Tuesday, September 30, 2008

 

Day 2: Still damning GOP and 95 Democrats

Damn them!

Get caught up here.

--ER

Monday, September 29, 2008

 

Damn the GOP -- and 90-odd Democrats -- to political hell, and pour salt on their desks in Congress so nothing will grow there again

Damn idiots.

Nancy Pelosi spoke the truth, and no surprise: They couldn't handle the truth. Hang them all.

As for the Murkan sheep, of both parties: The stupid sumbitches will cling to their free-market ideology until they get their last paycheck.

Eff it.

--ER

 

The next 10 days: Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday, Monday,

I might be scarce around here, at least off and on, for the next several days.

It's nut-crunching time on getting the house boxed up and carried out, in the mornings and after work evenings, to get ready for the carpet people on Oct. 7.

And a big change at work is affecting every single thing that every person does, and there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Either one of those things would have my gut knotted. Together, it's whelming -- we'll see whether it becomes overwhelming. Ugh.

In the meantime: Open thread! What's on yer mind? I'll be in the comments.

--ER

Sunday, September 28, 2008

 

The seductions of idolatry

The whole credit system is a ponzi scheme. When I'm being charitable, I say the system is based on trust; when cynical, on mutually assured destruction.

It's not, in general, illegal, although laws were broken, surely, leading up to the current crisis -- violations of fiduciary obligations, misrepresentation, breaking of contracts, and so on.

The problem actually is not lack of money -- not yet. It's the freeze in the "creation" of money -- leverage, our old friend, which was the problem that caused the stock crash of '29, '87, dot-com crash of '99 -- and, well, the panics of 1907, 1893 ...

It really is a house of cards: When it works, it works. But one good gust of fear comes along, it blows the whole thing down.

In some ways, the House Repubs are right: The markets would work through this unaided, but at tremendous cost to the country.

This country is not a market, it has markets, and I think it's perfectly right for We the People to take steps to protect ourselves, and, as usual, to protect the markets from themselves, since they really do have of us Us the People by the dang short hairs.

Speaking of the House Repubs: What Bush is asking of them is comparable to a heretic preacher asking them to deny Christ. The free market is that much an article of faith to them -- it's the bedrock of their civic faith, in fact.

Time for a Reformation.


PRAYER OF CONFESSION today at church:

Lord of Life, we pause in the midst of high anxiety about our country's financial future to remember the wisdom of the church about wealth and the life of the spirit. Once again, as we struggle to recover from an era of greed and corruption, we are driven back to words that are older than any political party or media spin. The love of money is the root of all evil. Teach us, we pray, to heed the wisdom of the ages, not the seductions of idolatry. In the name of Jesus our Teacher and Lord we pray, Amen.

Scripture Reading: Mark 10: 17-25.

--ER

Saturday, September 27, 2008

 

John McCain: racist, bigot, homophobe

John McCain did not, would not, could not look Barack Obama in the eye or talk to him directly during the debate last night because white racist men do not look black men in the eye and they talk about them, not to them.

That's me talking, after DrLoboJo helped me see what I was looking at on TV last night.

Here, also courtesy of DrLoboJo, from Doug Thompson at Capitol Hill Blue, is more on McCain: racist, bigot & homophobe. BTW, I hung out at Bullfeathers some in spring 1987, and was exactly the kind of "in" Capitol Hill place described.

--ER

Friday, September 26, 2008

 

Wall Street can do it; why can't we?

CRAP SALE!



Up at 5:30 a.m.! To induce vomiting by our house!




It's Neighborhood Garage Sale weekend, and Dr. ER and I are contributing all kinds of stuff, mostly hers.



"Not a single book," I said. My stuff is mostly clothes. Hers is all kinds, including some of *her* books.



Vomiting? Almost nobody actually has a "garage sale," they trot their stuff out onto the driveway. With so many garage doors open and crap lying out, it'll look like about every seventh or eighth house in the neighborhood has barfed on itself.





