Some comparisons being made between Palin and Harriet Miers. That's probably a good comparison. Except this time the Republicans will not make her withdraw.
Meanwhile, Maureen Dowd has a great article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/opinion/31dowd.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Republican Veep
So McCain has chosen Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin. I said in an earlier post that McCain needed to pick somebody that nobody knew about, like Pawlenty. Well, McCain did me one better and picked somebody I didn't even know existed! And a pro-life woman (talk about appeasing the Right)! Wow! Without knowing one single thing about Palin, I have to say, this is probably a very smart move for McCain. NOBODY has ever heard of this woman, so there's no baggage. And he might bring back all the conservative women that voted for Bush because of security, but were bolting to Obama because of the mess. Not to mention the Hillary supporters that still want a woman to vote for (I wonder what Joan Chittister would say since she is still steamed about the whole thing)! I think this has got to be the first Republican female VP candidate? So, McCain's making some history too. And young. And I imagine it's going to be a lot tougher for Biden to really go after a woman candidate in the VP debates.
Unless the muckrakers find major dirt on Palin (unlikely I'd think), this seems to be an amazing choice. But it's also putting all the pressure on McCain. Really the criticism is going to be that she's not ready to step into the Presidency. There will be comparisons with Quayle. But if she's articulate, she can easily dispel those comparisons. If she's not, it could turn into a disaster for them.
Update: Palin on the issues:
http://www.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin.htm
Looks solidly conservative: pro-life, anti-gay, pro-drilling in Alaska, pro-gun, anti-tax. And no information on a lot of the other issues.
Second Update: Yup, the Quayle comparisons are out. Interestingly, re: the VP debates, many are saying that Biden would simply eat her for lunch. I suppose that's possible. I guess there's still some mis-placed chauvanism in me that says that a guy hitting a girl is bad. But I guess if you're willing to do it, there's no doubt that Biden can politically punch her into a bloody pulpy mess on just about every topic I can think of.
Third Update: This is funny. Apparently, when asked a few months ago whether she would be interested in the VP job, she responded with something like, "are you kidding? what does the VP do??" The muckrakers are starting to dig dirt already. Apparently she has her own Troopergate scandal.
Unless the muckrakers find major dirt on Palin (unlikely I'd think), this seems to be an amazing choice. But it's also putting all the pressure on McCain. Really the criticism is going to be that she's not ready to step into the Presidency. There will be comparisons with Quayle. But if she's articulate, she can easily dispel those comparisons. If she's not, it could turn into a disaster for them.
Update: Palin on the issues:
http://www.ontheissues.org/Sarah_Palin.htm
Looks solidly conservative: pro-life, anti-gay, pro-drilling in Alaska, pro-gun, anti-tax. And no information on a lot of the other issues.
Second Update: Yup, the Quayle comparisons are out. Interestingly, re: the VP debates, many are saying that Biden would simply eat her for lunch. I suppose that's possible. I guess there's still some mis-placed chauvanism in me that says that a guy hitting a girl is bad. But I guess if you're willing to do it, there's no doubt that Biden can politically punch her into a bloody pulpy mess on just about every topic I can think of.
Third Update: This is funny. Apparently, when asked a few months ago whether she would be interested in the VP job, she responded with something like, "are you kidding? what does the VP do??" The muckrakers are starting to dig dirt already. Apparently she has her own Troopergate scandal.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Complaining about the columns
This is pretty funny:
Gawd. So they're really going with this, eh? Their attack is going to be that the elitist Barack Obama is using... ETHNIC ARCHITECTURE?
What the h... I mean, how does... with the... and half of D.C... the White House... aaaargh.
Holy Fucking Thundercats, I can't even find words for the stupid. Nobody can be this stupid. Nobody. Not even in politics. Not even among Republicans. I don't care if they're paying you to be this stupid, I don't care if you're having daily meetings to decide how to best be stupid, I don't care if you're an ten-time gold medalist in synchronized stupidity, it's not possible. You could drill a hole in your skull and fill it with mayonnaise and olives, and you still wouldn't be this stupid. You could convince yourself you were a tropical fish, and dunk your head in an aquarium to breathe the cool, refreshing water, and your decomposing body would still be smarter than this two weeks later.
