3 Beautiful Things

3 Beautiful Things I saw/experienced today:


My puppy


A single dandelion seed


The flavor of the new black currant tea
that I bought recently.

Exit Strategy

"If there's anything this President'll respond to it's written criticism."

Presbyterian court clears lesbian pastor on wedding charges

by Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service

The highest court of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has reversed a lower court's censure of a lesbian clergywoman who performed what critics called same-sex weddings for two lesbian couples in California.

"It is not improper for ministers of the Word and Sacrament to perform same-sex ceremonies," ruled the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in a decision released Monday (April 28). "At least four times, the larger church has rejected overtures that would prohibit blessing the unions of same-sex couples."

The decision about the Rev. Jane Spahr, who was charged in 2004 and initially cleared in 2006, hinged on language in the church's Book of Order, which defines marriage as "between a woman and a man."

The high court found that the lower court in the church's Synod of the Pacific (SPJC) was mistaken in its determination last year that Spahr had violated that language.

"By the definition in (the Book of Order), a same-sex ceremony can never be a marriage," the high court ruled. "The SPJC found Spahr guilty of doing that which by definition cannot be done. One cannot characterize same-sex ceremonies as marriages for the purpose of disciplining a minister of the Word and Sacrament and at the same time declare that such ceremonies are not marriages for legal or ecclesiastical purposes."

Same-sex ceremonies and marriages should remain different, the court declared.

"We do hold that the liturgy should be kept distinct for the two types of services," it said. "We further hold that officers of the PCUSA authorized to perform marriages shall not state, imply or represent that a same-sex ceremony is a marriage."

Spahr, 65, said she was "grateful" for the decision, which she considers an affirmation of her longtime ministry to gays and lesbians.

"The church is a place of welcome and hospitality in which I will continue to honor relationships of love and commitment, regardless of sexual orientation," she said in a statement.

Uman's Healthcare Plan

So what is Uman's health care plan? Here's my plan:

1) Pharmaceuticals & Research
The Pharmaceutical industry has the highest profit margin of any industry in the world (including oil!), reaching as high as 26%. This is achieved in two steps:
(a) the government uses our taxes to pay pharmaceuticals millions of dollars, in the form of research grants to develop new drugs. In essence, the government is contracting with the pharmaceutical industry to develop & provide a product just like they do with every other kind of contractor.
(b) through lobbying and patent laws, pharmaceuticals get to have exclusive production and charge high prices for their medicines to "recoup" the cost of R&D that they didn't actually pay for.

The first step in the Uman Healthcare Plan is this. If a pharmaceutical takes American tax dollars for R&D (and they all do), then the drugs they develop are owned by the American people. That means no exclusive production. That will immediately bring prices down.

It is, of course, a myth that this would lead to a drop-off in advanced medicine. The government is ALREADY paying pharmacies to develop new drugs.

This is not limited to drugs of course. The same thing happens with all high-tech diagnostic equipment like MRIs. A *huge* portion of our tax dollars are spent in these two areas: drugs and lab work. My last CT Scan cost $1400. For an hour's worth of work. That is simply ridiculous.

2) Re-enable advertising regulation.
Since the Clinton years, pharmacies have been able to advertise directly to consumers instead of to doctors. The result? Patients self-diagnose, walk into a doctor's office and say, "I have such-and-such, prescribe this new drug I saw on TeeVee." And it works. It means that doctors are giving out FAR more prescriptions now since this advertising than before. The second plan in Uman's Health Care system is to stop pharmaceutical and lab companies from advertising prescription drugs and tests to consumers.

3) Life expectancy and culture
We are living longer. And we live in a culture that is too afraid of death. So we keep people alive under every possible circumstance instead of allowing people to die with dignity. Terry Schiavo's care cost $80,000 a year just for the nursing home! That's $1.2 million for the 15 years she was there. Let's put this in perspective: a whopping 30% of our total health care bill is spent on end-of-life care. More than half of all Medicare expenses are spent on people who live less than two months. The third, and doubtlessly the least popular plank in the Uman Healthcare Plan is two-fold. First, educate and pass good laws that permit people to die with dignity, and second, pass guidelines and regulations that limit the amount of money spent on hopeless end-of-life treatment.

4) Although there is no government panacea, a single-payer plan (universal health care), has the greatest potential to provide the best care for everyone. Already studies show that the government is currently paying out more than what it would spend on universal health care! There would be a massive simplification and streamlining of hundreds of different processes from eligibility to claim payment, as well as underwriting, sales, and so forth, which would immediately make the system far more efficient. The fourth plank in the Uman health care system is to institute universal health care similar to that in Cuba, Canada, France, and nearly every other western nation in the world. At least 8.5% of the health care premiums is spent to offset services for uninsured patients.

5) Reform malpractice litigation. I want to tread carefully here because I believe that a person ought to be able to sue in the case of negligence. But, I do see many problems in our present malpractice litigation. To wit:
1) it is never guaranteed that a surgical procedure will have a positive outcome. People need to stop expecting too much. An imperfect outcome should not be grounds for litigation.
2) Awards should be based on the facts of the case, not how bad we feel for the victim. Large awards typically reflect a jury's empathy for the victim, not a determination of negligence on the part of the health care team. For example, in Terry Schiavo's case, the husband was award $1million because the obstetriction failed to recognize a diagnosis of bulimia (which was later disputed). In my mind this is an award based on empathy, not on the facts.
3) there needs to be sane limits or regulations/guidelines on how much can be awarded, and how much lawyers can take as a contingency fee. It is insane to me that lawyers "get rich" out of other people's problems, so much so that out of a relatively large award, the lawyers get such a large share that the victim is not much better off.

