tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-358781672024-02-19T14:21:12.814-08:00spiritually incorrectDedicated to the ofttimes irreverent and critical exploration of meditation, art, politics, and lesbian, gay, bi and trans issues.Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-59545091874975226632023-01-01T19:47:00.002-08:002023-01-22T03:39:49.160-08:00Benedict's retrograde problem with a neo-Nazi bishop<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Father Tom Reese is a well-spoken man and well trained in theology, but an objective critic he is not. His first loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church has blinded him to the atrocious behavior that is being condoned by lifting the excommunication of neo-Nazi Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of Pius X. He states <a href="http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/thomas_j_reese/2009/02/pope_and_bishop_williamson.html">the problem with Benedict’s papacy</a> is that his organization does not have a modern PR office that would break the news of rehabilitating four Pius X bishops, including Williamson, to the world, the liberals in his own church and the worldwide Jewish community. No PR Vatican Secretariat, no matter how up to date and informed, could ever make a case for this blunder.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Any self-respecting PR person would say, Benedict, you are the Pope, damn-it, and you have chosen the wrong issue and the wrong message. Emphasize the core mission of your organization and make that the centerpiece of your actions. The backward looking vision of the Society of Pius X has a man like Williamson in charge of their priestly formation. It is a distorted faith that does real harm to people who struggle to alleviate the suffering in the world. Jesus did not say, go to the Pharisee and try to make peace before he goes off and starts a rival sect. He began condemnations of their theology with the words: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees!”<br />
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I understand the awkward position in which Benedict finds himself, perhaps not to the extent that Reese understands it, but I can follow an argument. The Roman Church has argued that it is the form of the consecration that insures that its bishops inherit their authority from the original 12 Apostles of Jesus. And by “form” Roman Catholics mean that the correct words, prayers, and ritual actions for consecrating a new bishop are uttered and performed by a bishop who has been initiated, or ordained, in the same manner. So the Pius X bishops are really bishops according to the doctrine, as are, I might add all of the bishops of the old Catholic Church who are still quite numerous in Germany and have at least four bishops in the US. I met one. The problem, according Reese, is what is Benedict to do with these bishops so that they do not become loose cannons (my words).</div>
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I would bet pennies to dollars that not one in a thousand Catholics knows or cares about the doctrine of the apostolic succession as understood by the hierarchy, and by extension only one in thousand would pay any attention to the Pius X bishops when they opened their mouths. These intricacies only interest an extremely small group of scholars, liturgists, linguists and cannon lawyers, and are absolute trivia to most faithful Christians who look to their bishops, and especially the bishop of Rome, to be faithful servants of the Word of God and the Teaching of Jesus. For example, according the rite that was composed under Pius XII, the consecrating bishop has to use these words, “Complete in Your priest the fullness of Your ministry, and adorned in the raiment of all glory, sanctify him with the dew of heavenly anointing.” I am not going to dispute the beauty of the language, but the fact that this prayer was uttered when the excommunicated bishops were consecrated somehow necessitated a bow to the position that the Nazis did not murder more than 6 million Jews, dissidents, gypsies, homosexuals and disabled is a horrendous distortion of the values that people should expect from any religious authority.</div>
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Is there a way that Benedict could have rid himself and the Church of these troublesome bishops? Of course. He could have simply let their movement die off or become a small fringe group of fanatics—a sensible option. Or if he felt that he had to take some action, following Fr. Reese’s argument, he could have declared them heretics and schismatics. But I fear that he has far too much sympathy for their position. And that is the danger. The conditions on our small planet are far too fragile to allow any hate mongers the publicity they crave.</div>
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And so I am still left with the question: where did Benedict get this dumb idea in the first place? I say it is because the leadership of the Church has lost sight of its mission. It has become so remote and isolated that its main concern has become defending and legitimizing its authority, and not spreading the message that Jesus taught. Sadly this is the result of Benedict’s looking back to Pius IX and the 1st Vatican Council, and burdening the message of the Gospel with distracting arguments about liturgical propriety, the validity of holy orders, and ordination of bishops. That view will just focus our attention on the human weaknesses and failings of the followers of Jesus rather than the simple and direct way that He spoke to us.</div>
</div>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-20817244899914953532023-01-01T19:37:00.003-08:002023-01-02T03:24:22.358-08:00 No Sackcloth and Ashes for these Guys!<div class="separator"><span style="font-family: Roboto;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-28172614-7fff-27b7-a987-f72a59e07fe3"><h3 style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Truth needs cleaning up.</span></h3></span></span>originally posted May 24th, 2010; revised July 12th, 2021<br /><br />"I would just say this. The most important thing is to clean up the truth. And the truth is I have never said anything." —Edward Cardinal Eagan</div><div class="separator"><span><span><br /></span></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; font-family: Roboto; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="320" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xnCo--_ADcuXvedBaba8caXBM5bFyt88f3HZRG9akAaFIlPqp54wiZax5WM4dXpAoGZ7RbCoQ5AJpP-iZ0jD4mV25N6R5Rx75vzeUB1LY5xfrp9myNof1vhBQgjkXvSW23Mr00CPpJ8PXXCoKCGZaMmBjGK8-50wRDxfs5uc=w190-h320" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px;" width="190" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>A truly welcoming smile</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table>This head spinning statement by the Archbishop of New York, Edward Cardinal Eagan was read by the rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Monsignor Eugene Clark, in 2002. Standing in for the embattled Cardinal Egan, Clark blamed the sex abuse scandal on gays, railed against homosexuality as an “intrinsic disorder" and said it was a "grave mistake" to allow gays into the priesthood. <br /><br />Clark would later be forced to resign after his affair with his secretary, a woman 30 years his junior, came to light in 2005. The king of outing high level hypocrites, Michelangelo Signorile, had a blast with this. “Now here is Monsignor Clark, three years later, at the age of 79, exposed as engaging in an adulterous affair with a married women 30 years younger, proving that the greatest threat to marriage is in fact pompous, hypocritical, heterosexual men who can't keep their dicks to themselves even as they become octogenarians.” <a href="http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/ARTICLE.php?AID=9251">A Monsignor's Closet, 2005-08-24</a><br /><br /></div><div class="separator">I’ve had at least a few things to say about the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church. I also had personal experience with the cloak of secrecy that gay priests are forced to wear. It didn't fit me well. I wrote “<a href="https://jesuskoan.blogspot.com/2019/10/dont-ask-dont-tell.html">Don't Ask, Don't Tell—A Jesuit Strategy</a>” when I revisited a conversation that I had with my friend Avery Dulles (who by the way did not much like wearing his cardinal attire). I did not mention Avery by name when he was alive out of respect for his position and our friendship. Though I think that he might have endorsed what I said, I didn’t want to expose my version of his words to lurkers on the Internet who love bits of gossip that they can distort. <br /><br />I will not just make a statement and then stand back. It’s time to keep up the pressure. <br /><br />So let’s try a little humor. Among gay clergy a lot of dark humor floats from one pink rectory to another. The main characters here are John 23, Francis “Fanny” Cardinal Spellman, and John Joseph Cardinal Wright of Pittsburg and the Vatican. (Even though Wright wasn’t yet a cardinal during Vatican II, I think I am allowed the conflation for humor’s sake). <br /><br />Even if gay as suspected, John 23 and Wright, were straight arrows. “Fanny” Spellman, however, was notorious for his liaisons with any number of New York chorus boys and hustlers, so much so that it seems he had a member of his staff dedicated to quelling rumors and preventing them from reaching the pages of the tabloids. In New York gay bars of the 60’s there was always someone who swore that they heard directly from his lips: “If you threaten to go public, who’ll believe you? You’re a nobody, and I’m the Cardinal Archbishop of New York.”