Read the rest here.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Republican Veep
CNN says that McCain has chosen his Veep and is supposed to reveal on Friday. The bookies are giving the odds to Romney (4/6 or 60%) with Pawlenty a far distant second(9/2 or 18%). Personally I think Romney is a sucker bet. I don't think there's a chance in hell he'll pick Romney. I think it's either going to be Pawlenty or Lieberman, and I give the nod to Pawlenty. At this point, McCain needs somebody that nobody knows! There's an outside chance it could be Tom Ridge, but since he really wasn't that great at his job as Home Land Security chief, I doubt it.
A hard teaching
The Lord cares, despite all of our silliness. We are the kind of being God loves. God's love doesn't depend on our doing nice or right things. Yet it's an illusion to think that any of us would operate totally beyond self-interest.
We're doing it in part for ourselves, and God, in great love and humility, says, "That's what I work with. That's all I work with!" It's the mustard seed with which God does great things. Thank God!
True recognition of our basic egotism is a humbling experience, but a liberating one, too.
from Richard Rohr, Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction
[sigh]
So it's Biden. Ah well. So much for "Change we can believe in." Whatever.
Meanwhile, McCain gets to attack Obama using Biden's and Hillary's own words. You know...Obama isn't ready (Biden) and better McCain than Obama (Hillary). Ouch! Pretty effective I think. I'm bracing myself for a McCain presidency and eternal money- and life- sucking war with Iran, Syria, Russia, North Korea, and whoever else the NeoCons are after.
Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald blogs so that I don' t have to.
In other news, much more fun and stress reducing, Dean and I have been playing with Legos. Yes, Legos. They're quite fun. We just finished putting together Dwarves Mine last night.
Meanwhile, McCain gets to attack Obama using Biden's and Hillary's own words. You know...Obama isn't ready (Biden) and better McCain than Obama (Hillary). Ouch! Pretty effective I think. I'm bracing myself for a McCain presidency and eternal money- and life- sucking war with Iran, Syria, Russia, North Korea, and whoever else the NeoCons are after.
Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald blogs so that I don' t have to.
In other news, much more fun and stress reducing, Dean and I have been playing with Legos. Yes, Legos. They're quite fun. We just finished putting together Dwarves Mine last night.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Words are Meaningless
There stood the president of the United States speaking passionate words into a Rose Garden microphone. He was excoriating Russia's "dramatic and brutal escalation" of violence toward Georgia, "a sovereign neighboring state," in retaliation for Georgia's suppression of Ossetia, its breakaway province. The action, George Bush said with properly restrained indignation, has "substantially damaged Russia's standing in the world."
It was a stupefying moment. In response to Russia's troop movements into Georgia in defense of South Ossetia ,a province on Russia's southern border, George Bush, architect of the invasion of the still embroiled and desperately damaged "sovereign nation of Iraq" declared to the world that "such action [as Russia took] is unacceptable in the 21st century." Yo, George! Aren't you forgetting something?
So how is it that a president can make such an officious display of condemning - demonizing -- another nation for doing the very thing we have done? How can we possibly threaten them with international opprobrium while we bask in fabricated virtue and ignore public opinion entirely?
In a world that has become the global village Marshall McLuhan predicted in the '60s --20 years before the personal computer - "the medium," has indeed, "become the message." A president who can criticize others with such vehemence for doing exactly what he has just done and can neither redo nor undo nor solve and resolve, is a message for the world: Words are meaningless now.
-- excerpted from Joan Chittister
It was a stupefying moment. In response to Russia's troop movements into Georgia in defense of South Ossetia ,a province on Russia's southern border, George Bush, architect of the invasion of the still embroiled and desperately damaged "sovereign nation of Iraq" declared to the world that "such action [as Russia took] is unacceptable in the 21st century." Yo, George! Aren't you forgetting something?
So how is it that a president can make such an officious display of condemning - demonizing -- another nation for doing the very thing we have done? How can we possibly threaten them with international opprobrium while we bask in fabricated virtue and ignore public opinion entirely?
In a world that has become the global village Marshall McLuhan predicted in the '60s --20 years before the personal computer - "the medium," has indeed, "become the message." A president who can criticize others with such vehemence for doing exactly what he has just done and can neither redo nor undo nor solve and resolve, is a message for the world: Words are meaningless now.
-- excerpted from Joan Chittister
I'm an Ass, You're an Ass"
"'Oh, how charming you are,' she tells me. There, I received a positive stroke, as they say now. I'm okay, you're okay. I swear I'm going to write a book some day, the title is going to be, I'm an Ass, You're an Ass. How liberating! How wonderful to be able to admit that I'm an ass! And people will tell me that I'm wrong. And I'll just say, 'well, what did you expect from an ass?'"