6) Along with the single-payer plan, institute a federal common-chronics plan that deals with the largest and most common utilization of health care: asthma, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis. A national common chronics plan would lower the cost of treating these diseases. Of course, some of these diseases can be helped by making other sensible regulations. Malpractice suits account for about 10% of the healthcare cost.

Now, can I be President please?

Man Cleared by DNA evidence

Just another reason why we shouldn't have the death penalty and appeals should be more lenient in accepting recanted testimony and new evidence:
===
DALLAS, Texas (AP)
A Dallas man who spent more than 27 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit was freed Tuesday, after being incarcerated longer than any other wrongfully convicted U.S. inmate cleared by DNA testing.

[snip]

Woodard was sentenced to life in prison in July 1981 for the murder of a 21-year-old Dallas woman found sexually assaulted and strangled near the banks of the Trinity River.

He was convicted primarily on the basis of testimony from two eyewitnesses, said Natalie Roetzel, the executive director of the Innocence Project of Texas. One has since recanted in an affidavit. As for the other, "we don't believe her testimony was accurate," Roetzel said.

Like nearly all the exonorees, Woodard has maintained his innocence throughout his time in prison. But after filing six writs with an appeals court, plus two requests for DNA testing, his pleas of innocence became so repetitive and routine that "the courthouse doors were eventually closed to him and he was labeled a writ abuser," Roetzel said.

Full story here.
Support The Innocence Project.

Cheney will make Bush Look Like Gandhi

McCain's Crappy Health Care Plan

See McCain's health care plan below. It is an insurance company's dream! Individuals have absolutely NO CHANCE of getting a sweeter insurance deal than corporations who get group insurance, assist in getting discount contracts with providers, who are savvy to the health insurance market, who have an incentive to get the biggest bang for their buck.

Individuals have no clout to force improved service, no insider knowledge, no understanding of how insurance plans work, no underwriting leverage, no discount contracts. Furthermore, individuals will have the tendency to buy the cheapest health insurance they can, meaning that the industry would go back to what was once called "indemnity major medical," meaning major emergency coverage only (the highest profit insurance for insurers). Anyone with a history of health problems will get reamed by this plan! Underwriters, knowing an individual’s health history, will only offer plans with huge premiums because individuals have no group with which to share the burden with like a corporation does. Individuals with typically good health will simply not buy insurance (which makes it worse for the people who do because only sick people will buy insurance, driving the costs up).

The "tax credit" is just mumbo-jumbo, it simply will not do the job. Insurers will eat it up. A "non-profit" plan to help pre-existing conditions already exists. It’s called Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and they've been unable to keep costs down. (By the way, insurance companies, though they are as inefficient as any big industry, has relatively modest profit margins, <4%).>

This is, simply put, the WORST POSSIBLE thing that we could do in America for health care.

McCain unveils new health care plan

Posted: 08:00 AM ET

(CNN) –-A tax credit to help individuals and families buy health insurance will be at the heart of a health care proposal Sen. John McCain is expected to unveil Tuesday.

The credits will spark greater competition among insurance providers and put “individuals and families back in charge” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee will say during a speech in Tampa, Florida, according to excerpts of his speech released by his campaign.

Millions of Americans would be making their own health care choices again,” McCain will say, according to the prepared text of the speech. “Insurance companies could no longer take your business for granted, offering narrow plans with escalating costs.”

In McCain's plan, individuals will be eligible for a $2,500 credit and families a $5,000 credit to help buy health insurance if they do not subscribe to health insurance provided by an employer. The government would directly send the money to insurers.

McCain will also propose that the government set up a non-profit Guaranteed Access Plan to provide coverage to individuals who are denied coverage from private insurers due to pre-existing conditions.

Oblate Retreat

Today we had our annual Oblates of the Order of St. Benedict retreat at the Mt. St. Scholastica monastery in Atchison. The retreat was led by our Oblate Director, Sister Therese Elias. The topic this year was the historical roots of monasticism. St. Benedict lived in the 6th century. The martyrdom period was the 2-3rd century. In the 4th & 5th century, there lived the Desert Fathers & Mothers (the abbas and ammas), the historical roots of monastics who left Rome (which they thought of as the false world with its vices) to live semi-solitary lives in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and Syria (which they considered to be the real world).

One of the most striking things I heard was this quote from Belden Lane:

"I really don't want a God who is solicitious of my every need, fawning for my attention, eager for nothing in the world so much as the fulfillment of my self-potential. One of the scourges of our age is that all our deities are house-broken and eminently companionable. Far from demanding anything, they ask only how they can more meaningfully enhance the lives of those they serve."
Belden Lane, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality

Obama and Race

This is an interesting analysis from Daily Kos:

Way back in February, the day of the Potomac Primary, I wrote that what happened in the mountains of Virginia and Maryland could presage what would happen in the Appalachian parts of other states. Clinton pulled up to 90% in some of those counties, and she's won the Appalachian regions of every state contested.

On Wednesday, I was in Inez, Kentucky, the Appalachian town where L.B.J. declared war on poverty forty-four years ago this month. John McCain was on a tour of "forgotten places"...After [McCain's] speech, I left the county courthouse and crossed the main street to talk to a small group of demonstrators holding signs next to McCain’s campaign bus. J. K. Patrick, a retired state employee from a neighboring county, wore a button on his shirt that said "Hillary: Smart Choice."

