QUICK WORDS ON THE DEBATE

Last night, Obama seemed disengaged to the point that I wondered if he really wants four more years. One can take cool only so far without seeming to be out of the game.

On the other hand, Romney was repellant. He reminded me of a high-pressure salesman who knows his product is a piece of junk but is determined to close the sale.

I'm tired of people blaming doddering, old Lehrer for Obama's poor performance. Sure, Lehrer didn't do his job as moderator, but Romney took advantage, while Obama continued to look to Lehrer for help. Dude!

And OMG, if Tweety and Ed are going to have public breakdowns on NBCNews, they should get off the air.

Maybe my last words on the debate, maybe not.  Romney lied a lot.

FEAST OF ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant your people grace gladly to renounce the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may for love of you delight in your whole creation with perfect joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

St Francis stands in the garden and watches over Diana on the lawn.  Our dog needs watching because she is old, deaf, and nearly blind.  For all that, when we take our daily walk, she drags me along at a fast pace, when she's not stopping to investigate the many intriguing smells in the neighborhood.

Note: The azaleas are not now in bloom.  The picture of St Francis was taken earlier.

THE TRUTH ABOUT ROMNEY'S HEALTH CARE PLAN

Eric Fehrnstrom, a Romney advisor, admitted that if Obamacare is repealed, those with pre-existing conditions would probably not be able to purchase health insurance.  The individual states would first have to pass laws to prevent insurance companies from excluding the sick from coverage.  Romney's plan would only assure that those who have insurance would continue to be covered.

The admission directly contradicts the GOP candidate’s claim during the debate that “pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan” — a contention Romney has repeated on the trail and that his campaign has repeatedly walked back. 

In other words Romney lies, and even his own campaign staff admit it.

UPDATE: Or as Margaret at Margaret and Helen says:

Well Margaret, once again I am going to say what the media won’t. Mitt Romney is a lying sack of shit and he wouldn’t know a middle class tax cut if it bit him in the middle of his gold plated ass. Evidently the media seems to think that the person who slings the bullshit the farthest wins the debate. Well if that ain’t the damnest thing.

PRAYER REQUESTS FROM DAVID@MONTREAL

David@Montreal Ore

beloved Giants:

the last 24 hours have been buzzing here with prayer requests.

 

remembering the joys and the challenges of living as the living Body of Christ i'm ask your prayers for:

 

young Nyland whose doctor and family are serious concerned about lymphatic swelling in the groin, this very young lad was born with immune defense issues which have kept his Mum and Dad hopping.

 

for E. a deeply cherished sister who is dealing with 'something not right in my body' and awaits an appointment with her doctor.

 

prayers for Thora C., a year shy of 90, who is having serious difficulty spiritually and medically, dealing with the increaed pain brought on by her deteriorating back.

 

for her grand-daughter Thea, less than a year old, with compromised kidneys, and Thea's young mum, Jennifer.

for Mark, recovering  from shoulder surgery.

 

for Doreen in her last months

for Jacques in his last months

 

for Prior Aldred, who last night received news of his mother's unexpected death.

for Beatrice, Aldred's Mum, that she may rest in peace and rise in glory.

 

for Rosemary:who recently celebrated her birthday, and who, tomorrow will be moving into a small, quite special longterm care facility.

for Jay, Rosemary's remarkable, generous  son

 

for Jon and Mary: with thanks for the news of his first day back on the job, after extensive an cancer hospitalization

for Marc

 

for all those living with loss: especially Susan

for those undergoing discernment: for a way forward and the means

 

for the people of St. Columba parish, Montreal. there church was closed last Sunday (Mam and i were present for the last service). their future is not yet discerned, and there is a lot of pain and confusion amoung the congregants.

 

for the people of Syria as they continue to pay such a horrendous cost for their liberation.

for the people of South Sudan

 

for young Montel and Aleisha, who continue to live in the toxic, chaotic environment of their father's addictions. for all those living with addiction, and those who love them.