<br /><br />And now after that long preamble, finally the joke:</div><div class="separator"><span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="border: none; clear: left; display: inline-block; float: left; height: 408px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 288px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto;"><img height="408" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/KyfVUFRTqFoNJyKFFhSdlkjFsKNiXhuY_2ZpUaBJ_8Q0rCfr9eFXityTaGLK41GFgRvtm6dnxMawJ2VR8k_gbGRyMEOQiqlO-PcgeoGFYTBzN5IHl0HKMUffCfDLVdqIfLwIl0DAWvEFdwoZbyAZB1ts_4drxArr6vXTIseq" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="288" /></span></span><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p></span>When John 23 sent out the official announcement to the opening of the Second Vatican Council, he included a private note to all the cardinals, archbishops, and bishops asking them to tone down their dress. It was to be a solemn occasion, yes, but given that he as Pope was striving for reform, remaking the image of the Church in the modern world, simple clerical garb would be enough. Leave the <i>cappae magnae</i> home.<br /><br />The day of the opening of the Council rolled around and the US prelates were gathered together inside St. Peters, dressed down as requested. Drum roll and trumpets, the doors swung open, and there was John 23, sporting a <i>Triregnum</i>, carried on his <i>sedia gestatoria</i> by 12 hunky guys in red, surrounded by fans of white feathers (a boa would not have seemed out of place). <br /><br />Spellman turns to Wright and says, “Bitch” sotto voce.<span><span style="font-family: Roboto;"><br /></span></span><br />I am reminded of E. M. Forester’s misquoting Henry Thoreau (quite a jump from <i>Walden Pond</i> to <i>Room with a View</i>), “Mistrust all enterprises that require new clothes.”<br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><span><h3 style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No Sackcloth and ashes! God forbid!</span></h3><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p></span>Pope Benedict called for penance to atone for the sins of the Church, one presumes for not reprimanding pedophile priests and allowing them access to children even after their crimes had been reported. But Benedict’s penance doesn’t call for sackcloth and ashes. Oh no, quite the contrary.</div><div class="separator"> <span><span style="font-family: Roboto;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="border: none; clear: left; display: inline-block; float: left; height: 422px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 288px;"><span style="font-family: Roboto;"><img height="422" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/gGbxLeUoSKeqimpgAp6rssHHx7ZKafOAWKcZ5QklZXzCK_1ODGBz52ry7qBB5m-jWs_4GNaXShimH79Om3mkjK70mrNVMECn1m2QYMWfJSU8aVr-FhGEW10KvhXMVPbdLVkqR3XoAd26ezrX-pvMvqOnFjK9uguzQU61_qT9" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="288" /></span></span></p></span>He’s taken the papal throne out of the Vatican Museum where it has been in mothballs since Paul VI's reign. The Pope’s little red slippers which John Paul 2 put in the closet are out and polished—you have to have shoes to match.</div><div class="separator"><span><span><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto; height: 423px; overflow: hidden; width: 288px;"><img height="423" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/I-67RDcGK65Vk1Jkg6_blc-oH5mPelRLvjYEyF9CSBO411iJGTV5dEKeuR6d8phS_0PTyqT8GyA8TkVXT8Rqr7IJQd775i-_6561Mt5hO6X3h3gfFU_ANxJrn17TUVgZj0_o0ymqmebBOMiEb4HtMi_XK-wjjryTTW4B8oYa" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="288" /></span></span></p><span style="font-family: Roboto;"><br /></span></span>Even lowly bishops have taken to the 60 foot <i>cappa magna</i> once again. A reliable Jesuit source reported that more than 50 years ago, Pius XII officially cut its length to 12’, but here’s a photograph of Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception taken on April 26th 2010. That’s 60’ if it’s an inch.<span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuplqHF6YhyphenhyphenaaRm6FVDNS1jfE90ZD1JPoDr7x7-6AaDpgS8VlXHoK9OWzYrfpdaTfBTDGozyzfHbyVBdgbj9vMChiy-nEhSOMoJfee1uPA9ARGHPWM_QDBi3HoIasYzCQQZyJJ/s2048/Pie_VIII_port%25C3%25A9_dans_la_basilique_de_Saint-Pierre_%25C3%25A0_Rome%252C_by_Horace_Vernet%252C_1829.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Roboto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1749" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuplqHF6YhyphenhyphenaaRm6FVDNS1jfE90ZD1JPoDr7x7-6AaDpgS8VlXHoK9OWzYrfpdaTfBTDGozyzfHbyVBdgbj9vMChiy-nEhSOMoJfee1uPA9ARGHPWM_QDBi3HoIasYzCQQZyJJ/s320/Pie_VIII_port%25C3%25A9_dans_la_basilique_de_Saint-Pierre_%25C3%25A0_Rome%252C_by_Horace_Vernet%252C_1829.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Roboto; text-align: start; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Pius VIII riding high in 1828</span></i>
</span></td></tr></tbody></table>And there are rumors that Benedict wanted to dust off the <i>sedia gestatoria</i> “for security reasons.” This certainly doesn't look like penance, or maybe that's how old queens do penance.</div><div class="separator"><br />I had friends who really did molest teenagers. Two are now dead; one served time in jail; one lives anonymously in a trailer park, but at least they are hopefully no longer under Vatican protection. <br /><br />The truth does need cleaning up--by you. It’s so easy to make fun of the hypocrisy. Why do you guys leave yourselves so open to this kind of abuse? Because you’re caught in an untenable position and are forced to defend it. I’ve had some experience trying to be honest. It’s tough, but it’s not the truth that needs cleaning up. For the record, y'all did say something, actually many things. And you lied.</div><div class="separator"><br /></div>Penance my ass. Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-16498341604340425452022-12-22T20:39:00.005-08:002022-12-22T20:39:50.379-08:00 Gratias á Lulu, Esta Noche y Monica Naranjo<p><br /></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1cd26d45-7fff-c08c-263d-084b32225aba"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Times, serif; font-size: 16pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 320px; overflow: hidden; width: 427px;"><img height="320" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/FD8m7c20k0MjMNRJpfusVUm7PRd8R-YKeoh6W91hh8EQ9Z0ObcWwaSVzYkwdrWq11emavZnN6UA8kc12Y7LoCv45T2fHqkCF--8JTrKVlXdPmQ-HqtrYSvA8Q28fKpTT5JQG58Zl9IMx5OG4uR81KAUPOonERuNivuwy3IYpyp-vgaWcFXbf06JkXj0weWr8pMvIYFVN2STYHmnfq_2XTgMLXInXPeLTT-8O" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="427" /></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 2010 I began to exchange emails with several men about Latin music and gay Madrid. I hope to learn a lot about Latin music and my new correspondents were great resources. But there is one Latina star I already admire enormously.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I took visiting friends out for a night on the town in San Francisco, I tended to </span><a href="https://colorlines.com/article/san-francisco-says-goodbye-iconic-gay-latino-bar-esta-noche/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">end the festivities at Esta Noche</span></a><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on 16th St.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This Latin gay club had been in that once-seedy neighborhood for more than 20 years. Now it’s gone. The neighborhood became hip, and the new neighbors are not the kind to patronize Latin drag shows, but Esta Noche was welcoming and lively. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I’ve seen more than a few very memorable moments at Esta Noche during my San Francisco days: it was there that Ken MacDonald was kissed in the bathroom by the most handsome man within miles–a high compliment—this is San Francisco after all. It was there—at the bar, not the bathroom—that Miguel Pou taught me to distinguish between the popular music of Spain, and Mexico, Central America plus Colombia and Argentina and a few other countries in the Southern Hemisphere. I usually can pick up that distinctive Brazilian samba-like beat, and of course the lyrics are in a different language though that is not easy to distinguish when you know only a few words in Spanish and Portuguese, </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fiesta, siesta, libertad, y “Et tu mama tambien”</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">—just because I saw the movie and loved it.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But it was “Lulu” who introduced me to Monica Naranjo. Lulu was definitely not a gorgeous drag queen (by design), but she was one hell of a performer and knew her divas. During her show, I heard this voice that felt like a combination of Madonna, Bette Midler and Janis Joplin, with a touch of Maria Callas. “Who’s that?” I asked the bartender. “Monica,” he said, “THE star of gay Madrid.” I have since learned that she is much more than that. Monica moved to Miami so now I won’t be able to hear her live though I still plan a Madrid expedition soon. I’ve socked away enough </span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">dinero</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">OK, OK, here is her iconic </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-bsFVwMIqI" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sobrevivire.</span></a><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Sometimes her staging and orchestration is a bit cheesy but listen to the quality and strength of that voice! Music unleashes the animal!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am planning that trip to Spain and hope to hear some great music. Monica is still performing but this year only in Mexico. Hope to find some other great Spanish divas!