-- Anthony deMello, Wake Up to Life
-- Anthony deMello, Wake Up to Life
Monday, August 18, 2008
Paying Attention?
Here is a curious English construct I recently encountered:
Have I not been paying attention?Yes, you have not been paying attention.
According to some handy-dandy reference guide, the question is in the "present perfect contiguous negative interrogative" case. That's the easy part.
Here's the hard part: What is the difference between these two answers? They both seem to say the opposite of each other, and they both seem to say that the questioner has not been paying attention...curious!
Of course, if a person were trying to say that the questioner HAS been paying attention, they could say,
"Yes, you have been paying attention." Or "No, you have been paying attention." Curiouser!!
Is there an English major out there that can make sense of this?
Have I not been paying attention?Yes, you have not been paying attention.
No, you have not been paying attention.
According to some handy-dandy reference guide, the question is in the "present perfect contiguous negative interrogative" case. That's the easy part.
Here's the hard part: What is the difference between these two answers? They both seem to say the opposite of each other, and they both seem to say that the questioner has not been paying attention...curious!
Of course, if a person were trying to say that the questioner HAS been paying attention, they could say,
"Yes, you have been paying attention." Or "No, you have been paying attention." Curiouser!!
Is there an English major out there that can make sense of this?
Saturday, August 16, 2008
No Politicking
One of the reasons I seem to not be blogging much is that I have been deliberately staying away from politics. I just checked in to my RSS Reader for the first time in about 2 weeks, and it showed that I had over 1000+ blog posts to read. That's probably about how much I used to read on politics. No wonder I needed to blog to get rid of all the garbage I was taking in!
So, I like not being so involved in the politics right now. Really I just hear things 3rd hand in little tidbits, which is fine. So...instead...let's have a little comedy. Like with this:
So, I like not being so involved in the politics right now. Really I just hear things 3rd hand in little tidbits, which is fine. So...instead...let's have a little comedy. Like with this:
euthanasia
There's a story on CNN about how a zoo has euthanized an ailing gorilla. I wonder, why is euthanizing a gorilla humane, but euthanizing a human is inhumane (and illegal)?
http://www.wlky.com/news/17199879/detail.html
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Simplicity
The scapegoat sequence, without being too clever, goes something like this: We compare, we copy, we compete, we conflict, we conspire, we condemn and we crucify.
If you do not recognize some variation of this pattern within yourself, and nip it in the early stages, it is almost inevitable. That is why spiritual teachers of any depth will always teach simplicity of lifestyle and freedom from the competitive game.
It is probably the only way out of the cycle of violence.
-- Richard Rohr
If you do not recognize some variation of this pattern within yourself, and nip it in the early stages, it is almost inevitable. That is why spiritual teachers of any depth will always teach simplicity of lifestyle and freedom from the competitive game.
It is probably the only way out of the cycle of violence.
-- Richard Rohr
On Patriotism
The latest critique of Obama is that he painted over the American flag on his campaign airplane, replacing it with a symbol of his campaign.
This, of course, is supposed to mean that Obama is unAmerican. Nevermind that McCain's airplane ALSO does not have an American flag and ALSO has a symbol of McCain's campaign. Nobody mentions that.
I am tired with all the people who mistake a symbol of patriotism (lapel pins, where they put their hand during the pledge) for the real thing.
This, of course, is supposed to mean that Obama is unAmerican. Nevermind that McCain's airplane ALSO does not have an American flag and ALSO has a symbol of McCain's campaign. Nobody mentions that.
I am tired with all the people who mistake a symbol of patriotism (lapel pins, where they put their hand during the pledge) for the real thing.
Anthony Pico
On this week's This American Life, they featured Anthony Pico, a teen who has been in the foster care system. To the outside world, he's a "winner" or "star" because he goes around the country speaking to different groups about the problems in the foster care system and what needs to be done about it. He's very articulate and can easily speak to people.
But internally, the person that most people don't know, is that Anthony is still a kid without any parents. He lives in a building with other teen foster kids, and there are no adults living in this building, and no adults present in the building after business hours.
So Anthony really has nobody to talk to, is years behind in school, and is unmotivated. Public speaking has been the only way he's figured out how to talk to adults and get advice from them, by networking with adults after his speeches.
The show highlighted this important insight -- nobody can make you do anything (like show up for school), and nobody can do anything without help (like show up for school). It is a strange paradox.
