Sad, Sad, Sad.

or, Political Correctness Strikes Again...

I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.

I tend to agree with Phil on this one: if God is great, and we are all made in God's image... why would we imagine there wouldn't be plenty of differences amongst us?

Praise the Workmanship,
and Pass the Respect...
Phil Robertson is not the enemy.

We can disagree as Americans what makes for sinful behavior just as we can choose the religious denominations that best match our doctrinal views, if we so choose.*

The problem comes, I think, when our civil laws favor this personal viewpoint overriding and  ignoring the Constitution protections guaranteed all citizens, as in the case of DOMA -- the defense of marriage act -- that left an unconstitutional law on the books for decades because it was politically popular at the time to sacrifice minority rights for party agenda.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal -- an Indian-American elected in ... redneck country, if you want to pigeonhole and label things like that -- weighed in on Robertson's t.v. suspension today:

Phil Robertson and his family are great citizens of the State of Louisiana.  The politically correct crowd is tolerant of all viewpoints, except those they disagree with.

I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. In fact, come to think of it, I find a good bit of it offensive. But I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views.

In fact, I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.

-------------------------
 *  For example, Episcopalians v. Catholics.   There is more than a single-issue difference in how the gospels are lived and practiced in one's lifestyle.  I wonder if the Church magically changed some of their dogma tomorrow if some of those people complaining today, still would not find the Gospel message there a good fit...

Why would we want to narrow the pathways to God and elbow out others on the journey? 

If the path we are on now is not to our liking, why not encourage ourselves and others to continue seeking elsewhere until they too can see the face of God?

Sobering Thoughts.

By THOMAS B. EDSALL
Contributing Op-Ed Writer

It’s easy for liberals to explain away setbacks to programs and policies that they favor — ranging from infrastructure investment to food stamps to increased education budgets — as the result of the intransigence of the Republican Party, with its die-hard commitment to slashing government spending on nearly every front.

But that explanation is too facile.

Two years ago, Mike Konczal, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, opened a productive line of inquiry in a blog post called “Are We at the Completion of the Liberal Project?”
...
In practice, Konczal writes, the political left has abandoned its quest for deep structural reform — full employment and worker empowerment — and instead has “doubled-down” on the safety net strategy. The result, in his view, is “a kind of pity-charity liberal capitalism.”

Konczal’s poignant description of the problem goes a long way towards explaining the current struggles of the left. The question is whether there is an effective worker empowerment strategy at a time of globalization, off-shoring and robotization.
...
A mix of economic, social and political forces have weakened the clout of those in the bottom half of the income distribution. The list of forces is long, but its signal features are the decline in manufacturing jobs, the strengthening of the bargaining power of corporations, the gutting of middle income employment and competitive pressures to limit wage growth.

How did the Democrats let these developments gain momentum? It depends on how you see the world. Some progressives argue that the Democratic Party stood by and let it happen passively; others suggest that key segments on the left simply sold out to Wall Street.
...
The shift of the Democratic Party from economic to “pity-charity” liberalism has put the entire liberal project in danger. It has increased its vulnerability to conservative challenge and left it without a base of politically mobilized supporters.

Good, Better, Best.

Never Let It Rest,
Until Your Good is Better...
and Your Better is Best.

Some Operate in the Shadows.

Some Shrink in the Light.
But Some Shine.*

WASHINGTON — ... After a federal judge here said in a ruling on Monday that the N.S.A.’s collection of phone data on all Americans was “almost Orwellian,” an assault on privacy that would leave James Madison “aghast,” a civil liberties group ... plastered a D.C. bus with the words “Thank you, Edward Snowden!”...
...
After W. and Dick Cheney ignored warnings of an Al Qaeda strike, they proliferated a mind-set that there was no step too far to protect us from that happening again, be it attacking a country that hadn’t attacked us, torturing, warrantless wiretapping, spying Stasi-style on our allies or denying prisoners due process.

