Racism

Michelle Malkin is a racist. But you knew that already, right?

Inner Authority

The authority that we need must be total. It can no longer come from mere church mandate or Bible interpretation, but it must also come from our souls. We need Christians who have souls!

Only people with inner authority, what Gandhi called "soul force", are capable of true nonviolence. Only they can both let things be and call them into being. They alone create. All the rest of us simply rearrange.
-- Richard Rohr

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day weekend, Dean, Teri, Ellen and I went to Nebraska and visited the Omaha Zoo (my favorite zoo), and the Lauritzen Gardens. The gardens was Teri's favorite part. Her least favorite was the snakes. She says that she got the sweats whenever she was around snakes. They don't seem to bother me. Dean's favorite part was the desert dome at the Zoo, which I didn't go to, because I wasn't in the mood to be hot and see desert animals (having grown up in Arizona, I am constantly underwhelmed).

Normally my favorite part is the rainforest at the zoo (they have a huge rainforest), but this time, I think I appreciated the Creatures of the Night exhibit with the albino alligator and the new butterfly pavilion. Oh, and I liked the bears too (I always like the bears!)

The penguins are always neat to see. I took a little video of it. It was SOOO crowded in that little room! It was sometimes hard to look over everyone's head, and of course, little kids are screaming and pushing everyone trying to get closer.

There's a new exhibit at the Lauritzen Garden that has a really neat miniature city with railway trains running through it. They have even taken care to carefully manicure the plants so that they stay the appropriate miniature size to fit into the exhibit. Pretty neat.

Normally the Victorian Garden is my favorite part of the garden, but this year, it wasn't in very good shape. The plants were all spent spring tulips with thousands of pansies to distract you from the fact that there isn't anything else there. I was a bit disappointed with that. But the woodland shade garden, with all the waterfalls and shady plants like hostas, azaleas, and others was really neat.

We stayed 2 nights at a lodge, which had excellent accommodations for the $89/night charge. Although Teri's bed was too soft (she has to have a very firm mattress). They had a free buffet breakfast (with the whole works of eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, cereal, danishes etc.) that was very tasty. I so wish I had a maid that could make me breakfast every morning (my favorite meal of the day).

Here's a slideshow of all the pictures I took at the Zoo.



Omaha Zoo, May 2008

And another slideshow of the Lauritzen Garden.



Lauritzen Garden, Omaha

Awards for Ruining the Economy

You remember that housing crisis we're (still) in? The one that involved sub-prime loans? Well, here's a neat story: one of the organizations that created the sub-prime loan financial instruments (called CDOs), was up for an award. It's called the Annual Securitization News Award.

It's no joke. Here's the registration packet from a couple years ago (check out the guy in the sunglasses and the shiny suit).

In light of the fact that CDOs have been largely responsible for the economic recession that we are in, they thought about cancelling the awards. But, because CDOs have had such a tough year, they thought they'd better go through with it to give the CDO makers a morale boost. I'll wait while you recover from your brain seizure.

How does that guy in the sunglasses sleep at night?

Listen to how the entire housing crisis came to be, including the brilliant NINA loans (No Income No Assets Loan) at This American Life's episode, "Giant Pool of Money." Or listen to NPR's abbreviated report for All Things Considered.

Oil Exec Testify

A couple of days ago, Congress hauled in the Oil Executives AGAIN to testify about high oil prices and what should be done about it.

Why do they keep doing this? Do they expect the oil execs to say, "you know Senator, we've had an epiphany. We realize now that we've been gouging the public for decades, and what you really ought to do is eliminate our subsidies, institute a windfall tax, and re-institute all those regulations that you've let lapse."

Well, they didn't. No surprise. They asked Congress to extend their subsidies and to allow them to drill in Alaska and destroy precious sea life by drilling offshore too. No surprise there either. Dazzle them with bullshit, right?

