CHUTZPAH

Chutzpah is a Yiddish word meaning gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, sheer guts plus arrogance; it's Yiddish and, as Leo Rosten writes, no other word, and no other language, can do it justice. This example is better than 1,000 words….read on!

THE ESSENCE OF CHUTZPAH...



A little old lady sold pretzels on a street corner for 25 cents each. Every day a young man would leave his office building at lunch time, and as he passed the pretzel stand, he would leave her a quarter, but never take a pretzel.

And this went on for more then 3 years. The two of them never spoke. One day, as the young man passed the old lady's stand and left his quarter as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him.

Without blinking an eye she said:

"They're 35 cents now."

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

"Another Charlotte Update"

June and Jonathan,

Thank you both so much for cross-postings and prayers for my friend. She's in a really good head space which is going to help in the healing process.

Her surgery is at 10:30EST Friday morning at Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville, NC. She's written out some affirmations that will be read to her before, during and after surgery.

Here's my blog entry with more.

This has been quite a process for her... and me as well. And that's the connection that God makes!

Peace and thanks,
Susan (aka SCG)

Almighty God our heavenly Father, graciously comfort your servant Charlotte in her suffering, and bless the means made use of for her cure. Fill her heart with confidence that, though at times she may be afraid, she yet may put her trust in you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

(Book of Common Prayer, p. 458)

The iPreach...

...for the priest who needs just one more thing! Features include:


* 16-point font for easy reading

* Stores your sermons for up to 50 years

* app for Bible readings of the day

* app for Biblical commentary on said readings

* app for poems that sound like they could have been Biblical commentary

* app for dog whistle-like tone to wake up sleeping congregants

* app for soothing music to counter dog whistle to keep babies pacified

* app for command laughter at joke you *know* is funny

* app for disrupting cell phone signals so they don't ring during the service

* one touch button that writes the whole thing for you, keeps attention, and removes distractions

Thanks to SCG.

FEAST OF ST THOMAS AQUINAS

FRA ANGELICO - "Virgin and Child with Sts Dominic and Thomas Aquinas" - Fresco - The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Ah, a lovely painting by my favored Fra Angelico. The Virgin is beautiful. I love the soft drapery around the baby Jesus that only partly hide his wee private parts and the golden braid on Mary's cloak - though Thomas Aquinas looks a bit pained. Perhaps, he's simply serious.

A couple of the readings from the lectionary caught my attention.

Wis 7:7-14

Therefore I prayed, and understanding was given me;
I called on God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
I preferred her to scepters and thrones,
and I accounted wealth as nothing in comparison with her.
Neither did I liken to her any priceless gem,
because all gold is but a little sand in her sight,
and silver will be accounted as clay before her.
I loved her more than health and beauty,
and I chose to have her rather than light,
because her radiance never ceases.
All good things came to me along with her,
and in her hands uncounted wealth.
I rejoiced in them all, because wisdom leads them;
but I did not know that she was their mother.
I learned without guile and I impart without grudging;
I do not hide her wealth,
for it is an unfailing treasure for mortals;
those who get it obtain friendship with God,
commended for the gifts that come from instruction.


1 Corinthians 11:23-26

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

PRAYER

Almighty God, you have enriched your Church with the singular learning and holiness of your servant Thomas Aquinas: Enlighten us more and more, we pray, by the disciplined thinking and teaching of Christian scholars, and deepen our devotion by the example of saintly lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

For four years, I was schooled in Scholasticism by the Jesuits. Six semesters of philosophy classes were requirements for every graduate back in the day. Even then, Aristotle's arguments or "proofs" for the existence of God were not convincing to me. I'd had a course in logic before studying the "proofs", and, to me, the arguments did not hold up. I believed in God, but not because of Aristotle. I know that Scholasticism is out of fashion, but the great value of all the courses in pholosophy was that they taught me to think. And don't believe for one minute that I didn't understand that the ideas of philosophers whose views did not line up with Roman Catholic thinking were introduced in the classes, only to be immediately rebutted and thrown out.

Image from the Web Gallery of Art.

LOL OF THE DAY - PART DEUX

A gem from Tweety that I missed in my stream of consciousness post last night.

I was trying to think about who he was tonight, and it's interesting. He is post-racial by all appearances, you know. You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour. He's gone a long way to become a leader of this country and past so much history in just a year or two. I mean, it's something we ought to think about....

Obama's goal in life has been achieved.

H/T to Athenae at First Draft. FD is a gold mine today.

LOL OF THE DAY!

From TPM.

As if James O'Keefe hasn't suffered enough indignity after botching an alleged phone tampering operation at a U.S. senator's office [Mary Landrieu], getting arrested, and being photographed leaving jail, the judge in the case has now ordered that he reside with his parents until the next hearing.

