Back in the old, un-longed for days, my wife and I used to refer to New Year’s Eve as “Amateur Night.” … What…Me Sober?
Amateur Night
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Monthly Archives: December 2008
Score One For The Environment!
A litany bemoaning the past 8 years of rape, and some hopes for rehabilitation.
On Nov. 4, the tension was unbearable. Fortunately for our air, water and wildlife, Barack Obama triumphed. …
Family-fying New Year’s Eve
My adopted daughter Tracey does it again:
Famili-fying New Year’s Eve – Suburban Diva
There are parents who have a special adult-only evening planned with dining, dancing and a toast at midnight. I envy those who have a reservation at a restaurant that doesn’t have paper placemats and crayons. But there are some others who have reservations of a different sort, and prefer to spend New Year’s Eve at home, or with friends close by rather than venturing too far or too long on the roads. And it is we who will begin the challenging task of baby-proofing the evening for the Baby New Year. …
Environment News Service
Why Don’t Liberals Put Their Money Where Their Mouth Is?
Bleeding Heart Tightwads – NYTimes.com
Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates….
I recall being on an I-95 exit ramp in Palm Beach County (with its obligatory panhandler) a few days before Christmas. Our Hyundai was about fifth in line, behind a Bentley, a Maserati and a couple of SUVs. The fellow with the hand-lettered sign immediately passed up the supercars and made a beeline for the Hyundai where, of course, he got a buck and a Merry Christmas. They know. It’s us schmucks who have been the closest to where they are who are most likely to be empathetic. Too bad, but there it is….
Sacred Rights of the International Two Spirit Gathering
The International Two Spirit Gathering is a celebration of and for those who feel they carry both male and female spirits.
via Sacred Rights of the International Two Spirit Gathering.
50 years of house calls
In this sleepy country town, which sprang up around a railroad junction and the start of the Chisholm trail, folks give out their phone numbers by the last four digits, the annual Tom-Tom festival culminates with the crowning of the Tomato King and Queen, and everybody knows Doc Watson.
Over the last 50 years, the tall and lanky family practitioner delivered a good many of the town’s residents and doctored most of the others.
The night Janet Jaco’s little girl had to be rushed to the hospital with a sudden hemorrhage, David Watson walked the four blocks from his house to the Yoakum Community Hospital every hour on the hour to check on his patient and offer a comforting shoulder to her worried mother. …
…This month, Watson received the Country Doctor of the Year award, which honors a primary care physician who best exemplifies the spirit of rural practitioners. The award is given out by Staff Care, the largest physician staffing service in the country, which hopes to attract more young doctors to family practice. …
Right Speech Reconsidered
Because Right Speech figures so prominently in the fundamental teachings of the Buddha, we know that what we might call Right Listening, as the complement to Right Speech, is also very important. But what exactly is Right Listening?
via Family Dharma: Right Speech Reconsidered | Tricycle Magazine.
Monk takes basics of Buddhism behind bars
The sound of a prison gate closing is distinctive and final, according to Bhante Kassapa Bhikkhu, a Buddhist monk who travels to the federal prison in Beaumont each week.
But by passing through that door over the past year, the monk has nurtured a relatively small but dedicated number of inmates who want to participate in the weekly meditation sessions. The group has grown in number from about seven to around 15 and sometimes more, said Kassapa, an American-born monk who lives and practices at the Buumon Buddhist Temple in Port Arthur.
“I don’t think many of them would have been Buddhist before they came,” he said.
Prisoners have a lot of time to fill, he said, which encourages some to explore new ideas and faiths. Any faith, he noted, is likely to make incarceration more bearable, but some have found that the solitary, reflective nature of Buddhism suits their circumstances particularly well.
“There’s solitude and quietness found in Buddhism,” he said. …
Uncle Jay Explains the News — A look at the past year
Too wonderful! (Thanks Steve)
Virgin Islands Diocese, Schools Suffer From Madoff Scam
IBJ.com – Indianapolis Business Journal – USVI diocese loses $2 million in Madoff scheme
Wish I believed in hell. Madoff could go there and clear burning Bushes.
Roman Catholic schools in the U.S. Virgin Islands will have to turn away parents seeking financial aid for their children because of losses in a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, church officials said Wednesday.The Diocese of St. Thomas lost nearly $2 million on investments made with disgraced Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff, most of which represented endowment funds for youngsters at two Catholic elementary schools in St. Croix, the poorest of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The Jesus I Know…
Keep the Faith | A reader blog about liberal religion with the Rev. Matt Tittle | HoustonBelief.com
There was a human being
in the first century who was called “Divine,” “Son
of God,” “God,” and “God from God,” whose titles were “Lord,” “Redeemer,”
“Liberator,” and “Savior of the World.” All before Jesus was born.All of these
terms belonged to Caesar Augustus…
Houses of God Turn to Chapter 11
In Hard Times, Houses of God Turn to Chapter 11 in Book of Bankruptcy – WSJ.com
There are those (me among them) who might argue that perhaps God is trying to teach Her wasteful children a lesson.
The financial problems are crimping a church building boom that began in the 1990s, when megachurches multiplied, turning many houses of worship into suburban social centers complete with bookstores, gyms and coffee bars. Lenders say mortgage applications are down, while some commercial lenders no longer see churches as a safe investment.
