Hmmmm. It appears that I was not keeping the kitty box as clean as I should have. Thank goodness for Nature’s Miracle… excuse me while I do a little laundry.
Note to self: Every other day, or every day. Every other day, or every day. Otherwise, don’t leave attractive piles of clothes around.
Said cat has been chastised. Bad!! Cat!! Bad!! Naughty!! Although, to be fair, it should be Bad! Monkey! Bad! Naughty!
Sci Fi Wire — The News Service of the Sci Fi Channel
The 200th episode will bring back the character of Martin Lloyd (Willy Garson) and his fictional TV show Wormhole X-treme, which was the subject of the 100th episode, “Wormhole X-treme,” and is a parody of SG-1 itself.
Awesome. They’re even doing a wink and a hat-tip in Serenity’s direction.
Look for more inside jokes. My favorite last time out was after the big exciting spaceship crash, where an assistant director and somebody else walk into shot, discussing the near-cataclysm and whether they caught it on film. “That’s OK, we can always fix it in post.” Hee!
People planning a hunger strike in San Francisco might want to change their focus – they’re blaming Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA for the big bad anti-illegal immigrant bill, but it’s a HOUSE bill sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI.
Specter’s actually a pretty decent pol who has a much more humane proposal on the table.
Specter’s proposal would actually create a process for illegal immigrants to gain legal status and his efforts have won the praise of numerous immigrant advocates. It’s Sensenbrenner’s bill that critics say would criminalize illegal aliens and those who harbor and help them.
Sarah Dylan Breuer attended a meeting of something called the Lay Episcopalians for the Anglican Church. This appears to be a front for the people who want to take control of the Episcopal Church and fight the mythical “gay agenda.” Here’s what she experienced: The Witness: Inside LEAC
Ince walked a careful line in the meeting. On one hand, he was eager to present LEAC as an organization completely independent, not only of the Anglican Communion Network, the American Anglican Council, and Anglicans United, but also of All Saints’ Chevy Chase — despite that it was the site for all organizational meetings, survey tabulations, and other announced functions.
“The reason for that I think you know,” he said. “Clergy can’t be identified with some of the strong positions this organization will take. Priests can suffer under the tyranny of bishops, so clergy will have credible denial that they have anything to do with [LEAC].”
At the same time Ince presented LEAC as having powerful — and anonymous — allies from other conservative organizations.
He noted that he’d had extensive conversations with Bill Boniface of the American Anglican Council’s “Episcopal Witness” (not to be confused with The Witness magazine) initiative for laity, and that they’d “tried very hard” to merge the two organizations. He noted in particular that he’d had “good meetings” in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and that “a number of employees” of the diocese there had contributed financially to LEAC, and “committed to help in any way they can as individuals.” And “three of the top people in the Anglican side of the Episcopal Church in America,” Ince said, had telephoned to say that they “will do all they can to support us without incurring reprisals against clergy.”
Where LEAC differed most from these other organizations, according to Ince, was in the extent of their ambition. “We disagree with clergy-led organizations” like the AAC and ACN, he explained, “in their seeming to be satisfied with the policy of saving only a remnant of our church, those affiliated with organizations.”
LEAC aims to secure the allegiance of 80% of Episcopalian parishioners — and a significant chunk of their pledges as well. The four “well-defined” initiatives Ince hopes LEAC will do before and during General Convention 2006 will cost an estimated $90,000, and he’s hoping that you’ll consider donations to LEAC “part of your church tithing.”
What are these projects? Ince wouldn’t say, except to say that they were targeted at what he called the “mushy middle,” which he estimated to be 80% of the church. Ince believes that these people don’t support ordaining gay clergy or blessing same-sex relationships, but value staying with their parish and the Episcopal Church more than they do fighting such trends. Ince fears that “without somewhat grotesque education” they will “go with the Episcopal Church” — instead of what, he didn’t say, except that it would involve their being “settled in a good, Christian, Anglican environment again.”
There’s a whole lot between the lines, there – the Diocese of Pittsburgh is run by a bishop who’s at the forefront of the conservative (and fundamentalist-supported) takeover gang.
I’m definitely not in this “mushy middle,” and I question very much the assertion that 80% of my denomination doesn’t care all that much for gay people, and doesn’t mind if they’re excluded from the clergy (or indeed, from sitting in the pews).
Well, Holy Moly wouldn’t have lasted as long as we have without gay clergy, and lately Father Ted has really been getting people energized and enthusiastic. We had a retreat yesterday for the whole parish (which translates to “the people who always turn up when there’s work involved”). We were sorry that several entire families opted to do something else, but we got a lot done.
Without Ted, we’d still be complacently doing church club every week with a supply priest and ignoring the larger community’s needs. This need on our part to actually do something as Christians started with Marion’s tenure, and now we’re trying to get our feet under us enough to carry it on with Ted.
I just can’t see what the hell the “reasserters” (strict Biblical interpreters) think is the value in hounding gays and lesbians from our church; do they not notice that homosexual Episcopalians are some of the most committed groups in our denomination? Or am I deluded into this thought because at every step in my journey to becoming an Episcopalian and then a better Christian, a gay person was at every crossroads?
