Heart thread - 05/15/2010

Prayers for Jonathan on this Seventh Sunday of Easter as he bids farewell to the church where he has served faithfully and moves into a future known only to God - yet surrounded by saints in heaven and on earth who hold him dear and intercede on his behalf.

Word from Margaret:

Tommy Brave Heart!!!!
Dear all,

Just a very quick update: Tommy was extubated at 9:30 this morning. He is resting well, breathing on his own, with the right oxygen saturation rates. They will be taking out his foley in an hour or so (he can pee on his own then), and we will be looking to take out the remaining drain tubes and arterial lines within the next 24-36 hours. He is almost there, but his breathing on his own is absolutely huge.

Thank you, thank you for all your continued prayers and love, and light and energy sent our way. It is part of this miracle and we are so very, very grateful to all of you, gifts from God whom we know and whom we don't, for holding us in your hearts.

love,
Natasha, Blaine, and Tommy brave heart

We offer continued prayers for his healing.

We also give thanks for Margaret and all who joined in today's bike ride to support the local Free Clinic.

For John Bear and Raven during John's ongoing clinical trial.


Continued prayers for Declan and his family as he is in a big chemo week. This is Declan playing with Daddy. You may follow his story here.

I give thanks for the graduation ceremony today at which my neighbor and friend Rob received a double master's degree. His wife and mother hooded him. I also rejoiced that one male graduate was hooded by his male partner and one female by her wife (announced without fanfare as partner and wife, respectively).

For Mark, Bruce, Mother Sandra, Janet, Jack, David, Frank, Jim, Kathy, N. and D. in their new apartment.


We give thanks for the ordination today of Diane Jardine Bruce and Mary Douglas Glasspool as bishops suffragan of the Diocese of Los Angeles.

Photo by Christina House for the LA Times

We continue to pray for the Gulf Coast and all who work to halt the oil leak and minimize its impact.

Oil spill imperils an unseen world at the bottom of the gulf
Washington Post - ‎1 hour ago‎

We remember those recovering from floods in Tennessee.

For the people of Thailand.

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thousands of Thai protesters refused to leave Bangkok's streets on Sunday despite three days of fighting that has killed 24 people and spiraled into chaotic urban warfare, with both sides calling for reinforcements.

For those who risk their lives for the sake of others.

Slain Oakland Police officers honored
San Jose Mercury News - ‎1 hour ago‎
WASHINGTON - Four Oakland police officers killed in the line of duty were remembered Saturday as President Barack Obama paid tribute on behalf of the nation to law enforcement officers who made the ultimate sacrifice while safeguarding their ..

Ascension by
Bagong Kussudiarja, Indonesia

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

--the BB

This is not a theatre review

This is really more about me.

I went with friends to see Anton Checkov's The Three Sisters at the Vortex Theatre this evening.

The set and costumes were good. The blocking was good, the directing and acting quite good. The many characters were well delineated. I did not have that conscious awareness that I was watching actors performing that one experiences when the acting is not so good. In other words, I think it was a top notch production.

And I left at intermission.

That is not a judgment on the production.

A primary criterion in my response to plays and movies is whether I care about the characters and what happens to them. Love them, hate them, be amused by them, feel compassion, feel anger... no matter; do I care? Do I want to see what happens?

And tonight I did not. About two-thirds of the way through the first act I was ready to go home but I waited until intermission after the second act. In a telling parallel, I also left years ago during the intermission of Waiting for Godot at The Berkeley Rep. Excellent production then as well but (1) in that case I had read the play when studying 20th century French drama in college and (2) I had more than enough. I knew nothing would happen in the second half. In the instance of tonight's play, I did not care what happens in the second half.

As I said, this is really more about me and what engages me or does not. Give me Greek tragedy or Shakespeare, thanks.

I believe it is also a testament to Checkov's success in expressing the claustrophobic frustration of people trapped in unfulfilling lives. The characters are bored, struggling, and making no progress toward a happier life. I felt incredibly claustrophobic. Physically there was a set with many characters crowded into it and I was not sitting in the front row where I usually sit and can stretch my legs. But it is the emotional claustrophobia of the characters in their situation the connected solidly. They were not getting out of their situation. I had a choice, and I exercised it.