Come buy some of our crap!

--ER

Thursday, September 25, 2008

 

Let's define some terms

It really is a "rescue," not a "bail-out."

We, the people will have a stake in assets that will regain most, if not all, if not even more, of their value over the long term.

It must be done, and the Democrats seem to be doing what they can to rectify the most egregious aspects -- sins of commission as well as omission -- of the president's original plan.

But, all credit that is securitized, and that's most credit, is at stake. Unless you don't want to be able to get a car loan, or a boat loan, or a credit card or store account, you need to swallow hard and let the suits do what they gotta do.

John McCain is a chicken.

I'm being kind in my choice of words. The old-timey term for Ice-T and Eames, my cats, is bouncing around in my head.

He is needed to "help fix the economy." Bullshit. He and the rest of the trickle-down, free-market-worshiping drones are the ones broke the financial system and they're the ones responsible for the threat to the economy.

Among other things, McCain also is out of touch, stubborn, quick to anger, detached from modern reality and bright but not actually very smart.

Barack Obama is slick as all get-out.

And I mean that as a compliment.

Yesterday, at his afternoon press conference, he said the debate should go on without calling McCain a chicken, he kept his cool, and his stature, and he uttered the very best kind of zinger, a true one, in saying that a president needs to be able to do more than one thing at a time.

--ER

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

 

Billy, my UK atheist pal, gives us something to ponder while we await financial Armageddon ...

Billy asks the question:

If God commanded it, would you kill your own child?

Good question to ponder as the fate of the West hangs in the hands of suits in Washington, D.C.

My own thoughts:

ER SAID: I am way late to this party, and I haven't read but a few of the comments. My answer is simple: I'd tell God, the Creator of All There Is, no, and I'd take my chances.

BILLY SAID: That was a surprise, but a very honest answer. Most believers try to wriggle out of the question.

LEE SAID: Most of the comments got off topic anyway so I would not worry about that. ... Good answer, I agree (but I would tell Him in stronger words you understand)... so your morals come from within and not God?

But maybe you are not surprised about that. The question was set for those who claim that absolute morals exist and they require God. By making a personal decision you show this isn't the case I think.

ER SAID: Well, it didn't occur to me at first blush to be a question of morality. So, the idea that I put "my own morals" above God's doesn't quite fit. I see it as a question of obedience, and I would disobey. I might get zapped for it.

On the other hand, I disobey God every day that I don't sell all I have and give to the poor. Every time I spend $5 or more for a good cigar rather than giving it to a charity.

Were God to ask me to kill my child, it would be a test of faith, all right. And, assuming that the Godness of God didn't leave me a quivering mass of flesh, peeing my pants and blinded by the Overt Presence of the Almighty -- :-) -- I think I'd look God in the face, as it were, disobey, and, in faith, rely on God's Grace.

BILLY SAID: Out of interest, what evidence would you require that it actually was god making the command?

ER SAID: Well, that's a whole can of worms, isn't it? Good question.

Not sure I could tell. Not sure anyone could tell. Christian tradition is that we "see as through a dark glass." Which is a good reason not to give too much credence to anyone who claims to have a singular, direct line to God.

I suppose, though, that, by definition, if God were to manifest in all God's Godness, there would be no doubt. By definition.

But I'm not sure how one, as a creature, could be utterly certain, even in the Presence of the Creator, without losing oneself IN the Creator.

Which, actually, might be the end game. There certainly are suggestions in the Bible, and through the tradition, that losing onself, on a daily basis, is the thing.

Discuss!

--ER

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

 

The era of big government is back

Dr. ER said: "Who would've thought that a meeting of the Banking Committee would be of such interest?"

Indeed. It's giving me flashbacks to the Watergate hearings, in terms of somberness and the we-are-skirting-a-constitutional-crisis air about it.

Myself, I'm not worried about corporate executives golden parachutes. Let 'em keep 'em. I want Congress to extend the same hand to everyday people that they're going to have to extend to Wall Street.