Judge Leon wrestled with the legality of holding detainees at Guan- tánamo Bay and now he suggests that the N.S.A. snooping may be unconstitutional.
...
“It’s one thing to say that people expect phone companies to occasionally provide information to law enforcement,” he wrote, “it is quite another to suggest that our citizens expect all phone companies to operate what is effectively a joint intelligence-gathering operation with the government.”

Though the Justice Department tried to justify the mammoth hoovering by insisting on the need for speed, the judge pointed out that the N.S.A. couldn’t cite a single instance in which its haystack of data had produced the needle to puncture an imminent attack.
...
Judge Leon struck a blow for the proposition that our moral and legal values regarding privacy are not obsolete just because some government employees out in suburban Maryland in a secretive agency with its own exit off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway got carried away with their cool new toys.

--------------

*...On You Crazy Diamond.
(All of You Out There).

The Best Player...

vs. Best Leadership, Kindness and Spirit.

The majority of the Heisman voters awarded Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston the Trophy based on his on-field performance this season, while 14-year-old Jack Wellman of Newtown, Connecticut earned the Sportskid of the Year for the latter.

Which is the more legitimate way to judge athletic performance? The former, I would argue, while simply noting the Tallahassee Police Department would win no awards for their work performance this year, it seems...

Go Auburn. Go Defense.
(Sometimes you even root for winners to be knocked on their ass.)

Honesty...

is hardly ever heard,
and mostly what what we need from you...
~Billy Joel.
But Innocent Man is his best, imho.
------------
*Bump*
...music to begin your week.

Plus, remember here in this hemisphere, the tilt of the angle we're at in North America, we're already adding minutes of daylight this month to the end of the day.

Sun still comes up later and later, which doesn't reverse trend until mid-January, so there's still more darkness than light, but I like to think of it as the Sun slowly working his way back, hanging in there longer and longer each day...

Then I like to think about rivers in summer, the cold water on your legs, the current moving, moving, moving... I like rivers over lakes for that reason: less chance of stagnation.

No chance of that, this week for anyone, I suspect. My wishes for you in these coming days?
Take it easy, time yourself and remember each day: twilight comes twice.

Matt Flynn, Josh McCown.

Why is the windshield so much bigger than the rearview mirror? Because when you're driving, you need to look at where you're going, more than where you've been...

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- If this was Matt Flynn's last start in place of Aaron Rodgers, it was quite a memorable one.

Flynn threw four touchdown passes in the second half, Eddie Lacy had the winning score on a 1-yard plunge after an interception by Tony Romo gave them one more chance, and the Green Bay Packers matched the biggest comeback in franchise history in a 37-36 win over the Dallas Cowboys(7-7)on Sunday.
...
"It took me everything not to cry," said Packers coach Mike McCarthy, whose team won its second straight without Rodgers after going winless in the first five, including the Chicago game when the star QB got hurt. "I'm just drained. Just the sheer emotion. It was incredible."
...
"What a feelin'!'" said Flynn, who threw for 299 yards with one interception. ''As we were taking a knee, we were thinking 'Is this real? Is this happening?'"
...
The Packers (7-6-1) kept their playoff hopes alive with Rodgers possibly returning next week. He was close to medical clearance, but missed his sixth straight game with a broken collarbone. He was wearing a headset on Green Bay's sideline.

Meanwhile, the Bears -- led by Jay Cutler replacing his replacement Josh McCown -- rallied to beat the 4-10 Cleveland Browns.

Shaking off two first-half interceptions, Cutler threw three touchdown passes in his first start since Nov. 10, leading the Bears to a 38-31 win on Sunday over the Cleveland Browns.
...
Backed up at his own 5 in front of Cleveland's Dawg Pound section early in the fourth, Cutler drove the Bears 95 yards - with the help of two defensive penalties - and hit Alshon Jeffery with a 45-yard scoring pass to tie it with 10:59 left.

Cutler lofted a deep pass toward the front of the end zone to Jeffery, who wasn't open but hauled in the throw when safety Tashuan Gipson badly mistimed his jump.
...
Cutler finished 22 of 31 for 265 yards and validated first-year coach Marc Trestman's decision to stick with him over McCown, who had played so well while filling in for Chicago's starter. Trestman's choice didn't come without controversy. There were reports of division within Chicago's locker room, but on a brutally cold and blustery day in Cleveland, the Bears were united.