So this is being written while the third and fourth acts are being performed. I congratulate the actors, the director, and the Vortex for doing a good job. And I want to share some of the director's notes.

Denise Schultz writes:

As a pompous undergraduate student in the late 1960's, I hated Anton Checkov's plays. When asked to read these scripts, I groaned... they were boring, pretentious and were irreverent [irrelevant?] to the world I existed in.

She goes on to describe a transformative experience of The Three Sisters and concludes:

I became and still am a lover of Checkov's musical language, breathing characters, and his dynamic ability to tell a remarkable story. Either Checkov or I grew up. I am assuming it was me.

Though I prefer the slower pacing of European cinema to the rushed pace of Hollywood, I guess I have not yet matured with respect to Checkov.

I am much happier at home right now and, blessedly, much happier with my life than the poor folks in the play.

Sorry, Mimi, I know you loves you some Checkov.

For Checkov lovers in New Mexico, there is a good production at the Vortex through May 30.

--the BB

TGIF

This is a photo I took this morning of one of the two Iceberg rose bushes. They are both in bloom and full of lovely, full, snow white blossoms.

Tomorrow there is some planting, watering, attending a friend's graduation, and catching Checkov's The Three Sisters at the Vortex. Somewhere in there should be laundry and thinking about Sunday's sermon.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

--the BB

Il y avait une fois....

I got up to around page 120 in Volume Three today. This is part of the long, slow process of re-engaging my fantasy world and the current tale so I can pick up where I left off and finish telling it.

Things that need clarification or expansion or simple rewording show up on every page but basically I feel very pleased that I can tell a rich and engaging story. Well, pride goeth before a fall and all that. Nonetheless, it is gratifying to follow the adventures of characters I not only created but love dearly (or hate passionately).

From the beginning, back in 1972, these tales were only meant to be ripping good yarns and pure escapism... but with serious content wrapped in narrative. Entertainment is the primary goal (though I confess that moral formation lurks within the adventures).

I guess they are really children's books for grownups. Yep. That sounds right.

It all began as a bedtime story, and now it is time to put this weary body to bed.

--the BB

The evening workout

Two nights ago I was digging a trench in heavy wind. This evening was beautiful, balmy, and calm. I stopped, as usual, at the Despot, and loaded my car with more compost and mulch and a few other items. (No roses. I have my thirty.)

I came home, schlepped everything from the car to the back yard, and set to work. My neighbors came over and visited a while.

The windbreak is now in place On one side are the Purezza rambler rose and a grapevine, on the other a honeysuckle. I am counting on these three to cover the trellis in no time. On the east side that one sees entering the yard from the side of the house are white petunias, magenta million bells, and something else (I forget what already).

There is a stretch along the south wall between the present border plants and this windbreak and I plan to put blue delphiniums, purple foxgloves, pale pink petunias, deep purple petunias, and snapdragons.

This weekend I must get serious about dead heading.

I then had some supper and watched TV until The Daily Show was over. I am tired and my body aches just a bit from the exercise.

Bedtime.

Sweet dreams, my frolicking fritillaries.

--the BB

Booms will only collect 15% of spilled oil

God bless Representative Capps from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Oxnard.



She asks why there have been no improved technologies since the 1969 oil spill off Santa Barbara. In all these decades nothing better than what was done then, and that was totally inadequate.

Translated into rudespeak, she's saying, 'Y'all have done diddly, you irresponsible bastids." Only she does it like a lady.

Rape and pillage is all they know.

H/t to emptywheel

--the BB

Questa notte

The winds have been out of control for two days now. It is just an integral part of springtime in New Mexico but it gets very tiresome.

I mean, y'all know I waited until we were supposed to be past freezes (and only one week after the last one) before planting vegetables. Well now my tomatoes are blasted by desert wind all day long, and half the night.

Tonight's forecast:

Mostly clear. Windy. Lows in the 30s to mid 40s. West winds 25 to 35 mph becoming northwest 10 to 15 mph after midnight. Gusts up to 45 mph.

This, mind you, is after the severe weather advisory was lifted at 8 PM. Hah!

We all know about mad dogs and Englishmen being the only ones to go out in the midday sun. Well, what about the evening gusts? Mad bears. Yep.

