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08/28/2009
DoD Identifies Army Casualties
The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died Aug. 28 in Rashid, Iraq, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked their vehicle with an explosively formed penetrator. Both Soldiers were assigned to the 41st Special Troops Battalion, 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Oregon Army National Guard in Portland.
Killed were:

Sgt. Earl D. Werner, 38, of Mondovi, Wis.; and

Pvt. Taylor D. Marks, 19, of Monmouth, Ore.

08/25/2009
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
2nd Lt. Joseph D. Fortin, 22, of St. Johnsbury, Vt., died Aug. 23 in Hussaniyah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.



Father of all, we pray to you for all those whom we love but see no longer. Grant to them eternal rest. Let light perpetual shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

I gots a sore toof - updated

Going to the dentist tomorrow. A bit of sensitivity became an outright toothache yesterday, localized in one of my gold crowns. I didn't recall still having any nerves there but one loses track of root canals. Has not bothered me much today except when I chewed on my left side. I'm pretty brave about dentists, having had so many fillings as a child and braces from age 16 to 22. Nowadays damage comes mostly in the form of old fillings failing. To bed a bit early.

Update:
Today was just cleaning, x-rays, exam by dentist, fluoride coating, antibiotic shoved up my gums. Thursday I see the endodontist and next Wednesday the real dental work begins. It's tedious but necessary. I'll be fine but thanks for all who've prayed or sympathized. (The sore tooth, mercifully, is only at discomfort or very low level pain right now.)
--the BB

Senza parole

Keeping abreast

Juan Cole's post today is titled "Are the Taliban Surrounding NATO Armies and Cutting them Off? Why Washington Needs Iran and Russia."

I commend it to you for an update on Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran-Iraq-Russia.

Informed Comment is a great source of current information on the Middle East and Southwest Asia.

--the BB

A fond farewell to Vicar emerita the Rev. Sandra S. Bess

Today the Episcopal Mission of San Gabriel Árcangel in Corrales, New Mexico, celebrated the ministry of Mother Sandra, our founding vicar. We were joined by many members of St Michael and All Angels, Albuquerque, our mother parish, and friends from the Cathedral Church of St John, St Chad's, and St Thomas of Canterbury. It was a day of laughter and tears.

We send her forth with gratitude, hope, and deep affection. She signs her e-mails "Vaya con Dios" and we say the same to her as she moves into well-earned retirement. Blessings on her writing, her travels, and the as-yet-undiscovered ways in which she will continue to minister to others.

These photos are in reverse chronological order; I am too tired tonight to sort it all out.

Deacon Karly with a sunshine yellow balloon, the last photo I shot but nice symbol of the day's joy.


The new aumbry crafted by Bud Light and installed in time for this special day.


This is the congregation just after the dismissal. You can see that the place was packed.


Mother Rhonda McIntyre (our new vicar), Father Bryan Taylor (our rector), Deacon Karly Shepherd, with Cheri Winter, Steve Hayden, and Tad Pound assisting.


Fr Brian presenting a resolution from the Rector and Vestry of St Michael's.


Mother Rhonda presenting the awesome portrait of Mother Sandra that will hang in our fellowship area.


Mother Sandra with the certificate from the Standing Committee of the Diocese of the Rio Grande.


Diane Butler presenting the certificate (shown above) on behalf of the Standing Committee.


I would dearly love to know each word or event that provoked all these reactions. I was just snapping away.


Fr Brian, Mthr Sandra, Vicar's Warden Tad Pound. We are a church where laughter abounds.



Yes, I was there too. Shown here with Stephanie Padilla, one of the founding members.


Go in peace! Go in love! Go in joy! Go with God!

--the BB

Heart thread - 08/29/2009

Let us remember Roseann:

One step back
I was starting to feel kind of good. I was able to go visit some friends and do some cooking and stuff around the house. Then this morning I woke up all swollen from the neck up. My dialysis nurses had no idea what was causing it and gave me a laundry list of possibilities... allergies, drug interactions, etc.

This is what wears me down the most. I start to feel better and then I get kicked in the head again. I think God is pissed at me.
--GIVE PEACE A CHANCE, PLEASE!

