SCHIP again...

A Mother's Call to Action

Why SCHIP is so important, and why I'm so irritated at Bush for gutting it:

Testimony of Susan Molina:

I am here as a mother to speak on behalf of my two children, Bernadette (age 14) and Joseph (age 10). I am also speaking for the tens of thousands of parents in the PICO network who lack coverage for their children.

Almost all uninsured children (83%) live in families where at least one parent works. I am a single mom who works. I am uninsured. ... I was married at the age of 17 and I had two children. My husband was a very abusive man who walked out on us when my oldest was 5. I worked very hard so that I would not become a burden to my parents. Sometimes I worked two jobs. ... I say all that to say this: As a single mother who has worked to be where I am now, it's hard to know that my kids don't have health care. Somehow we are punished for bettering our lives.

When my daughter was 4 she needed a lot of dental work. I was working two part-time jobs that paid $8-9 an hour and none of us had health coverage. I remember going to the welfare department and asking to enroll in Medicaid. I told them I did not need welfare or food stamps or anything else, just help with the dental work that my daughter needed. After I did the paperwork the caseworker told me I didn't qualify unless I quit one of my jobs or had another baby.

When SCHIP became available, I was able to enroll my children in the Colorado Child Health Plus Plan and get my children health coverage. And like most kids, they needed it. While they were on SCHIP, both my children sprained their ankles, my son broke his arm, and my daughter had a bad burn. Both received good care that kept them from any permanent harm and allowed them to go back to school and allowed me to go back to work. I was not worried about how much these accidents were going to put us in debt. I just knew they were going to get the care they needed.

All that changed when we lost our coverage in September, because my new job paid slightly above the 200 percent [of the poverty level] cutoff to qualify for SCHIP in Colorado.

We talk about 9 million uninsured children. Behind these numbers are real children who go to school, have accidents and get sick. And real parents like me, who work hard to meet their families' needs.

When insurance prices are outrageously high, as a parent I have to decide whether to put food on the table or buy health insurance. I cannot afford to pay the hundreds of dollars each month that it would cost me to buy health insurance for my children.

I worry that when my children, God forbid, have an accident or get sick I will not have the means to pay for the medical attention they need.

Both of my kids were home sick last week for a number of days. The first night I felt very sad that I couldn't just take my son to the doctor because we don't have health insurance any more. He was running a fever, and as I drove to the store to buy him some medicine, I began to cry. I felt like a failure. My kids needed something I couldn't provide. As a parent you work to make sure they have what they need. I went into the store and picked up the generic brand of chest rub and some Motrin for the fever. As I got back into the car I felt the need to tell someone that of course I would take my children to the doctor if I felt it was an emergency. I wouldn't care if I had to pay hundreds of dollars later.

I called my friend and told her. She just heard me cry for a while, and she said that it was important that I tell this in my story so that you would know that parents go through this helpless feeling every day. She was right, and I hope you do. ... Thank you for the opportunity to tell you one parent's story, on behalf of millions of parents throughout our country.

Dumbed Down: What Americans Don't Know About Religion

by Timothy Renick
excerpted from The Christian Century

"On many levels our is still a very Christian nation. Statistically the nation is more Christian, than Israel is Jewish or Utah is Mormon.
Yet surveys show that the majority of Americans cannot name even one of the four Gospels, only 1/3 know that it was Jesus who delivered the Sermon on the Mount, and 10% think that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife....Many high school seniors think that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife.
Devout Christians are, on average, at least as ignorant about the facts of Christianity as are other Americans. 60% of evangelicals think that Jesus was born in Jerusalem; only 51% of the Jews made the same mistake.
When it comes to knowledge of Islam and Asian religions, the picture is even bleaker. There are now over 1,200 mosques in the U.S. and more Hindu temples than in any country other than India, but most Americans cannot name a single Hindu scripture, let alone describe the basic tenets of the religion; nor can they articulate the difference between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims.*
President Bush told Americans that Islam is peace. Jerry Falwell said that Muhammad was a terrorist. Not only does one suspect that Bush and Falwell would have been hard pressed to offer any informed basis for opposing characterizations, but Americans had no way to judge who was right, because, when it comes to understanding the Islamic tradition, most Americans are kindergarteners at best.
Since most Americans don't know Sodom, Shi'ites, or Sunnis from Adam, the debate is reduced to empty sloganering and appeals to emotion, and citizens are increasingly disenfranchised by their ignorance. How can Americans formulate concrete opinions about what should be done in Iraq when they have no understanding of the situation more nuanced than a perception that lots of people are killing each other?
Prothero, [author of Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know--And Doesn't], proposes that all American public high school students should be required to take a course in world religions. Such courses would teach about the religions, not denigrate them or indoctrinate students. As such, the courses would have a civic rather than a theological goal."**

* For the record, while I can describe the basic tenets of the Hindu religion, and articulate the difference between Shi'ite and Sunni muslims, and while I have read portions of the Hindu Upanishads, I cannot, by memory, name a single Hindu scripture. So color me ignorant.