I have been thinking about setting up a trellis perpendicular to the south wall near where one enters the yard from the side of the house. The area between the houses is a bit of a wind tunnel. I figured if I could get some vines going that this would provide a bit of a windbreak to protect the likes of the America rose on the south wall that has been so battered by wind and cold that I am not sure it will ever be healthy again.

So I have my eye out. I was thinking maybe another grapevine as they grow so rapidly and some other vine or two. Honeysuckle, whatever grabs my fancy.

Yesterday evening at Home Depot I noticed some rambler roses looking healthy. Tonight I bought one. And another Thompson seedless grapevine. The winds were crazy (the wind actually opened the balcony door of our office several times today as though a ghost were walking in from outside). But I waited for them to die down. A little before 8 PM, when the wind advisory was supposed to lift, I went outside.

The wind had not relented, not even a little bit.

But I had the plants and decided I would not put this off.

So as it was beginning to grow dark I dug an eight-foot-long trench. At the spots where the vines would go I had to take a small adze to break the clay and sand up to enlarge and deepen the hole. I filled the trench with lovely compost. And I planted them with the wind howling around me. Their trellises are behind them, reinforced with 2"x2" stakes driven into the ground. A few other plants are in but most still wait to join them. When the winds die down in a few days I will add a 4'x8' trellis behind the current supports so they have lots of room to sprawl but it was too windy to even think about that tonight. Everything would have been blown over by tomorrow morning had I tried.

So I planted until about a quarter to nine.

I have rewarded myself with the very last of the Easter chocolate and some congratulatory rum. these are consumed with the sand in my teeth.

Mad. Absolutely off my chump.

If anyone has suck, please stop the winds. Thx.

--the BB

Heart thread - 05/11/2010

Happy Birthday to Debbie Bear from all the kids and me!

A blessed anniversary to Bob and Janet.

Let us remember Jonathan and the Missus going through a profound and difficult transition.

For all people and creatures and the soil and the water of the Gulf Coast.

For my neighbor Rob who graduates with a double master's degree this Saturday. For his entire family as they prepare to move to his next station in Mississippi. They are wonderful neighbors and I will miss them terribly.

Continuing prayers for David@Montreal's cousin Frank.

He is still fighting another round of cancer, but the doctors are hopeful. He's into the hospital in Vancouver at least once a week for blood draws etc and takes almost 30 pills a day (only one of them a repeat). Apparently the genetic material which was used in the gene therapy you all prayed his through last year was from a German lady.
Gratitude- more joyous gratitude than you can imagine would be an apt approximation of Frank's state.
...
Unable to garden or come into contact with pets, frequently dizzy or experiencing loss of energy, Frank was in full spring mode and ready for the summer he trusts is ahead for him.

Margaret sends a request:

I ask your prayers for my dear friends, Tasha and Blaine, and their new-born son Tommy. Tommy is not having an easy time at life so far.... and Tasha and Blaine are devastated with grief, fear and anguish. Please keep them and those who love them in your prayers.

For Mark, Neal, Rev MIBI starting a new job, David G., Jack and all others standing in the need of prayer.

For those killed, injured, or dispossessed by tornadoes in Oklahoma.

For those affected by the volcanic ash clouds. (Airports in Spain, Morocco, and the Canary Islands)

For Lyssa's Dad, Dan:

SO PROUD of Dad- he is making so much progress, so quickly! Pacemaker/AED implant planned for Tuesday, then rehab... still unsure whether that will be inpatient or outpatient. Dad would like to meet and thank all the officers that stood guard while he was in the ICU, he is so moved by that loyalty. Thank you to all who have prayed and supported us these past couple of weeks.

For Arkansas Hillbilly:

I just turned in the last two assignments for school, which means I am officially done with my coursework for the BSBA in Human Resources. Wow! I am about to be a college graduate, one of the first, if not the first in my family to do it. I am so excited I could just cry.
Now comes the really fun part. The discernment process sounds kind of like tearing your heart out of your chest, rubbing salt in the wound, having a group of people examine said heart, then put it back in your chest. After doing this for about a year, Bishop Benfield will have the final say on whether or not I get to go for the MDIV or MAR degree.

For Kate:

I have been smashed down to absolutely nothing and I don't know how to rebuild -- I'm not sure there's enough of me left to rebuild _with_. Pushing myself in the slightest leads to near-collapse. Trying to rest leads to thinking...and right now thinking hurts too bad.
I know, rationally, that it'll get better. I'm not giving up. But right now it's so hard...so hard.