Oh, and moron:



-ER

Monday, September 22, 2008

 

Suggest a headline for this; I'm stumped

Dr. ER was asleep on her side of the bed, but it was an elaborately decorated canopy bed, not our regular bed, and I was driving. The bed. I was driving the bed.

The steering wheel and driver's seat, if you are an American, were just where you'd expect them to be on an elaborately decorated canopy bed: At the foot, to your left if you were lying in the bed.

As Dr ER snoozed soundly, I was alternately driving the bed, and climbing up on top of the canopy to fiddle with the record player. The record player on top of the bed. I'd drive awhile, then jump out of the seat and swing myself up on the canopy.

I couldn't get the needle placed just right -- in the groove for the fourth of five cuts on the record, because I kept having to jump back down into the driver's seat, to steer. The bed. Which I was driving. Backwards.

Did I mention that? I was driving the bed backwards, using the rearview mirror. On a narrow street. Looking for a parking. I was looking for a place to parallel park the bed.

The record player was on, and on the turntable was a Merle Haggard LP, and the song I was trying to play was "Going Where the Lonely Go," which is an early-'80s Merle Haggard song, but when I finally got the needle lined up and the song began to play, it was "Lucille," the Kenny Rogers song. But Haggard was singing it.

And I wound up crashing the bed, as I drove it backward looking for place to park on a narrow street, because the street curved, and when the street went one way and the bed went another, I happened to be on top of the canopy listening to Merle Haggard sing "Lucille," watching the record spin, wondering when he'd recorded it.

It wasn't a bad wreck. Neither Dr. ER nor I were hurt. The bed was a mess, but the parked cars it hit were just scratched up a little.

Thus did I dream last night. Weird.

--ER

 

'Welcome home to the Democratic Party'

Welcome home.

(Tip of the Resistol to Oklahoma Democrats.)

--ER

Sunday, September 21, 2008

 

It's greed and avarice, stupid

POLITICS:

The Bush administration has the balls to say, essentially, "Trust us. Do as we say, do it now, or we're all doomed."

The sumbitches haven't shot straight with us on anything. I don't trust them now. That's George W. Bush's legacy.

Time for Congress to play hardball for THE PEOPLE. Or, come Friday, let the whole damn economy go to hell with a big "Brought to you by Deregulation, Conservatism and the GOP" sticker on it.


PERSONAL:

Politics is politics, but most people in this country, except for the poor -- and if you're reading this, you are not poor -- have to share the responsibiliy for this.

We're all greedy, spoiled, short-sighted, aloof from the rest of the world and one another and we think we have a birthright to wealth -- which includes credit and debt.

Including me. I have hamstrung myself with personal debt to the point where I'm caught. I give, but I can't give what I'd like. Freedom? I'm as free as my checkbook, some personal savings and my credit will let me be.

God forgive me for squandering what I've squandered. Help me to start turning it around now, so maybe in 20 years I'll have something.


FAITH:

PRAYER OF CONFESSION at church today.

Lord of Life, we pause in the rush of our days, and in a time of economic uncertainty and anxiety, to count our blessings, and to keep our lives in perspective. We have lived by unsustainable and unethical assumptions that enough is never enough, and that short-term gain is all that matters. Help us to find our soul again, and to be responsible to and for one another, not just the bottom line. In the name of Jesus our Teacher and Lord we pray, Amen.

--ER

Saturday, September 20, 2008

 

If I had my druthers ...

... I'd druther drive out to Palo Duro Canyon to sight-see, and eat at the Big Texan in Amarillo tonight.

But nooooo. I have to mow the yard, trim bushes, pay bills, fill out a loan application to get my truck fixed, and start boxing up my books to haul 'em out of here, among many other things, so the carpet people can come lay our new carpet -- color called "chocolate milk" -- on Oct. 7.

