicole Kidman ("Bewitched").

I remember reading Heartburn and thinking, "Wow!  Go get him, girl!" Nora was pregnant, for crying out loud!  

Thank you, Nora, for making us laugh and making us cry.  We will miss you.  

Thanks to Ann V. for the link.

THE INDIFFERENT BULL

A farmer goes in half with a friend to buy a bull so he can increase his stock.

A couple of weeks later the friend comes by to see how his investment is doing.

The farmer complains that the bull just eats grass and won't even look at the cows.  His friend suggests that a veterinarian have a look at the bull.

The following week his friend returns to see if the vet helped.

The farmer looks delighted: "That bull has taken care of all my cows, broke through the fence, and has even serviced all my neighbor's cows!"

"Wow," says his friend, "what did the vet do to that bull?"

"Just gave him some pills'" said the farmer.

"What kind of pills?" asked his friend.

"I don't know, but they sort of taste like peppermint."


Cheers,

Paul (A.)



(I didn't get the joke right away then, "Ha, ha, ha!")

Picture from Wikipedia.

GC12, RESTRUCTURING, BUDGET, AND RESTRUCTURING BY BUDGET

My head is spinning from reading posts about General Convention and what will take place in Indianapolis - about budgets, restructuring, and restructuring by budget.  Neither budgets nor restructuring institutions is my particular area of interest,  nor are they my areas of expertise.  From the viewpoint of a humble person in the pew, my overall impression is of a tug of war over diminishing resources between those in favor of further centralization and those who wish to retain ideals of a church that functions with a measure of democracy.  I freely admit that my overall picture may, indeed, be distorted, but I am trying to understand the present situation in the church as best I can.

By default, I lean in favor of democratic ideals and practices.  That's not to say that I wish to get rid of bishops, because I do not.  What I'd like from the bishops is that they view themselves as servants of all in their particular dioceses, and for the Presiding Bishop to view her/himself as the servant of the whole church.  "It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant..."

Since I have little expertise and knowledge in the areas I mention, I refer you to others who know much more than I.  I'll attempt to place the posts in the order I read them, not necessarily in the order they were written.  I urge you to read the posts to which I link in their entirety.   Judging them by my brief quotes will not do the authors justice.

First of all is the crie de coeur from Katie Sherrod, who serves on the Executive Committee of TEC.  Katie was a pillar of strength in the continuing Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth after the schism.

I left that meeting deeply troubled, not by the criticism the Council was getting – I’ve been a writer for newspapers and television much too long to get my feelings hurt by criticism. What troubled me was that leaders I admire and trusted seemed to me to be acting in confusing ways – saying things that were contradicted by their actions.  Again and again they urged Council to see that ministry is carried out as “close to the ground” as possible and by those people who can do it best, which is usually lay people in congregations across the church. Yet what they keep doing is to try to operate from a top-down model.

I began to pray for clarity and guidance.

Much of the rest of the commentary seemed to me to bounce off Katie's heartfelt post.

Tobias Haller weighs in with "Storms and Structure":

So my appeal, brothers and sisters, is that of Jesus, “Peace, be still.” Most importantly, can we focus on actual proposals and legislation free from any attributions of motive or power-play, and judge them on their merits? Could we take a breath , count to ten, and refocus our attention from the ad hominem to the substance of the tasks actually at hand, with less of a sense of urgency and panic and apocalyptic? Think for a moment about just how much the decisions on the budget, and the resolutions of General Convention will touch your parish, or your ministry, for good or ill. Stop trying to solve all the problems and save the world. Jesus did that already. He is asleep in the stern. We can do our part to assist in that ministry and mission, but our efficiency at that task is seriously encumbered by panic and busyness that accomplishes little work. Can we begin by trusting each other rather than assuming the worst? Can we approach our work as colleagues rather than as adversaries? 

Then Muthah+ at Stone of Witness:

Often times our bishops get in the habit of ‘doing for’ others rather than doing things ‘with others.’  And here lies the problem.  It is all too easy to for clergy to do something themselves that they think is a wonderful solution and present it to the rest of the church only to find that it isn’t accepted.  Then we are likely to think the people ungrateful when it is not received joyfully.  But it is the process that has been ignored.  It is the listening that has not been appealed to.  The process of becoming community in the production of that budget is what has been lost.  The process has not produced “Church” that sense of community that makes us all members in the same standing. 

Other posts caught my interest, but you have enough homework for now.  I will probably post again with more links to similar subject matter.

CONGRATULATIONS BRYAN! ANOTHER GRADUATION

Bryan in black tie rather than cap and gown

That's Bryan, my grandson who lives in New Orleans.  Jesuit High School graduates do not wear cap and gown for graduation.  He looked so handsome in his tux.  I had to help Bryan with his cuff links and studs, as no one else knew the trick.