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m on the lookout! Suggestions?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xErS7G3-tCQ" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xErS7G3-tCQ</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYvqf2ws_cU" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYvqf2ws_cU</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1Oc3oZv_QA" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1Oc3oZv_QA</span></a></p><br /><br /></span>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-26968827483582048962021-12-13T03:32:00.000-08:002021-12-13T03:32:01.456-08:00 TV advertising and the “Truth”<p> <span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Originally posted December 11</span><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, 2011</span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-d9ec987c-7fff-a52f-f0f8-5fa77b586810"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">F</span><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rom my friend, Ken MacDonald, a wonderful musician and zennist in Canada (it’s not America but an economic superpower, so it counts).</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 320px; overflow: hidden; width: 273px;"><img height="320" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/wEFU9y-1BmtF5YKijD1_nERPHGb9sP0XoFcQBRt__AnE5yhr0ZRPAVLtjxNxzhU6SjR6kLIJBcqpKzgG4CRQQTBGvQ1Fgk0AjordnE8Y8-hUhlO6zOWVeFLWGTJuKGma" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="273" /></span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Canada they are airing a Brita TV ad. On screen there is a drinking glass on the counter which the camera fixes on the whole time. We see what we assume to be a bathroom door in the background. We hear the toilet flush and at the same time we see the water in the glass ‘flushing’ down and refilling. A woman then comes out to drink her water out of the ‘flushed’ glass (and by the way she didn't wash her hands, which is certainly more of a health hazard than drinking municipal water), visually indicating, you get it, that she’s drinking out of the toilet. If we didn’t get it, the voiceover says, ‘Water from the tap and the toilet come from the same source’.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ad's been altered twice since its first airing. The first time (as noted in the letters between various water and health agency people, and Brita) was to put a legal caveat on the ad to indicate that municipal water has been treated to make it safe for drinking. Then, recently, they added a four-second insert at the end of the ad visually demonstrating a Brita filter change, while the voice-over tells us for best results to change the filter regularly.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The copy reads:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BRITA.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s Tasteless!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nearly 40% of the developing world’s population lacks clean drinking water and about 2 million die each year because of it.</span><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">1</span></span><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> By 2025 nearly ⅔ will live in water-stressed countries.</span><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 0.6em; vertical-align: super;">2</span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the developed world we take our supply for granted, flushing it away mindlessly. But BRITA’s latest ads seem to imply that since the water we use for all our purposes “comes from the same source,” it’s as if we are drinking sewer water. Do you think that’s tasteless?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But if you do buy a BRITA filter, don’t expect it to protect you from anything…it doesn’t filter bacteria,</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Notes</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1 World Health Organization.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2 Morris BL, Lawrence ARL, Chilton PJC, Adams B, Calow RC, Klinck BA. Groundwater and its susceptibility to degradation: a global assessment of the problem and options for management. Nairobi: United Nations Environmental Programme, 2003</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This Culture Jamming ad is the opinion of the author. Brita is a trademark of Clorox</span><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Corp.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s really at stake here is that we have a limited amount of potable water on the planet. Pretty soon we’ll all be buying water. What will we do with all those damn plastic bottles?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, we still need to clean up the bullshit of political advertising. But how will we do that drinking vodka instead of water (and NO, that is not a solution even if it looks like the only way out).</span></p><br /></span>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-7928361143878150952017-07-14T16:28:00.000-07:002017-07-14T16:28:16.169-07:00Music, Genius & Surprise<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Music, Genius & Surprise</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">December 2nd, 2007</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: blue;">I</span></span> wanted to show the Garapons that we have some culture in San Francisco with a trip to Davies Hall and a concert by the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas. MTT never disappoints. When we bought the tickets, I found out that MTT was not on the podium. Disappointment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 100%;"><br />Let’s go anyway. Wednesday was the only night </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 100%;">Jean and Marie-Christine</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 100%;"> had for <i>un spectacle musical</i>!<o:p></o:p></span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">As we sat down, I began to read the program; by the time the musicians had taken their places, I knew that we had really lucked out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are some moments in life that astonish, that knock your socks off. This was one. With music, somehow, it seems that your body can respond if properly tuned, even if words fail. You just sit, stirrings arise from deep inside, and then sometimes are followed by a completely different set of feelings. It is like a journey. Then the last cords sound, and there is applause. The culture tells the body to respond. The emotions choose the decibel level.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I have often wondered what it must have been like to hear young Mozart play. Despite the fact that he was promoted by his father as a kind of musical sideshow to make lots of money, not much different from the parents of any child actors today in Hollywood, or some very famous personalities from the more recent past, such Judy Garland whose experience was not entirely happy, I still have impression that Mozart loved music. A person could not compose <em>Don Giovanni</em> or the <em>Magic Flute</em> under duress or carrying mental scares. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">No question that he was a genius born into the world with such extraordinary gifts that you might think that they come from the angels. And still he had to have some kind of training.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 100%;">Listening to the remarkable Lise de la Salle play Rachmaninoff’s 2<sup>nd</sup> Piano Concerto, questions like these flooded my mind, that is after the last astonishing bars had faded. She was born in 1988, began playing at 4, was at the Paris Conservatory by age eleven, and to my ear, at age 19 has the grace and command of an Arthur Rubinstein at the end of his career. Clearly she is a musical genius of the highest order, and it is also clear that she loves the piano. Here is a link to the program notes about <a href="http://www.sfsymphony.org/templates/artist.asp?nodeid=4120&callid=250&eventid=1172">Lise</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And what a performance it was. To give a hint of her command of the powerful Russian feeling, the emotions of those opening lines, I found a short video of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUU_0QMoe2k">Mme de la Salle playing the amazing Toccata in D minor Op.11 of Prokofiev</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">A spectacular evening. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M1c7itPy3Y&feature=related">Applause please!</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-72499042223039241192017-07-14T16:26:00.000-07:002017-07-14T16:26:06.815-07:00Toute la Mémoire du Monde<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 180%;">Toute la Mémoire du Monde pics</span><br />