It being just me who is able, barely, to lift things, I think *maybe* I can get it done this weekend and next. Ugh.

--ER

Friday, September 19, 2008

 

It's about time somebody said this ...

... and it's about time somebody said it this way.

And I got one word to say, and I apologize to sensitive blog eyes in advance for this, the third post in more than 2,000 over four years that I've dropped the f-bomb:

A-fucking-men.

--ER

(Tip o' my Resistol to Sybil Vane at Bitch Ph.D. )

 

Heart Attack Grill, and other fun places

(Messed-up link fixed).

:::UPDATED:::

Where I am now, 5:05 p.m.: Maker's Cigar & Piano Lounge, in Oklahoma City's Bricktown.

Where I'm gonna be a few times this fall. Next, new to Bricktown.

But they ought to put a Heart Attack Grill over at Stockyards City!

--ER

:::END UPDATE:::




Dudes. We sooo need one of these in OKC.

('Member: Friday is my eat-anything-I-damn-well-please day, and I just had a huge Colorado omelet at IHOP. Mexican later for supper. Then back to the rabbit fare.)

--ER

Thursday, September 18, 2008

 

'This is Your Nation on White Privilege"

By Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.


Read all of this GREAT article (but keep the "redneck" references in perspective [they refer to totally unreconstructed rednecks, not to semi-civilized rednecks such as myself]) at Red Room.

In fact, I'll just say that there is nothin' at all to apologize for for liking to " 'shoot shit' for fun," so I disagree with Wise on that gratuitous anti-gun point.

--ER

 

'Fox Sports Sequoyah County'

Stand back! I just had a brain storm!

Fox Sports Sequoyah County!

That's my home stompin' grounds. Ooooh, boy! Imagine the coverage on Fox Sports Sequoyah County!

Late-night clandestine cockfightin'!

Kitchen table poker!

Dirt-road beer drinkin'!

Trotline checkin'!

Baby havin'!

Meth cookin'! (Sorry. I shouldn't joke about that. But you laugh to keep from cryin'.)

I'm sure there's some noodling down in the Arkansas River bottoms, maybe around Devil's Slough or the Cherokee Chute, or up in Lee Creek.

What else? Just think of a Little Dixie, Oklahoma version of Redneck Games! (I consider Sequoyah County an honorary member of Little Dixie.)

And, I never heard of any around them parts, but I'd introduce anvil shooting, which I did encounter in Texas, myself! See below.



--ER

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

 

State Rep. Jordan Shearer, D-Slapout?

Just for Geoffrey, who is fascinated with all things Slapout, (Beaver County), Oklahoma, (in the Panhandle), and for the good of my fine state:

A young'un from Slapout is runnin' as Democrat for the Statehouse!

Godspeed, Jordan.

--ER

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

 

Billy dismisses all things theological

ORIGINALLY POSTED SEPT. 5. ... IT IS *STILL* ALIVE & KICKING. AND MOSTLY SNARK-FREE.

Somebody feel free to come to my temporary aid. Rian's strategy seems to be the rope-a-dope, and I'm about pooped. Yes, I realize that I'm the dope in that equation! Thanks to Alan for his generally amiable perseverance.

I think I consider less-than-hardshell atheism -- and I consider any atheist who is ALWAYS talking about atheism to be less than hardshell -- my mission field. Not to persuade them. Just to stand there and not be a judgmental jerk (at least not very often).

--ER


Billy, one of the UK atheists I enjoy bantering with, has a couple of interesting posts up. Some of y'all will enjoy them, especially the comments, I mean, and I encourage you to go ye therefore and engage.

Billy gets a letter to the editor, trouncing all theology, published in the Metro, which is sort of a British version of "USA TODAY" for commuters.

Billy, self-declared "atheist until such times as someone produces some real evidence that does not constitute wishful thinking, lying or recycled mythology," says, "Convince me that Jesus existed," and poses questions that, I guess, he thinks no Christians have ever asked themselves.

