On Marriage

Some day, some day, people will really get it.

They will understand that their concept of marriage is cultural, as in the 'wedding industry' that lures couples into spending thousands of dollars they do not have for an evening, whereas those of us who counsel said couples are more interested in five to ten years down the line.

They will understand that their concept of 'biblical' marriage is totally wrong, that this notion of one man/one woman more often than not does not show up as the norm in the bible (try Salomon and his gazillions of wives and concubines or Levite marriage).

They will understand that their concept of the actual rite involves both state and church and perhaps, it would be better to separate church from state in this case, as it is in all other rites.

They will understand that the concept of samegendermarriage is incredibly conservative and traditional and is not going to tear apart their (fragile) heterosexualmarriages.

They will understand that the sex lives of gays and lesbians are boring, and not cracked up to what their fantasies think they are, that the gays and lesbians are not out there 'doing it' all the time but actually are quite bogged down in the mundane tasks and responsibilities of daily life.

End rant.

In the meantime, the arc toward justice is incredibly long and slow.

Still hanging in there

So, the herminator is still staying in the race. Oh well.

And I am keeping up with my photoshopping abilities or lack thereof.

Mi entorno

My environment. Well, the world's environment.

Exemplar of a boor

November 10, 2011, 9:56 pm
Cain on Camera Joking About Anita Hill
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR (NYT)

Even as he is facing his own sexual harassment scandal, Herman Cain was caught on tape Thursday joking about Anita Hill, the college professor who lodged similar accusations against Clarence Thomas decades ago.

The exchange between Mr. Cain and a supporter was caught on tape by a Fox News camera at a campaign stop in Kalamazoo, Mich. It first aired Thursday night on the network’s “Special Report” program.

According to the video, a person in the crowd mentioned Ms. Hill to Mr. Cain, who responded, jokingly, “Is she going to endorse me?” prompting laughter.

J.D. Gordon, a spokesman for Mr. Cain, said simply that “it was a joke,” and added that the Republican presidential candidate was simply “repeating what a supporter said.”

The exchange comes just a day after Mr. Cain, a former talk radio host, had to apologize for calling former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “Princess Nancy” during Wednesday night’s debate.

+++

That man has shot himself in the foot so many times and yet his numbers still remain high. What is it with people? I don't know which is more discouraging: his sexist remarks or people's blowing them off as jokes.

I just don't get it

'Herman Cain's tax plan, picked apart by rivals and independent analysts, would wallop the middle class and benefit the rich.' from the NYT 30 October.

WHY????? are middle class people supporting someone who is going to do them in further than they already have been hit? Will someone please explain what goes on in people's minds?

Or is it that there is nothing going on in there?

Here's a clue from the same article: '“The way he words things, he doesn’t make it real complicated,” said a woman who declined to give her name.'

I just don't understand.

I still don't get it

From Bill Keller's article today, Is the Tea Party Over?

Perry is the most ardent of Tea Party ideologues. His book, “Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington,” is a manifesto of 10th Amendment hyperfederalism and radical individualism, assailing the constitutional basis of Social Security, the income tax, the Federal Reserve, consumer protection, and “federal laws regulating the environment, regulating guns, protecting civil rights, establishing the massive programs and Medicare and Medicaid, creating national minimum wage laws, establishing national labor laws,” and so on.

So, why pray tell, if he is so against any federal laws regulating this list of things, he and the Tea Party ilk are so obsessed with regulating marriage and reproductive access?

Sadly, the answer is too clear, so clear I don't even have to state it.

God help us.

The indignities

Wonderful comment over at the NYT about the indignities of flying (for all our grousing, there are many who could never afford to fly; they can't even get out of their local community):

I've never enjoyed flying to start with—not because of a fear of crashing, but just because of the protracted periods spent strapped inside a metal tube with screaming babies, and food that appears to have come out of an Easy-Bake oven.

Since 9-11, I can now get from Montreal to Toronto at least an hour sooner by train than by plane, what with the traffic to and from both airports, and the ludicrous "security" measures. The prospect of enjoying a public sexual assault only put the final nail in the coffin of my flying career. That, and the fact that airlines are now slapping extra charges on everything they can think of, so that the quoted price of a ticket presupposes that you will be flying naked with no luggage.

...

I'm dreading the day when my only relative in Europe gets married; I'm currently researching the viability of kayaking to France.

Add your caption

Meanwhile, in the House follies, H677 passed with a whopping eight-vote margin, hardly a whopping mandate. Here is what we look like today... there is a lot of red between the coasts. How much does this mirror the church today?

So scary

This trio strikes fear in my heart and mind.