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Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-53043575034543884102017-07-14T16:24:00.000-07:002017-07-14T16:24:54.001-07:00California disasters--earthquakes, fires, and technology<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">California disasters--earthquakes, fires, and technology</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">december 1st., 2007</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">W</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">hy would any sane person want to live in as unstable a place where the ground shakes and fires rage?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In California our natural disasters are of mammoth proportions and part of the flow of life. Everyone knows about 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. It was the largest natural disaster in US history in terms of material loss and the destruction of what we humans construct, only recently surpassed by hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When my friends Jean and Marie-Christine Garapon flew into the firestorms that began burning across Southern California at the end of October 2007, more than a half a million people were evacuated, the largest forced evacuation in California history. I know several people who were living out of their cars in parking lots of relatively safe areas while the fire crews fought blazes that had been deliberately set. Another friend, a professional mental health worker, helped take care of a man in a locked facility who set blazes in the southern California hills, and got off on watching his fires rage while he masturbated. The human species includes aberrant behavior, and that is not going to change any time soon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV0PpUpaj6SczH_VE6_ourMCRhbj3frCGlDYTljOrCSGbU1vsmJ2lt1TNhb3xYYczglQeWQWWmTgYdmnCab10GOqEP_-FlvGq7MSbftyYKEm2y_FDttyrExKVd7fgwBRvHZLlT/s1600/1718572893_60f5f8e2ea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV0PpUpaj6SczH_VE6_ourMCRhbj3frCGlDYTljOrCSGbU1vsmJ2lt1TNhb3xYYczglQeWQWWmTgYdmnCab10GOqEP_-FlvGq7MSbftyYKEm2y_FDttyrExKVd7fgwBRvHZLlT/s1600/1718572893_60f5f8e2ea.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22779657@N00/1718572893/"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">San Francisco Bay</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, originally uploaded by</span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/22779657@N00/"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">arawak812</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Here is the San Francisco Bay as seen from the top of Mt. Tamalpais. You can see the city at the end of the peninsula center right. The reason that people want to live here--and pay an enormous amount of money to do it--is the absolutely astonishing beauty of the place. The San Andres fault lies a few miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, usually in the fog. What lies hidden is the most dangerous.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jean, Marie-Christine and I rolled across the Golden Gate Bridge to the northern vista point, but we were tourists, and the fog rolled in. Grâce à Google, here is the north tower of the Bridge that we almost saw.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVcR87HwkjMBXzp0J7liAg8VkP0OyV4yUsTjm4JtP9lNQX-YR9NaWBTFLBobUfwZVej5n_O3cmthAT0xlvV-CDE2aMedgJ_S1OL9AU-8BBCnY29Phl7xUuFGiK1aB_Y9_hq-m/s1600/20100515_033-a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVcR87HwkjMBXzp0J7liAg8VkP0OyV4yUsTjm4JtP9lNQX-YR9NaWBTFLBobUfwZVej5n_O3cmthAT0xlvV-CDE2aMedgJ_S1OL9AU-8BBCnY29Phl7xUuFGiK1aB_Y9_hq-m/s320/20100515_033-a.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We saw the top of the tower from time to time. Maire-Christine kept trying to time a shot to get as much as she could on her camera. Put together, they might form a somewhat complete view.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAKm7xoN-diSgv77zMcpFtIN737P_ymn3a4FTSfLBX6jJGRwiYojfY2NvrtTeErwFZYXTMhCFwQ0ey_YXydysiF1yTkFT1EjUcT00M3iROzxvcpjGmWH_o_nHxR97Kken-ZWnI/s1600/380283367_a3d27bc304.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAKm7xoN-diSgv77zMcpFtIN737P_ymn3a4FTSfLBX6jJGRwiYojfY2NvrtTeErwFZYXTMhCFwQ0ey_YXydysiF1yTkFT1EjUcT00M3iROzxvcpjGmWH_o_nHxR97Kken-ZWnI/s1600/380283367_a3d27bc304.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sutanto/380283367/"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">QM2 @ GGB</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, originally uploaded by</span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/sutanto/"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Sutanto</span></a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This picture of the underside of the Bridge was taken from Ft. Point on the San Francisco side, without fog and with the QE 2. When finished in 1937, our bridge was a marvel, by far the longest suspension span in the United States. In the opinion of most San Franciscans, it is still the most beautiful suspension bridge in the world. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Just after Jean and Marie-Christine left, there was another man-made disaster, an oil spill that polluted the bay from one of the hundreds on cargo ships that sail under the bay each year. It is a far less pretty sight than the QE 2.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWoi-0OroqzdAczj3B8loyK9XnGX0Bmq82bFnhkBScn3kcoL65REdCfFiXRw5tFkPYxaLrtIyYRBqzkIJNtYbcddahmhmyqGz_vKsEHaWR9axjn7DZv057heRA9Z80xPyJond/s1600/2012308376_af556f19ae.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMWoi-0OroqzdAczj3B8loyK9XnGX0Bmq82bFnhkBScn3kcoL65REdCfFiXRw5tFkPYxaLrtIyYRBqzkIJNtYbcddahmhmyqGz_vKsEHaWR9axjn7DZv057heRA9Z80xPyJond/s1600/2012308376_af556f19ae.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/buxwal/2012308376/"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Cosco Busan (detail)</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, originally uploaded by</span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/buxwal/"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">lens flare</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is the gash in the Cosco Busan from which 58,000 gallons (almost 220,000 litres) of oil spilled into the San Francisco Bay.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">San Franciscans know Greek tragedy, and public outcry. The senior senator from California, our former mayor Diane Feinstein, came roaring into town demanding explanations, brandishing the firebrand of blame. People were fired, the current mayor was criticized for taking a three day Hawaiian girl friend holiday while the slick spread unchecked, the press couldn’t understand why the Coast Guard couldn’t gauge the size of the disaster for 12 hours, the public asked why their offer to help wash the oil from dying birds was rebuffed. All good questions that we’ll ask over and over since human error is not going to disappear and we will continue to insist on living here.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But it was an accident. There are, I suppose, philosophical questions about whether we have stretched our capacity for oversight and control beyond our abilities to live in an ethical and sustainable way. But for the moment, we’ll just clean the shores as best we can, wash as many birds as we can, and nail the persons responsible for the cost of clean up. Then can get back to our lives of enjoying the wonders of California.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Marie-Christine emailed me after our visit: “Was there an oil spill on the bay after we left?” I too can hardly believe how recklessly we treat the earth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.4475692651607332" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Next I will answer the burning question: what makes San Francisco a place that the French would love!</span><img height="1" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/2Voeeu_WiuhnJ6MNk-g-q9zWBBTmFY5KuZegGO6rxtbJmQDvntnJjbYfmCR_0rnjZmnt4ZtwhyaiORKwLuF-rT2K__UIpo7tEmHyw64VERiQluO4mHQ" width="1" /></span></div>
Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-85423231956409569912017-07-14T16:22:00.002-07:002020-08-28T05:57:24.381-07:00Why do the French Love San Francisco?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Eiffel Tower under construction in 1878.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Golden Gate under construction in 1934-5<br /><br /><br /></span></td></tr>
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After the destruction of City Hall in 1906, the city rebuilt in the beaux art style that certainly Parisians can appreciate.</div>
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Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-64196855016325440362011-08-26T14:52:00.000-07:002019-07-10T23:31:21.048-07:00Starbucks & the First Amendment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In honor of my deeply felt hesitation over a no-brainer. *</span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-9c57efb0-7fff-a32f-6d20-c842d306cb21" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wrote this 11 years ago when I was living in Mountain View. But I feel even more strongly today about the issue, so I'm reposting it.</span></div>
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<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My local Starbucks is a small shop in a suburban mall. For those with a few minutes to sit and sip their coffee, there are only 15 seats. I love to sit and read. </span></div>