** Also for the record, I have mixed feelings about introducing world religions in high school. On the one hand, I think it is vitally important for Americans to have some basic knowledge of world religions because of the enormous impact religions have on the world, our decision making, and our motivations. On the other hand, I really don't think I trust high school teachers to teach world religions without attempting to indoctrinate. I simply can't imagine it being successful in, say, Texas or Georgia, for example, and probably not in Kansas either. A better idea, I think, is to make world religions a required course in junior college and universities. I could see that moving down to high school in a couple of decades, but I think it would need to start at the college level, not the highschool level.

Vespers at St. Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe PA

Ringing of the bells

Opening Versicles:
O God come to my assistance
O Lord make haste to help me
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be,
world without end, Amen. Alleluia.

Hymn: O Savior of Eternal Love?? (Can’t tell)

Ending:
Merciful Father hear our cry,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord your Son
Who with the spirit we adore,
Who reigns with you forever more
Amen.

Our Father
Our Father,
Who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.

Collect
O mighty and everliving God,
Strengthen our faithfulness and love
May we do with loving hearts what you ask of us
And come to share the life that you promised
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your son
Who lives with you and the Holy Spirit one God forever and ever. Amen.

Salve Regina
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae,
vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae,
ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.

Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos
misericordes oculos ad nos converte;
et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exilium ostende.
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.

English
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy,
our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
To you we cry, the children of Eve;
to you we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this land of exile.

Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
your eyes of mercy toward us;
lead us home at last
and show us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus:
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Salade Nicoise

Last night I tried to find a nice salad to have for dinner instead of our usual fast food. I found this one, used all-fresh ingredients from the Merc, and I think it turned out really well.



Salade Nicoise
Makes 6 servings

Salad
1 large head Boston or Butter lettuce, separated into leaves
4 ripe plum tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 green & 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into long, thin strips
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 60z can tuna, drained and coarsley chopped
1/2c nicoise olives, drained and pitted
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut into wedges
1/4c packed fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
1/4c packed fresh italian parsley leaves, finely chopped

Vinaigrette
1/2c + 2tbl extra virgin olive oil
2tbls tarragon vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

1. to assemble the salad, arrange the lettuce leaves in a circle on a large serving platter. Place the tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, and onion on top of the lettuce in that order, following the circular shape of the lettuce. Fill the center with the chunks of tuna, surrounded by the olives. Place the egg wedges all around the salad border. Sprinkle the herbs over the whole salad.

2. Just before serving, whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together in a bowl until thickened. Drizzle over the entire salad, or serve separately.

-- from Twelve Months of Monastery Salads by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette

Last Night, Tonight

Last night I dreamt
I walked across a stream
on a bridge made of flowers.
Chains of daisies arched
bank to bank
and I stepped out on the petals
soft as flour,
hoping they would be
strong as flooring.

When I reached the far side I woke,
knowing You'd held my weight
as I walked over the border
between yesterday and tomorrow.

You carried me last night.
I trust You with tonight.
--Evelyn Bence

On hypocrisy

By now everybody knows about Sen. Craig. Sen. Craig has worked very hard to pass anti-gay discrimination laws before he was found trying to have anonymous gay sex in a public restroom at an airport. Until today, he's been the best friend of Idaho Values Alliance (they have since scrubbed their website of all that affection).

Prior to the election, prior to this event in the restroom, when evidence surfaced that the senator had been propositioning men, conservatives from Michelle Malkin to Glenn Reynolds decried the investigative stories and called it "sexual McCarthyism." These folks did not want the investigation to continue, they did not want "the truth," they wanted the stories to stop. (Curiously, they didn't say anything about sexual McCarthyism when Clinton was having problems). You see, an election was on the line, so nobody cared about family values just then.

Now that the election is over, and Craig has pled guilty, there are now two reactions (remarkably similar to what happened with Ted Haggard):

1) On the one hand, the exact same conservatives that came to Craig's defense, suddenly remember their family values, act all shocked and offended and call for his resignation, and

2) On the other hand, folks like Idaho Family Values blame the homosexuals and the liberals because they lack compassion for this honorable man and his family. One wonders where conservative "compassion" is when the shoe is on the other foot, because I've never seen it.

It's obvious, yet again, that the family values movement has nothing to do with family values. It is, and probably has always been, about power and wealth.

I have always found it both interesting and scary that Jesus was quick to forgive thieves and prostitutes, but remained quite angry and bitter towards the hypocrites. Interesting because Jesus seems to find the people who are hypocrites about thievery or prostitution or whatever, worse sinners than the sins they name. Scary because we're all hypocrites in some ways--we all fail to do what we say is right. But sometimes our hypocrisy has the power to inflict great damage on others, as it has time and time again for "family values" leaders like Craig or Ted Haggard and the organizations that work with them and are at least as hypocritical.

presidential poll

First poll I've seen on KS from Survey USA:

Kansas. 6 Electoral votes. Bush won in 2004 by 25%. Clinton versus Giuliani, Thompson, and Romney.

Clinton (D) 40 (36)
Giuliani (R) 54 (56)

Clinton (D) 44 (45)
Thompson (R) 49 (48)

Clinton (D) 45 (44)
Romney (R) 45 (44)

What interests me here is that apparently Kansans are so-anti Mormon, that they'd rather vote for Clinton than family-values sweetheart Romney. That's weird. Or wicked. Dunno.