Seriously, we've kept it amiable. This is no invitation to fuss. I just find him interesting.

--ER

Monday, September 15, 2008

 

Wall Street hell

Oh, yeah. I've been watching and reading about it. Just don't have the heart to talk about it much. Y'all, feel free. Maybe it'll spark me up some.

One remark: If this country is actually stupid enough to elect yet another damned liar, trickle-down, "free"-market worshiping Republican idiot as president, especially a moron who says he can rein in "greed" and "ignorance" from the White House, as McCain declared today, then this country deserves every damned result that follows.

--ER

 

Can't weight!

Oof. I have so backslidden on my "weight management" this summer. But today I'm back in the saddle -- after a weekend of eating whatever I damn well pleased:

Dozen Krispy Kreme glazed, a dozen Krispy Kreme mix, Pizza Hut pasta (it's good!), a steak, some ribs, an entire can of chili on a bunch of Fritos.

Now, it's back to the Jared diet at Subway during the week, eating whatever I want Friday night, eating normally Saturday-Sunday, and then getting on the Subway again come Monday.

And, my back seems to be recovered enough to let me get on the treadmill without too much difficulty.

The facts: I'm 6'4" and I weighed in at 280 this morning, 17 pounds more than I did in February, but still 14 pounds less than I did at my peak in October 2006 -- but a whopping 20 pounds more than I did in April 2004.

I called the doctor's office the other day to get the numbers. Here they are, my weight upon every trip to the doc's since I started going to him:

Feb. 2004 -- 266.

April 2004 -- 260. (Note: This is weird; I was in the throes of grad school!)

Feb. 2005 -- 276. (Ha! I swoll up *after* grad school, which I finished in Dec. 2004).

May 2005 -- 278.

June 2005 -- 282.

Aug. 2005 -- 283.

Aug. 2005 again -- 287.

Oct. 2006 -- 294. (!!! This was the point where I said, Enough! -- and started hangin' out with Mr. Phentermine. He helped mightily).

Nov. 2006 -- 284. (Dropped 10 pounds in a month!).


Dec. 2006 -- 279.

March 2007 -- 274.

May 2007 -- 275.

Aug. 2007 -- 269.

Oct. 2007 -- 262.

Feb. 2008 -- 263.

Now -- 280.

Wish me luck, self-determination and discipline. I want to drop back to 270 or less before I go crawling back to Mr. Phentermine to push to the next lower level!

--ER

Sunday, September 14, 2008

 

2 Prayers for the (Pearl of Great) Price of 1

First the news:

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Sometimes it's hard to find much brotherly love on the campaign trail, particularly in a hard-fought, high-profile race for an open seat in the U.S. House.

But that's exactly what the pastor of Montgomery's First Baptist Church, the Rev. Jay Wolf, hopes he sees in abundance as two of his church's deacons campaign for the right to represent Alabama's 2nd District in Congress.

Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright, the Democratic Party nominee, and state Rep. Jay Love of Montgomery, the GOP nominee, are running for the south east Alabama seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Terry Everett.


Read all about the dueling deacons, via USA TODAY.

As political scientist D'Linell Finley, a Baptist minister, said: "I would reaffirm that both have a duty as citizens to participate in the political process. But I would point out that the political process is not part of the church and they should make every effort to keep politics out of the church," Finley said.

ER says: Amen. May it not be too late to turn back.


Prayer of Confession today at church.

Lord of Life, we come before you in a world torn by division, distrust, and partisan rancor. We are divided into "teams" that war against others over the most insignificant and trivial matters -- because it's all about winning.

Help us to remember the God of impartiality that we serve, and to come together before it's too late. In the name of Jesus our Teacher and Lord we pray, Amen.

Scripture Reading: Romans 14: 1-12.


Prayer of Confession last week:

Lord of Life, how are we to love our neighbor when we do not even know our neighbor? How are we to fulfill a higher law when we so often fail to abide by existing laws? How are we to live as children of the light when we still so often accept and even participate in darkness?