For the people of Afghanistan amid elections and all their other challenges.

For peace in Iraq, Pakistan, Canaan, and throughout the world.

For the people of Iran about whom we hear little now.

For those threatened by wildfires in California and elsewhere.

For those recovering from Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan.

For the people of New Orleans.

For all whose days and nights are filled with terror, rage, confusion, despair, chronic pain, abuse, addiction, or fear.

O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us, in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

--the BB

Lest we forget - updated

Mimi writes today:

I remember the more than 1800 people who died and all those who loved them. I remember the 275,000 who lost their homes. I remember those who survived, but suffered through horrendous conditions in the days after Katrina. I remember those who have not returned to their home towns, and who want to, but can't find affordable housing. I remember those in Louisiana and Mississippi still struggling to recover and rebuild their homes and their lives.

Katrina - August 29, 2005

Please see her post with the story, photo, and poem of Our Lady of the Driveway.



I remember leaving New Orleans four days ahead of schedule at roughly this time last year, beginning my vacation early to avoid Hurricane Gustav and wondering if we would have a terrible replay.


I remember driving to work each morning last summer past shells of buildings, gutted structures, empty lots, boarded up homes and business places.



I remember walking past empty businesses cheek-by-jowl with open downtown offices as I went to and fro between the office and the car park.



I remember co-workers telling me how one of the buildings we worked in had six feet of water on the ground floor and it took a couple of years to restore and other co-workers recounting matter-of-factly how their family fled and what they still do to survive.



I remember the first day I arrived and drove from the airport to downtown, approaching the Superdome and the Central Business District while visualizing photos I had seen of the same area under water.



I remember thinking on many mornings, as I drove past the Superdome, that after Katrina the spot where I waited at the light was way under water.



I remember wondering what it must be like for those whose lives were yanked from one reality to a drastically different other reality.


And as I ponder how humans have built cities in uninhabitable spaces from the beginning or history, how those who simply say "don't built below sea level" can be so unempathetic toward others. As a species we would not cover the globe if we only built where it was safe and convenient. And last time I checked I did not choose where I was born.



That this engineering disaster occurred brings shame to our nation. That the response was so FUBAR should haunt us all.

Господи, помилуй

Señor, ten piedad

Seigneur, aies pitié

Κυριε, ελεησον

Senhor, tem piedade

Lord, have mercy

The flood photos are from online sources. The others are my own from summer 2008, three years after Katrina.

UPDATE:
Bill in Portland Maine has collected a serious list of quotations from the Katrina period that remind us how shamefully the Bush regime and its enablers behaved and spoke at the time.

--the BB

Democracy in Reserve, Louisiana

I commend to y'all's attention Grandmère Mimi's report of Senator Landrieu's town hall meeting on health care. Grandmère and Grandpère braved the nasty - and I do mean nasty - crowd. She recounts her experience at length and it is worth the read.

Pray for the United States and our often miserable congresscritters to pass an effective, if imperfect, major reform of health care WITH a strong public option. It IS a moral issue.

--the BB

Vrana of Orgl reminded herself to breathe.

There was still the sound of the Fiona flowing past the city but otherwise a profound silence such as she had only known on the stillest nights. She could see vague movement but hear nothing. Perhaps creation itself needed to breathe again, to release its grasp, to return to whatever passed for normal.

Ah, a sprinkling of voices drifted up to her as people tried once more to speak. A world of white began to take on faint shadow, to limn itself in growing color, to become visible.

Never in her fifty-eight years had she seen anything like what she had just witnessed.

One lone woman had become—-for a few moments—-a star, a god standing on the earth.

We can breathe again. The death spell failed though we are not yet sure at what cost.

The battle resumes. Both sides sustain losses but the world did not end.

Shabbat shalom, my naughty night herons!

--the BB

Not a good day for sorcerers

Time stretched out as B. raised his stone blade, sensing each muscle in his arm and thinking for a moment that he was weightless. Knife, hand, arm all seemed to move of their own accord. A slight movement of air made the sweat trickling everywhere on his body cool and he thought he saw a sparrow hopping at the corner of his eye. The blade hovered and began its descent, returning from the heavens and the daystar on an endless journey downward, earthward, darkward. As the sharpened flint approached the twitching animal, B. felt himself falling beyond all life, all hope, unreachable by gods or mortals.

