O Radix Jesse

Antiphon sung by the Dominican student brothers at Blackfriars in Oxford.

December 19

O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum,
super quem continebunt reges os suum,
quem Gentes deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.


O Root of Jesse, which standest for an ensign of the people,
at Whom the kings shall shut their mouths,
Whom the Gentiles shall seek,
come to deliver us, do not tarry.

Isaiah 11:1, 11:10

A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
....

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Text from Fish Eaters.

Voila! Section 4 of the Anglican Covenant!

See the text of Section 4 at The Lead.

See above the Archbishop of Canterbury's Advent gift in the form of a video in which he flogs the dead horse named Anglican Covenant.

See my comment:

"Each Church adopting this Covenant affirms that it enters into the Covenant as a commitment to relationship in submission to God."

Signing the Covenant is a submission to God? God wants this Covenant? Or am I misreading?

Words that jump out at me: "monitor", "consequences", "suspension", "incompatible with the Covenant" - words that bring to mind disciplinary procedures which will apply to the signees, despite the ABC's averral that the Covenant will not be a "penal code", nor will it have to do with punishment.

This final part of the Covenant makes me queasy. I don't like it. Of course, I never liked the idea of the Covenant at all, because I believed that the members of the AC pushing for the Covenant had discipline in mind from the beginning. I see the ABC as flogging a dead horse.

Is it possible to offer as an alternative to this odious Covenant, the Baptismal Covenant from the Episcopal BCP for the members of the AC to sign?

June Butler

See the other comments at The Lead.

From The Thread Without End On Health Care

Both Doxy, Arkansas Hillbilly, and Counterlight contributed excellent commentary to my post on Joe Lieberman, which evolved into a wider discussion than the words and actions of Prince Lieberman. I'll hand it to Jim in GA for sticking with the discussion. Jim is one of the "sensible" of those in opposition to any kind of further intrusion by the government into the health care system, which can be good news or bad news, depending on your point of view. I selected one each of the comments by Doxy and Arkansas Hillbilly, along with a bonus by Counterlight, to bump up to a post. The comment thread, which numbers 65 at this point, is quite an interesting read.

Arkansas Hillbilly said:

Ok, let's try this mule one more time...

Jim,

I have looked up two of the individuals you have named continuously in your debate. Of them, Professor Munger, a Libertarian, has written extensively on the subject, and I disagree with his view. He seems to take the opinion that health insurance should be like car insurance, at least from the articles I have read. Mr. Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, compares unions to VD ("The union is like having herpes. It doesn't kill you, but it's unpleasant and inconvenient, and it stops a lot of people from becoming your lover.") Both come from the position that basic healthcare is a commodity to be traded, not a right. Both advocate a system that opens insurance across state borders, uses health savings accounts and catastrophic insurance, again to make it more like car insurance.

The problem with this view is again that healthcare is not a commodity for those who can afford it. Health savings accounts are great for those who can afford to sock away the money, but for those who are barely making ends meet as it is, you might as well ask them to lasso the Moon. Even though my wife and children are not covered under my VA benefits, I am not allowed to participate in this system because I have the VA for myself. Where would this leave my wife and children for the "preventive care" like annual check ups, vaccinations, and such?

We are not dealing with automobiles, we are dealing with human lives. Lives like the police officer in Siloam Springs, AR whose wife is going through chemotherapy for breast cancer and must choose between her continued treatment or the rent for their home. Lives like the young girl in Georgia who died earlier this year waiting for Blue Cross to approve her liver transplant. Or the woman who was denied coverage for cancer treatments because she forgot to mention she was treated for acne as a teenager. Or Doxy's friend who made too much for Medicaid but not enough for insurance. She died of cancer because she couldn't afford regular doctor visits and the disease was caught too late to be treated. She left behind a young son. Care to explain to him why his mother is not able to hug him anymore? Would you explain that it was her fault for not having a health savings plan or that she would still be alive if there had been more competition between doctors for her business (the "Munger plan").

I do not purport to hold a monopoly on "compassion". I do however know that, like diapers, if something stinks, it should be changed. This system is broken. Competition between insurance companies will work about as well as competition between oil companies has. Having at least a Public Option (note the term option there, Jim) allows for true competition and cost control. Until that happens, all other methods of "cost control" will be like peeing into the wind. Sure it makes you feel better, but you still wind up standing in a mess.

