Splendour of the Father's Glory

Splendour of the Father's glory,
Bringing forth light from light.
Day illuminating daylight,
With new beginnings of new light;
True Sun come down,
Sparkling with unfailing gleams,
With the radiance of the spirit,
Come fill us in our every sense.
And in prayer we call upon the Father,
That Father of unending glory,
Father of all-mastering grace.
Lord set aside our sinful guilt
And teach us eagerness of deed;
Restrain the biting teeth of foes,
Prosper us in times of grief,
Grant the grace to bring us through.
Guide and rule our inmost mind,
In a chaste and faithful heart.
May our faith grow hot again,
Far from poison's foul pretence.
Let Christ himself be our food,
And faith our cup to drink;
Let us drain it deep in joy,
The sober drunkenness of Spirit.
Let this day be spent rejoicing.
Let shame be as the dimmest dawn,
And faith like midday sun;
Our minds ever ignorant of dusk.
The chariot of the rising sun sets forth,
The rising sun appears complete:
The Son complete within the Father,
The Father complete within the Word.

-- St. Ambrose of Milan,
4th century

I send letters...

Here is my latest letter to Sen. Roberts:

Dear Sen. Roberts,

On January 31, 2007, you were quoted as saying, "I don't think this war can be sustained for more than six months...."

It's been six months. Are you ready to bring the troops home now?

Do something.

Sincerely,

Me

Brownback Supports Dividing Iraq

Jennifer just sent me a link to this article, which really surprised me:

On July 13, Brownback once again advocated partitioning Iraq into Shia, Sunni and Kurd districts.

I think we have to recognize the situation in Iraq and that you have several different populations. The Kurdish population is separate and distinct and operating in its own area and doing a nice job. There is growth taking place there--not everyplace, but it is doing pretty well. You have a mixed Sunni and Shia population in the rest of the country--dominant Sunni in some areas and dominant Shia in others, and Baghdad is a mixed federal city. I think we have to look at that situation and recognize the mixture and the combustibility of that mixture and get to a more durable political solution.

You are seeing now an ongoing migration of Iraqis inside their own country, which I think suggests Iraq will eventually do what would be called a soft partition. That is the logical thing that would take place, and it is taking place today. There is an outcome of many historical precedents--most notably in Bosnia in the 1990s. Senator Biden and I introduced a resolution calling on Iraqis to reach an agreement that would formalize a federal system in Iraq consistent with their Constitution that would allow for Kurds, Sunnis, and Shia to manage their own affairs, with Baghdad remaining a federal capital city.

This is such a mistaken and naive policy. Take a look at how the region is divided. You will see Kurds in the north, Shia in the southeast, and Sunni in the "western triangle". If Iraq were split into a federal system of independent regions, that will surely be how they get split up (you can't just pick up a people group and move them, as we have proven in Israel/Palestine).



Now take a look at the map above and the map below.



Where is the water? Mostly in the Shia region. Where is the only port? In the southern Shia region. Where is the oil? Split between the Kurdish north and the Shia south. The Sunni regions have virtually no natural resources to call its own and is not a viable state. They would be at the mercy of the other two regions. And that's why the Sunni bloc keeps leaving the negotiating table with Maliki, because they are getting screwed. The Brownback plan would be a disaster.

Juan Cole has additional reasons why breaking up Iraq would be bad:

http://www.juancole.com/2003/09/iraq-must-be-kept-together-as-single.html

Public Transit & WalMart

I only just heard about this. Apparently in tonight's city council meeting, Lawrence's Public Transit system (T), was on the chopping block. They were going to cut services by stopping the buses at 6pm instead of 8pm and save $600,000. That would have been too tragic to put into words. We need to be increasing our investment in public transportation -- for those who can't afford the price of gas (especially university students) and for conservation.


Luckily, lots of people spoke out against the idea, and the council decided to keep it at 8pm by "increasing transit fund mill levy by 0.425 mills and transfering money out of equipment reserve fund. Approved 4-1 with Chestnut opposed. He had said he did not want to transfer money from equipment reserve fund. He would have cut hours to 6 p.m." (LJWorld)

Now the city is debating whether to permit a second Wal-mart. I'm opposed, simply because (a) Lawrence already has a Wal-mart, and doesn't need another (b) a second Wal-mart does not fit into the city's own published growth plan, (c) I'm worried about the impact to other established businesses. But Wal-mart has their attorneys making threats of more litigation. Live blogging from LJWorld is here.

UPDATE: The city council approved the Wal-mart.

Housing & Community

There's a great program on the latest NPR's Justice Talking about homelessness that really touched a nerve for me. Here are some thoughts I have swirling in my head.

COMMUNITY

Housing in America is seen as a competitive means of "success." Americans (attempt to) experience the movement from living w/ family to rented studio to apartment, to condo, and finally to owning a home. Many never make it, of course, and hardly anybody seems to think that housing is a human "right" (with the exception of Jimmy Carter and Habitat for Humanity, which is a great thing).