Complex foreign policy in Iraq

This is actually from last Wednesday, but I missed it then. It's too funny not to mention.

Santa Fe Artist's Retreat - Glen Workshop

An interesting video article (8 minutes) about spiritual art from PBS Religion & Ethics Newsweekly. The retreat is actually called the "Glen Workshop". Website here:
http://www.imagejournal.org/glen/

I did not get to go this year (I didn't even know about it). But I think I'd like to go next year. For one thing, I think the Christian tradition especially needs a re-awakening of the life-giving power of creative art. Christian art seems to be rather limited to the written word and to some degree Christian music. But both, especially Christian music, has become highly commercialized and not much "art". The iconoclasts, those opposed to visualizing God and the spiritual life, has been so thoroughly successful, that there are few visual expressions of Christian art any more. (WWJD bracelets and the cheesy stuff you see in bookstores hardly counts).

The result of that, I think, is a decided lack of creativity in being able to think about, deeply grapple with, and resolve our many internal and external problems.

al Maliki is out, Allawi is in ?? Propaganda

Have you, like me, been noticing that Iraqi Prime Minister al Maliki is getting criticized while former Prime Minister Allawi is being described as a potential replacement? Like Allawi could solve all our problems? Think this is just Bush realizing that Maliki can't make it work and Allawi can? Or trying to make a change before the September Surge^TM Report? Think again. Allawi hired a top-notch lobbying firm to denounce Maliki and promote himself. Within days he's on the Op-Ed of the NY Times, interviewed by ABC News, and has the Bush State Department saying that "plan B is now likely being considered."

Glenn Greenwald has the best article on the propaganda machine. You can almost watch it happening in real-time.

What's worrisome is that this is how everything works now, not just Iraq foreign policy. Virtually any story you hear now is generated by a lobby group. For example, the news about Chinese toys being recalled is being led by the American toy manufacturing lobby, and not simply a desire to keep kids safe. But that same lobby group is also making sure that Congress doesn't pass any new regulations to protect kids. They've been successful: American manufactured toy sales are up 40% since the recall.

Out of sorts

I have been feeling kind of crummy for most of the week. It's hard to pinpoint. It's sort of that lethargic malaise you get when you're fighting something that hasn't arrived yet. That feeling that you're not well, but not sick enough to stop what you're doing.

I'm hoping it goes away soon. I'm getting tired of it. Literally.

So is the surge working?

In case you weren't sure (from The Washington Monthly):

THE SURGE....Is the surge working? That is, even if you ignore the lack of political progress, are we even making tactical progress? Since violence in Iraq tends to be seasonal, the only reasonable comparison is one between summer 2006 and summer 2007, so I went to the latest Brookings Iraq Index to check out the most recent numbers.

No figures are available for August, and the surge wasn't completely up and running until June, so the best comparison is between June/July 2006 and June/July 2007. I'm not pretending this is conclusive or anything, but the news sure doesn't look very good. The two tables below tell the story.

Violence Metrics

	June/July 2006	June/July 2007	Change
Iraqi Military and Police Killed	349	429	Up 23%
Multiple Fatality Bombings	110	82	Down 25%
# Killed in Mult. Fatality Bombings	885	1,053	Up 19%
Iraqi Civilians Killed (All violent causes)	6,739	5,300	Hard to say1
U.S. Troop Fatalities	104	187	Up 80%
U.S. Troops Wounded	983	1,423	Up 45%
Size of Insurgency	20,000+	~70,0002	Up ~250%
Attacks on Oil and Gas Pipelines	8	143	Up 75%

¹Methodology changed dramatically between 2006 and 2007, so numbers are highly suspect.
²Number is for March 2007.
³Numbers are for June only. No July numbers are available.

Infrastructure Metrics

	June/July 2006	June/July 2007	Change
Diesel Fuel Available	26.7 Ml	20.7 Ml	Down 22%
Kerosene Available	7.08 Ml	6.3 Ml	Down 11%
Gasoline Available	29.4 Ml	22.2 Ml	Down 24%
LPG Available	4,936 tons	4,932 tons	Down 0.1%
Electricity Generated	8,800 Mwatts	8,420 Mwatts	Down 4%
Hours Electricity Per Day	11.7	10.14	Down ~14%

⁴No numbers available for June/July. Figure is extrapolated from May and August numbers.


I dunno, I think maybe it's time for a new cola. I like Coke Zero (troops in Iraq).

God's Warriors

Last night was the final installment of Christiane Amanpour's documentary "God's Warriors". Overall I found the entire series to be very interesting, but I can't say that I learned a lot that was really, truly new for me. Probably I knew the least about the Jewish God's Warriors than the others. That's less because of the issues involved, which I understand, than the fact that I just haven't heard/seen too many of them talking in interviews.

Last night, the Christian God's Warriors seemed to be the tamest of them all. Christiane stuck with Falwell and the people who grew out of the Moral Majority/Christian Right. I was expecting to see Fred Phelps, Branch Davidian-types, David Duke-Christian white supremacist/militia types, but none of those were shown at all. Intelligent Design was very briefly discussed (for about 20 seconds), but none of the extremists that have made death threats for not teaching it (or teaching evolution) in school.