 

thank-you my beloved Giants

 

love always-always Love

A Prayer of St. Chrysostom

Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplications to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen.

 

"THE TREE OF LIFE" - THE MOVIE

Spoiler warning.

Over the last couple of nights, I watched the film "The Tree of Life" on Netflix DVD.  I've enjoyed all the Netflix movies that I've chosen so far, some more than others, but "The Tree of Life' was the absolute worst.  The movie was filled with beautiful images, some from the Hubble telescope, others such as a view of the silhouette of an actor projected against sunlight shining through trees, with a soundtrack that includes Brahms, Bach, and Schumann, along with original music, but - hey! - where's the story?  A character comes on the scene, we see images, strange landscapes, then the character thinks or talks in a low voice, mostly to her/himself.  (Before the movie begins, the viewer is instructed to turn the volume to loud.  Good advice.)  What's going on?   I broke my viewing into two parts, because I was bored/impatient/mystified.  The actors, especially the young boys, were very good when the camera was on them, which it was far too little of the time.  There is a story in the movie, but it's broken in pieces and lost in interruptions that serve to lengthen the movie to over two hours to no good purpose.

I went back to read the reviews again, because I always check them out before I put movies in my Netflix queue, and more than 80% of the critics gave the movie positive reviews, but when I went to audience reviews, it was a different story.  The moviegoers either loved the movie or they hated it.  The scores were either 0 or 10.  I'd score it far on the low end, either 1 or 0.

The Tree of Life is nonetheless a singular work, an impressionistic metaphysical inquiry into mankind’s place in the grand scheme of things that releases waves of insights amid its narrative imprecisions. This fifth feature in Terrence Malick’s eccentric four-decade career is a beauteous creation that ponders the imponderables, asks the questions that religious and thoughtful people have posed for millennia and provokes expansive philosophical musings along with intense personal introspection.

As such, it is hardly a movie for the masses and will polarize even buffs, some of whom might fail to grasp the connection between the depiction of the beginnings of life on Earth and the travails of a 1950s Texas family. But there are great, heady things here, both obvious and evanescent, more than enough to qualify this as an exceptional and major film. Critical passions, pro and con, along with Brad Pitt in one of his finest performances will stir specialized audiences to attention, but Fox Searchlight will have its work cut out for it in luring a wider public.

Crikey!  If I'd read the overblown review from Cannes beforehand I'd have known not to put the movie in my queue, that it was not for little me of "the masses".  I ask you, what would I know about "great, heady things", me of "the wider public"?  The film won the Palme d'Or at  Cannes.  Not for everyone, surely.  Not for me.


Movie poster from Wikipedia.

CELL PHONES 23 YEARS AGO

Some years ago I had a clunky, heavy phone that I called a car phone, which I didn't use for very long.  Mine was not quite as large as the phone in the video, but it was hardly a mobile phone that I'd want to carry around.

Thanks to Doug.

WEEKLY REMINDER

"SEPTEMBER 29th, A PENDING AS IF"

September 29th, A Pending As If

The chill begins, the softer bright
of shorter days, the slow adjustment
of chattering wings long last flight
toward the heat of promised love
as if instinct could be memory
of steady guidance from above.

Wiser ones than I know it’s true,
“faith is living as if in great hope”,
from seasons dark springs life anew;
objective harsh reality
counsels rational despair to seek
something more, One we cannot see.

Into the light some call fading
launched a flare of words, once desperate,
of the loneliness of wading
in the run-off of others’ hope,
in the wake of lives that matter;
did they not care? Or think the rope

coiled at their feet was there for show
but not for rescue of the flailing
ones comfort shuns and cannot know
if the illusion is to be
maintained that optimism alone
can change the course of history.

As if – imagination’s gift,
and one last line of poetry,
a ribbon cast into the rift
between what is and what might be,
if only as if could be enough –
leaves flame, fall, mute to gravity.