"East of Lexington she’ll carry seventy per cent of the primary vote," he said. Kentucky votes on May 20. "She could win the general election in Kentucky." I asked about Obama. "Obama couldn’t win."

Why not?

"Race," Patrick said matter-of-factly. "I’ve talked to people—a woman who was chair of county elections last year, she said she wouldn’t vote for a black man." Patrick said he wouldn’t vote for Obama either.

Why not?

"Race. I really don’t want an African-American as President. Race."
What about race?

"I thought about it. I think he would put too many minorities in positions over the white race. That’s my opinion. After 1964, you saw what the South did." He meant that it went Republican. "Now what caused that? Race. There’s a lot of white people that just wouldn’t vote for a colored person. Especially older people. They know what happened in the sixties. Under thirty—they don’t remember. I do. I was here."

The Only Woman Jesuit

Secret, Perilous Project
by Fr. John Padberg, SJ

Previously, in the mid 1540s, Pope Paul III had directed Ignatius to accept Isabel Roser and two companions as members of something like a women’s branch of the Society of Jesus, but that experiment did not last.

Juana entered almost ten years later. In 1552 the princess, 17 at the time, married the heir to the Portuguese throne. When he died two years later, she returned to Spain.

Young, beautiful, and aware of her royal position and power, Juana was also endowed with a talent for ruling. While her brother, Philip II of Spain, was in England as husband of Mary Tudor, he made Juana regent. From 1554 to 1559 she was the effective ruler of Spain.

Juana had an additional ambition: to become a Jesuit. Telling none of her family, she informed Spanish grandee Francis Borgia, an early Jesuit, that she wanted to join the Society of Jesus.

The idea was heaped with danger for the Society. Her father, Emperor Charles V, and her brother Philip would be furious with her and the Jesuits for wrecking possible future dynastic marriage plans for Juana.

Yet, the new, small, and in some places highly suspect Society could not afford to alienate Juana—depending in part on her good favor for its existence in Spain.

The Society in 1554 had officially been in existence for only fourteen years, yet by Ignatius’s death in 1556, there were already 1,000 Jesuits. Men were flocking into the order enthusiastically. Women, too, were attracted and wanted either to found a separate female branch of the Society under the control of the general or to enter directly into the Society itself.

The first of these alternatives had been tried by Isabel Roser in 1545, who got the pope to write a brief allowing her to take the vows of the Society and ordering Ignatius to receive her. In December 1545, Ignatius did receive her vows and those of two other women, but the text of the vows carefully made no mention of entrance into the Society itself. This so-called women’s branch of the Society did not last. Roser had been a great friend and patron of Ignatius for many years, but after she took vows she made impossible demands, continued in her own ways, and demanded interminable hours of spiritual direction (more than all the rest of the Jesuits in the Roman Curia combined). In May 1546, Ignatius asked the pope to dispense the recalcitrant Roser from her vows. As a result of this failed experiment, Ignatius got a brief from Pope Paul III in 1547 forbidding the Society to take under its obedience communities of religious women.

Then came Juana. She wanted, and got, for herself not a separate branch of the Society but membership in the Society itself.

So perilous was the project that all existing Jesuit correspondence about the situation avoids her name, using the pseudonym Mateo Sanchez, or Montoya, instead. In a quandary, Ignatius appointed a committee to advise him. It recommended that Juana enter the Society as a permanent scholastic; truly a Jesuit but forever in formation. Otherwise, with solemn vows, she would have been—according to canon and civil law—legally dead, dispossessed of everything, and incapable of ever marrying again.

With the novel, simple, and terminable vows of a Jesuit scholastic, she could have separated from the Society if necessary. When Juana pronounced her three religious vows as a Jesuit, absolute secrecy was enjoined on everyone.

She could make no obvious change in her manner of life. So, for her, poverty meant leading a rather austere life at her already simple court. Chastity meant never marrying again. Obedience—well, her letters show her sometimes trying to give orders to Ignatius and Borgia.

This secrecy was imposed not only because of Juana’s position but also to preclude at all costs anyone else following her example. Ignatius and his committee saw the problem of responding to the possibility that a whole crowd of high-born ladies would be knocking on the general’s door for entrance into the Society.

The secret was so well kept that no one ever suspected it. And as far as is known today, Juana lived the rest of her rather short life (she died at the age of 38 in 1573) as the only woman Jesuit.

Original Source: Company Online!: A Magazine of the U.S. Jesuits

Food Fight: How International Aid Fails the Poor

From Christian Century and Bread for the World:

By David Beckmann

In 2006, the United States provided 6 million tons of food aid to agencies such as CARE, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision and Save the Children...why would any agency reject U.S. food aid?

Yet that's exactly what CARE did last July, when officials announced that beginning in 2009, CARE will forgo $45 million a year in U.S. food aid. The organization based its decision on disagreement with a practice known as monetization, the process of selling some of the U.S. food abroad in order to raise needed cash for development projects and administrative costs...CARE maintains that the sale of this food in the fragile markets of recipient countries competes with the sale of food produced by local farmers, causing prices to drop and lowering farmers' income. After careful study, CARE has determined that the benefits of monetization are simply not worth the costs....

Originally food aid programs were seen as a way of disposing of large surplus food stocks owned by the federal government....But those government surplus stocks no longer exist. Today the U.S. government purchases food through regular U.S. commercial channels. The law requires this; it favors agribusiness interests and U.S. shipping companies even though the end result is higher-priced commodities and transportation. If the aid groups were allowed to consider cheaper sources of food and transportation, they would save both money and time.