Perhaps she was being shrewd. Perhaps she thought that she shouldn't "go there". And, to her defense, these groups don't have the political influence that the Christian Right has, and it was the political influence that Amanpour was focusing on.

One thing I've noticed in some of the negative commentary about her documentary -- many seem to think that Amanpour was comparing the three groups, that she was somehow saying that they were equal. But she wasn't comparing at all. She was looking at 3 different groups of "God's Warriors" and exploring how they influence politics in the world in order to achieve what they believe is God's purposes. As much as I didn't like Falwell, Amanpour was never comparing Falwell to bin Laden and saying that they were equal. To think so is to miss the point entirely.

Kansas bridges

A functionally obsolete bridge in France

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the safety of KS bridges. I decided to write my congressmen to try to find out the names and locations of the 5,000+ Kansas bridges that have been deemed unsafe or 'functionally obsolete' (what a great euphemism to describe a broken bridge; reminds me of the new phrase 'very low food security' to describe the hungry). Anyway, I got a letter back from Rep. Dennis Moore saying that he has forwarded my letter to Deb Miller, Secretary of the KS Department of Transportation, for an answer. We'll see what happens. I'm not sure if this is a positive step or just a political brush-off, so I'm withholding judgment for now.

Hey, at least I got a reply.

These Are the Gifts I Ask

These Are the Gifts I Ask

These are the gifts I ask
Of Thee, Spirit serene:
Strength for the daily task,
Courage to face the road,
Good cheer to help me bear the traveler's load,
And, for the hours of rest that come between,
An inward joy of all things heard and seen.

--Henry Van Dyke

Operation Macho Kick-Ass

The Daily Show has been in Iraq all week. Here's another that is just great.

If you watch this on Comedy Central's website, you have to watch a commercial first. The one I saw was from Virgin Mobile and was entitled "The world revolves around me." The point of the commercial seemed to be, "I deserve a Virgin mobile phone because it's all about me." Made me want to puke. That's an anti-commercial in my book.

Iraq is just like a market in Indiana

China claims control over reincarnated Buddhas

This is funny:

China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."

God's Warriors

There's a 3-day special on CNN starting tonight called "God's Warriors," featuring Christiane Amanpour (one of the few journalists I still respect). The report is about the intersection between Jewish, Muslim, and Christian fundamentalists and politics. It starts at 8pm. Trailer, photos, background articles at the link.

SCHIP Program Gutted by Bush

A few weeks ago I wrote about SCHIP, the program to provide healthcare to underprivileged children. Despite threats of a veto from the White House, funding for the program passed.

Instead of vetoing the bill, Bush is gutting the program by creating new administrative regulations that keep kids from being able to get into or afford the program.

For example, many kids will now have to wait a year without any healthcare before they become eligible for the program. Families that were targeted for enrollment by the bill won't be eligible unless the state has already enrolled 95% of all families below the poverty level (an impossible goal to achieve).

What is worse, states will now be required to charge premiums and co-payments that approximate private insurance. Which means that the program is now just as expensive as private insurance for families who can't afford to get private insurance.

None of these regulations are part of the legislation. It is all being mandated by agency regulations at the direction of the White House. Why? Because Bush doesn't want commercial health insurance companies to lose profit. (And since I work for a health insurance company, I tell you with certainty that the industry is not hurting for profit).

In other words, it's just more corporate greed--it is disguised corporate welfare, and a veto without having to actually issue a veto.

And more little boys and girls will suffer.

Leahy's a Wimp

Today was the deadline for the White House to submit documents explaining the legal basis for the illegal wiretapping scandal. The original request date was 6/27. The original deadline date was 7/18. Then it was extended to 8/1, then extended again to 8/20. The White House requested another extension, to which Leahy responded, "The deadline is 2:30."

The White House did not produce any documents today. So, is Leahy going to stand up to them?

Nope. Now Leahy says that if he doesn't get the documents by September, he'll talk to the committee about it.

Way to go, Leahy! That's the kind of timidity and docility that we all know and love about our Democratic leadership.

And Leahy still talks about a "spirit of cooperation". What the hell is that?! Why would you be talking about a spirit of cooperation with someone who just told you to go to hell for the 4th time?!

Cripes it makes me sick. There isn't one single solitary thing I can think of since the Dems took control of Congress that they have actually stood up for. Not FISA/illegal wiretapping, not Patriot Act violations, not Iraq deadlines, not Gonzales, not the VP claiming he's not in the Executive Branch, not stem cell research, not transparency in government, not one single thing.

When push comes to shove, the Dems have backed down every time. I really hate that.

Update from Washington Post:

"The time is up. The time is up," Leahy announced yesterday. "We've waited long enough."

But what would Leahy do about it? The first questioner riddled Batman with this.

"The full Judiciary Committee will have to sit down and determine whether to seek contempt from the full Senate," said the noncommittal action hero.

Does that mean he would seek a contempt-of-Congress citation? "What I want to do is get the response to these things," Leahy demurred.

Rebecca Carr of Cox News tried again to pin him down, but Leahy continued to escape. "What we have to find out is what happened here," he answered.

