OS's latest adventure with Mama T came Thursday, when he needed to have some inside wiring work (for which he loyally pays monthly), attended to.
'We'll be there next Thursday by 5, sir.'
'But, my phones are all out, and I'm paying for this service already. I have to wait a week?'
'We'll be there next Thursday by 5, sir. Will anyone be home between 1 and 5?'
'But, my phones are all out, and I'm paying for this service already. I have to wait a week?'
'While we have you on the phone, sir, we want to sell you a package whereby we capture all your phone service, cable TV, and internet--so we can continue to serve you at this high level of quality....'
And, on Monday, they start gouging for internet usage...
Accounting sleights-of-hand abound to obscure the reality of unfunded pension obligations about to blow up in the shareholder's faces. A customer approach that seeks only to sell stuff to the the next sucker, and screw the present customer. OS still wonders if the day will come when ATT is declared a bank, so it can go hoover up sum-oh-dat-free-munney-hunney that Ben loves to hand out. 'Cuz, lissen ya'll, theze guyz iz gunna go broke, and the day is coming sooner rather than later. Wait about six months, when all those customers start seeing phone bills that look like mortgage payment.
Excrement, meet motorized air-moving device.
(Disclosure. No interest in T, except gonna look to short sometime this year. Looking for another phone carrier in the meantime....)
(Cranmer, bless him, once again leads the way in tying the sacred and secular together, and helping it all make sense.)
Friday, April 29, 2011
Royal Wedding: the Address of the Bishop of London
"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."
So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day this is. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves.
Many people are fearful for the future of today’s world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every continent are able to share in these celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope.
In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future.
William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
In the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each other.
The spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this: the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.
It is of course very hard to wean ourselves away from self-centredness. People can dream of such a thing but that hope should not be fulfilled without a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love.
You have both made your decision today – “I will” – and by making this new relationship, you have aligned yourselves with what we believe is the way in which life is spiritually evolving, and which will lead to a creative future for the human race.
We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely the power that has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.
Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. It is possible to transform so long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner. There must be no coercion if the Spirit is to flow; each must give the other space and freedom. Chaucer, the London poet, sums it up in a pithy phrase:
"Whan maistrie [mastery] comth, the God of Love anon,
Beteth his wynges, and farewell, he is gon."
As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive. We need mutual forgiveness in order to thrive.
As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads on to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can receive and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.
I pray that all of us present and the many millions watching this ceremony and sharing in your joy today will do everything in their power to support and uphold you in your new life. I pray that God will bless you in the way of life you have chosen. That way which is expressed in the prayer that you have composed together in preparation for this day:
God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage. In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy. Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer.
We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Billions of words and images have spilled upon us about The Wedding, and this is not a bad thing. We live in a world where horrific images and words of pure evil now inundate us daily. It is time to hear some old, but perhaps unfamiliar words, as we will tomorrow morning. This from Paul's letter to the Romans, which will be read aloud at the wedding:
I APPEAL to you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect. Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Romans 12: 1-2, 9-18
Is there any living soul of any goodwill at all who could disgree with these thoughts? And yet, OS fears many will sneer, others denounce, and many more ignore these simple words. What if, instead, we heeded them and followed them in our lives, our businesses, our institutions, our marriages?
OS feels sure his few words will never reach the eyes of William and Catherine, but for the record, he wishes to say a few anyway. Everyone else has, might as well join in.
Dear young people, so in love, with such bright days ahead:
OS remembers another Royal Wedding, and watched with delight and joy as William's father married William's mother. The phrase 'storybook wedding' echoed again and again and again. Everything looked so perfectly wonderful, and the unravelling of the fairy tale is one of the modern tragedies of our time. OS cannot imagine the pain you, William, must have endured throughout, especially to lose your mother so horribly and publicly. To lose a mother is hard enough on a lad, much less to have to endure the public glare as you grieved and moved on.
You begin your marriage, inevitably, under the shadow of that debacle, the inexplicable failure of both your parents to embrace the simple verities and charity required to build and sustain any marriage. But, let this grizzled Old Southerner, with children your age (and a failed marriage to boot) in his life, remind you of One Simple Truth: Those were their failures, not yours. You are not obligated to repeat any of them, at any time. God's grace changes everything, if we but call upon it.