"They played hard for him today and they had his back," Trestman said. "He's a captain - an elected captain - and I'm sure he would tell you that not just the offensive guys, but throughout our football team, they stuck together and won for each other today."

But against the Browns, no offense intended.

Chicago's Brandon Marshall had six catches for 95 yards and a 5-yard touchdown. Marshall knew Cutler was playing with more at stake than usual, and could understand his teammate being nervous.

"He's not going to show it, but the human side of things, you got a guy - Josh McCown - playing lights out, probably playing better than any quarterback in the National Football League," Marshall said. "That's what I love about Jay, man. Doesn't matter the situation, he's going to be the same guy. That's what I respect about him as a player, as a captain, but also as a friend."

--------------
Maybe friendship, on the field, is overrated. Maybe not. Beyond my paygrade, for now.

Say my Name, Say my Name ...

or hell, just call my number, says Mr. Michael "I just got here Tuesday" Thomas, of Miami.
----------

Michael Thomas, a defensive back signed off San Francisco’s practice squad only five days earlier and pressed into his NFL debut amid a string of injuries, intercepted a Tom Brady pass in the end zone with seconds remaining to preserve the Dolphins’ 24-20 victory over the New England Patriots at Sun Life Stadium.
...
Thomas, on how many snaps in practice he has taken with Miami’s defense: “Zero.” Terrific. He also didn’t play a single defensive snap until four minutes remained, which is when Brady feasts on defenses.

“I knew being the new guy, Tom Brady was going to come after me,” Thomas said.
...
First, Thomas knocked a potential touchdown pass from the hands of Danny Amendola with 21 seconds left. Then, with seven seconds left, Thomas hauled in Brady’s fourth-down throw intended for Austin Collie.
...
Dolphins offensive players wondered what they were watching. “I’m like, ‘Who is 31?’ ” left tackle Bryant McKinnie said. “We were actually talking about that on the sideline. ‘Who is that?’

“'And then he made the play at the end and I’m like, ‘Geez, 31 had a good game.’ Nobody knew his name. We just kept saying, ‘31.’ ”

Coach Joe Philbin: “I don’t know him that well.”

Coach, meet Michael Thomas: He is a 24-year-old, 5-foot-11, 196-pound undrafted defensive back from Stanford who said he wasn’t nervous when his number (certainly not his name) was called Sunday.

No, he didn’t know the defensive signals, so he and fellow DBs Reshad Jones and Clemons were screaming back and forth as Brady frantically drove the Patriots from their 20 to the Miami 14.

“If they didn’t think I got the call, they were screaming at me,” Thomas said. “And if I didn’t get it and it looked like Tom Brady was about to snap it, I’m screaming, ‘Hey, you.’ I’m trying to get their attention.”

Mission completed.
-------------------------
Meanwhile, in Minn-e-sota,
the team finds ways to win in the absence of injured running back Adrian Peterson:

With Peterson and Toby Gerhart out, third-stringer Matt Asiata rushed for his first three career touchdowns. Greg Jennings caught a career-high 11 passes for 163 yards. The Vikings (4-9-1) produced quite the spoiler performance without their top two running backs, top two tight ends and top three cornerbacks.
...
Asiata needed 30 attempts to total 51 yards, but he helped the Vikings control the clock after taking an early lead. Their time of possession was 36 minutes, 26 seconds.
...
Matt Cassel completed 26 of 35 passes and improved to 2-2 as a starter. In two other games, he relieved an injured Christian Ponder and helped guide the Vikings to victory.

“He's not worried about what could've, should've, possibly or could've possibly been,” Jennings said. “He stays in the now. As a player, that's how we have to operate.”
..
Cassel passed for two touchdowns and 382 yards, the most by a Minnesota quarterback since Brett Favre was here, and ran for another score to lead the injury-depleted Vikings to a 48-30 victory that snapped a five-game winning streak by the Eagles.
...
“Got great camaraderie. Got good leadership. So as you can tell, nobody's letting down for anything,'” Cassel said.
...
“I don't think you can ever count out our players. We've had some difficult moments this season, for sure, but I always believed,” coach Leslie Frazier said.