How about withholding money from the administration? "Let's take it step by step," he proposed.

Holy incrementalism, Batman!

The War As we Saw It - NY Times Op Ed

If you haven't read this NY Times OP-Ed, you should. Unlike the O'Hanlon editorial, this one, written by actual soldiers, has gotten very little attention.


A few highlights:

"To believe that Americans, with an occupying force that long ago outlived its reluctant welcome, can win over a recalcitrant local population and win this counterinsurgency is far-fetched. As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day."


The claim that we are increasingly in control of the battlefields in Iraq is an assessment arrived at through a flawed, American-centered framework. Yes, we are militarily superior, but our successes are offset by failures elsewhere."

Given the situation, it is important not to assess security from an American-centered perspective. The ability of, say, American observers to safely walk down the streets of formerly violent towns is not a resounding indicator of security. What matters is the experience of the local citizenry and the future of our counterinsurgency. When we take this view, we see that a vast majority of Iraqis feel increasingly insecure and view us as an occupation force that has failed to produce normalcy after four years and is increasingly unlikely to do so as we continue to arm each warring side."

P.S. The photo is from a car bomb that killed the governor of Sadr City, two others, and wounded six this morning.

Foreign Affairs Essays

The presidential candidates have been writing essays on how they would conduct foreign affairs if they were elected. You can read their essays here:

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/special/campaign2008

So far they have essays from Obama, Romney, Giuliani, and Edwards

The Cicada Waltz

It may seem strange, but during this morning's prayer, my attention was repeatedly distracted and drawn to the sound of the cicadas outside. I don't think I have ever really paid attention to the rhythm of cicadas before. It really is rather sing-songy. There are natural and rhythmic highs and lows that repeat, then suddenly change and go in another direction for a while, until it changes again and goes back to the original rhythm. I've decided that's it's a waltz. I can almost imagine the movement of the dancers, the sudden twist and change in direction as the theme changes, and the recapitulation.

Maybe there is something to this dance that fits with morning prayer. Without stretching the metaphor too much, prayer is all about joining the dance (as Michael preached about this past Sunday), of following the rhythm, noticing the change in the music and changing with it. There are times when I know I am off on my own, following my own thing, not paying attention to the dance. It's okay. Sometimes we have to wander just to remember what it's like. But it's good to get back to the dance.

P.S. just now, I found this little tidbit from the National Science Foundation about cicadas. Maybe I am not so far off in my thinking:

"The female signals to the male by using a wing flick signal. So when a male is singing...if a female wingflicks to the male in the dropoff part of the call, then the male will change his song....If the female still doesn't run away, he'll come up to her and start pawing her front legs and if she stays there, he'll change his song [again]...."

Where There is Love and Wisdom

   Where there is love and wisdom
there is neither fear nor ignorance
   Where there is poverty and joy,
there is neither greed nor covetousness.
   Where there is quiet and meditation,
there is neither worry nor waste.
   Where there is compassion and discretion,
there is neither excess nor indifference.
   Where the fear of the Lord guards the door,
the enemy cannot enter.

-- Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)

Kansas City Ethnic Festival

On Saturday, Dean and I went to the 2007 Kansas City Ethnic Festival at Swope Park in KC. It was a 3-day event featuring food, crafts, and performances from 61 different cultures ranging from Argentina to Wales.

For dinner, we had Greek stuffed grape leaves, Turkish stuffed grape leaves, Serbian moussaka, Irish bangers, Lithuanian bacon buns, Lithuanian Chocolate-Raspberry Torte, and Norwegian blueberry kringles. We actually didn't try as much food as we had intended to, but a combination of long lines and getting full early kept us from it. The majority of the food was very reasonably priced, often $1-$2. Some it was not, as some dishes went for $5-$7. The Irish booth tried to get me to buy their $3 lemonade, but I chose the 50c lemonade from Turkey.

In addition to the food, most booths had a small table with ethnic crafts. About 1/3 of it was just plain junk -- plastic jewelry or little kids toys. About 1/3 of it was decent quality stuff. I remember especially the wooden masks and decorative beads from Kenya and some of the Japanese tea sets. About 1/3 of it was somewhere in between these two extremes.

Every half hour there was an on-stage performance from a different nation. We sat and watched a little of the Philippines and caught just a little bit of Ecuador doing various dances.

The weather was wonderful. We went late in the day, and it cooled down dramatically at about 5pm.

In addition to the ethnic variety of the booths, there really was a huge variety in participants. I mentioned to Dean that I didn't think I had ever seen such a variety of people in one place before.

Mine Safety Czar

Arianna has another update on the safety of our mines. It turns out that Richard Stickler, the Mine Safety Czar (aka Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health), could not get confirmed by the Senate (twice!) when it was in Republican control because of his poor record in mine safety. An industry executive, and not a mine safety expert, Bush went around the Senate and appointed him anyway in a "recess appointment" when Congress was out of town.

Worst. President. Ever.

Du siehst, ich will viel

You see, I want a lot.
Maybe I want it all:
the darkness of each endless fall,
the shimmering light of each ascent.

So many are alive who don't seem to care.
Casual, easy, they move in the world
as though untouched.

But you take pleasure in the faces
of those who know they thirst.
You cherish those
who grip you for survival.