Hold fast to Christ (knowing that He holds you in his hand already), and hold fast one to the other. Seek one another's greatest good. Begin each day by telling your spouse just how wonderful he/she is, and that you are the most blessed man/woman on the planet to wake up next to him/her. Actively work to make each day a happy memory by day's end, and watch the happy memories pile up and strengthen your marriage. Go to bed, with 'I love you' on your lips as you drop off to sleep. Get up in the morning and do it again, and again. Time flies, so make each day count.
You don't need that many friends, but you need a few good ones, who know you as William and Kate, not as royalty. Choose wisely, and don't hesitate to insist that your friends be discreet. The biographers and publishers can have their day in the year 2111 or so. Until then...indiscreet friends aren't friends.
You have a huge task ahead of you, as you will one take the throne of a great nation that has suffered terrible losses in both war and peace. It falls to you to lead the rebuilding. As the love between you grows and deepens, your marriage itself will play a huge role in that work.
The printed program, with its selections of music and readings, is a great ray of hope for all of us. You have avoided the temptation to bow your marriage in the direction of the popular culture, and for this you will be criticized bitterly. Let your detractors whine themselves to death, and never apologize for being right.
God bless you, young people. You have my prayers always.
More than 100 academic degree programs will be eliminated statewide for not graduating enough students, the Louisiana Board of Regents decided Wednesday.
Nearly 200 more academic programs will be consolidated or shaped into new programs, under the plan approved by the board that sets policy for the state’s public colleges and universities. Southern University has the most degree programs being directly terminated, with 13 degrees lost, including its Spanish and French bachelor’s degrees, the Regents determined.
At first blush, this seems unfortunate, and in terms of the job losses for affected faculty, it is regrettable.
On the other hand, our present challenges do force us to ask simple questions, like:
'Is a bachelors degree in Spanish or French needed at every state university?'
'Is a bachelors degree in Spanish or French needed to produce young people fluent and literate in these languages, or any language, for that matter?'
'Does any school need a BS in Sustainable Agriculture?'
And finally, and most importantly, 'For what purpose, and for whom, should the undergraduate degree exist?' OS thinks it does serve an important purpose, but the time has come to revisit the question, probably school-by-school and state-by-state. We could emerge from this painful episode much healthier as a culture if we take this opportunity, and ask those questions.
It's a long story for another day, but OS worked alongside a highly-placed administrator at a large Public U for about a year, about ten years ago. This gent was very bright, and told OS: 'This Public U will have to operate increasingly as a Private U, and essentially be free of the legislature by 2020, if it is to survive. There will not be enough tax money to sustain the system. It's my job to tell all the deans this, and tell them to plan for that day. I'm the most hated man on campus.'
Highly-Placed Administrator was dead-on in his diagnosis. He only got the time-line wrong, as the day of reckoning arrived ten years ahead of his prediction.
We need to lease the services of the Canadian border authorities, and let them help us develop some common sense and some spine about keeping violent and dangerous people from entering our southern border! Damn! Theze boyz iz good!
Of course, the screams of indignation from DuhLeft are heard on both sides of the border.
Like this, from Toronto:
“Martha Stewart – who did time in a federal prison – received special dispensation from the Canadian Government to attend a ‘pumpkin regatta’ in Nova Scotia a few years ago and last year was allowed to speak at the Canada Blooms show in Toronto,” said Mark Langer, president of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, in a written statement. “I wonder about a government that will let an American felon paddle around in a hollowed-out pumpkin, but refuses to allow a respected academic to participate in our democratic discourse.”
'Scuse me thar, Doctah' Langer! Don'tchew go pissin' on my shoes and telling me it's raining. That tactic don't wukh no moh'.
The attempt to equate Martha Stewart to Bill Ayers is one more example of the hysterical hyperbole that continues to define the Academic Left.
Martha did do a very bad thing by engaging in insider trading, no question, and no defense of her behavior should be offered. Once convicted, she showed up to prison at the earliest available check-in date, and served her time. Then she moved on, with all benefit of her illegal trades stripped from her, and her net worth and reputation severely degraded.