Doxy said:

Jim: "Well, I suppose you are advocating that everyone, everywhere has a "right" to access to M.R.I. and machines and C.T. scans. I would think you would be more concerned that people who need basic medical care get it and that it should be affordable and of good quality."

Can you read for comprehension, Jim? That is exactly what I *am* arguing for. I don't think that one group of people should have access to all the bells and whistles of 21st century medical care while another can't even get a check-up.

I'm not riding an ideological hobbyhorse---I'm sincerely interested in in living in a fair and just world where people actually care enough about their fellow human beings to ensure that they are cared for when they are ill.

And I'm also sincerely interested in ensuring that the Big Lies spouted by the barking-mad dogs on the right are countered.

Do you disagree with me that those aims are important? We certainly don't agree on the specifics, but--like Mimi--I'm trying to figure out just what it is that you want to see happen.

I'd also be interested to know what kind of insurance you have and what (if anything) would you be willing to give up so that others could have care?

Finally, I would like to know if you've ever watched someone you care for die because they were too poor to afford healthcare? I am passionate about this issue because I have seen, up close and personal, how pernicious our current system is. This is not academic for me.
Doxy

And the bonus from Counterlight, who, along with others in the thread, speaks intelligently and clearly about the need for justice and fairness in our healthcare system:

Counterlight said...

I'm not in favor of the current health insurance bill.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a big give away to the insurance industry. People will be legally mandated to buy insurance, but there will be no meaningful way to help people pay for it. It's like the states that require driver's liability insurance, but provide no assistance to those who can't pay for it (liability insurance in states like New Jersey and New York is very expensive). These states have criminalized the problem without solving it. Legal or not, they still have a lot of uninsured drivers on the road.
So too, if the bill in its current form passes, it will solve nothing. There will still be millions of uninsured out there, only now they will be illegal and subject to fines on top of hefty insurance premiums with no meaningful help to pay for any of it.
The current bill is a bonanza for the insurance industry. Now everyone will be legally required to buy their product.

I don't buy the argument that there is no money for universal health insurance or a single payer system. There's always plenty of money to bail out the financial industry, plenty of money to subsidize the oil and auto industries, and there's always money for Freedom Bombs over the Middle East. We're just too busy giving away money to people who already have trainloads of it to bother with cutting a break to the people whose work creates that wealth.

Frankly, I don't expect to see any kind of meaningful health insurance reform in my lifetime. We've been at this issue since the days of Theodore Roosevelt with precious little progress to show for it. All of the nations of the developed world are way ahead of us, and will remain so. Their systems are not perfect, but they deliver so much more to their people for so much less than our system. Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, France, and Israel in their own different ways have finessed the issue of access to health care far more successfully than we have.
The Netherlands, the country that gave the world rich cholesterol filled cheeses, now had the world's healthiest (and tallest) people.

So, what's our problem?

Eleanor Roosevelt's Prayer

Finally, I am once again connected to the internet. Our cable internet service had been out since Tuesday evening. I've been working on my laptop with a slow wireless connection since then. I am way behind in answering email, and, by accident, I deleted a group of emails that I wanted to read and/or save. If I have not responded to an email about an important matter, you may have to contact me again.

The young man who came to reconnect our internet service was efficient and pleasant. As I've said before, it's generally not the employees of Charter who disappoint me. It's the executives who decide policy for the company who are the problem.

I think of the posts which I've wanted to do, going back to my visit to England, such as St. Nicholas Cathedral in Newcastle upon Tyne, my visit to FDR's home and library, and the recent Holiday Home Tour in New Orleans, and which I have not done. I must accept that I am only one person, and with my semblance to an offline life, I can do only so much with my blog.

Ann Fontaine sent me the link to a nightly prayer by Eleanor Roosevelt, which speaks strongly to me today. Thanks, Ann. I needed this.