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<b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: -webkit-standard; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><br /></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But a few months ago, the same three people always seemed to arrive just before I got there, and, in very insistent, self-assured voices, took up the letters of St. Paul: here’s what the Greek really says in this passage of his letter to the Romans; what is justification by faith alone; what was with those women in Ephesus? The three became four, and then five. They took my favorite chair in the corner, and sectioned off the whole comfortable corner for their dialectic. The noise level of their conversation rose as they read, translated, discussed, or even, G_d forbid, sometimes voiced a slight objection. And they did all this with one frothy latte.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the time, ironically, I was rereading one of my college professor’s books on religious culture in the first century of the Common Era, </span><span style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: none; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/first-century-judaism-in-crisis-jacob-neusner/1008918613/2660891953205?st=PLA&sid=BNB_ADL+Marketplace+Good+New+Books+-+Desktop+Low&sourceId=PLAGoNA&dpid=tdtve346c&2sid=Google_c&gclid=CjwKCAjwmZbpBRAGEiwADrmVXjRymjuVCzPJ7oZm5l5sCApO3qQLk8YGiqBo2wnOH-Zrj_VMw3GYqxoCuOIQAvD_BwE">First Century Judaism in Crisis</a> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">by Jacob Neusner. He introduced me to the towering figure of Yohanan ben Zakkai, and the flowering of rabbinic Judaism after the destruction of the second Temple. This was a great place to get another perspective on Paul, or Rabbi Saul. And as it turns out, the latest unpacking of Paul's letters, reveals a rather unyielding portrait of the apostle who had </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-orlando/apostle-paul-and-the-early-church_b_1122094.html?ref=email_share" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: none; background-color: transparent; color: #4a86e8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a nasty rivalry with the disciples</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> who knew the Jesus who lived and preached his gospel, the Paul who pulled the message of Jesus out of the confines of the Temple in Jerusalem and introduced it to a far-flung audience in the Greco-Roman world, perhaps even setting up his soap box in the coffee houses of Corinth and Rome!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: black; float: left; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="269" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/o9svXCKWCq6hmrZOQrwuS5sLeDX0Y-kgntQCzE3Bgm-wL1ERNm5W2LQG5J3nRgOXYCCXHaOwXoKfx5LGD84AGWVgSD6RBGFoImU0nS9_HLOaBmMbSypoMmy2iAkPYQrCJx6PtBNz" style="border: none;" width="400" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After about a month of trying to be as tolerant as I could of Paul’s disciples, responding politely to their overtures and kind hellos, pondering the extent of the First Amendment, I had had enough. I asked for the manager and complained. She said that it was a very difficult and sensitive situation but that I was not alone and she would see what could be done. (Nothing was done, but that is another issue. I am not the only chicken).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I could have just stayed away. I could have just cut short my malicious thoughts about the evangelical highjacking of the Jesus record. I could have stopped my inner commentary about the idiocy of their suppositions. I might not have been vocal to almost everyone about the inappropriate use of a coffee shop - what are church halls for anyway? – when out of the offenders’ ear shot. But I did not. I just complained, not quite anonymously, but quietly when their backs were turned. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps just this post is again some confirmation of my guilt at having breached someone’s First Amendment rights. </span></div>
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Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-24297514579739432282010-01-17T11:56:00.002-08:002021-06-09T08:33:33.013-07:00Re-examiination time -- again<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Among today's version of the Republican Party, there is not much support for any of the programs that helped the United States, particularly after the end of the Second World War, become the world's economic super power. These include FDR's New Deal which was in place but became a stable part of American life when there was enough money to fund its programs; Medicare and Medical, without which I would be dead; student tuition programs like the GI bill that gave us the largest well educated work force in history; and more particularly the huge infusion of money into infrastructure, e.g. the huge interstate highways system that Ike sold as essential for national defense. <br />
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Republican attacks on the bailout rely on an underclass handout image for these programs. Wall Street tycoons are the new welfare mothers in Cadillac’s. I liked this article because it helped me see that the way I personally view both the programs themselves and the way that we view them as skewed. <br />
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Read it. I think Mr. Wolff has a point, or even several! </div>
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<blockquote cite="http://www.laprogressive.com/economic-equality/welfare-work/" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; border: currentcolor; margin: 4px 0px 8px; padding: 0px 8px; text-align: left;">
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Does Welfare Work?</h1>
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<div align="center"><img alt="Domestic Worker Does Welfare Work?" src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.laprogressive.com/img/A952919C-839A-4450-B407-DB2A4ED59B04" /></div>
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<blockquote cite="http://www.laprogressive.com/economic-equality/welfare-work/" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; border: currentcolor; margin: 4px 0px 8px; padding: 0px 8px; text-align: left;">
If social welfare programs work, then countries with more extensive programs should report a smaller percent of their population living in poverty. And that is exactly what we find. According to UNICEF, the percentage of children living in poverty in 2005 was: Denmark, 2.4%; France, 7.5%, Norway, 13.4%; Canada, 14.9%; United Kingdom, 15.4%; United States, 21.9%. (Thank goodness for Mexico — 27.7%.)</blockquote>
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<blockquote cite="http://www.laprogressive.com/economic-equality/welfare-work/" style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; -moz-background-origin: padding; border: currentcolor; margin: 4px 0px 8px; padding: 0px 8px; text-align: left;">
The Human Development Index (HDI) measures general well-being, with special emphasis on child welfare. Ratings released in 2009, covering the period up to 2007, reveal the following: the U.S. ranks 13th, in a virtual tie with Austria, Spain, and Denmark, surpassed by some countries noted for extensive welfare programs: Norway, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, and Finland.</blockquote>
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</div>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-77333999310170819892009-09-11T18:24:00.000-07:002011-11-24T00:23:52.450-08:00Hey Harry, your sentences are a total mess!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: 180%;">S</span>enator Harry Reid of Nevada said in ”remarks prepared for delivery” to note the passing Senator Edward Kennedy:<br />
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"The impact he etched into our history will long endure. The liberal lion's mighty roar may now fall on deaf ears, but his dream shall never die."<o:p></o:p> <br />
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Hey Harry, these sentences are a total mess! I think I am beginning to see why health care reform is getting so jumbled in the Senate debate. You guys can’t think straight. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I hate to be a nitpicker—no that’s a lie—I enjoy it more than you can imagine. I have a pet theory, hatched in the Geo W Bush years: totally mashed up semantics, weird modifiers and misdirected metaphors that paint a dreadful picture reflect mashed up, weird, misdirected and dreadful thinking. QED.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Here we go. Not to leave poor Geo way ahead in the war of malapropisms, the Democrats, with Harry at bat, have scored some whopping points!<o:p></o:p></div>
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"The impact he etched into our history will long endure.” Harry gets off to a slow start. Though “etching an impact” is a bit hard for me to get visually, “to etch in memory” is a common way to say “unforgettable.” Etching is a process in the visual arts that requires the application of acid, mordant or abrasive of some sort to the unprotected areas on a metal to create the negative of an image for reproduction. Doesn’t he just mean that it will be hard to forget Teddy and that his legacy will be equally hard to erase. The use of the word “history” might be trying to sound the sad note that Teddy is no longer with us, but his body is barely cold. But I will give “etched impact” 4 points, but take 2 away for the introduction of Teddy’s death with an weak nuance for “history”–if that is even his meaning.<o:p></o:p></div>
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“The liberal lion's mighty roar may now fall on deaf ears, but his dream shall never die." But here’s where the real fun begins, and Harry racks up real points. These are two great images, the roaring lion and the “I have a dream” rhetoric of any visionary. But in the same sentence? Both images are diminished plus it makes no sense. Minus 10 points for each infraction. The middle phrase, “deaf ears,” must mean that the Republicans in the Senate, those in power, those in the opposition, are so stupid that they cannot hear or understand his strong cogent, articulate arguments. But did this just happen now that Teddy is dead—now that he is no longer around to twist arms in the Senate cloakroom? Hardly. They were deaf long before. So I am going to deduct 40 points for nonsense. I have also heard that one can dream with all the organs, but the ears are not usually regarded as the instrument of dreams in ordinary speech, but then again, people who dream do hear voices, usually ominous warnings of danger. But if this is the meaning, it is very obtuse. I will deduct another 30 points. That leaves Harry with a score of 8 out of a possible 100. George scored 0 on multiple occasions. Keep it up Harry, you can still give him a run for his money.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://www.ibdeditorials.com/cartoons.aspx"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Political Cartoon by Michael Ramirez</span></span></a></div>