The law also requires that the vast majority of food aid donations be made into ready-to-eat products or otherwise processed before being shipped. At least 75 percent of food aid must be shipped on U.S. flagships, despite the fact that our domestic shipping fleet is small and normally more costly than its international competitors. The bottom line? More than half of the U.S. food aid budget is consumed by administrative and transportation expenses.


Finish the rest of the story here.

Political Interference at EPA

"Hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency scientists complain they have been victims of political interference and pressure from superiors to skew their findings, according to a survey released Wednesday by an advocacy group.

The Union of Concerned Scientists said that more than half of the nearly 1,600 EPA staff scientists who responded online to a detailed questionnaire reported they had experienced incidents of political interference in their work....

Asked to respond to the survey, Shradar, the EPA spokesman, said, 'We have the best scientists in the world at EPA.'"

BAM!! And they're patriotic too! That oughta shut up you pesky journalists!

Read the whole article.

Jesus Loves You, but...

Private Religion

I hear over and over again that we need to privatize religion (as I was reminded again in a youtube video that someone sent me from Americans United for Separation of Church and State). By this they mean, keep it in the privacy of one's own home, don't bring it into the public square, don't express it in public, and (of course), don't bring it up in politics or government.

But religion can't be privatized. Whether it is Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, or Wicca, religion is inherently communal.

To use a bad metaphor, to privatize religion is something like asking you to play baseball in the privacy of your own home. It doesn't work. You have to have other players, you have to have coaches and umpires, you have to have teams, you have to have fans. It's the nature of it. You can fruitfully practice throwing a baseball with your son in your private backyard, but ultimately, when it comes time to "play the game," you have to do it in community.

"Life in community is no less than a necessity for us, an inescapable 'must'... all life created by God exists in communal order and works toward community." -- Eberhard Arnold


P.S. You don't have to privatize religion to have separation of church and state or a pluralist nation.

P.P.S. If you force people to play baseball "privately," you'll destroy it, which, I suppose, is the point for those who are advocating private religion.

The Problem of Evil

There is an interesting debate starting on BeliefNet on the problem of evil between Bart Ehrman and N.T. Wright, both powerhouses in theological and NT studies.

Link is here:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/blogalogue/

One of the things that constantly comes to mind, is this. IF there is no God, then the evils of nature that Bart Ehrman describes (tsunamis, mudslides, et. al.) simply aren't evil. There is no longer any ground to say, "this is not how God ought to operate!" They are just random acts of atoms and physics.

He might as well argue "there is no such thing as logic! Here, I'll prove it to you."

There must be a God to complain to in order to give meaning to the very question he raises.

The Bible Complicates Things

The Bible Complicates Things
By F. Richard Garland

Sometimes I am tempted to quit reading the Bible - it complicates things! Just when I think I know what it says, I read a passage again in a new translation or out of a new context, and discover something I had missed.

Lately, with the topic of immigration so much in the news, I decided to see what the Bible had to say about aliens. Wow! Did I get an ear full?! Our ancestors in the faith, notably Abraham and Isaac, were aliens. Very early in scripture the law of the community made equity clear: “There shall be one law for the native and for the alien who resides among you.” [Exodus 12:49 and Leviticus 24:21]

Business conduct was required to be honorable and attentive to the poor and the alien: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field … You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien.” [Leviticus 19:9-10]

Those who are not just towards the alien are subject to divine disapproval: “Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan and the widow of justice.” [Deuteronomy 27:19] “I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against … those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.” [Malachi 3:5]

As for today’s controversy about illegal aliens, the Bible says: “The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” [Leviticus 19:34]

Ah, the Bible! It complicates things!

Read the rest of the post.

Clinton Can Still Win

Ginger

Here's a nice pic that Dean took of me with Ginger a couple of weeks ago.

Curtains

This weekend we got curtains on the window in the living room (finally!). It took a trip to the hardware store, but it worked out. Also changed the decor on the altar table and the shower curtain and towels in the bathroom.

Wendell Berry on Ends and Means

" . . . we have come to attribute to ends a moral importance that far

outweighs that which we attribute to means. As though we have arrived in our
minds at a new age of fantasy or magic, we expect ends not only to justify
means, but to rectify them as well. Once we have reached the desired end,
we think, we will turn back to purify and consecrate the means. Once the
war that we are fighting for the sake of peace is won, then the generals
will become saints, the burned children will proclaim in heaven that their
suffering is well repaid, the poisoned forests and fields will turn green
again. Once we have peace, we say, or abundance or justice or truth or
comfort, everything will be all right. It is an old dream.

It is a vicious illusion. For the discipline of ends is no discipline at
all. The end is preserved in the means; a Hope lives in the means,

not the end. . . . That good ends are destroyed by bad means is one of the
dominant themes of human wisdom."

Sharon Astyk's Theory of Anyway

Sharon Astyk's Post on the Theory of Anyway

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Do the Right Thing

My friend Pat Meadows, a very, very smart woman, has a wonderful idea she calls "The Theory of Anyway." What it entails is this - she argues that 95% of what is needed to resolve the coming crisis in energy depletion, or climate change, or whatever is what we should do anyway, and when in doubt about how to change, we should change our lives to reflect what we should be doing "Anyway." Living more simply, more frugally, using less, leaving reserves for others, reconnecting with our food and our community, these are things we should be doing because they are the right thing to do on many levels. That they also have the potential to save our lives is merely a side benefit (a big one, though).