“Even early in the week I said, 'This game really doesn't have to be this close,' except for the fact that we were going with so many guys in backup roles.”
...
“It says a lot about this team, just the fight in our backups and everything,” wide receiver Jerome Simpson said. “They could go to any other team and play, too.”

It Don't Matter That You Got ... Not a Lot.

So What?
They'll Have Theirs
You'll Have Yours, and
I'll Have Mine...





...










(wait for it...)









... and together we'll be fine.

'Cuz it takes
Diff'rent Strokes to move the world
yes it does, it takes
Different Strokes to move the world.

Got a Nose for News?

Here's a decent quiz.
I got 12 of 13, beating 96% of the population, tying 3%, and losing to the 1%.

(I overestimated the number of women in Congress. Use my clue!)

April 2006.

A Week, in Pictures, in Blog History.

Retro Review: Life is Beautiful.

★★★ 1/2 | Roger Ebert
October 30, 1998

Some people become clowns; others have clownhood thrust upon them. It is impossible to regard Roberto Benigni without imagining him as a boy in school, already a cutup, using humor to deflect criticism and confuse his enemies. He looks goofy and knows how he looks. I saw him once in a line at airport customs, subtly turning a roomful of tired and impatient travelers into an audience for a subtle pantomime in which he was the weariest and most put-upon. We had to smile.

"Life Is Beautiful" is the role he was born to play. The film falls into two parts. One is pure comedy. The other smiles through tears. Benigni, who also directed and co-wrote the movie, stars as Guido, a hotel waiter in Italy in the 1930s. Watching his adventures, we are reminded of Chaplin.
...
At this year's Toronto Film Festival, Benigni told me that the movie has stirred up venomous opposition from the right wing in Italy. At Cannes, it offended some left-wing critics with its use of humor in connection with the Holocaust. What may be most offensive to both wings is its sidestepping of politics in favor of simple human ingenuity. The film finds the right notes to negotiate its delicate subject matter. And Benigni isn't really making comedy out of the Holocaust, anyway. He is showing how Guido uses the only gift at his command to protect his son. If he had a gun, he would shoot at the Fascists. If he had an army, he would destroy them. He is a clown, and comedy is his weapon.

The movie actually softens the Holocaust slightly, to make the humor possible at all. In the real death camps there would be no role for Guido. But "Life Is Beautiful" is not about Nazis and Fascists, but about the human spirit. It is about rescuing whatever is good and hopeful from the wreckage of dreams. About hope for the future. About the necessary human conviction, or delusion, that things will be better for our children than they are right now.

Why not segregate the students?

1) The first graders in reading group who have been taught -- either at home or through previous school instruction ie/ in kindergarten -- to keep their hands to themselves,
and
2) those 6-year-olds who have not yet mastered the skill.

-------------

The case of a 6-year-old Colorado first-grader has captured pundit attention. He was suspended for kissing a classmate on the hand during reading group. His suspension was originally labeled "sexual harassment" but wisely downgraded to "misconduct" after a public outcry.

But...
clearly the boy's behavior needs to be addressed, or he should be removed from the reading group with children ready to learn to read, displaying proper behavior for that age.

[The boy's] mother*, Jennifer Saunders, said her son had an "innocent crush" on the girl and kissed her on the hand during a reading group.

But the mother of the girl, Jade Masters-Ownbey, said that Hunter had tried to kiss her daughter "over and over" without her permission, and that she supported the suspension.

"Not once, but over and over," Masters-Ownbey wrote on Facebook. "Not with her permission but sneaking up on her."

"I've had to coach her about what to do when you don't want someone touching you," she told the Canon City Daily Record. "But they won't stop."

Hunter already had received an in-school suspension for kissing the same girl.

Let the teachers teach.
Let the parent(s) and administrators/counselors help with remedial behavioral issues.