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"Give up. The War is lost!"<br />
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</div>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-53789515700288142492009-02-16T13:21:00.001-08:002012-11-27T15:23:26.906-08:00Down in the Dumps about your 401 K? Read this.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZajK_3bwJqCYLpSNFPtOATFVL4bEfmKUSold4HtFQfyn4OlV2GovAqznXnZgwPk9RPrYms_LooqlyO9EWIUVT5IXIWIqWL77OLv5lWe8AyXVhZE8-FDanCoQM2GGzh6jdH81/s1600-h/rand.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="318" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303510696308972866" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZajK_3bwJqCYLpSNFPtOATFVL4bEfmKUSold4HtFQfyn4OlV2GovAqznXnZgwPk9RPrYms_LooqlyO9EWIUVT5IXIWIqWL77OLv5lWe8AyXVhZE8-FDanCoQM2GGzh6jdH81/s400/rand.jpg" style="float: left; height: 255px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 320px;" width="400" /></a></div>
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Myth or something other?<br />
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I am not an apostle of Ayn Rand or Milton Friedman or the forever chair of the Fed, Alan Greenspan, but this is worth reading and thinking about.<br />
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"The choice--the dedication to one's highest potential--is made by accepting the fact that the noblest act you have ever performed is the act of your mind in the process of grasping that two and two make four." AR. How did this effect Mr. Greenspan's rhetoric? Here she is pretty close to showing what an idiot she was, or am I being too harsh?</div>
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Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-49622286044062971922009-01-26T21:44:00.001-08:002011-12-28T12:32:03.057-08:00Are Books Next?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">L</span>iberal education as we know it might also be a thing of the past. I wonder if anyone really cares or realizes the cost?<br />
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Here is a comment from a reader, Andrew Davis, of The New Republic:<br />
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In other news, American Airlines announces they will no longer fly airplanes.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr-guur4fu69QIYOIJjMIX3GWYEVpuW87TTAkxgzD75rSMvQ7wZyV1NBhXYni87U0bfS7EeqV-eDBd0mzQlhaH-54W9D07UgipR6gj4_ywwu5DW5Xctxp49JbuJE8WWoUsk2-U/s1600-h/theironbirdflys.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5295846185642034130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr-guur4fu69QIYOIJjMIX3GWYEVpuW87TTAkxgzD75rSMvQ7wZyV1NBhXYni87U0bfS7EeqV-eDBd0mzQlhaH-54W9D07UgipR6gj4_ywwu5DW5Xctxp49JbuJE8WWoUsk2-U/s1600/theironbirdflys.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For more of my collages go to <a href="http://partnerart.blogspot.com/">Application of the Senses</a></td></tr>
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"After careful analysis, we discovered that we make most of our profit selling tickets, not flying planes, so we are canceling all flights henceforth. Tickets, however, are still available on-line, over the phone, or from an agent. Our customers will also be glad to know that we are also reducing our fuel surcharge fifty percent."<br />
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<span class="articleTitle"><br /> Why Book Reviews Matter</span></blockquote>
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<blockquote cite="http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/01/23/is-wapo-closing-book-world.aspx" style="-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; border: currentColor; margin: 4px 0px 8px; padding: 0px 8px; text-align: left;">
Rumors surfaced last Friday that <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/print/bookworld/index.html" target="_blank">Book World</a>, the <i>Washington Post</i>'s highly-respected weekly stand-alone on all things literary, might be <a href="http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/wapo_book_world_in_trouble/" target="_blank">closing</a>. <i>Politico</i>'s Michael Calderone quickly <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0109/Will_WaPo_close_Book_World.html" target="_blank">confirmed</a> that, while no decision has been made, it's under high-level discussion as a cost-cutting measure. This would leave the <i>New York Times</i>' Book Review as the last stand-alone book section in American dailies. </blockquote>
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In recent years, in-house book reviewing has been eliminated, abridged, or downgraded by the Atlanta Journal- Constitution, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Cleveland's Plain Dealer, The San Diego Union-Tribune--the list goes on.</blockquote>
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</div>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-33102172973763269022009-01-19T01:32:00.001-08:002011-11-26T14:49:39.971-08:00What HBO didn't want you to hear<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfrJSH-v6LLYWVXKzG3VU8dFAYEpdojDIvBISnCN4AO1lEcPrmoEJNOZsOaYOtYevW4UdwJFg1naNbIYeqlgSY26l_iUgsadEDx5gmDm_ouctrLnR4NNJg5PR_18KeDwUNHwp5/s1600-h/RICK.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292935564771183458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfrJSH-v6LLYWVXKzG3VU8dFAYEpdojDIvBISnCN4AO1lEcPrmoEJNOZsOaYOtYevW4UdwJFg1naNbIYeqlgSY26l_iUgsadEDx5gmDm_ouctrLnR4NNJg5PR_18KeDwUNHwp5/s320/RICK.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 656px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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Today, Sunday, the 18th of January, at the Lincoln Memorial, openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson called on God to "bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people." However, his prayer was cut from the HBO broadcast!<br />
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Here is the full text of his prayer:<br />
<br />
The Most Rev. Gene Robinson<br />
Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire<br />
Invocation, Inaugural Concert<br />
Lincoln Memorial<br />
Washington, D.C.<br />
Jan. 18, 2009 2:20 p.m. EST<br />
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Oh, God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears, tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria and AIDS.<br />
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Bless this nation with anger – anger at discrimination at home and abroad against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.<br />
Bless us with discomfort at the easy, simplistic answers we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.<br />
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Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a Messiah.<br />
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Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.<br />
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Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.<br />
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And bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.<br />
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And God, we give you thanks for your child, Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States. Give him wisdom beyond his years. Inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style; President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.<br />
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Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady, calm captain.<br />
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Give him stirring words. We will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.<br />
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Make him color blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership there will be "neither red nor blue states, but the United States."<br />
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Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.<br />
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Give him strength to find family time and privacy and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.<br />
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And, please God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our Presidents and we are asking far too much of this one. We implore You, O good and great God, to keep him safe; hold him in the palm of Your hand, that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace. Amen.</div>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-13871561574546326752009-01-05T11:02:00.000-08:002011-11-29T02:24:53.755-08:0015 Days and Counting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span id="internal-source-marker_0.2503553149578536" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Notes on paintings chosen for display at the Inaugural Luncheon in the Capitol.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkjIW2wHDQgxsGkZa5eCufm6-b4D6uDgy_6osvAWU1kwo42MVJlHpDWuyyXGcs2AziF7mnWFgDzZWLOhdueEBa93TMIGeyauafwowXThKxmW0TdOzVcU3wSCy3-MAeeHPaFE9t/s1600/2009_painting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkjIW2wHDQgxsGkZa5eCufm6-b4D6uDgy_6osvAWU1kwo42MVJlHpDWuyyXGcs2AziF7mnWFgDzZWLOhdueEBa93TMIGeyauafwowXThKxmW0TdOzVcU3wSCy3-MAeeHPaFE9t/s400/2009_painting.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.2503553149578536" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">View of the Yosemite Valley by Thomas Hill, Oil on canvas, 1865.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New-York Historical Society, Gift of Charles T. Harbeck</span></td></tr>