This is, I think, a deeply powerful way of thinking because it is a deeply moral way of thinking - we would like to think of ourselves as moral people, but we tend to think of moral questions as the obvious ones "should I steal or pay?" "Should I hit or talk?" But the real and most essential moral questions of our lives are the questions we rarely ask of the things we do every day, "Should I eat this?" "Where should I live and how?" "What should I wear?" "How should I keep warm/cool?" We think of these questions as foregone conclusions - I should keep warm X way because that's the kind of furnace I have, or I should eat this because that's what's in the grocery store. Pat's Theory of Anyway turns this around, and points out that what we do, the way we live, must pass ethical muster first - we must always ask the question "Is this contributing to the repair of the world, or its destruction."

So if you told me that tomorrow, peak oil had been resolved, I'd still keep gardening, hanging my laundry, cutting back and trying to find a way to make do with less. Because even if we found enough oil to power our society for a thousand years, there would still be climate change, and it would be *wrong* of me to choose my own convenience over the security and safety of my children and other people's children. And if you told me tomorrow that we'd fixed climate change, that we could power our lives forever with renewables, I would still keep gardening and living frugally. Because our agriculture is premised on depleted soil and aquifers, and we're facing a future in which many people don't have enough food and water if we keep eating this way, and to allow that to happen would be a betrayal of what I believe is right. And if you told me that we'd fixed that problem too, that we were no longer depleting our aquifers and expanding the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, I'd still keep gardening and telling others to do the same, because our reliance on food from other nations, and our economy impoverishes and starves millions, even billions of poor people and creates massive economic inequities that do tremendous harm. And if you told me that globalization was over, and that we were going to create a just economic system, and we'd fixed all the other problems, and that I didn't have to worry anymore, would I then stop gardening?

No. Because the nurture of my piece of land would still be the right thing to do. Doing things with no more waste than is absolutely necessary would still be the right thing to do. The creation of a fertile, sustainable, lasting place of beauty would still be my right work in the world. I would still be a Jew, obligated by G-d to Tikkun Olam, to "the repair of the world." I would still be obligated to live in way that prevented wildlife from being run to extinction and poisons contaminating the earth. I would still be obligated to make the most of what I have and reduce my needs so they represent a fair share of what the earth has to offer. I would still be obligated to treat poor people as my siblings, and you do not live comfortably when your siblings suffer or have less. I am obligated to live rightly, in part because of what living rightly gives me - integrity, honor, joy, a better relationship with my diety of choice, peace.

There are people out there who are prepared to step forward and give up their cars, start growing their own food, stop consuming so much and stop burning fossil fuels...just as soon as peak oil, or climate change, or government rationing, or some external force makes them. But that, I believe is the wrong way to think about this. We can't wait for others to tell us, or the disaster to befall us. We have to do now, do today, do with all our hearts, the things we should have been doing "Anyway" all along.

Sharon

Originally from: http://www.meadows.pair.com/sharonspost.html

Why I don't watch debates

I would *love* to watch an old-fashioned Lincoln-Douglass style debate. Really. Sadly, the reality tv shows that they misleadingly call "debates" are anything but that.

Questions from the last "debate":

1. Process (VP running mate)

2. Bitter

3. Bitter/Process (can Obama win?)

4. Process (can Obama win?)

5. Process (can Clinton win?)

6. Wright

7. Wright

8. Wright/patriotism

9. Wright

10. Wright/patriotism

11. Bosnia/Clinton's honesty

12. Clinton’s honesty

13. Flag pin/patriotism

14. Ayers/patriotism

15. Iraq (would you ignore commanders?)

16. Iraq (do you know better than commanders?)

17. Iraq (would you ignore commanders?)

18. Iran/Israel (Iran will threaten to use nukes)

19. Pledge no tax increases (with McCain attack)

20. Capital gains tax rates

21. Gun registration

22. Guns/ D.C. law

23. Affirmative action

24. Gas prices

25. Foreign oil

26. Process (how would you use GWB?)

27. Process (superdelegates)

~ categories courtesy of georgia10, with slight modification

World class healthcare in Developing Countries

FISA

Fight for a Fair FISA Fix

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a strong and balanced FISA bill, legislation that protects America's national security while defending civil liberties -- without granting retroactive immunity to phone companies. Retroactive immunity would abet the Bush-Cheney Administration's efforts to avoid accountability for its actions.

This was a tremendous accomplishment -- and would not have been possible without the hard work of engaged citizens. Together, we have already sent 1,723 letters to the editors of newspapers in support of a fair FISA bill!

But there's still much work to do. Now that the House has passed a fair FISA bill, it's time to turn our attention back to the Senate.

Urge the Senate to support the House’s strong and balanced FISA bill -- forward an email to your Senators now!

Banned From Church

Reviving an ancient practice, churches are exposing sinners and shunning those who won't repent.

By ALEXANDRA ALTER
January 18, 2008; Page W1

On a quiet Sunday morning in June, as worshippers settled into the pews at Allen Baptist Church in southwestern Michigan, Pastor Jason Burrick grabbed his cellphone and dialed 911. When a dispatcher answered, the preacher said a former congregant was in the sanctuary. "And we need to, um, have her out A.S.A.P."

Half an hour later, 71-year-old Karolyn Caskey, a church member for nearly 50 years who had taught Sunday school and regularly donated 10% of her pension, was led out by a state trooper and a county sheriff's officer. One held her purse and Bible. The other put her in handcuffs.

Read the rest of the article here.

Barbara Crafton on Taxes

After Q picked me up at the train station, we took our tax returns to the post office. Then we celebrated the event in town with a predictable pair of ice cream cones -- Q is always chocolate and I am always vanilla. The result, of course, is that neither of us is in the market for supper this evening. Ah, well -- tomorrow is another day.