It interests me that in many parts of the ancient world, the community ensured that everyone had a home to live in. When a young adult was ready to be on his/her own (often coinciding with marriage), the community got together to build a home. We continue to see this in modern times in the Amish communities in the U.S. and primitive tribes in Africa and elsewhere.

I wonder what life would be like if Americans believed that everyone ought to have a home.

ROOTS

It interests me that a lot of people who dislike homeless people often assume that the homeless person isn't originally from wherever they are homeless. I remember a recent NPR story in which the mayor of a major city expressed his frustration when he tries to help homeless people, saying that they refuse his help.

How does he help them? He offers them a free bus ticket "home" -- meaning anywhere else but his city. How ironic! But the homeless person had lived in that city all his life. He was in the only "home" he knows. But to the mayor, the homeless simply refuse to be helped and don't belong in his city. ARGH!

HOUSING FIRST

One of the encouraging spots of the NPR program is "Housing First". This program realizes that people do better in life (they stay off drugs, keep jobs, stay healthier, are mentally fitter, and stay out of jail more) if they FIRST have a house. Most transition programs START by trying to give a person a job, life skills or drug treatment, with the goal of eventually, some day, getting a house. But it doesn't work well because a house is such a fundamental need, that it is very challenging for the homeless to keep a job or stay off drugs if they don't already have a home.

This is why Housing First seems like such a good idea to me. They start by giving a family a permanent place to live. What's even better is that there are few strings attached. There aren't strings like "you have to get a job within 6 months" or "you have to stay off drugs" in order to obtain or keep the housing. These punishments don't serve their purpose.

The result? 90% of the recipients are thriving. Even better? They discovered that it is cheaper to do it this way. It costs less because the recipients need less public health care, spend little time in jail (a huge cost savings), and require less substance abuse treatment or mental health treatment.

HISTORY LESSON

Archaeologists in Palestine have discovered that at around 1,000 B.C. all the homes were about the same size. In other words, housing was equitable. It was not until around 800 B.C. that one starts to find large and small houses, geographically segregated, so that the large, expensive houses made of stone are on one side of town, and the puny smaller houses made of clay are on the other size of town. What lessons does that have for us, and for community?

Finally, I am lucky and graced to be able to afford to own a nice home, and I appreciate it very much. Yet I know that anything could happen. I'd like to *think* that I am detached enough from my home that, if necessary, I could leave it all behind and go back to living in an apartment (sssh, don't tell Dean!). I just hope I don't have to find out for sure.

P.S. This was a depressing thing to hear on the program: "there is no region in the country where a full-time job at the federal minimum wage provides enough income to rent a 1-bedroom apartment...." Congress voted for another raise for themselves last month. Why is it so hard to index the federal minimum wage to the cost of housing? Better -- let's index Congress's salary to the federal minimum wage!

P.P.S. This program reminded me of a small group in Denver who worked REALLY hard to raise money to convert a large downtown home into a shelter. After spending most of it in renovations, the neighborhood successfully blocked the opening of the shelter because they didn't want homeless people near them. The money was lost. It was really very, very sad.

Free antibiotics

This is a step in the right direction:

Publix Super Market to offer some antibiotics for free

Memo from King George to Gen. Petraeus

Dear Gen. Petraeus,

I think we made a tacular mistake. I think we was supposed to disarm the insurgency, not re-arm them. My bad! Doin' a Heckuva job Petey!

Signed,

King George

P.S. How does that nursery rhyme go? Peter, peter pumpkin eater, had a wife, couldn't beat her? Now why do you wanna go beat your wife anyway? That doesn't seem right.... I wonder if we can have pumpkin pie for dinner. Where's Laura? I'm hungry.

FISA - King George wins again

The government now has even more power to spy without a court order. In my July 25th post, I referred to the book, Presidential Secrecy and the Law, which talks about how inadequate FISA is to safeguard our civil liberties. Now, instead of strengthening our civil liberties, Democrats have gone along with the Republicans to weaken them even further.

I really don't understand the motivation. Are the Dems afraid that they'll be called "weak"? They will anyway, even if they voted for it. But now all the Democratic constituents (like me) think they're weak for not standing up to King George. I really can't even tell that the Democrats are the majority party since they keep passing King George's bills.

I can't find the Senate roll call vote (it isn't posted yet for some reason), so I don't know how Brownback and Roberts voted (I'm sure they were for it, but Brownback hasn't actually been casting many votes this year). In the House, the Kansas votes went along party lines. Moran & Tiahrt voted YEA; Boyda and Moore voted NAY.

Some unusual "YEA" votes: McCaskill of MO and Jim Webb of VA in the Senate voted YEA.