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<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A few thoughts about the office of POTUS, looking back on the first three years of Barack Obama's administration. I wrote this 15 days before he was sworn in. I will continue to stand up for him, and work to get him re-elected.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 27px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: red; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 27px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">T</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">he sense of the oldest version of the word “inauguration,” the Latin </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">inaugurātus</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, is more than a just formal ceremony in which the person chosen for an office accepts its responsibilities and promises to fulfill its requirements. It was a blessing, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">augur</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. We humans try to coax the pantheon of the gods help move all the forces of the universe into alignment to create the most favorable circumstances possible for the office-holder to fulfill of his or her responsibilities.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Although I prefer a more secular interpretation of the word, there is something to that older, more sacred meaning. We humans, in our role as citizens, make a pact with the powers of the universe, that they will guide and protect Barack Obama to fight for the freedom of all people, to nurture all life, and to take care for humans in need—“to provide for the common good.” It is not one-sided. The humans have their role to play as well as the unseen powers. That is certainly what lead me to support Barack’s bid for the presidency, and I will be there, either in person or in spirit, to pledge my support as he sets out to make good on his promises.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><img height="533" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/A6ttN8SkVzScNjM0jwxed_Zvp3iaV0FVikbuoMHinkEqrTGBfgGY3qnHsWXwAJXALBEqbbTwyJAQgc900bxz03QcfYLMSG5Wu-Jkzv82tHl1t6pYpe0" width="416" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The portrait, dated 1821, is of course Thomas Jefferson, by the 19</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> century portrait artist Thomas Sully. Bill Clinton displayed it at the Inaugural Luncheon in the Capitol for his 1</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Inauguration.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br /><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I had imagined that Barack Obama would choose one of Lincoln. Instead he chose one that was painted the year that Lincoln was assassinated, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">View of the Yosemite Valley</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> by Thomas Hill. The breath of Hill vision has room for many, many possibilities. I say that those possibilities still exist if we honor our part in the bargain.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> </div>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-71020236576296052062008-11-21T04:52:00.001-08:002011-11-27T14:39:12.279-08:00Where are the protests and boycotts by the international community?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsAGF0nqUUsywiA79UF2N8c-SLdudDvXFg02xDlNkAE75je58hvwNOm2beViLTjBjJMPjmifNlEhQukYQpkUp2tbrkjBC1AsagSlrHJBlCqnbPUNpG6H5mJruE3xB9LT1Sr1dn/s1600-h/freeburmashirt-fromdigitalgraveldotcom.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272049220386318578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsAGF0nqUUsywiA79UF2N8c-SLdudDvXFg02xDlNkAE75je58hvwNOm2beViLTjBjJMPjmifNlEhQukYQpkUp2tbrkjBC1AsagSlrHJBlCqnbPUNpG6H5mJruE3xB9LT1Sr1dn/s320/freeburmashirt-fromdigitalgraveldotcom.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 143px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 114px;" /></a>Ashin Mettacara is a Buddhist monk who escaped Burma after the brutal end of the Saffron Revolution. Currently, from an undisclosed location, he is blogging whatever news he gets from this isolated country.<br />
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The military thugs who control the country are not being held accountable by the rest of the world, but they could not survive without China stonewalling for them. And we in the West, yes even us cool, level headed focused, bright and committed Buddhists seem to have put the issue aside after the unbelievable pictures of thousands of saffron robed monks marching in the streets, followed by the horrific scenes of death and destruction that were caused by the cyclone, disappeared from out TV's.<br />
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Just <span style="font-size: 100%;">yesterday I was reminded again of what we can still do, even in small ways. I was with a college bu</span>ddy, showing him around San Francisco. We went into a very upscale shop on Maiden Lane, actually a building that Frank Lloyd Wright designed. On the desk was a jar and an appeal to continue to help the victims in <i>Myanmar</i>.<br />
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Wake up. It's still going on. Please do not let up the pressure. Speak up! </div>
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<a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="clipmarks' clip-to-blog"><img alt="" border="0" height="19" src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_icon/7cf36776-adcd-4b22-b1ad-c276e5c38f11/83139CBB-8C96-4AAC-A4ED-4F6AA0305089/" style="border: currentColor; display: inline; float: none; margin: 0px 4px; vertical-align: middle;" width="19" /></a>clipped from <a href="http://www.ashinmettacara.org/2008/11/myanmar-popular-burmese-hip-hop-singer.html" style="font-size: 11px;" title="http://www.ashinmettacara.org/2008/11/myanmar-popular-burmese-hip-hop-singer.html">www.</a><a href="http://www.ashinmettacara.org/2008/11/myanmar-popular-burmese-hip-hop-singer.html" style="font-size: 11px;" title="http://www.ashinmettacara.org/2008/11/myanmar-popular-burmese-hip-hop-singer.html">ashinmettacara.org</a></div>
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Burma, Myanmar: Popular Burmese Hip-Hop Singer Gets 6 Years; Leader Monk Gets Another 15 years</blockquote>
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More than 20 activists were sentenced in Burma on Thursday. A popular Burmese Hip-Hop singer Zay Yar Thaw was also included in the list of the detainenes sentenced.</blockquote>
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Zay Yar Thaw is a 27-year-old singer from the popular music band known as ACID. ACID a hip-hop band from Yangon, Burma. </blockquote>
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Zaw Yar Thaw organised and led the Generation Wave group with the young activists during the Saffron Revolution led by the Buddhist monks in 2007. He was arrested in March with his four other members of Generation Wave. He was sentenced today to 6 years imprisonment for possessing foreign currency and organising illegal group. His four other members of Generation Wave were sentenced to 5 years imprisoment each.</blockquote>
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The leader and spokesmonk for the Saffron Revolution Ashin Gambira gets another 15 years. Last Tuesday he has already been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. But his case is not closed yet.</blockquote>
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By Ashin Mettacara</blockquote>
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</div>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-31781481075678206842007-12-23T11:50:00.000-08:002017-07-25T13:18:19.475-07:00A very, very Happy Merry to All<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">A very, very Happy Merry to All</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">12/23/07</span></span><br />
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Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-3054785146929438622007-10-17T11:31:00.000-07:002011-12-01T12:44:15.351-08:00Congratulations, Al<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">C</span></span>ongratulations Al, and, <span style="font-weight: bold;">thanks from all of us earthlings</span>.</div>
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Whether or not we are generous in our thoughts about you, you have made a difference. And we thank those who are working so hard to look at the science required to track and, ultimately, change the downward spiral, including the men and women with whom you share this Nobel prize, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.</div>
</div>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-13306603505338401762007-06-03T20:21:00.000-07:002011-12-15T09:21:10.468-08:00The World's Best (local) Coffee House<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKPLvUu_9HCT-UMND4adtUkW2tzBOUcuz5fljBcHikhRzRoB2lOYu4I-sUxugqwd-7ghodJTSgLVt8C0ae0vqaucqiRDoDTCo39vvYevXQPKMEDcbvG8v2hHHduU8-dovWxftN/s1600-h/nervousdog2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5152660128488854210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKPLvUu_9HCT-UMND4adtUkW2tzBOUcuz5fljBcHikhRzRoB2lOYu4I-sUxugqwd-7ghodJTSgLVt8C0ae0vqaucqiRDoDTCo39vvYevXQPKMEDcbvG8v2hHHduU8-dovWxftN/s400/nervousdog2.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" width="300" /></a><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;">W</span>hat are the ingredients for a good, perhaps superlative coffee house? Coffee? Eats? Service? Fast WiFi? Folks? Music? Comfortable seats? Location?<br />
