ODDS AND ENDS IN THE GARDEN

Diana

Diana is still looking good at her advanced age. She's a little slow to rise from a reclining position, but once she gets going, she's still fast.  She quickens my pace on our walks.

Azealeas beginning to bloom

The azaleas are just beginning to bloom. The bush will look gorgeous once it's covered with flowers. The small bush in the background looks as though it might not make it in the long term, but it's still blooming its heart out.

St Francis and the azealea bush

St Francis needs a good wash as he may have needed many times in his life on earth, with all his walking and preaching and eating and sleeping wherever he was made welcome.

Carolina jasmine vine

Alas, Grandpère and I have both forgotten the name of the vine with the pretty yellow flowers.  (Identified with the help of Facebook friends from the close-up photo below.)

St Francis, Diana, and the azalea bush

I have no idea what smell interested Diana so for her to sniff the azalea bush for such a long time. She does that on her walks, too, sniffs intently in one spot for an extended period.

UPDATE: Below is a close-up of the flowers on the vine.
 

Carolina jasmine

DATE SET FOR PAPAL CONCLAVE

The Papal Conclave to elect the next pope for the Roman Catholic Church will begin on Tuesday, March 12, 2013.  One day after the arrival of the last cardinal in Rome, The Clan of the Red Beanies the College of Cardinals decided on the date.  As Whispers in the Loggia says, "Habemus Datum", and he continues with a description of the process of the election.

While the governing meetings – which have been attempting to shape the desired "profile" of the next Pope – will continue tomorrow and Monday, the appointed day begins with the Mass Pro Eligendo Pontifice (for the Election of the Roman Pontiff) concelebrated by all the cardinals at midmorning in St Peter's Basilica. 

Then, late Tuesday afternoon, the electors will gather in the Pauline Chapel, processing from there into the Sistina as the Litany of the Saints is sung.

Following the oath taken by each voter, the traditional "Extra omnes" – "Everybody out" – is sounded, the chapel's doors are locked, and the first ballot is taken; as Cardinal Francis George of Chicago recently said, only then does "what everybody really thinks" become clear.

Read the rest of Rocco's post at his website, which is one of the go-to online sites for frequent reports on the Conclave.

QUICK WAY TO GET SNOW OFF THE ROOF

FUNDING SOCIAL SECURITY

So simple.  Raise the FICA cap.

When asked by the National Academy of Social Insurance whether Social Security taxes for better-off Americans should be increased, 71 percent of Republicans and 97 percent of Democrats agreed. In a 2012 Gallup Poll, 62 percent of respondents thought upper-income Americans paid too little in taxes.

Note to the pols: Just do it, and stop talking about the other fixes.

Image from Wikipedia.

NO SMOOTH TRANSITION FOR THE POOR AND UNINSURED

Staff levels at LSU’s Earl K. Long Medical Center and its clinics have declined so much that LSU officials have had to reduce both inpatient and outpatient clinic services to the poor and working uninsured in the Baton Rouge area.

The number of employees leaving picked up in late January when LSU officials moved the Earl K. Long facility’s closure date up to April 15 from its original November target and decided to turn over operation of its four free-standing clinics to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, locally called the Lake, instead of keeping them under LSU.

The Lake becomes home to LSU’s inpatient hospital care and medical education programs on April 15. The state employees lose their state jobs with the privatization move. Who would ever have expected...?  Me, for one.  Poor planning and hasty implementation of the transition to privatizing public hospitals and clinics resulted in poor outcomes.  But we're talking about the poor and working uninsured, and do they really count here in Louisiana?  Are they deserving of any kind of decent health care?

The impact is being felt more dramatically on the outpatient side, where current patients are having difficulty scheduling appointments and new patients are on waiting lists, he said. Surgical clinic activity has also been negatively affected.

So.  When sick people do not have access to primary care, they get sicker, and some end up in the emergency room to be treated at far greater expense.

Keep in mind that Bobby Jindal refuses to participate in Obamacare's Medicaid expansion plan, which could cover as many as 400,000 of the uninsured, even though adopting the plan would be a winner for Louisiana.

Reed said the reduction in patients also will affect physicians in training and medical student experiences needed for graduate medical education and degree programs during the transition.

With Louisiana's sterling history of falling at or near the bottom in educational surveys at every pre-university level, and budget cuts to the bone for public universities, including the flagship university Louisiana State University, why worry that medical education will be affected?  Fewer doctors and other medical staff in Louisiana will hit the most vulnerable among us the hardest, but it seems they don't really count.

How can I assign Governor Jindal any grade but F, graduate of an ivy league university and Rhodes Scholar though he may be?  How much more of the shenanigans of the governor and the obliging legislators can the state take before the entire house of cards erected by our leaders collapses? 

THE DUCK HUNTER

A Glasgow lawyer went duck hunting in rural Aberdeenshire . He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer’s field on the other side of a fence.

As the lawyer climbed over the fence, the elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing.

The lawman responded, “I shot a duck and it fell in this field, and now I’m going to retrieve it.”

The old farmer replied, “This is my property, and you are not coming over here.”

The indignant lawyer said, “I am one of the best trial lawyers in Scotland and, if you don’t let me get that duck, I’ll sue you and take everything you own.”

The old farmer smiled and said, “Apparently, you don’t know how we settle disputes here. We settle disagreements like this with the ‘Three Kick Rule.’”

The lawyer asked, “What is the ‘Three Kick Rule’?”