Don't slow the progress of the many to help the one with special needs, particularly if he is continually bothering another child in the class.
--------------

* The child's name should not be publicized nationally, just as he would be protected were he a juvenile charged with a real crime, or the victim of a crime.

"Parson of the Year"

Pope Francis.
--------

^5 to Alexandra Petri, Washington Post.

Shattering the Social Compact at a Cost.

David Simon, creator of The Wire, tries to explain to Rush Limbaugh and other boomer representatives of the New American Wealth (naw...), how they misunderstood the Pope's recent call for greater economic justice, and why a long-term view on these issues beats out their short-term, for-profit thinking in a country with declining overall competitiveness.

Really, it's the old saw: would you rather be the star player on a losing team?; or just another winning contributor among many?, who knows the team wins when the defense is on its game, the timing is right, and everybody hits.

Mistaking capitalism for a blueprint as to how to build a society strikes me as a really dangerous idea in a bad way. Capitalism is a remarkable engine again for producing wealth. It's a great tool to have in your toolbox if you're trying to build a society and have that society advance. You wouldn't want to go forward at this point without it. But it's not a blueprint for how to build the just society. There are other metrics besides that quarterly profit report.

The idea that the market will solve such things as environmental concerns, as our racial divides, as our class distinctions, our problems with educating and incorporating one generation of workers into the economy after the other when that economy is changing; the idea that the market is going to heed all of the human concerns and still maximize profit is juvenile. It's a juvenile notion and it's still being argued in my country passionately and we're going down the tubes. And it terrifies me because I'm astonished at how comfortable we are in absolving ourselves of what is basically a moral choice. Are we all in this together or are we all not?
...
Capitalism stomped the hell out of Marxism by the end of the 20th century and was predominant in all respects, but the great irony of it is that the only thing that actually works is not ideological, it is impure, has elements of both arguments and never actually achieves any kind of partisan or philosophical perfection.

It's pragmatic, it includes the best aspects of socialistic thought and of free-market capitalism and it works because we don't let it work entirely. And that's a hard idea to think – that there isn't one single silver bullet that gets us out of the mess we've dug for ourselves. But man, we've dug a mess.

After the second world war, the west emerged with the American economy coming out of its wartime extravagance, emerging as the best product. It was the best product. It worked the best. It was demonstrating its might not only in terms of what it did during the war but in terms of just how facile it was in creating mass wealth.

Plus, it provided a lot more freedom and was doing the one thing that guaranteed that the 20th century was going to be – and forgive the jingoistic sound of this – the American century.

It took a working class that had no discretionary income at the beginning of the century, which was working on subsistence wages. It turned it into a consumer class that not only had money to buy all the stuff that they needed to live but enough to buy a bunch of shit that they wanted but didn't need, and that was the engine that drove us.

It wasn't just that we could supply stuff, or that we had the factories or know-how or capital, it was that we created our own demand and started exporting that demand throughout the west. And the standard of living made it possible to manufacture stuff at an incredible rate and sell it.

And how did we do that? We did that by not giving in to either side. That was the new deal. That was the great society. That was all of that argument about collective bargaining and union wages and it was an argument that meant neither side gets to win.

Labor doesn't get to win all its arguments, capital doesn't get to. But it's in the tension, it's in the actual fight between the two, that capitalism actually becomes functional, that it becomes something that every stratum in society has a stake in, that they all share.

The unions actually mattered. The unions were part of the equation. It didn't matter that they won all the time, it didn't matter that they lost all the time, it just mattered that they had to win some of the time and they had to put up a fight and they had to argue for the demand and the equation and for the idea that workers were not worth less, they were worth more.

Ultimately we abandoned that and believed in the idea of trickle-down and the idea of the market economy and the market knows best...
...
That may be the ultimate tragedy of capitalism in our time, that it has achieved its dominance without regard to a social compact, without being connected to any other metric for human progress.

We understand profit. In my country we measure things by profit. We listen to the Wall Street analysts. They tell us what we're supposed to do every quarter. The quarterly report is God. Turn to face God. Turn to face Mecca, you know. Did you make your number? Did you not make your number? Do you want your bonus? Do you not want your bonus?