Dream Team for Dems?

Doncha think, wink, wink?

Great but sad line

'The 2012 presidential election already promises to be an exercise in bedlam...'

The rest of the article, The Mad Genius of Donald Trump is also interesting and, at times, funny.

Looks like....

Does this look like a donkey or what?

Oh, oh, oh. It is going to be a very long 18 months. If only we would limit the electoral season to three months as other countries — El Salvador for one — do.

As goes NH, there goes the nation?

NH Republicans elect Tea Party activist to lead them to 2012.

At least there is the Connecticut River between the two states to distinguish us... VT gets thinner at the bottom, NH thinner up at the top. Make of it as you may :)

Lord have mercy on us all.

Venting

So the conservative block in the House wants to cut education, Amtrak, foreign aid, the Washington Metro... cuts that would put Amtrak out of business and education???

And people wonder why the US falls behind so many other countries in educational standards and has such feeble public transportation?

At least there still are the Senate and President to put an end to such nonsense... if the House Republicans are serious about cutting the deficit they can take the symbolic step of cutting out their health insurance and cutting their salaries to levels that most people get.

What is beyond me is why people vote for quacks like this... just where and when did the deficit come from? Hm?

Pathetic. it is going to be a very long two years.The old depression pre-2009 is back again full force.

Is this any surprise?

No point in wasting energy or emotion in invective. Suffice to say that I think the party in the majority is way, way, way off course. Next they will vote to reinstate DODT. After that, make sure all those people who make a ton of money get more tax breaks... and on and on. Pathetic.

Oy veh

From the NYT:

Republicans gained more than 690 seats in state legislatures nationwide in the November midterms, winning their strongest representation at the state level in more than 80 years.

God, have mercy on us all.

Why? Where to begin? I can't.

Immigration.
Choice.
Marriage equality.
Health insurance.
Deficit and taxes.
Muscular Christianity.

That is just what comes to the top of my head.

May God have mercy on us in 2011.

Thought for the day

If the Republicans are going to pull a filibuster, then they need to DO it and stay in the Senate chamber all night talking rather than get it and celebrate, i.e., they need to work for that filibuster.

Shame on them. Shame on them for denying a discussion on DODT.

Ramifications of SCOTUS decision

Ever since the Supreme Court decided that corporations could be people, we have waited to see what ramifications there will be.

Well, Target has given $100K to a group supporting the Republican (Perublican) gubenatorial candidate — anti-same-sex marriage, anti-immigration reform, pro-business — in Minnesota.

So, I guess they won't be getting a lot of business from those people who favour same-sex marriage, immigration reform and less of a pro-business bent, despite Target's corporate policies that paradoxically are pro-lgbt.

Go figure.

Ça commence

Go to the Lead for the full story.

Let's count how many days have passed since the great feast of Pentecost... two weeks.

It took the powers-that-be 14 days instead of 24 hours to kick those members of The Episcopal Church off the relevant Anglican Communion committees — the Standing Committee and the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order and the Inter Anglican ecumenical dialogue committee. I guess things have slowed down some? After all, the election of a certain fabulous candidate for bishop suffragan made comment within 24 hours. (As a reminder, it took a week for the ABC's office to acknowledge the near-assassination of one of the Anglican Communion's primates, the Archbishop of IARCA.)

The Church of Canada and Southern Cone are respectively being asked to 'clarify' their positions on not 'obeying the moratoria.' Guess border-crossing is less a threat to the uniformity of the communion than teh gays.

So once again, TEC is the ABC's favourite kicking post. The gut says let's pack up and go but that just means that in the vacuum, the more shrill and exclusionary voices will be heard.

Operating from the head, I say show up anyway and hold our heads high for there is nothing of which we are to be ashamed.

I can't really write too much because I am peeved enough with this basura to be coherent. All I can say is: More and more my plumbline is proving true:

Is a decision/teaching/attitude of Christ or of the Church? If those of the Church contradict those of Christ, then I eschew them.

Right now those decisions of this particular branch of the Church, in this particular office of a certain archbishop, are not anything remotely connected to those of Christ.

Leave it to the Dead Sect

to come up with a headline like this:

PB Alleges Colonialism, Spiritual Violence

The Living Church (aka the Dead Sect) can be counted on for focusing on the most negative thing the editors can find and writing from that stance.

Meanwhile, the soul here is refreshed to see such a firm but gracious letter stating where TEC stands and who TEC is... and makes clear (I trust) that we are not going back.

More later but the workload on my desk is stacked up like planes at LaGuardia at 5.00 PM on a weekday evening.