It boggles my mind that we're willing to trust this government to protect our civil liberties when they demonstrate over-and-over again that they will not. I'm thinking specifically of those FBI & CIA reports that revealed that those agencies aren't even following what little laws they think they ought to.

Some good words from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee:

The New Hereford House

Last night Dean and I weren't in the mood to cook, so we ate at the new Hereford House that just re-opened in west Lawrence. It's been renamed "HH" and it's been redesigned from a really expensive/high class steak house to a casual bar and grill. I like the change!

And the food was really great! Dean and I shared an artichoke and sun-dried tomato dip with garlic toast appetizer, which was really tasty (Dean says it's the best artichoke dip he's ever had). For our entree Dean had chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and I had a classic sausage and pepper's sandwich with cottage cheese. Yummy!! Even the iced tea was really tasty. I liked it so much, the waitress found out what the brand was and brought a pitcher with the logo over to our table. It's something called "Tropical Paradise." I'm going to see if I can find it online.

Leo Tolstoy's Fables Part Deux

THE LEARNED SON

A son once returned from the city to his father, who lived in the country.
"We're mowing today," said the father. "Take a rake and come and help me."
But the son did not want to work, so he said, "I am a scholar, and I have forgotten all those peasant words. What is a rake?"
As he walked across the yard he stepped on a rake that was lying in his way and it struck him on the forehead. He suddenly seemed to recall what a rake was, and, clutching his head he cried, "What fool left a rake lying here?"

Birthdays...

Wednesday was Dean's uncle Ted's birthday, and we celebrated it Saturday. The family met at his mom's house and we had hanky panky's, potato salad, and chips for lunch. After the presents, we ate spice cake and ice cream.

After Ted and grandpa went home, the reset of us stayed and had a good time talking about annoying neighbors, the new church building, and talking on cell phones while driving.

In the picture, Ted is with Marci Francisco, state senator for Lawrence during last year's 166 Good Deeds event that Cottonwood participated in.

Leo Tolstoy's Fables

THE KING AND THE SHIRT

A king once fell ill.
"I will give half my kingdom to the man who can cure me," he said.
All his wise men gathered together to decide how the king could be cured. But no one knew. Only one of the wise men said what he thought would cure the king.
"If you can find a happy man, take his shirt, put it on the king--and the king will be cured."
The king sent his emissaries to search for a happy man. they traveled far and wide throughout his whole kingdom, but they could not find a happy man. There was no one who was completely satisfied: if a man was rich he was ailing; if he was healthy he was poor; if he was rich and healthy he had a bad wife; or if he had children they were bad--everyone had something to complain of.
Finally late one night, the king's son was passing by a poor little hut and he heard someone say:
"Now, God be praised, I have finished my work, I have eaten my fill, and I can lie down and sleep! What more could I want?"
The king's son rejoiced and gave orders that the man's shirt be taken and carried to the king, and that the man be given as much money as he wanted.
The emissaries went in to take off the man's shirt, but the happy man was so poor that he had no shirt.
The End
Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer who enjoyed fame and prosperity during his life. His best known novels were War and Peace and Anna Karenina. In 1888, at the age of
60, he renounced his wealth, give his money away to his family (he had 13 children) and earned his living as a farmer and shoemaker.

In 1888 until his death in 1910, he wrote his Fables. I found this little gem in Dean's bookcase.

The Simpson's Movie

Last night I was really in the mood to see a live show. But since it was Thursday night, and since it was Kansas, well, there really weren't any. So Dean and I went to see the Simpson's Movie. It was great.

The premise of the movie is that Springfield's lake has become so polluted that it threatens the whole nation. So they pass a law to keep anyone from dumping any more into the lake. Meanwhile, Homer has gotten a new pig for a pet. The pig produces so much piggy poo that Homer has to build a silo to store it all in. But where is Homer going to dump the poo once the silo is full?

Well, Homer has good intentions, he straps it to the truck and starts driving to the dump. But, on the way, he gets a call from Barney saying that the local donut shop is giving donuts away for free. What can Homer do? There's no TIME to go the dump before the donut shop runs out! So, desperate, he drives through the woods to the lake, past all the "no polluting" signs, through the blast walls, and dumps the pig silo into the lake, killing all the fish.

This is the last straw for U.S. President Schwarzenegger, who orders that the entire city of Springfield be quarantined, by placing a giant glass dome over the entire city. The rest of the movie is about the adventures of the mob of Springfieldians who want to lynch Homer, a love interest for Lisa, a step-dad for Bart, and Marge trying to get everything back to normal again.

My favorite scene is at Moe's Tavern. When Moe has a his back turned to pour some beer, there's a brief power blackout. When the lights come back on, every bottle of liquor in the bar is gone, and half the tables too. Moe complains and says, "now guys, I'm going to turn the lights out again, and I want you to put back everything you took, no questions asked." When he turns the lights back on, the rest of the tables and chairs are gone, so are the pool tables, the rest of his bar, and most of his clothes, leaving him wearing just his Duff! beer underwear. It's hilarious.