But internally, the person that most people don't know, is that Anthony is still a kid without any parents. He lives in a building with other teen foster kids, and there are no adults living in this building, and no adults present in the building after business hours.
So Anthony really has nobody to talk to, is years behind in school, and is unmotivated. Public speaking has been the only way he's figured out how to talk to adults and get advice from them, by networking with adults after his speeches.
The show highlighted this important insight -- nobody can make you do anything (like show up for school), and nobody can do anything without help (like show up for school). It is a strange paradox.
Stuff
So, life has been busy this past week. Wednesday I chaired the first Worship Committee meeting at church. Overall it went pretty well. But some people that I was hoping would show up, didn't. So I get to decide what, if anything, to do about that. In the meantime, things roll on....
Work is heating up. Lots and lots and lots and lots of work involved in transitioning systems from Great-West to CIGNA. And here's the thing: I support 5 different systems, and none of them full-time. Yet every system requires full-time effort to transition. So (almost) everybody is expecting me to work full-time on their project. And management is very de-centralized right now. Part of the problem is that when project managers look at their project, they look at dollars. And there are plenty of dollars in the budget for their project. So they think everything is good. It means that they have plenty of money to pay for the work. What they don't have, is bodies. There just isn't enough bodies to do all the work, and it doesn't matter how much money you have if you don't have the bodies.
And training new bodies is a nightmare. If I *don't* work full-time on System A to get it transitioned, it will take 3 or 4x the amount of effort to train someone else to do it. And training takes full-time effort too. Thank God I'm not a manager. I think I'd be having a heart attack right about now.
On Thursday and Friday I went to Souljourners. That went well, although it wasn't my favorite weekend. The topic was on discernment. Which is always a good topic, but it's one we've had before, and sometimes I think we're wasting time duplicating stuff. There's so much ground to cover, that I don't know why we'd repeat anything.
Saturday I went to clay class. Didn't learn much that was new, but spent time practicing. I made a bottle, but unfortunately, I made the bottom too thin, and I lost the bottom when I lifted it. Then I made a bowl, which turned out okay.
This past Sunday I preached. The topic was Friendship with God. Overall I think it went very well. It was really a way for me to introduce the congregation to the Spiritual Director ministry I've been working at with Souljourners. I haven't really had much response from my own congregation, and this last week at Souljourners I talked with Joanie about it, and she gave me some really perceptive ideas why. First, she says, there is always that "who do you think you are?" kind of perception, like when Jesus got a poor reception from his own home town. Second, because Spiritual Direction is potentially a very personal kind of ministry, some people just don't want to talk to someone that they know. So, I may just need to give up on offering this in my congregation and start reaching out to KU and the other area churches.
Work is heating up. Lots and lots and lots and lots of work involved in transitioning systems from Great-West to CIGNA. And here's the thing: I support 5 different systems, and none of them full-time. Yet every system requires full-time effort to transition. So (almost) everybody is expecting me to work full-time on their project. And management is very de-centralized right now. Part of the problem is that when project managers look at their project, they look at dollars. And there are plenty of dollars in the budget for their project. So they think everything is good. It means that they have plenty of money to pay for the work. What they don't have, is bodies. There just isn't enough bodies to do all the work, and it doesn't matter how much money you have if you don't have the bodies.
And training new bodies is a nightmare. If I *don't* work full-time on System A to get it transitioned, it will take 3 or 4x the amount of effort to train someone else to do it. And training takes full-time effort too.
On Thursday and Friday I went to Souljourners. That went well, although it wasn't my favorite weekend. The topic was on discernment. Which is always a good topic, but it's one we've had before, and sometimes I think we're wasting time duplicating stuff. There's so much ground to cover, that I don't know why we'd repeat anything.
Saturday I went to clay class. Didn't learn much that was new, but spent time practicing. I made a bottle, but unfortunately, I made the bottom too thin, and I lost the bottom when I lifted it. Then I made a bowl, which turned out okay.
This past Sunday I preached. The topic was Friendship with God. Overall I think it went very well. It was really a way for me to introduce the congregation to the Spiritual Director ministry I've been working at with Souljourners. I haven't really had much response from my own congregation, and this last week at Souljourners I talked with Joanie about it, and she gave me some really perceptive ideas why. First, she says, there is always that "who do you think you are?" kind of perception, like when Jesus got a poor reception from his own home town. Second, because Spiritual Direction is potentially a very personal kind of ministry, some people just don't want to talk to someone that they know. So, I may just need to give up on offering this in my congregation and start reaching out to KU and the other area churches.
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