Ayers, on the other hand, participated in deadly violence against innocent people in the name of his political causes, and advocated that others do likewise. He remains unrepentant, and the only reason he does not have a felony conviction is due to technical issues in his prosecution, i.e., he reaped the benefit of the Constitution and rule of law he so despises and seeks to overthrow.
The Canadian government is completely within its rights to turn him away at their border, given the known public facts about this man. He has no 'right' to enter that country and spread his poison.
It's their country, not his, and they are wise to exclude him.
Now, whom do we contact about that lease arrangement?
So, someone in the White House thought it would be a cool idea to have Himself sit down for a ten-minute interview with a local TV reporter from Dallas, one of those Texas shit-kickers who otherwise aren't worth paying attention to. One of the Little People. It'll look good, The Beloved Leader condescending to da' Common Folk like Brad Watson--jest another middle-aged white boy with a nice voice and a trim haircut. What could possibly go wrong?
How about just about everything? This is the raw video, unedited. Listen and watch, and listen to the very end, where The One (obviously truly pissed off) takes his ire out on the erstwhile shit-kicker who got the best of him. The One begins the visit all smiles and relaxation, and by the end, is obviously cheesed.
Watson showed up well-prepared, with a tight list of questions, Texas issues all, that he wished to address with The One. Obama was not expecting this, at all.
When asked about deficit reduction, he goes into a standard rant about blaming George Bush for causing the crash in housing by spending money on wars and prescription drug beniefits, and 'tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires'. The standard rant. He's trying to change the subject and run the clock--his standard tactic. Then he claims that he'll be able to match the Ryan plan (6 trillion in cuts in spending) with his own 4 trillion, just by cutting waste and abuse and raising taxes. 4 does not equal 6, in anyone's universe except Obama's.
Watson asks bluntly--'Why do you think you're so unpopular in Texas?' Himself begins to ramble, claiming he didn't lose by much, at which point Watson corrects him by pointing out Texas voted against him by over a 10% margin. Himself did not like that at all....
Then on to the question about the retired space shuttles--not one for Houston. At this point Obama tries to cut off the questions entirely, and turns churlish. Not going well, there, at all. Again, he's employing a technique--just keep repeating the denials over the question, repeat repeat repeat, deny deny deny...
Watson gives him plenty of room to completely deny his involvement, and it's obvious Watson does not much believe Himself on this one. Texas in 2012 is beginning to swirl the drain. One can hear the sucking sound already...
At every mention of Rick Perry, Obama snickers condescendingly. Still going downhill, we are we are. (Flushing sound heard in background...)
At the mention of Medicaid, again he snickers and claims that the poor and elderly need the Federal gubbmint's protection from the State of Texas. Watson asks, 'So block grants are out?', and Obama goes into high chatter mode, about medical tests, on and on and on. He's really trying to run the clock, hold the ball, avoid the next question.
Same on immigration--if just the Republicans would roll over, we would have no more problems...
And finally--are you writing off Texas? Beloved Leader is off his game now, declares
'I love...Texas', (but won't commit to campaign there.)' All that relaxed, smiling, hail-fellow-well-met attitude is gone. Himself is chilly and unsmiling. (Who in the hell thought up this lame-brained idea? They told me this guy was a redneck shit-kicker! That's what I ordered up! Damn!)
Then, as mics are being removed, our Beloved Horse's-Ass-In-Chief (unaware the mics are on), proceeds to scold Watson for interrupting His Highness.
View the video again. Who was being disrespectful to whom? Who kept breaking in on a particularly uncomfortable question? Who continued to ramble and attempt to shift the subject? Who kept smirking about the governor of Texas?
This is Obama, being Himself, sans teleprompter. Churlish when taken off script, and intellectually vapid when challenged. What might have happened had Watson truly been aggressive, in the manner of any Lefty journalist with a GOP candidate--the sort of treatment afforded Sarah Palin in 2008?
Wait for it--it will happen. Blood has been drawn, and the next interviewer, or the next, or the next, will zero in. There will be a meltdown, for all to see. The mask will slip completely, not just partially, as happened today.