Every "person of power" who plays a role in this tale was touched by the events of the twenty-second day of the Herb Month. All were alarmed and by noon one is dead and three are exhausted. And the author? His bad knee hurts a lot right now. At work he takes breaks and stretches; writing at home he just sits and lets it hurt until he can't ignore it. Naughty writer!

I just finished composing one of the most dramatic chapters of the book. It is possibly the most evil moment in the tale and one of the most hope-filled. There is nothing subtle in the battle between light and darkness in this scene. The old woman commanded to help the princess recites a spell evocative of St Patrick's breastplate or lorica. It also clearly casts a circle, invoking the four elements and the four directions. The elements are easy to discern, the directions require a knowledge of the geography of my fictional world.

All those years studying Church history, liturgics, and various spiritual paths do make it easy to draw on sources of imagery and themes without cracking a book.

In this fantasy parallel world both pre-Christian and Christian imagery is saturated with light mysticism. Their version of the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel would begin thus:

Annan dechrad n Solus jeroh,
L an Solus lei Zdvas jeroh,
L Zdvas jeroh n Solus.

"In the beginning was the Light...."

Not a difficult stretch, nor alien to the Christian tradition of our own world.

Chapter 64 of the book (First Draft): Light 1, darkness 0.

And now to bed, earlier than last night, thank you Jesus.

Sweet dreams, my sprightly sparks.

--the BB

Heart thread - 08/27/2009

Tonight I offer thanksgiving for new life and prayers for protection of the newly arrived and blessings on the entire family. My niece's sister-in-law has become a grandmother of twins. (What is with my family and twins?)

Niece Paula on facebook:

2 new twin boy nephews just a few hrs old. Wade and Logan. Wade was a little over 6 pds, and Logan was a little over 7 pounds. Parents are our niece and nephew Bridget and Adam (Rick's sister's daughter). Can't wait to see them.

...

Just got a text message with the info...Wade Adam weighed in at 6# 3 oz and is 18.5 inches long, Logan Dean weighed in at 7# 9 oz and is 20.5 inches long. Logan is experiencing some breathing issues so they are "admitting" him (whatever that means -- since he is already in the hospital). Will find out later I guess.

Grandparents are Connie and Joel.


I also ask your prayers for Irene, an elderly lady who fell this afternoon and has been in the emergency room. No mention of broken bones but the question of hidden head injuries arises, of course, and I just don't know very much. A very dear friend shares her home and gave me this distressing news.

Let us pray that we may be truth and light in our day, no matter what lies and darkness may seem to be all around us.

--the BB

If it all seems too complicated, try this

Why We Need Government-Run Universal Socialized Health Insurance



h/t to tunesmith

--the BB

A shapeless sensation of alarm shot through with light

Suddenly I’s lanky frame shadowed the doorway as he leaned against the jamb. N. glanced up and gasped when she saw the stricken look on his face. A very frightened H. stood beside him, clinging to his hand. There was no cart with wood outside.

OK. So the little domestic scene I used between the really dark moments shifted abruptly from reflective bliss to visions of horror. Rather as life suddenly surprises us unpleasantly, yanking us from the ordinary and plunging us into anxiety, sorrow, and combinations of frantic action and frustrated inability to do anything.

The sorcerers' telegraph kicks into action but the spell is almost ready to be cast.

Tonight my prayers are raised for numerous people going through painful times. Some have suddenly, or not so suddenly, become mourners. Some have been stricken with great distress or sudden illness or tragic news. Some are filled with fear or anxiety, some with despair, some are struggling to hope. Some wrestle with chaos, some wrestle with facing the next day.

May grace rain down upon them like oil of healing, anointing them, calming them, strengthening them.

Peace keep your hearts this night, my tender ones.

--the BB

May flights of angels sing you to your rest

Sharon-Gay Smith, a friend through the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, the Diocese of California, and Holy Trinity, Richmond, California.