You are not dead yet, it's not too late
to open your depths by plunging into them
and drink in the life
that reveals itself quietly there.

-- Rainer Rilke, Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
trans.by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

[Rilke is a well-regarded German poet, 1875-1926, a contemporary of Nietzsche (but obviously, no follower)]

tenosynovitis

I went to the doctor again this morning for a follow-up to my tenosynovitis. I reported that it felt about 50% better, but that it is not yet back to normal. He recommended that I have a second steroid shot, and I accepted that recommendation. This one hurt more than the last. It's also the last steroid shot that I can get. According to the doc, the steroid not only reduces the inflammation, it also weakens the tendon, and any further steroids risks breaking the tendon, which would be a far worse problem than what I have now.

I don't have any further follow-up appointments. Basically this is either going to work, or I will have to have surgery. So the doctor basically said that if he doesn't hear from me, he'll assume it works, and if he does hear from me, it will be because I choose surgery. I'm very unlikely to choose surgery for reasons I explained before. So, I'll just keep this brace on and see how things go.

The Milky Way Galaxy Psalm

Look up at the night sky, Abraham was told,
and contemplate the vast expanse of stars.
Look up at the night sky, children of Abraham,
and adore before the sacrament of stars.
Look up at the Milky Way, winding its white way,
starry eyed that this is no lazy lane of lights
but a cosmic circus-carousel spiral galaxy
that every 230 million years turns round once.

In open mouthed awe I pray in wonderment, O God,
for your whirling dervish dancer of a galaxy
has only circled twenty times since our sun's birth,
only ten times since oxygen was invented,
moving less than one hundredth of a turn
since ancient humans stood up straight.

for me, to look up at this milky way of stars
is to see the silver stream of stars as Mother's Milk,
and so to gape in a dwarf's prayer, my God,
for the heavens are immeasurably full of your glory.
-- Edward Hays, Psalms for Zero Gravity

Huffington: Why Are So Much of the Traditional Media Neglecting a Vital Part of the Utah Mine Collapse Story?

This is, what, the 4th mine collapse we've had in a year? Together with the story of the collapsed bridge, amongst all the heroic stories of rescue, there seems to be very little motivation to explore WHY these mines are collapsing (contrary to corporate claims, seismologists say there was no seismic activity), WHY these bridges are falling, and WHAT anybody is going to do about it.

It seems that when you scrape just the top layer of the story you find that, as I wrote about earlier, that tens of thousands of bridges have been duly inspected according to law, found to be UNSAFE, but nothing happens. And, as Arianna writes, the Utah Mine, and other mines, have been duly inspected, and found to have had 324 safety violations, 107 of them "significant and substantial." But nothing is done about it. Year after year after year, nothing happens.

Eventually the mine owners get fined. And they apparently are willing to pay those fines and continue operating as usual. Is paying the fine cheaper than fixing the problem? And if so, doesn't that mean we're actually putting a price on workers' lives? Why aren't the mines shut down? Why aren't the bridges closed? Why is "commerce must go on!" more important than people's lives? Why is fixing bridges not in the budget, but the war and tax cuts are, acceptable?

And why doesn't anybody seem to care?

I'm pooped!

It's been an exhausting day. My work load today has been about 5x more than usual, plus I've had trouble with two different systems, including some unscheduled server moves. Very tense and high-energy. I need a beer. And a nap.

Compline

My favorite prayer time is Compline. And there is no finer compline choir than the Minnesota Compline Choir. They broadcast every week on Sunday, except during the summer when they take a break. I still like listening to the old broadcasts during the summer.

Here is their last broadcast: Listen.

You ARE the weakest link - Goodbye!

Chapel Hill, North Carolina – John Edwards today released the following statement in reaction to President Bush’s announcement that his senior advisor, Karl Rove, will resign at the end of the month:

"Goodbye, good riddance."

A crack in the dam: Refrain from Discipline

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) decided to encourage its bishops to refrain from or demonstrate restraint in the discipline of rostered ministers in committed same-gender relationships. [Read the text of the resolution.] While the assembly deferred outright elimination of its policy that prohibits LGBT ministers from living in loving, lifelong family relations with their life partner, asked the church to prepare for such decision at its next assembly in 2009.

Emily Eastwood, Executive Director, Lutherans Concerned/North America said, "Today this church moved one giant step from the punitive rejection of partnered LGBT ministers to the willing tolerance of them. We see this decision as interim. Full inclusion and acceptance is still down the road, but the dam of discrimination has been broken. This is a great day for LGBT clergy who will walk into their pulpits tomorrow knowing perhaps for the first time that this church values their gifts for ministry more than the policy that would exclude them. The church is on the road to acceptance. The end of exclusion is in sight. With this decision the voting members signaled a desire for policy change, but the need for two more years to bring more of the church along."