Magistrate Judge Louis Moore made the order Tuesday as part of the conditions of release for O'Keefe, 25.
....

But his father, the elder James O'Keefe, told the AP "I'm confident this was poor judgment ... but not much more." James and Deborah O'Keefe live in New Jersey, the state where Moore ordered the younger O'Keefe to remain while out on bond.

From Mothra in the comments at First Draft:

What I can't believe is that any ACORN person actually thought this guy was a pimp.

I'm thinking no rot in jail time for the kiddies. Fines, probation, something like that. Of course, I could be wrong.

H/T to Adrastos at First Draft.

AWWW...NOAH AND GRANDPA TIM

See more at To See And To Follow.

"OPERA AT THE MARKET"

13 November 2009 : an ordinary day at the Central Market of Valencia. Suddenly, beautiful classical music starts sounding over the market stores of fruits and vegetables : fragments of Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata" are sung by professional opera singers ! Look at the faces and reactions of the buyers and customers, amazed before such magic and divine music, and by the confidence of good taste. Some are even moved into tears...

Thanks to Paul (A.), who adds "made some cry". Gave me chills.

ENOUGH FLUID

I try not to cry about everything I've
done wrong she said, because I don't get
enough fluids as it is already.

Me too.

From StoryPeople

HURRICANE WARNING!!!

Outlook for the Atlantic, Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico…

Hurricane Whodat is predicted to make landfall on the Florida coast in the vicinity of Miami on 7 Feb 2010 at approximately 2200Z (5:00 PM EST). This extremely powerful hurricane is expected to produce damaging Shockey waves and Category 5 Brees. Reports from shipping indicate that this unstoppable storm has blown a huge flock of Cardinals all the way to Arizona, and that it has sunk a replica Viking longboat, the Brettigfǻvren. Livestock, in particular young horses, will be in severe danger of being decimated. Predictive damage estimates are unavailable at this time, but they are expected to be significant.

All interests in and near the Miami area are advised to prepare for a storm surge of catastrophic proportions as Hurricane Whodat begins to arrive in approximately 10 days.

Next advisory 07 Feb 2010 at 0300Z (10:00 PM EST).

Thanks to Eddie in Florida (not in Miami).

STATE OF THE UNION SILLY STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The words in italics are mine. The rest are snippet paraphrases of Obama's speech.

Waiting for the SOTU. I'm not hopeful. The president may prove me wrong.

Michelle Obama looks terrific.

The worst of the storm has passed. ???

Americans want a chance to get ahead.

I have never been more hopeful about American's future than I am tonight. ???

Everyone hated the bank bailout.

A fee on the biggest banks to get taxpayers money back.

Harry Ried yawns on camera. Wait, Harry, the speech just started.

Jobs are our first priority.

The house explodes in applause. Whew! We can look away from health care reform.

Build high speed trains.

Stop giving tax breaks to companies who ship jobs overseas.

Everyone loves investment in safe, clean nuclear power plan, investments in offshore oil, gas, and clean coal.

Double our exports over five years. ???

I want to live in the country that Obama talks about. How can I get there?

Give our young people a world class education.

Ten grand tax credit for 4 years of college. Student loans forgiven after 20 years, ten years those who work in public service.

Still need health care reform. Even the Republicans applauded!

She (Michelle) is the best.

Health care reform is a complex issue.

If anyone has a better plan, let me know.

Bush inherited a surplus and left a deficit.

Government budget freeze, but not in defense, Medicare, Medicaid, SS.

Defense needs a freeze.

Pay as you go.

Republican administration policy in previous 8 years - extended tax cuts to the wealthy, deregulated....

Didn't pay for two wars, cut taxes on the wealthy - brought on huge deficit.

Obama is in fantasy land on Afghanistan.

All combat troops out of Iraq by August of this year, so that's something.

Secure all nuclear weapons in four years. ?

Finally, he will push getting rid of DADT. Finally. Can he do it with a stroke of his pen?

Chris Matthews wonders who Obama is. Thinks Obama's gotta be frustrated that he reaches out to Republicans, and they don't respond.

Me: Give it up, already, Mr. President!

Me and Howard Fineman agree! If the presidency was about speeches, the jackhammers would be working on Mt. Rushmore.

But, he needs to win something in legislation. Duh.

Slacktivist

From Fred at Slacktivist:

Hey you. You there in the Glenn Beck T-shirt headed off to the Tea Party Patriot rally.

Stop shouting for a moment, please, I want to explain to you why you're so very angry.

You should be angry. You're getting screwed.

I think you know that. But you don't seem to know that it doesn't have to be that way. You can stop it. You can stop it easily because the system that's screwing you over can only keep screwing you over if you keep demanding that it do so.

So stop demanding that. Stop helping the system screw you over.