And that notion that capital is the metric, that profit is the metric by which we're going to measure the health of our society is one of the fundamental mistakes of the last 30 years...

Little Overhead.

"Eye, nose"
Photos by Mal.

"My Life is in Your Hands."

You don't have to worry
And don't you be afraid
Joy comes in the morning
Troubles they don't last always
For there's a friend in Jesus
Who will wipe your tears away
And if your heart is broken
Just lift your hands and say

Oh
I know that I can make it
I know that I can stand
No matter what may come my way
My life is in your hands...

~Kirk Franklin.
-----------------
SOWETO, South Africa:

President Obama is losing the crowd at Nelson Mandela's funeral.

Too wordy, no passion. He should have spoken from the heart, or should seek out new speechwriters. Less is more, less is more...

He's reading it, but not feeling it.
Preaching, but not reaching.
Telling us, but not truly celebrating the life...

Picking up steam, picking up steam...

Now he's talking, Mal says. "A little bit of heart..."

"... his oppressors... so he might teach them, 'Their freedom depended on his.'"
...
"We are all bound together in ways, invisible to the eyes..." *
....
"We will never know... how much was innate in him, and how much was shaped in a dark, solitary cell...

Free the inmates,
free the guards.

We too must act on behalf of peace.
...
There are too many leaders who claim solidarity... but do not tolerate dissent, from their own people...and there are too many of us, too many of us on the sidelines" complacent in cynicism...

"These things do not have easy answers."
But there were no easy answers to that child, born in World War I Qunu ...

Peace
Justice
Opportunity

He's hitting his stride a bit here, late...

"You too can make his life's work your own."

(Scales: mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, mi... the crowd quiets)

"He makes me want to be a better man."

(cheers again, as the speech looks outward, not inward...)

"I am the master of my fate.
I am the captain of my soul.
And what a magnificent soul it was..."

God bless.

---------------

ADDED: BusinessWeek online has the transcript up already:

... Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas; the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those you agree with, but those who you don’t. He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls, or extinguished by a sniper’s bullet. He turned his trial into an indictment of apartheid because of his eloquence and passion, but also his training as an advocate. He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement. And he learned the language and customs of his oppressor so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depended upon his.
...
Finally, Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit. There is a word in South Africa- Ubuntu - that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us. We can never know how much of this was innate in him, or how much of was shaped and burnished in a dark, solitary cell. But we remember the gestures, large and small - introducing his jailors as honored guests at his inauguration; taking the pitch in a Springbok uniform; turning his family’s heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS - that revealed the depth of his empathy and understanding. He not only embodied Ubuntu; he taught millions to find that truth within themselves. It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailor as well; to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion, generosity and truth. He changed laws, but also hearts.
...
We, too, must act on behalf of justice. We, too, must act on behalf of peace. There are too many of us who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality. There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. And there are too many of us who stand on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard.
...
The questions we face today - how to promote equality and justice; to uphold freedom and human rights; to end conflict and sectarian war - do not have easy answers. But there were no easy answers in front of that child in Qunu. Nelson Mandela reminds us that it always seems impossible until it is done. South Africa shows us that is true. South Africa shows us we can change. We can choose to live in a world defined not by our differences, but by our common hopes. We can choose a world defined not by conflict, but by peace and justice and opportunity.

The Greatest Story Ever Told.*

“Intellectuals and serious journalists frequently descend to crude and superficial generalizations in speaking of the shortcomings of religion, and often prove incapable of realizing that not all believers – or religious leaders – are the same.

Some politicians take advantage of this confusion to justify acts of discrimination.

At other times, contempt is shown for writings which reflect religious convictions, overlooking the fact that religious classics can prove meaningful in every age; they have an enduring power to open new horizons, to stimulate thought, to expand the mind and the heart.”

~ Pope Francis**, for the win...

What can you do, with your words, for the world?