The ELCA policy that prohibits loving, committed, lifelong, same-gender relationships for LGBT ministers remains in effect. Therefore, Goodsoil and its partners and allies will continue the efforts to help the Lutheran church recognize the eternal truth that God has known all along: that LGBT people are part of the wondrous diversity of creation, God's children, followers of Christ, and gifted as are all others to serve the mission of the church in outreach with the message of the Gospel.
Phil Soucy
Director Communications LC/NA
communications@lcna.org
www.LCNA.org

Next-Generation Comic Book Scam

Do you remember those advertising scams that you'd see at the back of comic books when you were growing up? They promised see-thru xray glasses and so forth. My favorite was the one that went like this: "Earn money working from home! Send $2 to find out how!" And if you sent the $2, you'd get a pamphlet from them telling you that the way to make money working from home was to make copies of the pamphlet and sell them by putting ads in the comic books like the ones you answered telling people that they could make money working from home.


Well, the modern-day political version of that is this:

GOP PACs used as slush funds

Here's how the scam works:
1) Form a legal PAC with a neat-sounding name like "Preserve America's Future" or "American Family Association" [snark] or "Focus on the Family" [double snark]
2) Create flyers with some important sounding urgent cause that requests immediate donations to fight the evil menace.
3) Rent a small list of people to mail those flyers to
4) When the money comes in, send one small nickel to the [insert cause here], pay off your mailing bills, and (this is the important part!), pay yourself a hefty salary
5) With the leftover money, repeat steps 2-4 with ever increasing mailing lists and ever more alarming situations
6) Here's the best part: You get to include your family members (including 9-year old Bobby) as "consultants" whom you have hired to give you great advice on how to raise even more money for your cause!
7) Here's an even better part: You get to make as many of these PACs as your imagination can manage, and you get to take a salary from each of them. Oh! And, if you put yourself onto the Board of Directors of said PAC, you can get a double salary!

And it's all totally legal. Isn't Capitalism great?!


P.S. If you're smart, you can save mailing costs by doing everything over the Internet! Just as Don Wildmon!
P.P.S. While political PACs that "fight" for lower taxes or better firefighter equipment are great, the best selling ones are the religious ones that promise to fight in God's Army on your behalf against the great Satan of [abortion, homosexuality, sex education, Hindu prayer in Congress, gun control, etc.]

Morning Invocation

Glory be to God who has shown us the light!
Lead me from darkness to light,
Lead me from sadness to joy,
Lead me from death to immortality.
Glory be to God who has shown us the light.

Baker Wetland & Sunset

I have been wanting to visit the Baker Wetland, so we finally paid a visit this evening just before sunset. Really, it wasn't all that interesting. Other than dragonflies and mosquitoes we didn't see any wildlife at all (we saw more 'wildlife' in the cows in their pastures on the way there).

The fungus was a bright spot in the trip. Dean spotted it. It's strange, fungi are creepy weird things, but they can be really pretty to look at sometimes.

So after we made a quick trip through the boardwalk, we went straight home and I contented myself with a few shots of the sunset from our deck, which was both extraordinary and also completely ordinary for Kansas (I don't know any other state that gets such fantastic sunsets and lightning storms as Kansas).




You can see all the pictures in this entry in full size on my webshots album:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/560264750LpdZSW

Where Is God?

Helix Nebula, aka The Eye of God Nebula

Today in church, we had a guest preacher, from Church of the Resurrection, who spoke about "Where Is God?" In contrast to the common view that God is somewhere "up there", usually looking down disapprovingly waiting to cast lightning from his baleful eye, she told some personal stories about meeting God in the person of a homeless woman she met in the basement of a church cathedral, a blue heron that she met while napping in the country, and an amusing answer to prayer when she asked God to show her something "different" and within a minute saw an armadillo for the very first time.

This is a very prominent Benedictine motif, namely that we see the face of God in the stranger, in all who are “other” and "strange," and in Creation itself. The Rule of Benedict Chapter 53 says, “Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ…let all humility be shown to the guests…let Christ be adored in them as He is also received.” Indeed, it is so important to make strangers feel welcome as Christ that Benedict orders that fasts be broken for them (unheard of in that time).

Sunday, Sunday

It's been a pretty quiet weekend. Dean has been sick most of the weekend, with a terrible headache that started Friday evening and didn't stop until Sunday late morning. His migraine medicine wasn't helping very much, and it was making him dizzy and loopy. So we really didn't do much at all on Saturday. Finally, Saturday night I suggested that he take plain old Tylenol and that seemed to work. He had a headache again Sunday morning just before church, and again Tylenol seemed to help. Which is weird because usually when he has migraines, Tylenol doesn't do anything.

Earlier this afternoon, we went to see Bourne Ultimatum. I love the Bourne series. There's just something about the storyline, of a violent man who is increasingly disturbed by the kind of person he sees, and is on a quest to find his true self. And the action is pretty much non-stop. Most action movies have lots of "dull" spaces, but the Bourne series does a very good job of keeping me on the edge of my seat.

Bush Considering Increase in Corporate Welfare

"President Bush said yesterday he is considering a plan to cut tax rates for US corporations..."

This crap makes me so mad it makes my eyes cross.

Let's see, we have a record deficit, we're spending billions in a war, millions of the working class have no health care, but King George is going to hand more money to corporations (and thus to wealthy shareholders)?? Dems get blamed as being "tax and spend", but King George's plan is "spend and spend" and let America's children pay the bill after he and his corporate buddies get richer.

How much more evil can it get?

