DITHERING...

John Barrymore as Hamlet, 1922

To blog or not to blog: that is the question.  IT asked the question at The Friends of Jake in her post titled "Why blog?"   Comments are disappearing, and much of my energy for blogging came from exchanges with those who left comments.  Please...no one should take my post as a plea to leave comments.  People do what they will do and go where they will go, and they seem to have mostly moved on from blogs.

The action moved to Facebook and other social media like Twitter.   Though I have a Facebook account, because my family and friends are there, once I check in, I spend far too much time at the site when I should be doing other things.  As for Twitter, I tried it, and I was in and out within a couple of hours.  It's definitely not for me.

In any case, blogging is hard work, and my store of energy seems to be on the wane...at least for now, so I'll probably be writing and posting less.

I should add that dithering Hamlet is not among my favorites of  Shakespeare's characters.

OH MY!

 

Ha ha ha.  I love the cartoon.

DEMOCRACY IS COMING TO THE USA - LEONARD COHEN

I wish. I hope.

FEAST OF JULIAN OF NORWICH

Stained glass in Julian's cell

The following was translated by -- Liz Broadwell:

And from the time that [the vision] was shown, I desired often to know what our Lord's meaning was. And fifteen years and more afterward I was answered in my spiritual understanding, thus: 'Would you know your Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did he show you? Love. Why did he show it? For love. Keep yourself therein and you shall know and understand more in the same. But you shall never know nor understand any other thing, forever.'
 
Thus I was taught that love was our Lord's meaning. And I saw quite clearly in this and in all, that before God made us, he loved us, which love was never slaked nor ever shall be. And in this love he has done all his work, and in this love he has made all things profitable to us. And in this love our life is everlasting. In our creation we had a beginning. But the love wherein he made us was in him with no beginning. And all this shall be seen in God without end ... 

From the Lectionary.

Lord God, who in your compassion granted to the Lady Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

(Lesser Feasts and Fasts of The Episcopal Church.)

BROKEN LEG

"How did it happen?" the doctor asked the middle-aged farmhand as he set the man's broken leg.

"Well, doc, 25 years ago . . . ."

"Never mind the past. Tell me how you broke your leg this morning."

"Like I was saying, doc, 25 years ago, when I first started working on the farm, that night, right after I'd gone to bed, the farmer's beautiful daughter came into my room.  She asked me if there was anything I wanted.  I said, 'No, everything is fine.'  'Are you sure?' she asked.  'I'm sure,' I said.

'Isn't there anything I can do for you?' she wanted to know.  'I reckon not,' I replied."

"Excuse me," said the doctor, "What does this story have to do with your leg?"

"Well, this morning," the farmhand explained, "when it dawned on me what she meant, I fell off the roof!"


Cheers,

Paul (A.)

Ha ha ha.  I didn't see the punch line coming.

HOME GROWN MILITIA TYPE ARRESTED

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced on Monday that it had arrested a Minnesota man for plotting a “localized terror attack.”
....

Several guns and explosive devices were discovered during the search of the residence” on Friday. Buford “Bucky” Rogers, 24, was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. An Associated Press report said that he had previously been convicted for felony burglary in 2011 and a misdemeanor charge of dangerous handling of a weapon in 2009.

The FBI believes that a terror attack was disrupted by law enforcement personnel and that the lives of several local residents were potentially saved,” the FBI said in a statement.

Obviously, Rogers was not a well regulated militia type.  Is it absurd to suggest that militia type individuals and groups known to have large stocks of arms and ammunition should be a tad more closely observed by law enforcement authorities?

H/T to Charles Pierce at Esquire.

LOUISIANA SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN FUNDING VOUCHER PROGRAM USING PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDS

Bobby Jindal

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that funding the state voucher program with funds intended for public schools is unconstitutional.
....

The Supreme Court ruling states "After reviewing the record, the legislative instruments and the constitutional provisions at issue, we agree with the district court that once funds are dedicated to the state's Minimum Foundation Program for public education, the constitution prohibits those funds from being expended on the tuition costs of nonpublic schools and nonpublic entities...."

Bobby and the legislators who went along with the voucher plan will now have to find another way to pay for the vouchers.  This in a state where there is a constant struggle to balance the budget, and where the rule is cut, cut, cut, because the governor refuses to raise any taxes at all.  I wonder if Bobby and the legislators even pay attention to the Louisiana Constitution when they write and pass laws.  When there is no money, it seems strange to pass laws that will almost certainly be challenged in court, with the state having to pay for litigation costs to defend the laws.  Or, in their arrogance, do  Bobby and his supporters in the legislature think the court will not notice, and they'll get away with the foolishness?

I love the picture of Bobby in the Shreveport Times in what appears to be a jaw-dropping moment.

UPDATE: More on the consequences of the court ruling at the Advocate.

The ruling, a setback for Gov. Bobby Jindal, upheld and expanded on a ruling last year by the 19th Judicial District Court Judge Timothy Kelley.

It sets up a late session battle on how to finance the aid, which triggered weeks of pointed arguments last year.

In addition, Michael Faulk, president of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents, said the decision will force the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to come up with a new plan to fund public schools for the 2013-14 school year.

The one approved earlier this year includes the use of public school dollars to fund vouchers. “It is going to have a big impact,” Faulk said of the ruling.

BS ON 24-HOUR CABLE NEWS

From The Onion. Far too close to the reality.

H/T to Juan Cole.

MEMO TO FISCAL CONSERVATIVES

The Pentagon estimates it spends about $150 million each year to operate the prison and military court system at the U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, which was set up 11 years ago to house foreign terrorism suspects. With 166 inmates currently in custody, that amounts to an annual cost of $903,614 per prisoner.

By comparison, super-maximum security prisons in the United States spend about $60,000 to $70,000 at most to house their inmates, analysts say. And the average cost across all federal prisons is about $30,000, they say.

I'd like to hear Republican Senators Mitch McConnell, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham, and Republican Representatives Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, et al. huff and puff and justify the expense of maintaining the prison at Guantanamo in the name of protecting us from terrorism, even as the most vulnerable in our society, who were already suffering before the sequester cuts, suffer more pain.  Oh, I have no doubt they'll find the words, but I am confident that their words will make no sense.

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East (sic) To Use Feather Light Design

Also incredible.