At the ceremony, the group of boys were well-rehearsed and moved individually and as a group like military men in formation.  When I was in high school in NOLA, Jesuit boys wore military uniforms.  The Jesuits ran a tight ship then.  I don't know about now, but the graduates toed the line.

My grandson did not know all the words to the fight song, which is sung at sports competitions, but I did, because my high school friends and I attended the Jesuit football games.  I sang the fight song for the family after a couple of glasses of wine and embarrassed them all.

Jesuit graduates on the stage

We were seated in the nosebleed section at the Pontchartrain Center, since none of us were interested in arriving two hours early.  I never found Bryan in the group until his name was called, and he went up to get his diploma.  Yay Bryan!  Shouting or applause for individuals was prohibited, and the audience mostly heeded the rule. These days, graduations move along rather quickly, which is a relief from the long ceremonies which I remember from days past.

Bryan will join his cousin Joey at LSU in the fall. 

Grandpère and brother Andrew

A rather nice photo of Grandpère and Andrew, Bryan's brother.  How 'bout Andrew's red bow tie?  An unflattering photo of the ladies, my daughter and me, is not included in the post.

Bryan was known as "the antiseptic baby", because he was the first child in the family, and his parents took very seriously the doctor's caution not to let anyone touch him except the parents and me, who was there to help.  I remember a young neighbor coming to visit, and Bryan's Dad told him at the door, "We're not letting anyone touch the baby."  The young man walked over to the bassinet to see Bryan with his hands in the air, as if to say, "Look!  I'm not touching."  When the next two boys came along, the rules eased up, as there's nothing like having another little one in the house to spread germs, so the Mom and Dad gave up.

Bryan walked at the age of 7 months, but I think his brain was not developed enough, because he walked into walls and banged himself up at an alarming rate.  His crib had to be padded, because he pulled himself up to stand at an even earlier age, and he would then let go and bang his head against the side of the crib.  His parents missed the big event of the first steps, as I was taking care of Bryan at the time.

Anyway, all's well that ends well.

STORY OF THE DAY - CHILD PROOF

We forgot to child proof our life, she 
said to me & I knew exactly what she 
meant. It had been a long day.

I have long days even today because I forgot to child proof my life.

From StoryPeople.

JESUS AND MO - YUCK

From Jesus and Mo.

COLLECTORS OR PACK RATS?

Grandpère and I are both collectors.  Our enthusiasm for our collections wax and wane, but we still have all the items we bought over the years.  Can you say pack rats? Pictured below is my collection of art umbrellas.  I purchased my first, Monet's "Waterlilies", at a museum shop and bought all but one of the rest on ebay for less than I paid in the shop.   Whenever an umbrella showed up on ebay, I bid on it, until I had 14.  The prices then began to rise, and I decided I had enough.  The umbrellas I see in the museum shops now are collapsible, and I prefer the style with the long handle.

Click on the pictures for the larger view.
 

Renoir - "The Umbrellas", Van Gogh - "Starry Night", Degas - "Ballet Dancers"

Da Vinci - "Mona Lisa", Monet - "Women in the Garden", Van Gogh - "Irises"

Monet - "Waterlilies", Monet - "Poppy Field at Vetheuil", Renoir - "Flowers in a Vase"

F L Wright - Stained glass, Botticelli - "Primavera", Botticelli - "Birth of Venus"

Raphael Angels ("Sistine Madonna"), Monet - "Les Bateaux Rouges", black umbrella

I included the black umbrella, which belonged to my mother, because I admire the elegance of the the shape when the umbrella is open and the graceful gold-colored handle.

My collections are stored in three umbrella stands, which I purchased for reasonable prices on ebay.

The names of the paintings represented on the umbrellas may not be exact, but I tried my best to identify them correctly.

FAVORITE WORDS

My Favorite Words

These fit so well they should be in a dictionary.

ADULT
A person who has stopped growing at both ends
And is now growing in the middle.
 
BEAUTY PARLOR A place where women curl up and dye.
 
CHICKENS
The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead.

COMMITTEE
A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.
 
DUST
Mud with the juice squeezed out.
 
EGOTIST
Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.

HANDKERCHIEF
Cold Storage.

INFLATION
Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.

MOSQUITO
An insect that makes you like flies better.

RAISIN
A grape with a sunburn.

SECRET
Something you tell to one person at a time.

SKELETON
A bunch of bones with the person scraped off.

TOOTHACHE
The pain that drives you to extraction.

TOMORROW
One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.

YAWN
An honest opinion openly expressed.

And MY Personal Favorite!!

WRINKLES
Something other people have,
Similar to my character lines.
 
Thanks Franks.