Last night Dean and I were going to go see The Bourne Ultimatum, but Dean had a migraine headache and wasn't feeling good enough to go, so we stayed home. Dean looked for audio books to listen to when we go on vacation, and I did laundry and watched The Bourne Supremacy (the second movie from 2005) on DVD. I had forgotten nearly everything about the movie, so it was very exciting.

I also finished my latest Hercule Poirot book, The Labors of Hercules, which so far has been my favorite. Basically they are short stories where Poirot duplicates the labors of hercules (with obvious modern metaphors) as a challenge. Dean downloaded a summary of the ancient myth of the labors of hercules so that I could more easily match the book to the myth.

Today I need to get a haircut, finish doing my laundry (my second least favorite thing to do next to taking out the trash), work on reading Integral Spirituality for Souljourners and work on our vacation itinerary. I also want to visit the Baker Wetlands some time this weekend, preferably near sundown when it won't be so hot and I might get decent pictures.

The picture is Dean's cat Sinclair, which I took the night before last.

Email Lists - Pet Peeve

Welcome to the latest edition of Uman's Pet Peeves.

I'm on several subscription-based email lists (like Yahoo Groups), and lately there have been lots of people who are trying to unsubscribe, and are too stupid to figure out how.

I simply don't understand how people can be smart enough to subscribe to an email list, but not smart enough to unsubscribe. How can you be smart enough to ride the up-escalator, but be too stupid to ride the down-escalator? How can you be smart enough to open a door, but not be smart enough to shut it?

Most of the email lists I'm on give explicit instructions on how to unsubscribe at the bottom of every single email. One of my lists includes a monthly reminder message whose primary purpose is to explain to people how to get off the list. And still people can't get off the list!

But that's not what peeves me. What peeves me is that it's always someone else's fault. They claim that they never signed up for the list (often explaining that they've been on it for years and describing exactly how they got on it in the first place). Or they claim that nobody ever told them how to get off the list (which is really funny when their complaint is immediately followed by the standard system-generated message explaining exactly how to unsubscribe). Or they complain that the list members send too much email (um, then why did you sign up for something explicitly designed to send you more email?). Or they complain that they really aren't computer literate, like that's our fault -- not to mention that it falls into that trap I mentioned before...how can you be computer literate enough to subscribe to a list, but not literate enough to follow nearly the same directions to unsub?

Whatever the excuse, it's never their own fault. It's always somebody else's. And that peeve's me.

This has been Uman's Pet Peeves. Good night.

Recycling Redux

A few days ago, I wrote about wanting to recycle more. A few days after that, Dean and I bought 3 crates, 1 for cans, 1 for paper, and 1 for plastic. So far, the plastic is the getting the fullest, but I'm also stunned with how much paper we get (mostly junk mail).

Today I read about the scourge of plastic bags at Salon in this great article:
Plastic Bags Are killing Us


My favorite idea: Ireland has created a 22c tax on every plastic bag. As a result, use of plastic bags have gone down 90%. Attempts by other countries have frequently been thwarted by grocery lobbyists disguised as conservationists.

It's also interesting to read how people turned to plastic because they thought they were saving trees. In fact, the plastic is a worse option--first because a lot of companies chop down trees to get to the oil that makes plastic, and second because trees are a far more renewable resource than oil is.

I used to get a plastic bag even when all I bought was one tiny little thing. Lately I've tried to not get a plastic bag whenever possible. I have not yet gotten the courage to take a reusable tote bag to the grocery store, but that's probably going to be the next step.

The only recycling center I know of for plastic is in Lawrence, and they don't take much. Only Type 2 HDPE bottles and plastic bags. But the Type 2 HDPE butter tubs aren't taken and none of the Type 4 bags I get in packaging material is acceptable either. It's a bit frustrating.

I also didn't know why the plastic bags at the Wal-Mart have to be put into their own bin, but this article explains why.

Still, progress is happening in this household.

Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Some disciples came to see Abba Poemen and said to him: "Tell us, when we see brothers dozing during the sacred office, should we pinch them so they will stay awake?" And the old man said to them: "Actually, if I saw a brother sleeping, I would put his head on my knees and let him rest."

Confederate States of America

Last night, whilst Dean was watching Top Chef, I watched The Confederate States of America, a mockumentary produced by Spike Lee. The premise was what would have happened if the Confederacy had won the Civil War. The movie was both disturbing and funny (as it was meant to be).

In the mockumentary, France and England aid the South against the North, and win the war. Many people don't know that France and England nearly did aid the South (for economic trade reasons).

In between fake history (like Abe Lincoln captured and tried for war crimes and eventually exiled to Canada), news, commercials, and the Chattel Shopping Network (where you can buy slaves over the telephone), there were real racist products and places that were interspersed throughout. Only, you didn't realize they were real products until the end of the movie, when they showed it to you.

For example, Niggerhair Cigarettes and Darky Toothpaste were marketed well into the 20th century, some as late as 1980. The Coon Chicken Inn was a restaurant shaped as the head of a man in blackface. The entrance was his mouth. This restaurant operated until the 1950s.

And still today there remain racist products -- Aunt Jemima syrup and Uncle Ben's rice to name just 2. See a brief slide show at Slate.