This weekend Dean and I are doing what fewer families are doing this year than last year--driving for a Memorial Day weekend getaway in Omaha. We're not going far (thank goodness). But, if the weather holds up, I think it will be a good time.

Three Things

Three things I am grateful for:

midafternoon naps

Claritin

a funny video Dean sent me that I can't upload
because blogger chokes on it.

Seeking God

"Why do you go to the forest in search of God?

He lives in all and is yet ever distinct;
He abides with you, too,
As fragrance dwells in a flower,
And reflection in a mirror;
So does God dwell inside everything;
Seek Him, therefore, in your heart."

Adi Granth

Proof of God

"To ask for a proof of the existence of God is on a par with asking for a proof of the existence of beauty.”
—Walter T. Stace

Changes at Lambeth

Episcopal bishop downplays discord at upcoming Anglican meeting

By Daniel Burke

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said Tuesday (May 20) that she does not expect up-or-down votes on the role of gays and lesbians in the church at a meeting of global Anglican leaders in England this summer.

The Lambeth Conference, a once-a-decade gathering of bishops from the 38 provinces of the worldwide Anglican Communion, will instead be an opportunity for bishops to work out differences in closed-door discussion groups, according to organizers.

"I don't expect legislation at Lambeth. That's not why we're going," Jefferts Schori told reporters. "It's a global conversation. ... It's not going to make a final decision about anything."

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, has drawn up the guest list and guided the design for the meeting, to be held July 16-Aug. 3 in Canterbury, England.

The new informal structure contrasts with the last meeting, in 1998, when conservatives succeeded in pushing through a nonbinding resolution that declared homosexuality "incompatible with Scripture" and condemned gay marriage.

Anglicans, who now live in 164 countries, have held the decennial meetings since the 1860s, according to Episcopal leaders. As the church spreads, however, it can be difficult to find theological unity among the diverse provinces.

In response to tensions in the 77 million-member communion, which is bitterly divided over homosexuality and the interpretation of Scripture, Williams has dispensed with tradition and authorized a new type of Lambeth Conference.

"Its aim is not to negotiate a formula that will keep everyone happy but to go to the heart of an issue and find what the true challenges are before seeking God's way forward," Williams said in a May 12 letter to bishops around the world.

Gone are parliamentary procedure and arm-twisting by bishops to forge binding resolutions. In are "ndaba" groups, taken from a Zulu word meaning "purposeful conversation," said the Rev. Ian Douglas, a member of the international committee that designed the conference.

"This is a bold, new, exciting thing that we are walking into together," said Douglas, who teaches at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

However, the new design may not please conservative Anglicans, who want to hold the Episcopal Church to account for electing an openly gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire, and allowing same-sex blessings in some parishes.

Robinson was not invited to this year's conference, a snub that irked many U.S. bishops, including Jefferts Schori. Robinson has said that he will still travel to England and participate in events surrounding the conference.

Already, several conservative bishops from regions where Anglicanism is rapidly growing, particularly Africa and other provinces in the "Global South," have declined invitations to attend Lambeth.

Nearly 300 bishops have registered for an alternative event, dubbed the Global Anglican Future Conference, in Jerusalem June 22-29.

Archbishop Gregory Venables of the Argentina-based Province of the Southern Cone has said he will attend both Lambeth and GAFCON. The alternative conference will be "an opportunity to come together around the central and unchanging tenets of the central and unchanging historic Anglican faith," he said.

Colorado Bishop Robert O'Neill will attend GAFCON on behalf of Jefferts Schori.

The presiding bishop also said she looks forward to the newly designed Lambeth Conference.

"The reality is that parliamentary procedure, including the way it's practiced in this country, leads generally to winners and losers," Jefferts Schori said. "When we meet face to face, we have far more opportunities to meet each other as complex human beings rather than as single-issue positions."

Straight-Talk Express

Something a friend sent me. Worth watching.