The call to live as Christians is a call to live as resident aliens in the world, to repudiate violence, to practice forgiveness, and to offer radical hospitality. Can we do this in a world that still glorifies war and violence? Help us, we pray, to consider whether war and Christianity are incompatible. In the name of Jesus our Teacher and Lord we pray, Amen.


Scripture reading: Romans 13: 8-10.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

 

Bird watch, Ike watch

:::UPDATED::: Bird, talkin' to Dr. ER on the phone, just described the morning's events with a little more specificity: "It sounded like little elves with little wheelbarrows, running up and down the roof, dumping rocks." :::END UPDATE::: :-)

Bird reports, from the north edge of Houston, where she and YB live: "It sounded like somebody was throwing buckets of rocks onto the top of the house this morning."

Other than that, and the backyard being almost totally under water, and "chunks" of trees and piles of pine needles everywhere, oh, and no electricity, Bird and YB are fine.

--ER

Friday, September 12, 2008

 

Dubya, 'Invisible Man,' in OKC

El Presidente, they say, will rake in a million bucks for John McCain and the Republican National Committee from his soiree today in Oklahoma City with a beer magnate who lives in a 14,000-plus-square-foot house. (Specs).

There, my partisan pals, in case you felt your outrage flagging.

Texas hurricane or not, Dubya politicking next door, from the L.A. Times.

Invisible man on the campaign trail in OKC, from The Associated Press.

On Air Force One en route to OKC, from the Wall Street Journal.

"Not everyone in Oklahoma welcomes his visit,"
from KSBI-TV.

Live blogging the president's visit, by the local paper.

 

'In the Seventh Year'

And in the seventh year after the fall, the dust and debris of the towers cleared. And it became plain at last what had been wrought.

Read the rest of this inspired (but not infallible or inherent) column by Roger Cohen.

--ER

Thursday, September 11, 2008

 

God, help me in my unbelief!

God, help me pray for my enemies!

I can't, today!

I'm watching 7-year-old footage, and all I can "pray" for is damnation!

On those who flew the planes, on Saudi Arabia for accepting it, on the Taliban, on Osama bin Laden, on President George W. Bush's administration for the distracting war in Iraq, which has cost us SO MUCH -- yet bin Laden, and Al-Quaida still thrive -- on those who to this day support and applaud such inanity!!

Damn it to hell. I made it until 10:30 p.m. today with no emotion tied to 9/11!

God. Help. Me. My. Only. Prayer. Is. God. Damn. And. God. Help. Me.

But I will throw myself on Monk's prayer and hope!

--ER

 

9/11 + 7

Rerun. Because I'll never forget.

--ER

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

 

Awaiting a Christianity 'correction'

Monk-in-Training (shout out to Tulsa!) said:

How is it that we Christians can be on board with lying about an opponent, using fear and arrogance, knowingly making untrue accusations, forwarding emails that smear our opposition, all with the idea of forwarding the Kingdom? Whatever happened to humility and not bearing false witness? Is it OK, just because the opposition does it?


ER said:

That's the thing. What passes for Christianity these days in this country, at least that which gets most of the press, has no concept of "forwarding the Kingdom" -- the whole point is to use up this planet and "win souls" for the great migration heavenward TO the Kingdom.

But you knew that. I'm 44. As a pre-1979-fundy-takeover former Southern Baptist turned UCC'er, I know it.

Housing correction? Credit markets correction?

We need a Christianity correction -- because what we got goin' on here is an emotion bubble heaving in the Body of Christ, and it *has* to bust soon!


And I was bein' generous. It's not an emotion bubble. It's a bullshit bubble.

--ER

 

Keith and Rachel don't get it

I think Keith Olbermann and Rachel Madow (MSNBC, both) don't reallly get the modern GOP at all.