For the Reverend Diane Jardine Bruce and the Reverend Mary Douglas Glasspool to be ordained bishops suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles this Saturday. The Diocese of Los Angeles is where I became an Episcopalian. I used to sing in the choir and teach Sunday School at St Alban's, Westwood, and handled adult education at the Cathedral Church of St Paul (the old building at Sixth and Figueroa).

--the BB

Mothers' Day

Here is a photo of an old photo of Hallie, my mother. She was working as a nurse's aide at St Agnes Hospital and had been looking to adopt a son. Mom and Dad already had two daughters. I was born on a Wednesday and one of the sisters said, "Hallie, I think we have your little boy." The following Sunday, Mothers' Day, they took me home.

Mom was a veritable force of nature but she has been gone now for a very long time. I wish I had more photos of her.

Here's to you, Mom. I trust you and Jesus are having a good time. Blessings on you.

Blessings on my birth mother, whom I do not know but gave me the life that Hallie nurtured.

Blessings on all mothers and the women who have been mothers of various sorts in our lives. Blessings on the women who wanted to be mothers and could not. Blessings on the women who have borne the grief of burying their children. Blessings and more blessings.

Fran wrote a lovely tribute to her mother that you can read here.

Margaret reminds us how Mothers' Day started, in a cry for women to organize against war.

--the BB

Sharing birthdays - updated with second photo

In my family three of us share yesterday as a birthday: my cousin Judy, my cousin Bessie, and I.

This is a photo of cousin Raymond and Bessie on their wedding day. Raymond has been gone for some time now but Bessie is still kicking. She is a truly wonderful lady and I just came across this photo and wanted to wish her, and cousin Judy, a happy (belated) birthday.

Family is a fluid thing. Raymond's parents were Uncle Ollie and Aunt Roxie. Ollie was Roxie's second husband; her first was an actual uncle in my family. So although there was no relationship of blood or marriage, there was nonetheless a deep bond of affection. You can't get more "family" than that in my book.


This is totally my favorite more recent pic of Bessie, hugging her grandson Dallas (2006). Can you tell by her smile that she is a fun person?

Today my "baby sister" came to lunch. I am the baby in my family, she is the baby in my ex's. We are all still family and she will always be my baby sister, her husband my brother-in-law, and their son one of my nephews. Her birthday is next Tuesday. May is a big birthday month for my clan.

To them all I say, Blessings on the day you were born.

--the BB

The work was all done yesterday

But today I got to simply enjoy the yard after yesterday's labors. Here are photos taken this morning before I cleaned house downstairs and got ready to serve brunch.


Not much happened last year but this year I believe we are going to have some iris.


The circus rose (one of them). I am excited as I wait for this bud to open.


The Piñata rose has a few more blooms today.


The trench I planted with lavender spectrum flowers yesterday afternoon.


An Heirloom rose. You can see why I saw it and had to buy one more rose. (I know, I know, addicts always have a reason to justify their behavior.)


The Lady Banks roses have burst forth in an amazing profusion this year.


On the right side are the zucchini (foreground) and straightneck squash. To the left a couple of roses and in the center toward the rear a French lavender.


One of the Iceberg roses, flanked in the back by potato vines and surrounded with marigolds, gaillardia, calendula, white salvia, and petunias.


One of the two eggplants put in yesterday.


The Golden Showers rose showing new foreground plantings (yellow calibrachoa and dwarf marigolds joining earlier violas) and foxgloves added to the north wall border in the background. Hiding behind the rose bush is a honeysuckle to sweeten the air.

And that is today's garden tour.

I've had a little nap and am pondering onion sets. With tomatoes, chiles, onions, and cilantro I would have my own salsa garden. (Yes, lemons and limes would be nice but the climate here is too cold for them.)

--the BB

PASCHA: Sunday of the Blind Man

O Christ God,
Thou spiritual Sun of Righteousness,
Who by Thine immaculate touch
didst bestow a twofold
enlightenment upon him
who from his mother's womb
was deprived of sight,
illumine Thou the eyes
of our souls also,
and prove us to be
children of the day,
that we may cry
to Thee with faith:
Great and ineffable
is Thy compassion toward us,
O Friend of humanity;
glory be to Thee.