Like voting, paying taxes is something a citizen just does. I have never understood why hostility towards the income tax is such a crowd-pleaser, as if money were being taken away from us. Nothing is taken from us when we are taxed; we're simply pooling some of our money in order to do the big things a complex society needs and wants. I feel about taxes as I do about the church tithe: why wouldn't I want to support something I care deeply about? Who but we ourselves should pay for the costly benefits we enjoy?

We are not alone in the world. We live in community -- those of us who celebrate that fact and those who wish it were not so, all of us together, like it or not. We depend on each other for our very lives, and we would not be who we are without each other. So my country has made me, just as my church has made me. I may disagree with this or that decision taken in the corridors of their power, but I can never divorce myself from them.

The privilege of paying taxes hurts; this year it hurt a lot. That's all right, though: paying it gives us skin in the game. It gives us a chance to show that our money is where our mouth is, that love of neighbor is more than a nice feeling. We pay these taxes all together, all at the same time of year, and we elect the government that spends them. May God make us worthy of each other's considerable investment.

No Man is an Island
No man is an island, entire of itself every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee.
-- John Donne

Chris Matthews

In a rambling interview with the NYT, Chris Matthews gets whiny about how people don't respect him as much as he thinks they should. Then he gives us this choice quote:

“I don’t think people look at me as the establishment, do you?” Matthews asked me. “Am I part of the winner’s circle in American life? I don’t think so.”

According to the Washington Post, Chris Matthews makes $5 million a year.

Plug that into the Global Rich List website, and you find that he is the 107,565 richest person in the world. That puts him in the top 0.001% of the world's richest people. Think he's part of the "winner's circle"? I think so. (By the way, so am I).

Stupid TeeVee

Hunter blogs about it so that I don't have to:

CNBC yesterday: And let's not forget Barack Obama bowling. You know, this cuts to "is this person real? Do they connect with me as a voter?" You know, for someone who's in a bowling league in northeast central Pennsylvania, in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, they can't identify with someone getting a 37 over seven frames.

Hunter: My first reaction was the sensible one: to pray to God to please kill me....

In lieu of divine homicide, then, I suppose the only other avenue left is to try to pry some sense from the nonsense. So here goes: what you see, above, is the defense of the petty, the vapid and the embarrassingly trivial as valid "news", worthy of actual air time. The premise goes like this: the news media reports some minor absurdity about the race. Various pundits go on television to tell Americans how the latest triviality should make them "feel". Ten times as many pundits appear to analyze what would happen if Americans actually felt that way. Then comes the man-on-the-street interviews to see if people really do "feel" that way, and regardless of what actually gets said, by how many, the hypothesis is pronounced correct, or at least "newsworthy". (Note: the definition of "newsworthy" is simply "something we felt like putting on television." This could be a story about Abu Ghraib, or a story about a cat that has learned to ride a skateboard, or a story about what Robert Novak thinks about something. It is, in other words a meaningless phrase.)

Then George W. Bush and a half dozen cabinet members in some back room somewhere authorize the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody, but we can't pay attention to that because .
we've all got to decide whether we want a president with good bowling scores.

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A score of 100 should be the minimum: if a candidate can bowl over 100, after practicing for a week, that signifies that they have the minimal personal integrity worthy of office. They are suitable for heading a lesser government agency, or an ambassadorship.

If a candidate can top 150, they show true intellect, and are worthy of at least a cabinet position. 170 indicates fortitude in the face of adversity, indicating perhaps a position in the defense department is in order. 180 signifies that their tax returns are in order.

If a candidate achieves a score over 200, that means that they are faithful to their spouse. A score over 220 furthermore indicates a loving relationship, and not just a marriage of convenience. A score over 225 signals that they have the love of their children as well, and that their children are free of drugs or unfortunate homosexual tendencies.

A bowling score of 240 or above shows a candidate as capable of leadership. It also testifies to a good relationship between with their God; the presidency may be viable. 250, the typical score of devout Protestants, cinches the deal, indicating God loves them back. A second term may be in order.

A score of 260 indicates competent fiscal management abilities; if they achieve this score on a league night, managerial competence is also likely. Bowling an impressive 270 is a sign of great foreign policy capabilities, possibly including past war hero status. At 280, you can expect a balanced budged to be achieved, as well as at least one great speech about the evils of communism.

A score of 290 will win a war, probably without a nuclear exchange.

And what of the perfect game, the elusive 300? Ah, my children, that indeed shows true greatness. In the entire history of the Republic, only one President has been a 300 bowler: none other than the Emancipator, the great Abraham Lincoln himself.

Because it was Abraham Lincoln's hard-fought perfect game, achieved in the dead of one cold and bitter winter's night, that allowed him to free the slaves.

Verbal Abuse

I haven't been able to get this out of my head all day, so I may as well write it down. This morning while Dean and I were having breakfast at McDonald's, we watched a mother verbally abuse her 5-year old boy.

The boy had dropped some piece of food--a piece of hash brown or something, I don't remember. The mother was mad. Although she never raised her voice above normal, she began berating her little boy. She said that the boy was always dropping food on the floor, never paying any attention, he was wasting money, this food was very expensive, he was dumb, lazy and disobedient, and what is she going to have to do to get him to stop? He hardly said a word. Over several minutes, she just kept at him, verbally jabbing him over and over again, until the boy softly cried; and then the mother was mad that her boy cried. When he stopped, she started her tirade again, repeating herself often.

Remember, this boy could not have been more than 5 yrs old--probably less.