Culture war issues TRUMP all, including Sarah Palin's alleged sins against fiscal conservatism. The best Dems can hope for is that Palin sloughs off some more of the actual nonreligious conservatives in the GOP and they stay home in November.

Also: The other night I found myself screaming at the TV when Olbermann and Madow were making total fun of the fundamentalist-evangelical ideas about the Rapture.

Serious discussions about the Rapture aside, it's suicide for them to attack such, which are widely held across the United States, not just in "red" states, and not just among fundies.

Some 60 percent of American Christians believe in the Rapture, I read recently. Stupid, stupid, stupid not only for them to dismiss it as extremist hoo-ha, but to sit on national TV and laugh derisively and crack stupid jokes about it?

It pissed ME off -- no matter how I, otherwise, am so tickled to see the likes of The Nation and Mother Jones actually be part of the mainstream media. Lordy!

Somebody tell Keith and Rachel to ixnay on the aptureRay jokes.

And, because I have fond memories of it, here's the opening sequence from the great '70s Christian scare flick, "A Thief in the Night."

--ER

 

Dubya in OKC

El presidente is coming to Oklahoma City on Friday. This has got to be the most uber-safe place for him to visit, politically speaking.

Heck, even I find myself wonderin' whether he'll eat at my favorite restaurant, the Cattlemen's Steakhouse, like his daddy did once back in the day.

My colleagues and I have been swappin' when-I-met-who stories. Here are a few of my own Brushes with Greatness, from the ER archives.

Dubya.

Reagan.

The Steel Magnolia of Texas.

Uh, Jack Kemp.

Then, there are others I've met in the line of duty: Rick Perry, Frank Keating, J.C. Watts, Phil Graham, David Boren, the late great Mike Synar, various and sundry other congresscritters -- but hey, that's just the biz I'm in.

Now, do tell. Who've you met-seen-touched?

--ER

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

 

'Tethered to Christianity'

I love this essay, and I dedicate my placement of it here to Lee, Billy, Jonathan, Steve and any other atheists who happen along.

"Do I believe the story of Jesus? Yes, in that you cannot drive me away from it; I simply won't leave. I'm having none of the darkness, even if I only live at the edge of the light. If belief is a hard and complex thing, also a unique and personal thing, then yes: I believe."

Read all of "Tethered to Christianity" by Gordon Atkinson, from The Christian Century.

--ER

 

Saddleback and forth

It's the clout factor that makes us uneasy about the Saddleback event—uneasy both about the integrity of Christianity when it gets a lot of political clout, and especially uneasy about a political culture in which trumpeting one's Christian faith is a way to gain some more clout.

Read all of the editorial in The Christian Century.

Would that the faith seek humility rather than notoriety!

--ER

Monday, September 08, 2008

 

Amateur hour in Washington, D.C.

OMG. The Federal Highway Trust Fund is broke, and it's brokenness will hit every state. In the same news cycle, almost, the federal government, a Republican gubment, socializes housing finance.

God help us. Republicans SUCK at socializing things. We do live in interesting times. Mess or not to inherit or not: WE NEED DEMOCRATS IN CHARGE -- because when we NEED the gubment to step in, we DESERVE step-inners who know how to run gubment!

--ER

Sunday, September 07, 2008

 

The Phoenix Affirmations

Been busy and out all day.

Been thinking about the Phoenix Affirmations, to which I adhere.

Discuss.

--ER

Friday, September 05, 2008

 

A make-my-day kind of day in Texas

Turn the other cheek, Jesus said. Your own. Not your wife's. Not your husband's. Not your kids'. Not your family's. Just your own.

Texas couple subdues intruders, secures their own premises.

Good on 'em.

--ER

 

The Real SARAH PA(l)IN




There's a reason they played "Barracuda," at the RNC last night -- but it wadn't originally meant as a compliment. I've linked to this, but I got it in a forwarded e-mail, too.

May Sarah Palin reap the whirlwind.

--ER

Thursday, September 04, 2008

 

Sarah Palin's DARK SECRETS?