804

08/26/09 :
DoD Identifies Army Casualties
Cpl. Darby T. Morin, 25, of Victoria, Canada, died Aug. 22 in Logar province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained during a vehicle rollover. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team...

08/24/09 :
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Staff Sgt. Andrew T. Lobosco, 29, of Somerville, N.J., died Aug. 22 in Yakhchal, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C.

08/24/09 :
DoD Identifies Army Casualty
Sgt. Matthew L. Ingram, 25, of Pearl, Miss., died Aug. 21 in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle, and his unit came under small arms fire from enemy forces.

08/24/09 :
DoD Identifies Army Casualties
Pfc. Jonathan C. Yanney, 20, of Litchfield, Minn...died Aug. 18 in Arghandab, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their unit. The soldiers were assigned to 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment...

08/24/09 :
DoD Identifies Army Casualties
Spc. Troy O. Tom, 21, of Shiprock, N.M...died Aug. 18 in Arghandab, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near their unit. The soldiers were assigned to 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment...



It looks like an odometer, I know, BUT IT'S NOT. These are irreplaceable lives, every single one of them.

May they rest in peace and rise in glory. May those who love them find comfort and healing.

Thanks for all the good you did for the people

Edward Kennedy
1932-2009

The Bush Crime Family... a gift that keeps on giving

Susie Madrak provides the goods at Crooks and Liars:

WASHINGTON — Huge flood-control pumps installed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina don't protect the city adequately and the Army Corps of Engineers could have saved $430 million in replacement costs by buying proven equipment, a federal investigation finds.
USA Today

And....

Meanwhile, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., asked the Government Accountability Office on Thursday to investigate the Corps and the contract it entered into with Moving Water Industries Corp.

MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps.
Washington Post, March 2007

At the end of Susie's post we read:

This begs a couple of questions: Why was a company under DOJ investigation for such serious charges given a major federal contract for New Orleans reconstruction in the first place? And why is the DOJ suit against MWI still unresolved after so many years?

Very good questions.

--the BB

Heart thread - 08/25/2009 - updated

I have two new prayer requests today.

A friend of a friend has learned she has cancer of the pancreas. I ask your prayers for Tricia.

Almighty God, we entrust all who are dear to us to thy never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come, knowing that thou art doing for them better things than we can desire or pray for; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Another of Smokey's own:

Last Thursday Steve Uptegrove, a Wallowa-Whitman National Forest employee, was killed during a drug enforcement clean up action when he was hit by a falling snag. Steve had worked for the Forest Service since 1985 1975. It is with deep sorrow that I share this message. Please keep Steve's wife Hope, his family, loved ones, friends, and fellow Forest Service employees in your thoughts and prayers during this time of sorrow. In honor of Steve Uptegrove, Secretary Vilsack has ordered flags at all USDA facilities to be flown at half staff.

--Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell

Most merciful God, whose wisdom is beyond our understanding, deal graciously with those who love Steve in their grief. Surround them with your love, that they may not be overwhelmed by their loss, but have confidence in your goodness, and strength to meet the days to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Updated with date correction on Steve's service; he began at the Deschutes National Forest in 1975.
--the BB

I am very pleased to read this

Senator Bingaman (D-NM) had a town hall meeting in Albuquerque today. I was at work but I read about it tonight at Daily Kos.

Here's the kicker:

So, the Senator set the table for our highlight moment. The remaining questions we'd carefully prepared and agreed upon had all been asked by other groups. Several of us whispered, wouldn't it be interesting to get a vote from the 200 participants on the public option, after such a thorough discussion? We wordsmithed the question. Our moderator wasn't sure -- we hadn't approved this as a group. So, we polled the table. It was thumbs up, even from our thoughtful skeptic.

We got our turn. The gentleman who asked the question for us was very clear: "Senator Bingaman, would you be willing to ask for a show of hands in this room of those who support a ROBUST public option, available IMMEDIATELY?"

...

Easily 90+% of the participants raised their hands! No kidding. He then asked who opposed a public option. Less than 10% of the participants raised their hands.