When Dean and I left the restaurant a few minutes later, she was still at it. I may be projecting, but as I was leaving, it seemed that I could almost see the verbal blows on the boy's body. I made the comment to Dean that I wouldn't treat my dog the way this person treated her son.

This mother had no awareness of what she was doing; no awareness of the beauty of God's creation sitting in front of her; no compassion for whatever slight mistake was made; no awareness of herself in that moment.

And so I pray--without words because I don't have words that are up to the task.

Thich Nhat Hahn - Speaking of Faith - Peace

This week's Speaking of Faith is really good (as usual!). Krista's guest is Thich Nhat Hanh, the vietnamese Zen Buddhist author, poet, and monk. In this far-ranging interview, they talk about the goodness of suffering, the kingdom of God, the relationship between a flower and garbage, the story a gun-carrying cop attending a mindful pacifism retreat, walking with a child, the war on terror and the art of forgiveness, the difficulty of communication with modern technology, and this gem on peace:

"Krista: I look at the violence that marked the world when you were a young monk. Some of those have gone away. Now we have new kinds of wars and new kinds of enemies....Does that make you despair?

Thich: No, because I notice that there are people who understand [peace].... Peace always begins with yourself, as an individual. And as an individual, you may help build a community of peace...and when your community of a few hundred people knows the purpose of peace and brotherhood, you can become a refuge for others who come to you, and profit from the practice of peace. When they join you, the community will get larger, and the practice of peace will be offered to millions of people. That's what's going on now.... We even have communities in the middle east....

Krista: I noticed that you are bringing Palestinians and Israelis together at your Plum Village.

Thich: Yes."

Weekend

I was at Souljourners Friday and Saturday. Topic was Ethics in Spiritual Direction. Good, but exhausting, as usual (it takes so much energy to be there). Today Dean and I went and saw Drillbit Taylor at the movies. It definitely had its funny moments, but it also had a number of slow spots, to the point where Dean and I were having a conversation between us without missing anything. (We were nearly the only people in the theatre).

Dean & I made soft tacos and nachos for dinner tonight. They were yummy.

I have some reading to catch up on now.

Foreclosure crisis

We have a foreclosure crisis. What are we gonna do about it? Senate to the rescue!!

"The Senate on Thursday passed a bipartisan package of tax breaks and other steps designed to help businesses and homeowners weather the housing crisis.

The measure passed by an impressive 84-12 vote, but even supporters of it acknowledge it's tilted too much in favor of businesses like homebuilders and does little to help borrowers at risk of losing their homes."

Yes, that's right, we're going to pass a bill that helps rich homebuilders and screws homeowners.

holy crap. Where's Lewis Black when I need him? This is the best I could find. Shall we all "rise up as one and slay them"??

Underwater Astonishments

VERY, VERY cool thing that Jennifer just sent me:

David Gallo shows jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, including a shape-shifting cuttlefish, a pair of fighting squid, and a mesmerizing gallery of bioluminescent fish that light up the blackest depths of the ocean. He focuses on the work of two scientists: Edith Widder at the Ocean Research & Conservation Association, and Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological Lab.

Barbara Ehrenreich

Good article here.

Eloise

Another choice video from GodTube:

A Letter from Hell

So there's this new thing called GodTube, a youtube knockoff. There are all sorts of videos there. This one is one that was created for a youth group, apparently. Part of this is really, really, really funny.

But the kind of fear tactics used in this video, and the kind of God depicted is really, really, really disgusting.

Jesus' General

This just became my favorite blog. I have no idea why I haven't been reading it more.

Protesting China

Am I the only one who thinks it is ironic embarrassing that the U.S., the country of waterboarding, extraordinary rendition, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and who, itself, has done precious little about Darfur, is protesting China's human rights and Darfur policy?!

The Gift of an Absent Mind

Friedrich Nietzsche "The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time."

Episcopal Property War

This is surprising to me.

April 7, 2008

The Episcopal Property War

by David Van Biema
Time

In the slow-motion civil war of the Episcopal Church in the U.S., one very worldly question has arisen: who owns the real estate? If a congregation chooses to leave the U.S. Episcopal organization, do they have to vacate the property and the physical church building they have been occupying?

That high-stakes question will surely take many more legal battles to resolve, but the first round has been won by the secessionists, in a high-profile fight involving a famous old church.

A Virginia County Circuit Court Judge has ruled that at least according to a state statute, The Falls Church, where George Washington was once a vestryman - and which gave its name to the surrounding community - is covered under a state definition that would allow its conservative congregation to take the property into a non-Episcopal group supervised by the conservative Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria. The same goes for ten other churches in Virginia. Their monetary value has been estimated at over $20 million, but their symbolic value is considerably greater.

The most immediate part of the ruling by Judge Randy Bellows late Thursday night states that the evidence is "overwhelming" that the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia is currenly in a state of "divison" and that, therefore, under a Civil War era state law, control of its property sits with their congregations, not their previous mother church.

A Tale of Three Lawyers

An awesome article.

Laughter

WANT A GOOD LAUGH?
…there are some things that must always be laughed at in life:

1. Laugh when people tell a joke. Otherwise you might make them feel bad.

2. Laugh when you look in a mirror. Otherwise you might feel bad.

3. Laugh when you make a mistake. If you don’t, you’re liable to forget how ultimately unimportant the whole thing really is, whatever it is.

4. Laugh with small children…. They laugh at mashed bananas on their faces, mud in their hair, a dog nuzzling their ears, the sight of their bottoms as bare as silk. It renews your perspective. Clearly nothing is as bad as it could be.