--Great Vespers, Sunday of the Blind Man, Pentecostarion

Blooming roses - a fine present

In the last two days several rose bushes have blossomed. Lots of yellow and white blossoms in the yard that were not there. Sometimes when I am standing still or watering I can smell roses in the air.

Sigh.

Too lovely.

I spotted a hummingbird this morning and a tiger swallowtail butterfly this afternoon. A bird sang to me from the peak of the roof today also. (OK, probably not singing to me and possibly telling me to leave so it can enjoy the yard by itself; I don't know.)


When I bought two Circus roses earlier they were blooming. Those blooms are long spent but today I saw this bud offering hope for tomorrow (when I am having guests for brunch).


This Iceberg bloom was trying to hide beneath the leaves.


The vegetables are all planted. I do not have photos of the squash and eggplant because by the time I finished planting this evening it was getting dark. Here is the pot with the Early Girl tomatoes and two kinds of chiles.


Husky Cherry tomatoes and three kinds of chiles.


One of three America climbing roses in the yard.


Double Knock Out roses.


The China Doll bush was covered with blooms when I bought it. Most are pretty much gone but this stem has some fresh buds.


The first blossom on the Golden Masterpiece bush that I planted last week. This was a bud last night, an opening blossom this morning, and in full bloom by the end of the day.


The Piñata has been my prolific bloomer the past two years. It has just begun this season in the past two days and is covered with buds.

In addition to the vegetables I planted a "trench" with the new Heirloom rose (that's # 29) and other flowers compatible with its lavender blooms. There is a wallflower, some lavender osteospermum, a Mexican heather, a couple of foxgloves, and lots of variegated petunias.

A second cluster of full-size marigolds (so I will have them for the Day of the Dead this fall) went in along with yellow dwarf marigolds. More sweet alyssum and some Cambridge blue lobelia got planted.

I am so fond of foxgloves that I put three in the north border, replacing some plants that did not make it and filling in gaps. They bring back fond memories of our cabin in the mountains when I was growing up. Mother planted foxgloves and they were among the extremely short list of plants the deer left alone. Although they are very stupid animals when browsing (they browse, not graze), they know better than to ingest the heart stimulant that is part of the chemistry of the Digitalis purpurea. Yes, the drug digitalis is made from the foxglove.

While buying more compost in which to plant the new plantings today I found some more yellow calibrachoa ("million bells"). I had planted some in the yellow group at the foot of the Lady Banks rose and they seem to thrive so I have been looking for more. I put three of them with a pony pack of the darker dwarf French marigolds around the base of the Golden Showers rose which still had a few violas but was looking lonely.

Brunch today was with my friend Kathy. It is so nice to see her without constant pain. Thank you all so much for prayers on her behalf.

All in all, a lovely natal festivity, though I can feel each one of the years right at the moment. (I am SO tired of schlepping bags of compost from the pallet at Home Depot into the cart, from the cart into the trunk of my car, from my car around the house to the back yard. I would bet I have lugged at least sixty of them this season (and as many again over the past three years).

That's the story of my day and I'm sticking to it.

--the BB

That would explain a few things, yes.

At 8:24 PM Pacific Time today I shall have lived 33,661,440 minutes.

In honor of which I got a very small stepladder I can sit on while gardening and use to help myself get up off my arthritic knees when I've been planting.

I give thanks for the end of WWII which, based on timing, has a lot to do with my being on this planet.

I give thanks for the gift of my life.

--the BB

Looking back

May 8, 2004
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
The Empire Strikes Out
By BEN MACINTYRE
LONDON — This week the world learned that the United States Army has been investigating more than 30 claims of prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan since December 2002. So far, officials have found a catalog of "sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at the hands of American captors. This horrible scandal represents the most serious crisis for the coalition since the war on terrorism began. Occupation inevitably creates resentment; but humiliation fosters outright rebellion, and winning back the moral high ground after this calamity is far more important than reasserting control in Falluja or in the Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan.

Yes, we were beginning to realize what had happened at Abu Ghraib and what that implied. Y'all DO remember Abu Ghraib, right?

