REALITY CHECK

How many times have you heard that the costs of Medicare will bankrupt the country? Have a look at the chart below. Why do we need the middle man, the for-profit health insurance companies, to rake in huge profits from people who get sick? Why not Medicare for all?

H/T to Rmj at Adventus for the chart.  His post titled "Am I my brother's keeper?" is well worth reading.

WHAT TO DO?

Diana taking her ease

Diana has a new thing.  She's taken to peeing on the green carpet in the living room and THEN coming to one of us to be let out.  She has the order all wrong.  Girl, come to be let out first, and THEN pee on the green lawn, instead of the green carpet.  For three days now, we've had to clean up after her, and we'll soon have to call in the carpet cleaners.

We have carpet or rugs in all the rooms except the kitchen, breakfast room, and bathrooms, and not all the areas can be closed off, except with swinging doors in the kitchen, which she can push open.  Diana's age (16) and poor eyesight and hearing might have something to do with her "accidents".

HAPPY CANADA DAY! - BONNE FÊTE CANADA!

May God bless all my dear Canadian friends. Have a lovely day!

SPAM TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE

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The blighter's English-as-a second-language is brilliant.  Anyone here planning a wedding?   Decent Various wedding Trainers anyone?   The best dazzling similarity on.  Even if you're not getting married, the slippers are must-haves, surely.  Now that you've read the ad, the wedding planning pair of shoes will become a part of per women's thoughts.  Resistance is futile.

COMPLAINTS AGAINST 7 TEC BISHOPS

According to George Conger at Anglican Ink:

Seven bishops have been charged with misconduct for having endorsed a friend of the court brief prepared by the Anglican Communion Institute in the Diocese of Fort Worth case.

On 28 June 2012, the Rt Rev Maurice M. Benitez, retired Bishop of Texas, the Rt Rev John W. Howe, retired Bishop of Central Florida, the Rt Rev Paul E. Lambert. Suffragan Bishop of Dallas, the Rt Rev William H. Love, Bishop of Albany, the Rt Rev D. Bruce MacPherson, Bishop of Western Louisiana, the Rt Rev Daniel H. Martins, Bishop of Springfield, and the Rt. Rev. James M. Stanton, Bishop of Dallas were informed they had been charged with misconduct.

Read the rest of the article.

Why would the bishops join with a breakaway diocese in a suit against the church in which they took vows at their ordinations as bishops?  The litigation in the dioceses thus far has been decided in favor of church property being held in trust for The Episcopal Church, which the courts have ruled as hierarchical from its beginning.

From the Service for the Ordination of a Bishop in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer:

My brother, the people have chosen you and have affirmed their trust in you by acclaiming your election. A bishop in God’s holy Church is called to be one with the apostles in proclaiming Christ’s resurrection and interpreting the Gospel, and to testify to Christ’s sovereignty as Lord of lords and King of kings.

You are called to guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church; to celebrate and to provide for the administration of the sacraments of the New Covenant; to ordain priests and deacons and to join in ordaining bishops; and to be in all things a faithful pastor and wholesome example for the entire flock of Christ.

With your fellow bishops you will share in the leadership of the Church throughout the world. Your heritage is the faith of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and those of every generation who have looked to God in hope. Your joy will be to follow him who came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

....

Are you persuaded that God has called you to the office of bishop?

....

Will you guard the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church of God?

....

Will you share with your fellow bishops in the government of the whole Church; will you sustain your fellow presbyters and take counsel with them; will you guide and strengthen the deacons and all others who minister in the Church?

How can bishops answer in the affirmative at the ordination service and then join as Amicus Curiae in a lawsuit with a breakaway diocese in litigation against their own church?

Andrew Gerns at The Lead:

We don't know who brought the charges or what they are. Bishop F. Clayton Matthews is investigating to see if there is sufficient basis to proceed with a disciplinary action.  

LOWER ORDER WOMEN BISHOPS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND?

Let's hope and pray that will not be the case.  The following poem was written by David Booker, a former colleague of themethatisme.  David kindly gave me permission to post his poem.

The case for clause 5. 1c

You are not like me.
The difference is obvious,
as plain as the nose on your face.
I am sorry to say
that although I have nothing against you
personally,
and although some of my best friends are like you,
I cannot, in all conscience,
accept the gift you offer.