(Marthe G. Walsh - September 2012)

Marthe is a new online friend who wrote the poem above and graciously gave me permission to publish her work here on Wounded Bird.  The poem is truly fine writing - so beautiful and so perfect for the season.  Of course, the words resonate for me in a very personal way as you see if you read the words beneath the title of my blog.

The photo is not the most beautiful of autumn foliage pictures, but it is mine.  Here in south Louisiana, we do not generally have much leaf color because the first frost often comes too late in the season after the leaves have begun to fall from the trees.  A couple of years ago the weather and the stars aligned just right to produce the colorful tree in front of our neighbor's house.

Marthe's two collections of poetry are available at Lulu.    

TAKE THAT NEWHOUSE!

New Orleans edition of The Advocate

The newspaper pictured above lay in our driveway yesterday morning. The management of the Baton Rouge Advocate stepped into the breach when Newhouse's Advance Publications decided to publish the paper edition of the venerable New Orleans Times-Picayune only three days a week starting October 1.  The Baton Rouge paper, which is also venerable, will cover New Orleans news seven days a week in an edition that will be sold at newsstands and delivered to homes and businesses in New Orleans and the surrounding areas.  The Advocate hired former members of the TP staff who had been dismissed by Advance to run the New Orleans bureau and will continue with its thorough coverage of state politics in the new edition.  The response from people in greater NO and nearby parishes who wish to subscribe has been overwhelming, so much so, that the paper had to hire a call service to help handle requests for subscriptions.

Of course, it's not the same as having the Times-Picayune, which I read nearly my entire life since learning to read the funnies, and I'm still in mourning, but I'm very grateful for daily coverage of NO in a paper version.  Soon after half the staff was fired, we cancelled our subscription to the TP, for the paper very soon became a shell of itself.

To mark the launch of the New Orleans edition, The Advocate is rolling out an advertising campaign across the Crescent City that will involve print, TV, radio and billboards.

“We hope to get as many subscribers as possible,” [David] Manship [[publisher] said.

The Advocate’s coverage and staffing in New Orleans will get “bigger and better” as more subscribers get the newspaper.

I wish The Advocate every  success in its endeavor to give us a daily newspaper which covers the New Orleans area. 

MORE ON NO WHITE SMOKE

He is, we are often told, the moral voice of the nation. A man (sadly it still has to be a man) who has the heady task of leading Britain’s Anglicans, speaking as the nation’s conscience and herding the 77 million cats that make up the Anglican Communion in the rest of the world, many of whom would rather stone a gay man than embrace him.

No easy task. So it must be important to make sure the candidates for the Archbishop of Canterbury are at the top of their game and picked in the most representative and transparent way possible, right? Wrong.

The method for choosing Dr Rowan Williams’ replacement is as arcane and archaic as it was in the time of Henry VIII. A secretive committee meets at a secretive location to discuss a never-made-public list. Two names are given to the Prime Minister who hands them over to the Queen. You can’t apply for the job and anyone who suggests too publicly that they want it, usually doesn’t get it.

In his column in The Independent Jerome Taylor explores not only the process of choosing the Archbishop of Canterbury but also the implications of the choice not only for the Church of England but for the Anglican Communion.  The process seems strange to us in the Episcopal Church, for we elect our Presiding Bishop in a more democratic and less secretive process.

With respect to the Anglican Communion, perhaps it's time to open the office of Primus inter pares to primates of other member churches in the Communion for a term of a set number of years, lasting not as long as the present Archbishop of Canterbury served in the role.  Such an arrangement would relieve the archbishop of the onerous duty of playing the added role of leader of the Communion for his (for now) entire term of office.

And now perhaps I should move on to another subject.  I have to say that to focus for a spell on the selection of the Archbishop of Canterbury was a welcome relief to the seemingly everlasting campaign season here in the US.  On to the debates!

UPDATE: I should have noted that the position of Archbishop of Canterbury is not restricted to an Englishman, but the candidate must be a citizen of one of the countries in the Commonweath of Great Britain who swear allegiance to the Queen the Commonwealth monarchies.