"Beyond abuse of prisoners, there are other photos that depict incidents of physical violence toward prisoners, acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman."
Donald Rumsfeld

Testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee

May 7, 2004

"I'm not a lawyer. My impression is that what has been charged thus far is abuse, which I believe technically is different from torture … I don't know if it is correct to say what you just said, that torture has taken place, or that there's been a conviction for torture. And therefore I'm not going to address the torture word."
Donald Rumsfeld

Press Briefing

May 4, 2004

May 6, 2004

Inspector says he warned U.S. officials of Iraqi prisoner abuse

By BOB GIBSON
Media General News Service


CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- David Kay, the man who led the U.S. search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, says he repeatedly told people about problems with the interrogation of prisoners, but the military ignored him.
"I was there and I kept saying the interrogation process is broken. The prison process is broken. And no one wanted to deal with it," Kay said. "It was too, too distasteful. This is a known problem, and the military refuses to deal with it."

From a diary by Plutonium Page at Daily Kos (Sunday, May 8, 2005):
If you are unfamiliar with the situation in DR Congo, this link will give you some background information.
And, here's the story, from the pages of Ms. Magazine, about what has happened to the women there:

It took Thérèse Mwandeko a year to save the money. She knew she could walk the first 40 kilometers of her journey, but would need to pay for a lift for the last 20.
So she traded bananas and peanuts until she'd saved $1.50 in Congolese francs, then set out for Bukavu. She walked with balled-up fabric clenched between her thighs, to soak up blood that had been oozing from her vagina for two years, since she had been gang-raped by Rwandan militia soldiers who plundered her village in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Finally, she arrived at Panzi Hospital.
Here, Thérèse takes her place in line, along with 80 women, waiting for surgery to rebuild her vagina. Dr. Denis Mukwege, Panzi's sole gynecologist and one of two doctors in the eastern Congo who can perform such reconstructive surgeries, can repair only five women a week. The air is thick with flies. It reeks from women with fistula: rips in the vaginal wall where rape tore out chunks of flesh separating the bladder and rectum from the vagina. Yet Thérèse, 47, is happier than she's been in years.
"Until I came here, I had no hope I could be helped," she says.
Across the DRC are tens of thousands of women like this: physically ravaged, emotionally terrorized, financially impoverished. Except for Thérèse and a few fortunate others, these women have no help of any kind: Eight years of war have left the country in ruins, and Congolese women have been victims of rape on a scale never seen before.

The article goes on to mention that rape is used as a weapon, a very powerful weapon. Men are raped as well as women.

STATEMENT OF SENATOR BARBARA BOXER
FISCAL YEAR 2006 BUDGET CONFERENCE REPORT
Mr. President, I oppose this budget and will vote against it. All of my colleagues should. It sets the wrong priorities. It breaks promises to the American people. And it is the height of fiscal irresponsibility.
Let me begin with the priorities. The priorities of the American people are not the priorities of this budget.
It is quite clear what the priorities of this budget are: tax cuts for the wealthy. In just one year, this budget provides a tax cut for millionaires totaling $32 billion.
Meanwhile, education funding is cut almost $1 billion below the services we are providing now. A total of 48 education programs are eliminated. The promise that was made in the No Child Left Behind Act is broken by $12 billion. Mr. President, we should be increasing our commitment to our children, not cutting it.
Veterans programs – for those brave men and women who served our country and are currently serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan – are cut $500 million. As more and more veterans return to this country, the demands on the VA system will only grow. This budget ignores them.

He was quoted on May 6, 2005, but this was Goldwater in 1981 - perhaps more relevant now than ever:

"I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of conservatism."

Barry Goldwater, September 16, 1981

Gannon comes out: Former escort, conservative reporter grilled on White House visits
RAW STORY
Published: Friday May 5, 2006
Gannon backs outing of Virginia congressman
WASHINGTON – At a forum in Philadelphia Wednesday evening, the conservative White House correspondent who drew national attention for his past life as a gay escort declared himself gay publicly for the first time, and finally answered questions about discrepancies in the logs of his trips to the White House.

¡No me digas!

Mainstreaming hate
Saturday, May 06, 2006
The primary reason organizations like the Minutemen pose a threat to our national well-being is not that they pose an immediate prospect of vigilante violence.

