I love Ash Wednesday and I love Lent – the spiritual spring cleaning where all of our fretting, all of our day-to-day frenzy gets put aside and we try to quiet the monkeytalk in our heads and focus, and slow down, and give ourselves time to think, and to pray – to let the busy fields of our lives lie fallow for a little bit, while we repair our tools. After the past few weeks of election noise, we need... Read more
Heh. If Rush can say it, I can too, and it will sound prettier. ;-) John Stephenson at STACLU has an open thread going and they’re watching the returns and speculating: could it be? Brokered convention? The WaPo blog asked a similar question this morning. Ahem. I predicted the very real possibility of a brokered convention right after Florida, and was laughed at. I suggested this was going to happen when Rush Limbaugh and the far right went nuts medieval... Read more
American Papist is unhappy with the tone of this BBC report on the dwindling numbers of monks and nuns. I’m not that bothered by it. It is the BBC after all. I’m more interested in the breathless pronouncement that: Newly published statistics showed that the number of men and women belonging to religious orders fell by 10% to just under a million between 2005 and 2006. [Corrected figures here thanks to GCM – admin] Well, yes. Common sense says the... Read more
Turnout was very low at my place, but it was early and pouring out. I suspect between the rain and the Giants parade in NYC, turnout will be lower than expected here in NY – after the parade-goers have a few brewskis they’re not likely to go a-voting. While we wait for returns, a look around: The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he... Read more
After reading over 100 comments and emails and posts by other bloggers, and after sleeping, praying and reading more, I’ve decided who I’m voting for. Not telling you, though, because this is America; I don’t have to. Let us glory in the fact that – although there seems to be a mood at work (in both parties) whereby one must announce one’s allegiances loudly and with fervor or be forever suspect – I would rather remain suspect than diminish the... Read more
“It is a good sign in a nation when things are done badly. It shows that all the people are doing them. And it is bad sign in a nation when such things are done very well, for it shows that only a few experts and eccentrics are doing them, and that the nation is merely looking on.” – G.K. Chesterton; “Patriotism and Sport,” All Things Considered A very simple but lovely chant: Veni Creator Spiritus Come, Holy Spirit, fill... Read more
I am genuinely torn about my vote tomorrow. I’ve been writing for the past few days about my complete disillusionment with the far-right and their finger-wagging, hyperventilation that Republicans and “true” conservatives must vote for Mitt Romney, for no other reason, apparently than because he is not John McCain. There has been some really shameful demagoguery against McCain from people who ordinarily would show some respect for a man who spent 6 years in a VietCong POW camp, too, which... Read more
If it’s the day before a Tuesday primary, Hillary must be crying again!. Sen. Hillary Clinton teared up this morning at an event at the Yale Child Study Center, where she worked while in law school in the early 1970s. A doctor, who was introducing Clinton, began to choke up, leading Clinton’s eyes to fill with tears, which she wiped out of her left eye. At the time, the doctor was saying how proud he was that sheepskin-coat, bell-bottom-wearing young... Read more
BUMPED TO TOP: I’ve had a lot of positive feedback on this piece and a request to bump it to top for today. Happy to comply! “A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire. “ – Thomas Merton The other day I wondered if we were making our political parties and... Read more
Via Elder Son: From ImprovEverywhere.com over 200 people freeze in place on cue in Grand Central Station in New York. Good, clean, fun and puckish theater! Read more
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