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Most every coffee drinker I know protests Starbucks trying to romance us away with their coffee-flavored drinks. But how many will step off their normal path to support a really great place, run by wonderful people, with great coffee, fine eats, cool music, and comfortable seats where no one will bother you if you want to sit and fiddle on your laptop? <br />
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In the hope that a great place with these essential ingredients in abundance is rewarded, I am going to recommend my favorite coffee house, even if it might become crowded once the word gets out.<br />
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The Nervous Dog at 3438 Mission (between 30th and Courtland) in San Francisco deserves your business. As I write, it is still early on Sunday morning, and I just watched the owner go outside with a bowl of water for a customer's dog, obliged by the health code to wait outside. He, the owner that is, not the dog, is unflaggingly bright spirited and courteous, and I have the impression that this is who he really is - that he genuinely likes people and enjoys serving them. I had a perfectly made (free trade) <span style="font-style: italic;">cafe americano</span> plus wonderful lox and bagel, all for a very reasonable price. We are listening to country gospel music. I would not be able to sit through 2 crossover country "hits," but this music has the A flat that distinguishes the genuine article, and I am enjoying it much more than I might have thought possible. It seems that I am not alone either. I see more than one of the two dozen or so diverse feet around me moving rhythmically .<br />
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At the bottom of Bernal Heights, the Hill, a few souls have wandered down to refresh their souls. It is not in a great Starbucks location, as you can see by the picture, no fancy shopping mall, or convenient kiosk in a supermarket, but the parking looks reasonably available for San Francisco if you are a driver. I came on foot, lucky to have The Nervous Dog in my neighborhood.<br />
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I am not alone in my evaluation either. I will link to <a href="http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/6/88088/restaurant/Bernal-Heights/Nervous-Dog-Coffee-San-Francisco#all_reviews">Urbanspoon</a> that posts reviews by ordinary folks like me. As of today, June 3rd, 17 out of 25 reviews give it the highest rating, 5 stars.<br />
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If you can't join me at The Nervous Dog, support your local coffee house.</div>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35878167.post-1161570352610171962006-10-22T19:09:00.000-07:002012-01-08T21:45:03.414-08:00Come out gay Republicans!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Jasper Johns, </span><cite><b>Flag. </b></cite><strong>1954–55, </strong>Encaustic, oil, and collage on fabric mounted </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">on plywood. The Museum of Modern <st1:place><st1:city>Art</st1:city>, <st1:state>New York</st1:state></st1:place><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: 130%;">Andrew, honey, Get a Grip</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><strong><span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></strong></span><span style="font-size: 100%;">The conservative gay writer <a href="http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/10/the_left_versus.html">Andrew Sullivan</a><o:p></o:p> has gotten his panties tied in knot about the Left outing gay Republicans. Get a grip, hon, there’s plenty of blame for both Left and Right. “The List” of gay staffers on Capitol Hill got into the hands of some right wing fundies. That’s all we know. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">I have found myself tracking “The List” story with a lot of intensity. As an old-line activist, I hoped that mainstream <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region> had moved beyond gay cleansing and blackmail. I don’t feel any need to protect anyone’s closet or out anyone, but the threat of a Pink Purge and its reaction tell me that the closet remains as lethal as ever.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">I have some personal history with the suffering that is the source of the closet: abuse at the hands of our own families, bullying at school, settling for second rank jobs after better than average College careers. Many gay men of my generation share some of this history with me and know that these wounds do not magically disappear in the halls of Congress. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">I also know something about gay staffers on the Hill. I was a personal friend of Rick Pucar who worked for Phil Burton, Nancy Pelosi’s predecessor as the ‘Congressperson’ from the District that includes <st1:city><st1:place>San Francisco</st1:place></st1:city>. I still see his surviving partner, Mike Haush, who worked for both Barbara Boxer when she was in the House and John Burton, Phil’s brother. They joked that they fell in love and got married in the halls of Congress. Oh, if only that had been possible.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">Through them and other political friends, I’ve known about the informal network of gay staffers for years. It used to exist in rolodexes but has now migrated into email address books which are much easier to publish widely.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">The period that I’m talking about begins with the appearance of HIV in our community. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">The strain of funding research and treatment for the “gay cancer” produced stresses among the Hill gays equal to or greater than the fallout from Mark Foley's sick behavior. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;"><o:p></o:p>The membership of Lesbian and Gay Congressional Staff Association is a matter of public record though not, as far as I know, widely published. Until only a few weeks ago, if a staffer chose to remain in the closet, he or she could. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was the unwritten rule, but it was never a secret society, a kind of Opus Dei with a gay agenda. </span><span style="font-size: 100%;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">The network of lesbian and gay staffers worked like any other network</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">—</span><span style="font-size: 100%;">full of communication, cooperation, gossip, bitchiness, even a bit of back stabbing with a particular flair. Of course, most of their bosses knew about their sexual orientation. Most Dem’s, especially from the <st1:place><st1:placename>Left</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Coast</st1:placetype></st1:place>, were out, but, for the most part, they respected the privacy of any closeted Republican colleagues. They even helped and encouraged one another. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">I’ve never seen “The List.” It hasn’t been published in the Times, but it’s become a new weapon in the hands of Family Research Council (what a lovely name for bigots). What happened? My suspicion is that at some point pre-Mark Foley, support within the GBLT network became covering. If the spirit of bi-partisanship is dead among the bosses, should we expect a higher standard from their staff? As with any human network fighting for survival, sometimes the old strategy doesn’t work very well, but hell, it is the only thing on hand, so let’s crank her up and see if we can get her to work this time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">And this is in my view is the real kicker: there is a new generation, gay and straight, ready to move beyond the old post-Stonewall arguments about being gay. They are ready get to work on what really matters now. Perkins, director of the FRC, and his operatives’ behavior is reprehensible and unethical</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">—</span><span style="font-size: 100%;">it is black mail</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">—</span><span style="font-size: 100%;">but worse, it is a distraction from the Iraq War, the treason of the sitting President and his crony administration, global warming, the looting of our national resources by the super wealthy, the auctioning off of publicly owned air waves and the consequent stifling of free speech.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">Before any of these efforts get full gay participation, and the contribution of our talents, there might have to be a final "Come to Jesus" reckoning--gay staffers, from either party, who turned over “The List” to the likes of Perkins, ought to have their <st1:street><st1:address>DuPont Circle</st1:address></st1:street> town houses turned into Betty Ford clinics for recovering Bible thumpers, and then be forced to sit through every meeting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">The best article that I have found on "The List" is, of course, in the Washington Blade, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/19/AR2006101901931.html">available online</a>.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></div>
</div>Kenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00470542916911283360noreply@blogger.com0