I had previously seen Sarah’s article somewhere else, but was reminded of it by a prodding from Salt. Thanks, Father Salt!
I have to join this Flickr group. It’s called “Bad Parking.”
This particular example is just wrong and bad and evil on so many levels. And of course, it’s emblematic of so much that is wrong with this country and our treatment of everyone else in the world.
Via: Flickr Title: Compact what? By: earthdog
Originally uploaded: 20 Jul ’05, 10.39pm PST
No matter what kind of Hummer you have, it is not a compact car. You should not park in a compact spot. This is not that hard to understand
Salt Lake Tribune – Salt Lake Tribune Home Page
Born Dec. 1, 1919, in Caddo, Texas, Charles Augustus Steen earned a geology degree from the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy in 1943. In 1950, a U.S. government campaign to draw prospectors to the Four Corners area in search of uranium for Cold War weapons development sparked Steen’s interest. He borrowed money from his mother to buy a portable drill, and moved his family – wife, Minnie Lee, also known as M.I., and three small sons – to the Moab area in search of his fortune.
Holy cow, I thought he was dead years ago when Timmy and I talked it over after the road trip to Moab. Mom’s talked about him and his wife all my life. Mom used to own a hair salon in Grand Junction, and Minnie Steen was one of her loyal customers. This was after he struck it rich in Moab, then moved on to Colorado, lost his fortune, and maybe struck it rich a second time. He was quite a character, but a civic-minded one. Mom will probably be surprised to know he was still kicking until the end of last year.
Via: Flickr Title: Abandoned at meijer megastore By: GinnyRED57
Originally uploaded: 24 Mar ’06, 1.33am PST
Wow, this is all kinds of bad: a cruise ship caught fire in the Caribbean, forcing an early end of the cruise for 1500 people, some of whom are now about to be stranded in Jamaica with no place to stay until they can be flown home.
A friend of mine was supposed to sail on this very ship on Sunday, with 200 of her family, for a reunion that’s been planned and booked for nearly a year. I can’t even imagine what they’re trying to figure out now – she left the office yesterday all happy about going on her wonderful vacation, which theoretically started today. Poor thing, she must be going crazy trying to deal with all the hysterical relatives.
MSNBC.com got the scoop, of course – one of their staffers happened to be vacationing on this ship and gives a bit more background information than most of the other news outlets.
1 dead in U.S. cruise ship fire – U.S. Life – MSNBC.com
From the images it’s clear that it’s a lot worse than a little smoke damage. Reportedly it may have started from a cigarette left on a balcony. One person collapsed and died, apparently from a heart attack. The cruise line is now doing a full manifest check to make sure no one is missing.
They’re trying to put people into hotel rooms in Jamaica for a few days, but they’re about 500 rooms short. What an awful thing to happen on a vacation – cruising is wonderful fun and a great value, but when something goes wrong, it goes wrong in a big, big, way.
Mike Shuster of National Public Radio filed the most comprehensive, and damning, timeline story to mark the 3-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
NPR : Iraq Three Years Later: The Path to War
This week marks the third anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq. Mike Shuster tracks the events leading up to the U.S.-led invasion. These include Bush administration claims — since discredited — of ongoing Iraqi nuclear weapons development and links with al Qaeda.
I was grateful to my local station, WBEZ, for not running their normal pledge drive schedule that morning – they just did a very intense, one-hour drive that day. Which was either good planning on their part, or damned lucky, because it would have lessened the impact of this piece.
My husband David and I were catching up on some shows a lot this past week, now that TiVo II has arrived and made life liveable again. We were watching the end of “Criminal Minds” tonight, which was an episode called “A Real Rain.” It ended badly for the “unsub,” the unknown subject of this week’s exercise in profiling to catch the bad guy.
As it ended, a gurney loaded with a body bag is taken away from the scene, shot from the middle distance. Distinctive, sad guitar chords began to play, and instantly I knew it was Jeff Buckley’s version of the Leonard Cohen song, “Hallelujah.” What a miraculous song, what a miracle of a performance, what a loss to the world when the singer’s untimely death stilled his beautifully haunting and vulnerable voice forever.
In satisfying my curiousity about Buckley’s life and music, I wandered here and there, reading and pondering life and death. It’s a difficult song, especially if you know a little something about Cohen’s background, education, and lyrical style. It’s full of love and bitterness and irony and loss, so it’s not really a happy-sad love song, it’s more like a love-turning-to-bitter-ashes-in-the-throat song, but ending on a triumphant note.
Apparently a lot of television shows have used this song to good effect – West Wing, the OC, and now Criminal Minds. They’d better be careful, or it’ll suffer the fate of “Pink Moon” or “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” You know – the “what was that song at the end of the show?” song.
I’m a sucker for ’em, those songs. As a perusal of my iPod shows. And how strange… all three of these iconic, mood-setting songs are performed by singers who died well before their time. Perhaps because they’re all a shortcut to a state of light but enjoyable melancholy?
iTunes: Jeff Buckley: Hallelujah (Live): Live at Sin-é (Legacy Edition) [9:15]
iTunes: Israel Kamakawiwo’ole: Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World: Facing Future [5:08]
iTunes: Nick Drake: Pink Moon: Way to Blue: An Introduction to Nick Drake [2:03]