But perhaps the most revealing insight into Eleanor Roosevelt’s spiritual life is found in the words of her nightly prayer. According to her son Elliott, every night after a very full day’s work, his mother would slip into her old blue robe and kneel beside her bed and pray:

Our Father, who has set a restlessness in our hearts and made us all seekers after that which we can never fully find, forbid us to be satisfied with what we make of life. Draw us from base content and set our eyes on far-off goals. Keep us at tasks too hard for us that we may be driven to thee for strength. Deliver us from fretfulness and self-pitying; make us sure of the good we cannot see and of the hidden good in the world. Open our eyes to simple beauty all around us and our hearts to the loveliness men hide from us because we do not try to understand them. Save us from ourselves and show us a vision of a world made new.

When I visited my friend in Connecticut, we did not have time to visit Eleanor's retreat, Val-Kill. On my next visit, and I have been invited back, I'd very much like to go.

From the Anglican Examiner.

"Show Kindness And Mercy"

It appears that we may not have a health care bill passed before Christmas. The bill under consideration now is a bad bill, written by the likes of Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, and Mary Landrieu, whose main concern appears to be cost containment. My start position is to have universal health care coverage and work from there how to achieve the goal in a way that the country can afford.

The long discussion thread to this post, demonstrates the great divisions in our country as to which priorities are important in passing a health care reform bill.

This morning's Lectionary reading from Zechariah is a timely reminder, at least to me, of what we should be about in passing health care reform.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgements, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear.

Zechariah 7: 9-11

O ADONAI

December 18

O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,
qui Moysi in igne flammæ rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.


O Adonai, and Ruler of the house of Israel,
Who didst appear unto Moses in the burning bush,
and gavest him the law in Sinai,
come to redeem us with an outstretched arm!


Isaiah 11:4-5

But with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

Antiphon sung by the Dominican student brothers at Oxford.

Text from Fish Eaters.

Please Continue To Pray For Sammy

Grandmere Mimi,

Sammy Cat still has no diagnosis after additional blood work. All tests have come back negative. She is scheduled for an abdominal ultrasound tomorrow ... Friday, Dec. 18. Perhaps I will know something after that. Prayers will be deeply appreciated.

Whiteycat

O Sapientia

December 17

O Sapientia, quæ ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter
suaviterque disponens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiæ.


O Wisdom that comest out of the mouth of the Most High,
that reachest from one end to another,
and orderest all things mightily and sweetly,
come to teach us the way of prudence!


Isaiah 11:2-3

The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;


I know it's not 2006, but enjoy anyway.

Antiphon sung by the Dominican student brothers at Oxford.

Text of antiphon from Fish Eaters.

"CompromiseCareTM"

# Under CompromiseCare^TM, people with no coverage will be allowed to keep their current plan.

# Medicare will be extended to 55-year-olds as soon as they turn 65.

# You will have access to cheap Canadian drugs if you live in Canada.

# States whose names contain vowels will be allowed to opt out of the plan.

# You get to choose which doctor you cannot afford to see.

See Borowitz for the rest of the details of the new Senate plan.

Thanks to Ann.


Atrios opines:

"In other words, you're forcing people to buy shitty insurance that they can't afford. Why would anyone possibly object to that? "

O Antiphons

The painting is from the massive Ghent altarpiece, "The Adoration of the Lamb" by Hubert and Jan van Eyck at St. Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. Wiki shows the entire altarpiece, except for the missing parts.

The well-known carol, “O come, O come, Emmanuel,” provides just such a passageway linking the old and the new. The carol’s familiar names for Christ are based on the Advent Antiphons—the “Great O’s”—which date back possibly to the sixth century. These antiphons—short devotional texts chanted before and after a psalm or canticle—were sung before and after the Magnificat, the Song of Mary, at Vespers from December 16 through December 23. Each of the antiphons greets the Messiah and ends with a petition of hope. The simple refrain of the carol, “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!” sets the tone for this Advent time of waiting and expectation.

From Hasten the Kingdom: Praying the O Antiphons of Advent by Mary Winifred, C.A. (Liturgical Press, 1996).

Over the next several days, beginning today, I plan to post the "O Antiphon" of the day.

Note: Reposted from last year with slight editing. Rather than think of the reposts as due to laziness, please regard them as Wounded Bird traditions. Thank you.

Lost Woman

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

"She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be an Obama Democrat."

"I am,"replied the man. "How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it's my fault."