It's that they represent the mainstreaming of far-right appeals to anti-immigrant sentiments, especially the demonization of Latinos as the problem. The more people like the Minutemen are beating this drum, the more it will be picked up as legitimate by people in the mainstream, including those in positions of authority and influence.

I was among those in Grace Cathedral electing Marc Andrus as the next Bishop of California. Headlines trumpeted relief that neither the gay nor the lesbian candidate was elected. For most of us in the Diocese of California sexuality was just not an issue in electing. *rolls eyes*

There's Something Truly You-Know-What About This Story

by tristero

Bush claims he caught a 7 1/2 pound perch* in his very own lake.

Yeah, right. Gotta picture? But just for the sake of argument, let's say it's true (but see below). He really did catch that large a fish and that was his happiest moment in five years. Does he realize what this says about him and his presidency?

With all the daily opportunities available to do such good for your fellow country-folk, and the world, the only thing Bush specifically mentioned that made him happy is catching a big fish. In his own lake. Which could very well be deliberately stocked with big fish.

There are, imo, only three ways to understand this comment, assuming it's true. Quite possibly it's the pathetic whine of a deeply, perhaps clinically. depressed man who believes himself a total failure. Or maybe this is a man so uninterested in his job, let alone in serving his country, that he has no business whatsoever being president. Or perhaps this is simply an arrogant bastard who holds in utter contempt anyone who dares to ask him a question, so he responds with the stupidest thing he can say. (Obviously, nothing precludes all three or some combination of two.)

To be all pre-emptive about it, someone's bound to comment that maybe this just shows how much of a down-to-earth regular guy Bush is. Yeah? All the down-to-earth regular guys I know don't have their own lake, fer chrissakes. Those people are filthy rich, even if they wear jeans on their estates. But there's a character thing here, too. The down-to-earth people I know who hold important jobs are mighty proud of of what they do and mighty happy with their achievements. And they can tick them off without thinking too hard about what they might be. And, even as a joke, they don't talk about catching a big perch when a newspaper asks them to name their best moment in more than five years. They name their accomplishments. Or, if they're trying to play up the down-to-earthiness, they name their children or something they did with their spouse.

BP CEO LORD BROWNE'S FORMER KEPT BOY LETS IT ALL OUT

Lord Browne, who resigned as head of British Petroleum last week, found himself at the center of an unraveling scandal after it was revealed that he had not been truthful under oath when discussing how he met his 25-year-old boyriend Jeff Chevalier. Browne had said he met Chevalier while exercising in Battersea Park when the escort site Suited and Booted might have been a more truthful answer.

Hmm. British Petroleum CEO and a rent boy in the headlines at the same time. My goodness, things don't change, do they? Just a shift in the partners.

Wolfowitz On the Way Down
by Devilstower
Tue May 08, 2007 at 05:40:21 AM PDT
For weeks now, Paul Wolfowitz has been following the patented Bush administration script for dealing with scandal: just ignore it, pretend you've done nothing wrong, and wait for people to lose interest. For a few days there, it looked like it might work. Wolfowitz announced that he was going to stay, Bush Xeroxed the standard memo of support, and the Mighty Wurlitzer whipped up a tune to explain away the peach job and plump raise given Wolfie's girlfriend.
But the World Bank is not the Justice Department, or the Defense Department, or any of the other branches of government where the administration could employ CIA-approved non-torture techniques to get employees to go along with embattled Bush appointees. There's a new report out to highlight Wolfowitz's ethical lapses, and it's turning out to be a lot harder to lean on the World Bank's international crew than it was on Rumsfeld's military. The Bush administration can tell the World Bank employees to sit down and shut up, but those employees -- and the governments who sent them -- don't have to listen. However, they are prepared to be generous.

THEY KNEW: Tenet's Book Reveals 9-11 Perjury
by leveymg
Mon May 07, 2007 at 04:14:05 PM PDT
George Tenet's new book, At the Center of the Storm, reveals something extremely important about events in the final weeks before 9/11. For the first time, the former CIA Director admits he flew to Crawford in late August, just weeks before the attack by al-Qaeda cells known to be in the U.S., and briefed President George W. Bush personally about the threat.
This briefing followed a CIA PDB read to the President on August 6 in a meeting with Harriet Miers, then the President's lawyer, and an emergency meeting between Tenet and Condi Rice on July 10 on the same subject.
It also reveals that in order to cover up the last meeting, Tenet committed perjury before the 9/11 Commission when he denied meeting with Bush in the month before the attack. According to the White House website, Bush met in Crawford with Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Condi Rice, and the present and former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Generals Meyers and Pace, on August 24, 2001.