5. Laugh at situations that are out of your control. When the best man comes to the altar without the wedding ring, laugh. When the dog jumps through the window screen at the dinner guests on your doorstep, sit down and laugh awhile. When you find yourself in public in mismatched shoes, laugh—as loudly as you can. Why collapse in mortal agony? There’s nothing you can do to change things right now. Besides, it is funny. Ask me; I’ve done it.

6. Laugh at anything pompous. At anything that needs to puff its way through life in robes and titles…Will Rogers laughed at all the public institutions of life. For instance, “You can’t say civilization isn’t advancing,” he wrote. “In every war they kill you in a new way.”

7. Finally, laugh when all the carefully laid plans get changed; when the plane is late and the restaurant is closed and the last day’s screening of the movie of the year was yesterday. You’re free now to do something else, to be spontaneous,...to take a piece of life and treat it with outrageous abandon.

…laughter enables us to live in a highly structured world without falling prey to the manacles of the mind that blind our eyes and cement our hearts. Laughter gives us the freedom of the Jesus who foolishly questioned the authority of the state and smilingly stretched the imagination of the church. “The poor shall inherit the Kingdom,” he laughed. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a woman,” he smiled. “God is a daddy,” he chuckled. He danced from town to town, healing, making people smile with new hope, bringing invitations to people in trees and light-footedness to lepers. He invited guests to eat with him when he had no food. He taught babies and poked fun at Pharisees and told winsome little stories, spiritual jokes, about women who would not let pretentious judges alone.

Day after day he smiled his way from one theological absolute to another and left the world with enough to smile about till the end of time.

—from Joan Chittister, There Is A Season (Orbis)

Clinton & Obama

It doesn't matter to me all that much, but if it were up to me, I would not want Clinton to quit the race. Why would anyone quit the Final Four before the game was over?

But there's one thing I wish both Clinton and Obama would do, and that is this: I wish they would not say one. single. word. about the other Democrat from now on. They should be spending every single moment talking about McCain.

Jeremiah Wright to NYT

So this is interesting.

Americans want to Win

I can't think of anything more foolish to say about Iraq than that "Americans want to win." What exactly does that mean? We won't stop until Iraq turns into Canada??

Update: McCain to Petraeus yesterday, "America must not choose to lose. They must choose to succeed." Good grief!

Uncomfortable

Been antsy the last couple of days. I don't feel quite right, nothing holds my interest, can't get started in prayer, work is boring, I can't get comfortable in any chair I sit in, I am discontent to be quiet and still, but not interested in doing anything, nothing is very emotionally stirring.

Peabody Awards

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Speaking of Faith's episode about Rumi, the 13th century Sufi mystic. That broadcast of Speaking of Faith, just got a Peabody Award. Good for them!

Other Peabody Award winners were Bob Woodruff, The Colbert Report, Christiane Amanpour & CNN for God's Warriors (which I blogged about here), Discovery Channel for Planet Earth, Bravo for Project Runway, and PBS's FrontLine for Cheney's Law.

Update: Krista Tippett was interviewed for beliefnet after she won her Peabody this week. Here's a piece:

Countries of Asia

Not so good with this one.

I can name 28 Asian countries in 10m 0s

Click here to Play

50 states quiz

I would have done better if I coulda remembered Rhode Island and Kentucky!

In 3m 58s

Click here to Play

Ted & Daniel Tosh

Yesterday morning, Dean and I attended the visitation for Dean's uncle Ted who passed away on Saturday. Still don't know what the cause of death is. The whole family is somewhat anxious to know more about what might have happened.

In the evening, we went to see Daniel Tosh performing at Liberty Hall (we had bought tickets months ago and it was sold out). There was something odd about the juxtaposition of grief and laughter, especially when Tosh brought up the death of Heath Ledger.

Still, it was an enjoyable night. Tosh is absolutely vicious to those he's making fun of, especially women.

He ended the show with a riff on Nebraska that was popular.

This American Life - Part 2

So Act II of This American Life that I blogged about before talks about immigration. Basically, if an immigrant's citizen spouse dies within 2 years of marriage, the immigrant can no longer be a resident (although their American born children can stay).

Here's the best part. The immigration service debunked this rule in the 70s and strangely semi-reversed themselves later.

In the 70s, they said, "wait, we don't have jurisdiction to decide whether you are a spouse or not." In the 80s, they said, "wait, in the 70s, we were wrong. We can decide that you are not a spouse. AND, you cannot appeal this decision. BECAUSE we don't have jurisdiction."

If you're going wuh-huh?!? Yah....me too.

Ah, it gets worse. The government has lost in court. But they still find ways to deny residency. In one case, they said that they would abide by the court's ruling, but only in cases in the 9th circuit court, and only if the spouse can prove that they have no where else they can go and that their home country is too dangerous to live in.

Ah, it gets worse than that. For those whom they say they will abide by the ruling in the 9th circuit court, they are STILL going to deport the immigrant on the basis of an anti-terrorism law from 2005, which says that the immigration service can , by its own discretion, reject any immigrant for any reason, without telling anyone what the reason is, AND this rejection is not subject to ANY court's review.

These are not abstract "gee, that's weird" kind of ancient blue-laws like banning bread sales on Saturday. These are destroying real families.

They conceivably apply to my family. My mom is not a citizen; she's a resident. So, conceivably if my dad dies, she could be deported to Cuba on the basis that she is not a spouse.

Un.be.lievable.

Parrot Flower

Something Elva sent me. It's cute.