!!!UPDATED AGAIN!!!

By JIM KUHNHENN
The Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.


(And may I add: No shit. --ER)

Read all about it.

!!!END UPDATE AGAIN!!!

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UPDATED!!! UPDATED!!!

Peggy Noonan speaks truth to (the) power of an unexpectedly live mic. LOL!

END UPDATE!!!
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Do tell!

Since most newspapers in this country suck, and even those that don't yet suck are destined TO suck, join me, partisans in thanking GOD for the National Enquirer.

--ER

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

 

It's a whole new ball game

Sarah Palin is real.

All stop on everything you thought, fellow Dems.

All start on a whole new ball game.

--ER

 

McBush!



This is just dang near the most off-putting, disturbing pic I've seen this silly seeason of a never-ending campaign nightmare. It looks too real.

--ER

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

 

Craig has some good God questions

Craig has three questions:

How do we trust God when our perception of reality is shattered?

Why do we trust our perception of reality more than God's?

Why is service such a big part of recalibrating our perception of reality?


Please, I extend his invitation, go over and give your 2 cents worth. They are honest questions, he is asking genuinely, and y'all all are thoughtful peeps. So, go, and tell him ER sent ya. :-)

Here are my off-the-cuff answers, which I left at his place. Please go and do likewise, and leave your answers here in the comments, as well.

How do we trust God when our perception of reality is shattered?

We trust that God IS, not that God DOES, or God WILL DO. The Jewish Scriptures that we inherited as Christians have God declaring His name to be I am that I am -- which, is a verb. Not a noun. As a verb, God then is Someone we experience, not a subject we count on to act, or an object we count on to substantiate our trust. We jump into the Verb of Life, which is God -- and hold on tight.


Why do we trust our perception of reality more than God's?

Not sure what this means, but it presupposes than we have a clear view of God's perception. We have neither a clear view of God's perception nor our own. I don't know what else Paul could have meant when he said we see as through a glass, darkly. Myself, I trust no perception. I throw myself onto the Cosmos and All That Is and I trust God.


Why is service such a big part of recalibrating our perception of reality?

Again, not sure what you're asking. But there is no Christian faith that is not also "service." It is not some thing that is separate from "faith." It is all of a piece. And we do it -- we love, we give, we help -- not to recalibrate anything or for brownie points or for any other reason that Our Lord asks us to, and if we love Him we will do as he asks. Then, we often find we are being healed. But if we don't do those things, and more, then we have no faith in the first place.


Oh, BTW, this here is my TWO THOUSANDTH post! :-)

--ER

Monday, September 01, 2008

 

It should be Farmer-Labor Day

Uno. Obama returns to Union heartlands.


Two-o. ER's political-spiritual center: Farmer-Labor Party.


Tres. Dubya to Murka on Gustav: "Fool me onced, sha-ayme on yew; fool me twiced, sha-ayme on me! Pain tention! Ain't Rick Perry's hair great?"


Fo. Whatchall got cookin' this lovely day??? My own self, I am celebratin' the Oklahoma State Motto by doin' a little work-work on this here laptop, continuing to unwreck the house, as much as possible, from the flood, and soakin' some shrimp in some flat Budweiser to later wrap in bacon and grill, with a dab of barbecuue sauce to finish, to have for supper with a couple of marinated and grilled softshell crabs and some grilled corn grilled in the shucks. Meanwhile, Dr. ER, a weather junky, is watchin' the Gustav Show. Yourself?


Cinco. For the 10th opening day of dove season in a row, I was not sittin' on a field chair at sunrise, burning through a couple of boxes of shells, missing way more than hitting, with my buddy, Mark. For the sixth opening day in a row, I've been thinking about Mark, who killed himself in March 2003.

To Mark: Mourning doves, mourning Mark.

Suicide Memorial Wall.


Seis. Sen. Barack Hussein Obama's Labor Day message:



--ER

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