KDOT to motorists: State’s bridges are safe ???

This has GOT to be the stupidest headline I've seen in months:

KDOT to motorists: State’s bridges are safe
August 2, 2007
It’s all about trusting a set of eyes. Inspectors for counties and the Kansas Department of Transportation crawl, climb and creep over bridges all across the state to ensure that problems don’t develop that lead to catastrophic failures like Wednesday’s deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

Would anyone expect KDOT to say any different?!? What KDOT is going to come out and say, "well, actually, we have thousands of bridges that could collapse that we aren't taking care of..."

Is there any reason to think that all KS bridges are safe? Well, as it turns out -- NO.

A federal national survey found that 21% of KS bridges (> 5,000 of them) are deemed "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete." I found that survey. Unfortunately, it doesn't specify exactly which ones. Which blows. Dean and I go over bridges every day on k10.

In Minnesota, where the tragic accident occurred, only 13% of bridges, 1,798 of them, were considered structurally deficient or obsolete in the same report. So there are 300% more deficient or obsolete bridges in KS than in Minnesota. So this is potentially a big deal.

I did find an obscure email on the website, so I decided to ask for the names. We'll see if I get an answer. I might also write my congressmen (not that I will get a response from them, I never do).

Conservation International

These guys seem to be doing good work: www.conservation.org. I only just discovered them, so more later. The website is huge, so go exploring.

Tenosynovitis

I've been struggling with tenosynovitis for the last 10 weeks or so. That's basically tendonitis of the thumb. The tendon sheaths in the diagram to the left (click to see a bigger picture) get inflamed and rub against the tendon, causing pain. It's worst early in the morning, and also when I pick things up, write, or attempt to stretch.

I originally went to my PCP, who prescribed Naproxen (Aleve) and a generic splint from the local pharmacy. I don't take the naproxen because I only have 1 kidney and naproxen plays havoc on the kidney (all the anti-inflammatory pain medicines do). And the splint really didn't fit well and so I haven't been wearing it as much as I should.

So today, I went to see a hand orthopedic specialist in Lawrence. The wait was terrible (almost 2 hours). But once I got seen, everybody was extremely professional and knew exactly what was going on and how to treat it, etc. It's obvious that they've treated this condition many, many times. The doctor injected me with some steroids. Then he sent me to another room where a technician made a custom-fitted splint for me (the doctor joked that my generic splint was a one-size-fits-nobody splint).

I'm supposed to wear it all day except for showers, and take it off about 5 times a day and gently exercise the thumb. Then I'm to go back to the doctor in 2 weeks. We'll see how it goes.

It's Good to Be Alive

(Dean took this when we were at Powell Garden a while ago)

Today is a bad health day. My back aches and my side hurts badly, and I think I'm getting a kidney infection. But the sky is blue, the breeze is warm, the flowers are blooming and I'm grateful to be alive.

Nature XXXI

NATURE rarer uses yellow
Than another hue;
Saves she all of that for sunsets,—
Prodigal of blue,

Spending scarlet like a woman,
Yellow she affords
Only scantly and selectly,
Like a lover’s words.
-- Emily Dickinson

Exonerated Prisoners

Here is an important story from PBS' Religion & Ethics Weekly about innocent victims of the judicial system. Transcript and video here:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1048/cover.html

In addition to what you'll hear in the story, here are some other important insights:

(1) Because "getting tough on crime" gets votes, politicians in the US have over-criminalized behavior, especially for people who had no criminal intent. And because of mandatory sentencing laws, the lack of criminal intent isn't allowed as a factor in sentencing. This is well documented in the book Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything by Gene Healy.

(2) The U.S.(population 300 million) has more people in prison than any other country in the world, including China (pop. 1.3 Billion) and Russia. So, do we really believe that there are more real criminals in the US than a country with 4x the population? Here are the top 20:

1	United States of America	2,193,798
2	China	1,548,498
3	Russian Federation	885,666
4	Brazil	401,236
5	India	332,112
6	Mexico	213,926
7	Thailand	161,844
8	South Africa	161,674
9	Ukraine	160,046
10	Iran	150,321
11	Indonesia	116,688
12	Poland	90,714
13	Philippines	89,639
14	Pakistan	89,370
15	Vietnam	88,414
16	Rwanda	c.82,000
17	United Kingdom: England & Wales	80,803
18	Japan	79,052
19	Bangladesh	79,000
20	Germany	76,629

(source: World Prison Brief of the International Centre for Prison Studies)

Claire McCaskill Considered a 'Truman in a Skirt'

This was an interesting article about Claire McCaskill (D-MO):

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/18526.html