The Farmer replied, “Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, I get to go first. I kick you three times and then you kick me three times and so on back and forth until someone gives up.”

The lawyer quickly thought about the proposed contest and decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom.

The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney. His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel-toed work boot into the lawyer’s leg and dropped him to his knees.

His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer’s last meal gushing from his mouth.

The lawyer was on all fours when the farmer’s third kick sent him face-first into a fresh cow pat.

Summoning every bit of his will and remaining strength the lawyer very slowly managed to get to his feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he said, “Okay … now it’s my turn.”

The old farmer smiled and said, “Nah, I give up. Ye can ha’ the duck.

Thanks to Ann. 

STORY OF THE DAY - DRESS-UP BOX FOR THE FUTURE

this is a dress-up box for the future & it's filled with 
stuff like courage & love & play because they're the 
only things that are any use at all when you get right 
down to it.

From StoryPeople.

TOP SECRET CONCLAVE TO ELECT POPE

The Sistine Chapel, which will be closed to visitors for the duration of the papal conclave, is being readied for occupation by the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church when they gather to elect a new pope.  Along with the mandatory oath of secrecy taken by all the cardinals before official meetings begin, security to prevent leaks through electronic devices will be put in place in the Sistine Chapel.

Yet while the world will primarily notice the familiar four rows of tables lining the chapel's sides to the rood screen, the most intense piece of the preparation literally begins at ground level – as in 2005, a whole-room platform will be built to lift the floor and provide for the installation of a warren of signal-jammers underneath to ensure that the voting site is kept free of any attempt at wireless communication. 

The jammers likewise surrounded the Domus Sancta Marthae last time to maintain, but given the degree of technological evolution over the last eight years, the de-bugging operation at this Conclave – both to maintain its secrecy and keep the cardinals out of contact with the world – promises to be ever more intense, and is likely to include the confiscation of all devices belonging to the electors before the voting begins. 

Charles Pierce at his Esquire blog asks why the intense emphasis on secrecy.

We are told repeatedly that the cardinal-electors fulfill their office at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (Even silly American TV reporters repeat this, whether they believe it or not.) That being the case, why is it necessary to cloak the work of the Spirit in secrecy? Scripture tells us that the Spirit is available to us all. It came upon the disciples and the first thing they did was run right out and proclaim it, gobsmacking the daylights out of the people who'd come to Jerusalem just to buy a goat or two.

Exactly.  What is so secret about the movement of the Holy Spirit that The Clan of the Red Beanie (Thank you, Charles) must conduct the business of electing a new pope under tight security?  Of course, word will get out.  The princes of the Roman Catholic Church are not entirely above harmless leaks about the process, and not long after the election, we'll be reading articles and a little later entire books about what took place inside the walls of the Sistine Chapel. 

TIRED,TIRED, TIRED

Today I feel as though I've been trying with my bare hands to hold President Obama and Democrats in the Senate and the House accountable to implement the policies which led me to vote for them in the first place - policies which will bring a measure of fairness and equality to the citizens of the United States.  I know I'm not alone and that many others are fighting, too, but I'm tired and about ready to give up.  Among the politicians who know what is right, few have either the courage or the will to do the right thing.

I'm tired of the Democrats' appeasement of Republican politicians who apparently care only about rich donors who fill their campaign chests.  Keep in mind that all in the Congress are well-cared for with their yearly automatic raises that they don't even have to vote on, and their generous benefits and pensions.  I'm tired of Democrats who feel the need to express politically-correct concern about the deficit at this time, when they know what the people of the country want and need are jobs and money to pay their bills and buy the goods and services that are produced here, which would help the economy recover.  A strong economic recovery would, in itself, help reduce the deficit.  Why don't elected officials in the Democratic Party stop talking about the deficit and stay on message about creating jobs, jobs, jobs and a return to a robust economic recovery?  Our infrastructure is falling apart.  Why is it a good thing for the wealthiest country in the world to have a collapsing infrastructure?  Put people to work repairing and rebuilding.

Why is the stock market booming, reaching record heights, when so many in the country are suffering?  Watch the video below, which has gone viral.  The graphs are shocking, and, for me, depressing as they demonstrate the ever-widening income gap between the poor and middle class and the richest people in the country, the inequality that few politicians in the country are willing to address with realistic policies that will improve conditions for a large majority of the people.
Tired...

FEDERAL LAWSUIT SEEKS RULING ON WHO IS BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Acting to protect the identity of the diocese he serves, the Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg filed suit in U.S. District Court today against Bishop Mark Lawrence, asking the court to declare that only vonRosenberg, as the bishop recognized by The Episcopal Church, has the authority to act in the name of the Diocese of South Carolina.

Having renounced The Episcopal Church, Bishop Lawrence is no longer authorized to use the diocese’s name and seal. By doing so, he is engaging in false advertising, misleading and confusing worshippers and donors in violation of federal trademark law under the Lanham Act, the complaint says. It asks the court to stop Bishop Lawrence from continuing to falsely claim that he is associated with the Diocese of South Carolina, which is a recognized sub-unit of The Episcopal Church.

Read the rest of the news about the litigation at the link.

Sounds about right to me, although I am no expert in the law, and I have no idea how the case will be decided.  I've wondered why the breakaway dioceses don't call themselves  "The Anglican Diocese of Whatever," since they claim to represent true Anglicanism, the faith handed down, which would be less confusing all around.  Or could it be that the blurring of boundaries and confusion is intentional?

My prayers and good wishes are with the bishop, clergy, and lay members of the continuing diocese during this difficult period.