This was not your average town hall meeting. It had lots of organization. Only those willing to discuss seriously were allowed. They showed up two hours early, were divided into groups that worked on questions, issues, and statements, hammering out something they could agree on. It was very different from the usual, and obviously no heckling loudmouths had a seat at these working tables. But folks of any view were welcome to participate.

What I was looking for, hoping for is this:

But Bingaman said repeatedly that he favored the public option, and left no doubt about this. But he's skeptical that there are 60 votes for this. Fortunately, our group was prepared for this -- we asked if he'd support going the reconciliation route if there was no other way to get past "bipartisan" stonewalling or if there weren't 60 votes for true reform. "Yes", Bingaman said. It was an unhappy yes, because he had reservations about resorting to this. But -- a clear and unmistakable YES on using reconciliation if necessary.

When someone called me last evening on behalf of the DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) gearing up to get some money out of me to help elect and keep Democrats in the Senate - most unfortunate timing after my screed here, oh, and this one - I cut him short and said that until Senator Bingaman distances himself from the shenanigans of the Gang of Six I was not going to give a penny and that I was very distressed and disappointed in what I was seeing. I concluded that it would be good for the call to end right there and hung up, not giving him a chance to respond. I was in no mood for donation pitches.

That's for some context.

Here is a section of his position on health care reform from his official website:

Much attention has been given to whether the bill we send to the president should have a “public option.” I strongly support a public option. The most critical elements of such a plan are that it would be established and overseen by the federal government, and made available to all Americans. The primary purpose of the public plan is to ensure that there is at least one option for Americans that is affordable and would provide meaningful care. By leveraging competition, a public plan would also safeguard against unscrupulous insurances practices. You can learn how the public option fits into health care reform elsewhere on my website.

I am pleased to read that Jeff Bingaman is favoring a public option. I want him to do more than just favor it; I want him to fight for it. I want him to help put pressure where it can make a difference in the Senate so there WILL be 60 votes.

So, Senator Bingaman, are you listening? I would love to vote for you, even donate, but you need to earn that support and I just told you how.


Read it all in flitedocnm's post here.

FYI: The bolded portions were included in an e-mail to Senator Bingaman that I sent off just now, explaining where I am coming from and what I hope for.

--the BB

How far does one go to save one's own skin?

Or to further one's own purposes?

Do we need to, as Cheney said, "work on the dark side"?

A person of power, with a very sharp spear point slightly piercing the skin between his shoulder blades, is ordered to go there.

By now sweat sheeted off B’s head, running down his face and dripping off his nose. He closed his eyes, trying to recall what his uncle had once said after drinking too much. It was actually his mother’s uncle and the old sorcerer terrified little B. with his bloodshot eyes and wild expression. The old man laced his talk with warnings and dark threats. Such things were legend and not to be tried, dangerous to the one who worked them. If you went too far....

The emotional power of scenes like this engages me but I recoil at them. Intellectually I am trying to make them awful enough to tie the reader up in knots, but what am I trying to accomplish? Certainly part of it is forcing us to confront our own dark side, the evil of which we are capable and which we actually perpetrate. If we are not horrified then we have lost something: our compassion, our decency, our humanity.

My descriptions of evil are meant to be cautionary, to remind us what me must avoid, shun, oppose, refuse to do.

The dark and terrible portions of my stories are necessary because the world is not all sunshine. Not the world we know nor the world I imagine.

It is rather like facing what we as a nation have done, what has been done in our names. Glenn Greenwald wants all Americans to read the IG Torture Report that was released today. You may read excerpts at his post (click the link on his name).

My fictional world is shot through with grace. There are horrors and wickedness and suffering but one also finds compassion, honor, reconciliation, healing, and beauty. Not unlike the world we know.

At Doxy's wedding Bishop Curry told us all we are called to be witnesses. Witnesses to love in a world that needs that witness. I believe we are also witnesses of evil and must bear witness to that also. But the final word, always and ever, is Love, and is Yes.

Even after this breather, I don't think I'm ready to finish the scene I am writing. Not tonight.

Sweet dreams, my raucous raccoons!

--the BB