It's the kind of question one imagines Nelson Mandela might have contemplated during his long years of imprisonment.  Taking time to think can save nine, in time...

---------------------

* Share the good news this Christmas with someone you love?

** Hat tip: Mary C. Curtis, She the People...

Through many dangers, toils, and snares...

I have already come.
'Twas Grace that brought me safe thus far,
and Grace will lead me Home.

The Lord has promised good to me.

His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and fortune be,
as long as life endures...

Oops, I did it again...

You couldn't make this stuff up:

Onyango "Omar" Obama faced a deportation hearing earlier this week following a drunk-driving arrest. During the hearing, he said that the president had lived with him while he was a student at Harvard.

The Boston Globe reported in 2012, after Omar Obama's arrest, that the White House said he had "never met his famous nephew." The White House now says it only told the Globe that there was no record of the two having met -- not definitively that they hadn't met.
...
The White House acknowledged Thursday that President Obama lived with his uncle for a brief period in the 1980s while he was a student at Harvard Law School -- despite previously saying there was no record of the two having met.

"The president did stay with him for a brief period of time until his apartment was ready," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement.
...

In its report Thursday, the Globe confirmed that the White House initially said that there was no record that they had met. It said the White House never asked for a correction.

White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters at Thursday's White House briefing that, when the issue of Obama’s uncle came up in 2011, the press office "looked at the president’s records, including the president’s book" and found no reference to him.

"That was what was conveyed," he said. "No one had spoken to the president."

When the issue of their relationship came up again during the Boston trial, Carney added: “I thought it was the right thing to do to go ask him.”

Peggy Noonan is right...
The grownups have left the building.

When we've been here 10,000 years...

bright shining as the sun...
we've no less days to sing God's praise
as when we'd first begun.

Move along. Nothing to see here...

Gunmen Kill American Teacher in Benghazi

By SULIMAN ALI ZWAY and KAREEM FAHIM

The victim, described by residents of Benghazi as a teacher in an English-language school, had been jogging when attacked.

Praise Song for the Day.

or, Variations on a Theme.

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.

I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,
picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,
praise song for walking forward in that light.

~ Elizabeth Alexander.

Journalism 101.

If your mother says she loves ya...
check it out.

Well I did, and she does.
Happy birthday to one of the best.

If We Make It through December...

we'll be fine.

Be Part of the Magic...

Again and Again ...

Beanbag, it ain't.

Why Conservative Catholics Welcome Gospel in Action.

Brothers and Sisters:
You know the time: it is the hour now for you to awaken from sleep...

For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Let us conduct ourselves properly, as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

 ~ Letter from Paul to the Romans, Chapter 13, verses 11 - 14.
-----------------

Pay to all their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, toll to whom toll is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, shall not kill, you shall not steal, shall not covet,” and whatever other commandments there may be, are summed up in this saying, [namely] “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Love does no evil to the neighbor.
Hence, Love is the fulfillment of the law.*

~ Romans 13:7-10.


-----------------------

*[13:1–7] Paul must come to grips with the problem raised by a message that declares people free from the law. How are they to relate to Roman authority? The problem was exacerbated by the fact that imperial protocol was interwoven with devotion to various deities. Paul builds on the traditional instruction exhibited in Wis 6:1–3, according to which kings and magistrates rule by consent of God.

From this perspective, then, believers who render obedience to the governing authorities are obeying the one who is highest in command. At the same time, it is recognized that Caesar has the responsibility to make just ordinances and to commend uprightness. That Caesar is not entitled to obedience when such obedience would nullify God’s prior claim to the believers’ moral decision becomes clear in the light of the following verses.

[13:8–10] When love directs the Christian’s moral decisions, the interest of law in basic concerns, such as familial relationships, sanctity of life, and security of property, is safeguarded. Indeed, says Paul, the same applies to any other commandment, whether one in the Mosaic code or one drawn up by local magistrates under imperial authority. Love anticipates the purpose of public legislation, namely, to secure the best interests of the citizenry. Since Caesar’s obligation is to punish the wrongdoer, the Christian who acts in love is free from all legitimate indictment.