This man has to actually run on his record in 2012, not on George Bush's record. The country has been put on official warning about its credit rating, he has started a war outside both the law and Constitution that has gone tragically wrong; and with each passing day, it is obvious this man is only a child surrounded by children, completely unequal to the task, and unwilling to heed any manner of sane advice.
Thank you, Mr. Watson. You did the real job of the journalist. You revealed the true nature of the subject of your interview.
Don't, however, expect to be invited back. You're off the Christmas card list as well. Expect a letter from the IRS...
An Arizona sheriff says he has been flooded with calls and emails of support from local and federal agents who back his claims that the U.S. Border Patrol has effectively ordered them to stop apprehending illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexican border.
..and later...
Local 2544, the Tucson branch of the National Border Patrol Council union, has also come out in support of Dever, and posted this message on their website after the FoxNews.com report.
“Sheriff Dever is right. We have seen so many slick shenanigans pulled in regards to 'got-aways' and entry numbers that at times it seems David Copperfield is running the Border Patrol. Creating the illusion that all is well and you can start having family picnics in the areas where we work has been going on far too long. Has there been improvement in some areas? Absolutely. Is the border anywhere near 'under control'? Absolutely not. Do some in management play games with numbers and cater to the wishes of politicians like Janet Napolitano and David Aguilar? Resoundingly, yes. Time for the foolish political games to stop.”
There are, of course, the standard spluttering indignant denials from DHS. They are a regular part of the Kabuki Theater that now passes for governance in a country run by children.
The worst damage of all is to the public trust. Every time this happens, the pressure washer of rank dishonesty blows more mortar from between the bricks of the culture.
It's become so common, we've become innured, and that is a dangerous state in which to live.
It's such a common practice in the popular media, both entertainment and 'news'--the portrayal of Texans as rubes, fools, rednecks, sadists, hicks, farmers and ranchers with IQ's no higher than the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. It's so common we simply become innured to it, and quietly assume it must be true, because after all it's 'common knowledge'. California, on the other hand, is the epitome of all that is cool, forward-thinking and praiseworthy.
Movies such as 'Best Little Whorehouse in Texas' and the remake of 'The Man Who Loved Women'(with Julie Andrews and Burt Reynolds, back in their day), provide particularly funny skewering of Texas life. Chuck Norris did the state no favors with stilted productions of his TV series set in the state. Add in clowns like Jerry Johnson, eccentrics like Willie Nelson, stir gently.
OS has visited the place a few times over the years, and one of his best friends is a proud Texan transplanted to points north. These people are different, to be certain, but they are no fools. Anyone notice that there is an ongoing migration of population of businesses and people from California to Texas? Might that say something about life in those two states?
Dallas hedge-fund manager J. Kyle Bass helped advise the University of Texas Investment Management Co. on taking delivery of 6,643 gold bars, worth $987 million on April 15, now stored in a bank warehouse in New York.
Bass, who made $500 million with 2006 bets on a U.S. subprime-mortgage market collapse, said managers of the endowment, known as UTIMCO, sought board approval to convert its gold investments into bullion this year. A board member, Bass, 41, said he was asked to help with that process.
While Bass, a managing partner at Hayman Capital Management LP, said in an April 16 e-mail that “the decision to purchase and take delivery of the physical gold” was made by endowment staff members, “I helped where I could.” Gold futures touched a record $1,489.10 an ounce April 15 in New York before closing at $1,486.
There's all sorts of paper floating about, putatively backed by physical gold. Both the gold and silver markets have become massive shell games, because there isn't even a fraction of the metal needed to deliver to all the customers who could demand delivery. So, UTIMCO decided it was time to pick the chips off the table and leave the game. They demanded and took delivery last Friday, in physical gold.
It's theirs, and no one else's.
Wonder what happens when another twenty or so similar funds decide to follow suit? Rather like a deadly game of musical chairs: twenty players, nineteen chairs, and when the music stops, someone ends up on the floor. Repeat--nineteen players, eighteen chairs.
This could get ugly, unless you're the board of UTIMCO. Yep, them folks is just a bunch of rubes and rednecks, so don't pay them no attention....
Moral of the tale: Don't mess with Texas. (And take delivery while you can...)
(Disclosure--long gold and silver--in self defense, 'cuz the money printing will eat us all up before too long.)