Ho hum (tm)

I have not been feeling like blogging lately. Plenty has happened since I last blogged. I went to Souljourners 2 weekends ago (topic was 12-step spirituality). This past weekend Dean and I spent lots of wonderful time together shopping for flowers and building our container gardens. Dean is focusing on the upstairs deck with flower boxes, while I have been focusing on the patio and the flower pots in the driveway.

It's expensive, but we're also doing it very methodically, using recipes we've found in a magazine, so we aren't overspending on random in-store decisions as I usually do.

I have not been interested in reading the news lately. Since a lot of my blogging has been writing about the news that infuriates me, not reading the news hasn't given me much to write about in that regard. Part of me just really doesn't care what CNN thinks is important. I'm totally over the democratic primary. I really don't care what happens any more.

Spiritually I am processing a lot of things internally. Vocation, personality, and experiencing God through meditation. I don't have much to say about that.

This weekend Dean and I walked the dogs around the block. It's the first time that we've taken Ginger for a walk. She did very well. I was afraid that she would resist the leash a lot, as she did when she was younger, but she seems to be okay with it.

Posters

Dean sent these to me.

Bill O'Reilly is an idiot

"We didn't invade Iraq!"
-- Bill O'Reilly

See the video:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/30/oreilly-invade-iraq/

Scalia

Teacher Fired for Refusing to Sign Loyalty Oath

Cal State system ousts another instructor who objects on religious grounds to a pledge adopted by California in 1952 to root out communists.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oath2-2008may02,0,6280956.story

What happens when the enemy is the guy who is forcing you to swear an oath?

Veto

Two veto overrides failed in the Senate yesterday. The first was an override attempt on the coal plant and the second was an anti-abortion bill that would have given the Attorney General access to certain medical records.

The coal plan vote failed by 4 votes, the anti-abortion bill vote by 2.

I was against the coal plant primarily because most of the power was to be sold to Colorado and Texas and most of the business owners were out of state partners. I didn't want Kansas to be the dumping ground for pollutants while getting none of the benefits. If Colorado and Texas want power, they should build the plants in their state (there's plenty of room in rural Texas!).

Personally, I'd like to see more wind power harnessed on the prairie.

I don't really know anything about the anti-abortion bill other than it had something to do with Phill Kline, so pretty much, it probably was a violation of privacy rights, cuz he seems to be pretty much against privacy (except his own).

3 Beautiful things

3 Beautiful things I saw today:

silver highlights in the approaching storm clouds from this evening

red bud trees

tylenol for getting rid of my headache

Bill Moyers - Food Shortage & Farm Bill

I have to take Bill Moyers in small doses. It is a wonderful ministry he has, but I couldn't do it. I can't face that much insanity. If I try to watch him every week, my head will explode from an apopletic seizure.

A couple of weeks ago Bill did an excellent show on the food shortage in America and the struggle that American food banks are having keeping food on the shelves. The second half discusses the completely insanity which is the Farm Bill. Which gives rich people who own farm land a quarter million dollars to do nothing, who get subsidies for "disasters" that have no impact on farmers, and in the end waste billions and billions of taxpayer dollars that could really be used effectively to reduce poverty.

Probably the only issue I have ever, or will ever, agree with GW Bush on is curtailing farm subsidies for the wealthy. (But don't agree with GW Bush that we ought to cut food stamps too.)

I tried to embed the video, and had it working at one point, but now I don't. So, here is the link to the PBS website:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04112008/watch.html
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04112008/watch2.html

John Polkinghorne on Quarks

"Quarks are unseen realities. No one has ever seen or isolated a single quark in the lab. So we believe in them, not because, even with sophisticated equipment, we have seen them, but because assuming they are there makes sense of great swathes of physical experience."

-- John Polkinghorne is a British particle physicist, an anglican priest, a winner of the Templeton Prize, and a knight of the British Empire.

Art is a Mirror

True Art
is a mirror
showing us
ourselves.