Pharmaceutical Industry buys US Senate (again)
by Mark701
Tue May 08, 2007 at 07:35:13 AM PDT
Yesterday Democratic and Independent Senators attempted to pass legislation that would have allowed consumers to buy prescription drugs from other countries cheaper than here.
By a 49 to 40 vote the Senate required the Administration (the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS) to certify the safety and effectiveness of those drugs before they are imported. Well that makes sense, right? Wrong.
The 49 Senators who voted to ensure that overseas drugs would be safe know damn well that Michael Leavitt, Secretary of HHS is vehemently against the importation of drugs. Therefore, requiring HHS to guarantee the safety of these drugs is the equivalent of killing the amendment. Pretty clever really. By voting to ensure our "safety" they make themselves look great and simultaneously give the pharmaceutical industry everything they paid them for. Only in America.

Everybody was counting delegates to see who would be the party candidates in the 2008 election. I did not see enough catchy quotables, so am skipping that year.

Oh, and I was working 10-12 hours a day in New Orleans.

What "oversight" means in Washington
(updated below)
Since last September, the Federal Reserve has increased its balance sheet by more than $1 trillion, and has engaged in even much larger amounts of off-balance-sheet transactions. In January of this year, freshman Rep. Alan Grayson repeatedly asked Federal Reserve Vice chairman Donald Kohn the identity of the companies which had received those loans, only to be told that the Fed had no obligation and no desire to disclose that information to Congress. That obviously leads to the question of who exerts oversight over the Fed and the vast amounts of money it transfers.

And now we are hoping Congress will do something about oversight of the financial industry to guarantee transparency and thwart corruption. I would feel more optimistic if Congress were not a wholly-owned subsidiary of the corporatocracy. Well, not "wholly" as in 100% but close enough.

I am a proud supporter of Rep. Grayson and a handful of other progressives.

SLDN accuses Obama of caving to religious right on military ban
by John Aravosis (DC) on 5/10/2009 07:32:00 PM
Harsh words from a gay rights organization. It's a rare gay, or more generally liberal, organization that has the nerve to speak up when they think a Democrat is doing the wrong thing. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has been rather outspoken in its concerns about the way this administration is approaching the issue of the military's gay ban. This release, below, is one of the harshest I've ever seen from a progressive organization.
WASHINGTON, DC - When asked this morning on This Week with George Stephanopoulos if "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will be overturned, the president's national security advisor, General Jones, responded, "I don't know."

Well, we're still waiting on this one.

Why Now, Dick?:

Now that it has realized that it can absorb sunlight without ulcerating too quickly, the acidic pollutant-made-flesh known as former Vice President Dick Cheney believes it can appear at will to forcibly spit forth fungal spores into the media atmosphere, parasitically attaching to those who it once spurned, feeding off them to hopefully infect them to make them rot. For, indeed, Dick Cheney is nothing if not an entity that wishes things to collapse from within, like a gutted corpse.

And he still has not shut up. Plus he has Baby Dick to shill for him (as if she had any serious credentials).

De-basing Torture

by digby

The argument against torture is slipping away from us. In fact, I'm getting the sinking feeling that it's over. What was once taboo is now publicly acknowledged as completely acceptable by many people. Indeed, disapproval of torture is now being characterized as a strictly partisan issue, like welfare reform or taxes.

Le sigh. Le grand sigh.




FRIDAY, MAY 7, 2010, was a beautiful day in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I am going to be planting vegetables on Saturday and brunching with a friend for my natal festivity. Sunday another friend and my baby sister are coming to my home for brunch. (They have to admire my garden in order to be fed, of course. Unconditional love is one thing but unconditional feeding: not so much.)

May you all have a blessed weekend. May the intercessions of Dame Julian help you remember that "All shall be well."



I have worshiped many times in the space where this icon hangs, the chapel at CDSP. She invites us into the depths of God's love.

Lord God, in your compassion you granted to the Lady Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

--the BB