I urge you to read the entire post at Slactivist, but I quote from points No. 12 and 15:

12. The only hope you have of ever seeing another pay raise is if Congress passes health care reform. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will swallow this year's raise. And next year's raise. And pretty soon it won't stop with just your raise. Without health care reform, the increasing cost of your health insurance will start making your pay go down.
....

15. Do you see the point here? You are angrily, loudly demanding that Congress make sure that you never, ever get another pay raise as long as you live. Because of you and because of your angry demands, you and your family and your kids are going to have to get by with less this year than last year. And next year you're going to have to get by with even less. And if you keep angrily demanding that no one must ever fix this problem, then you're going to have to figure out how to get by on less and less every year for the rest of your life.

Sounds about right to me. I'll never figure out why people vote and advocate against policies that promote their own self interest. If their positions were conscience positions about helping those who are worse off than they are, I might understand. But the tea-baggers advocate for and vote for the interests of the corporate fat cats who are screwing them over.

Amazing!

Thanks to Cathy for sending the link.

WHITHER VITTER'S VENDETTA AGAINST ACORN?

From Think Progress last year:

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) is the self-proclaimed “most outspoken critic of ACORN.” Following the release of incriminating videos showing ACORN workers giving advice to undercover conservative activists inquiring about how to start a brothel and not get caught, Vitter and other Republicans called for investigations and audits of the organization.
....

Vitter’s outrage over the latest ACORN scandal seems extraordinarily hypocritical, in light of what he went through in 2007:

A woman accused of running a Washington prostitution ring placed five phone calls to David Vitter while he was a House member, including two while roll call votes were under way, according to telephone and congressional records.

Vitter, a Louisiana Republican now in the Senate, acknowledged Monday that his number was on the woman’s call list and apologized for a “very serious sin.”

Vitter, of course, kept his federal funding, and remains in the Senate.


COMMENT: Yes, to the great misfortune of the people of Louisiana, Vitter remains in the Senate. The word around in Senate circles is that even his Republican colleagues don't much like Vitter because of his lack of collegiality. Of course, the senators who don't care for Vitter won't say so publicly, because the Republicans hang together and don't criticize each another, except behind closed doors.


From Media Matters also from last year:

Today, in light of mounting questions challenging the credibility and the legality of the ACORN surveillance videos, Media Matters for America calls on Andrew Breitbart to release the full, unedited, and unauthorized footage shot at various ACORN locations across the country -- including locations where the two filmmakers may have been rebuffed. ACORN has said that the surveillance effort failed in "at least seven other locations," including Philadelphia, where ACORN filed a police report against James O'Keefe, and the ACORN worker says that she asked him to leave.

"Given the increasing number of questions about the credibility of these tapes and the people behind them, there is no reason that anyone should accept this footage at face value," said Eric Burns, President of Media Matters. "Anyone committed to responsible journalism would have already released all the unedited tapes in their entirety."


COMMENT: Even more so now than last year, because "filmmaker" James O'Keefe and his associates, the "telephone repairmen", have been arrested for allegedly participating in "a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans....", we should be permitted to see the full unedited ACORN tapes of the "filmmakers" to view the sort of editing that took place.

Lots of other links at Media Matters, if you want to know more.

STORY OF THE DAY - READY TO JUMP

getting ready to jump as high as she can
just because there's only so long you can
sit politely & listen while people talk
about any old stuff that comes into their
heads


From StoryPeople.

"ACORN gotcha man among four arrested ..."

Filmmaker James O'Keefe dressed as a pimp before entering ACORN offices last year.

From NOLA.com:

Alleging a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.

Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, the office confirmed. All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
....

ACORN spokesman Kevin Whelan said the arrest calls O'Keefe's credibility into question, and used the opportunity to point out that he "edited (ACORN videos) to make things look as bad as possible."

But he also acknowledged that O'Keefe's undercover ACORN footage showed truly improper conduct by ACORN staff.

"ACORN's leadership and grassroots leaders have taken a whole series of steps, including commissioning an independent report that shows actually there wasn't illegal conduct by any of the ACORN employees involved, although we fired people involved for improper conduct," Whelan said.
....

The four men appeared in federal magistrate court this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Louis Moore wearing red inmate jumpstuits from St. Bernard Parish Prison, where they are being held. Moore is allowing the men to be released on $10,000 bond.

Robert Flanagan's attorney, J. Garrison Jordan, said he believes his client works for the Pelican Institute. Asked the motivation for the alleged wiretap plot, he said: "I think it was poor judgment. I don't think there was any intent or motive to commit a crime."

What does David Vitter (LA-R) think about all this? We won't know, because he will claim that due to the federal investigation, he can't comment.

On occasion, the passionate GOPers tend to overreach.

Thanks to Ann for the tip to the story.