Please don’t feel this secondary issue
in any way makes you second class.
Rather marvel at my exegetical acrobatics,
turning up to down, and north to south,
and Galatians 3 verse 28*
into a culturally bound reflection
we cannot be expected to take literally.

You must allow bigotry to triumph over grace
because unity demands the majority be silent.
As good Christians you must respect me
even when I refuse to recognise you
or eat from a table you may once have used
for fear of contamination
and deliberately airbrush you out of scripture
by mistranslating your name to suit my prejudice.

Yes, although our Church recognises
there is no theological objection,
you must turn a blind eye to injustice,
chauvinism, sexism, poor scholarship
and an incredulous watching world,
to guarantee a perpetual place for my ignorance.

After all, the permanent no go areas
we are asking you to create
will not stop those of others races,
or those with a yet incurable disease,
from exercising their ministry.
No, we only want to protect ourselves from women
and we really don’t understand the fuss.

David Booker

*Galatians 3v28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus
I can not support the amendment 5. 1c and dearly hope that it will be removed.

The statement on clause 5(1)c from the website of the Church of England.

WATCH (Women and the Church) on the clause:

But the amendment to Clause 5 has caused widespread dismay. It would entrench discrimination against women in the Established Church and place a permanent question mark over the validity of women's orders.  The confusion over its interpretation amongst commentators demonstrates that it would prove to be bad law

Sign the petition requesting the House of Bishops in the Church of England to withdraw clause 5(1)c.  You don't have to be English to sign.

GOLF NUT

Ed and Nancy met while on a singles cruise and Ed fell head over heels for her.

 When they discovered they lived in the same city only a few miles apart Ed was ecstatic. He immediately started asking her out when they got home .

Within a couple of weeks, Ed had taken Nancy to dance clubs, restaurants, concerts, movies, and museums. Ed became convinced that Nancy was indeed his soul mate and true love. Every date seemed better than the last.

On the one-month anniversary of their first dinner on the cruise ship, Ed took Nancy to a fine restaurant. While having cocktails and waiting for their salad, Ed said, "I guess you can tell I'm very much in love with you. I'd like a little serious talk before our relationship continues to the next stage. So, before I get a box out of my jacket and ask you a life changing question, it's only fair to warn you, I'm a total golf nut. I play golf, I read about golf, I watch golf on TV. In short, I eat, sleep, and breathe golf. If that's going to be a problem for us, you'd better say so now!"

Nancy took a deep breath and responded, "Ed, that certainly won't be a problem. I love you as you are and I love golf too; but, since we're being totally honest with each other, you need to know that for the last five years I've been a hooker."

Ed said, "I bet it's because you're not keeping your wrists straight when you hit the ball."

(Your Saturday morning laugh from Doug.)

Picture from Wikipedia.

IT'S NOT TOO LATE...

Must-have button for GC12

...to donate to help with expenses for lodgings for Malcolm French, Moderator, and Lionel Diemel, US Convener, of No Anglican Covenant Coalition as they attend General Convention 2012 (July 5–12) of The Episcopal Church in Indianapolis.  Agents Malcolm and Lionel will be hustling our Resolution D007 calling for rejection of the Anglican Covenant.

Lionel says:

For the first time, the No Anglican Covenant Coalition needs to solicit financial help in support of our efforts. To date, coalition members have run our operations on a shoestring, and some members have made significant personal sacrifices to enable us to oppose what we believe is a disastrous change in direction for the Anglican Communion.

Our presence at General Convention will be our most expensive undertaking so far, requiring funds for travel, lodging, meals, buttons, brochures, etc. We estimate that this project will cost more than $3,000 US. Your help is urgently needed. Please consider making a generous donation to this important effort.

Use the "Donate" button below.  You do not need to join PayPal to make a donation.

FOR NO ANGLICAN COVENANT COALITION EXPENSES AT GC12

 

REMEMBER THIS...

UPDATE: Or as Gov Bobby Jindal of the Gret Stet of Loosiana succinctly puts it - "Obamneycare".

In a brief slip of the tongue while discussing the Supreme Court’s health-care ruling, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal invoked the term “Obomney’’ care, a phrase that does Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney no favors.
....

“There’s only one candidate, Gov. Romney, who has committed that he will repeal the Obomney, uh, the Obamacare tax increase,’’ Mr. Jindal said.

Oops.

H/T to David A on Facebook.

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