Apropos after my post inducting Joe Lieberman into the Hall of Shame and the long discussion thread that followed.

Thanks to Ann.

Angels of Mercy

Most people don't know
there are angels whose
only job is to make sure
you don't get too
comfortable & fall
asleep & miss your life.


From StoryPeople.

Dancing Prospector

An old prospector shuffled into the town of El Indio, Texas, leading an tired old mule. The old man headed straight for the only saloon in town to clear his parched throat. He walked up to the saloon and tied his old mule to the hitch rail. As he stood there, brushing some of the dust from his face and clothes, a young gunslinger stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.

The young gunslinger looked at the old man and laughed, saying, "Hey old man, have you ever danced?" The old man looked up at the gunslinger andsaid, "No, I never did dance . . . never really wanted to."

A crowd had gathered as the gunslinger grinned and said, "Well, you old fool, you're gonna' dance now!" and started shooting at the old man's feet. The prospector, not wanting to get a toe blown off, started hopping around like a flea on a hot skillet. Everybody was laughing, fit to be tied.

When his last bullet had been fired, the young gunslinger, still laughing, holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon. The old man turned to his pack mule, pulled out a double-barreled shotgun, and cocked both hammers. The loud clicks carried clearly through the desert air.

The crowd stopped laughing immediately. The young gunslinger heard the sounds too, and he turned around very slowly. The silence was almost deafening. The crowd watched as the young gunman stared at the old timer and the large gaping holes of those twin barrels.

The barrels of the shotgun never wavered in the old man's hands, as he quietly said, "Son, have you ever kissed a mule's ass?"

The gunslinger swallowed hard and said, "No sir. . . . But . . . I've always
wanted to."

There are two lessons for us all here:

Don't waste ammunition.

Don't mess with old people.

Don't blame me. Blame Paul (A.) I wonder if Paul thinks I'm old.

Thanks, Paul. I needed a joke.

No Just War

At ConsortiumNews.com, Daniel McGuire, Professor of Moral Theological Ethics at Marquette University, critiques Obama's Nobel Prize speech for its his references to "just war theory" to defend his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. I should rather say, the professor rips the speech apart for the invocation of the "just war theory".

I'm not sure that I agree with McGuire that Obama could have made "a classic speech on the politics of peace-making, a speech that in the glare of Nobel could have attained instant biblical standing," but he could have left out references to "just war theory", because sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in no way fits into the theory.

Considering all of Obama's actions with respect to the wars he inherited, the Nobel Peace Prize is more of an embarrassment than anything else. Perhaps he was given the prize in the hope that he would not start any new wars or perhaps for not being Bush.

Read at the site how Obama's speech fails all the tests for making his case for escalation on the "just war theory".

A just cause

Declaration by competent authority

Right intention

The principle of discrimination, or non-combatant immunity

Last resort

The principle of proportionality

McGuire says:

It is “a pity beyond all telling” that the “just war theory” he invoked condemns the warring policies he anomalously defended as he accepted the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Indeed.

Thanks to Ann for the link.

Walkin' In New Orleans

 

Truly, I promise to post on the houses that we visited on the Holiday Home Tour in the Garden District in New Orleans. During our walk, Grandpère and I found much that attracted our attention, besides the houses. The picture above shows one of the many remaining brick sidewalks in the Garden District, the sidewalks which gave my knees grief. The stretch shown is in good condition, but not all the sidewalks are as even and smooth.

 

The photo shows an old drain which was commonly used with the brick sidewalks. As far as we could tell, the drain appeared to be made of clay.

 

We don't know what the object in the picture is. One was situated in all four corners of the street. Originally the poles stood upright, as one of them still did, but others had sunk quite a bit, and, as you see, this one lists to the side. Were they some kind of hitching post?

UPDATE: My brother-in-law writes of the object in the photo:

June...they are called traffic bollards. These were installed in the 19th
century to keep horses/buggies in line. See examples at Wiki.

 

I saved the best for last - the lovely blue and white tiles with the names of the streets. When I was growing up the tiles marked the streets in all older parts of the city, but as work was done on sidewalks and sewers, the tiles were removed and not replaced. I'm told that the city is restoring the tiles, but the work is not moving as quickly as New Orleanians would like.