for the last two days . . .

I am reading - I am in the midst of - a really fine book of poetry written by an old amigo. An army buddy, Berkeley host, comrade and accidental rival, Seattle roomie (twice in vastly different circumstances), fellow-traveler (carried no cards), and yes, teacher. When Peter was up to his ass and beyond with the 12-string, I used to beg him to play Tom Rush's version of Big Fat Woman - and he did listen and share some licks, but I think that he thought that it wasn't worth the sound of the 12-string guitar. Never mind that, we didn't (probably don't) agree on everything. When we roomed in Seattle, we wrote poetry and shared works in progress - we were serious, little brother.

Look, this is not intended as a commercial, but if you are interested in some good, salt of the earth, poetry, check out my post on poetry patter (I would post his poem and information about his book here, but I only requested permission to post a poem for the poetry blog). The posted poem is not from Peter's book, but I gloamed onto it the moment I read it (sorry, gloamed is one of my words some may not know - it means (to me) something like "grabbed hold of in the twilight").

If flowers are prayers, and they are, then friends are answers to prayers. If that's sounds corny, then later, I'll share something about another old army buddy and friend in Iowa.

luck of the draw

Asylum seekers have better luck
with northern or female judges
Northern, female judges most likely to let them stay
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter apallasch@suntimes.com

If you're a political refugee afraid to go back to your homeland, pray you get a woman judge or a Northerner.

A male judge sitting in a Southern court is about twice as likely to reject your asylum plea, according to research from two Georgetown University professors.

"The fact that women are more sympathetic to asylum seekers -- that is certainly a factor, and maybe Southerners don't like foreigners as much," Federal Appellate Judge Richard Posner said with a chuckle. "Maybe people in big cities are more used to having large [less] indigenous populations. Maybe it's different in more homogenous areas of the United States."

Posner has been the most outspoken appellate judge criticizing the decisions of federal immigration judges and he sits on the appellate court most likely to grant asylum pleas -- the Chicago-based 7th Circuit. Posner spoke this past week at a seminar by the Georgetown professors -- Philip Schrag and Andrew Schoenholtz who are compiling the book about how U.S. Courts handle asylum cases.

What they found was utter randomness -- some judges who refuse all asylum requests, others who grant almost all.

Perspectives differ on the efficacy of raids to discourage undocumented workers

So that you know: this story is posted by Associated Press and since they've been suing folks who quote their stories, or show any of their pictures, without payment (I plan to attribute them, not pay them), if this blog suddenly ceases, it may be that the mighty AP has descended: 2 Iowa towns, 2 views on immigration raids

POSTVILLE, Iowa - For immigrant advocates, the raid on a meatpacking plant in Postville last May was evidence of all that is wrong with large-scale arrests of illegal workers.

Families were hurt, and empty shops and lines at the food bank show that the town was, too. One rental agency says nearly 70 percent of its properties are vacant. The City Council even sought a federal disaster designation because of the lingering effects of the raid on the Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse.

"At what point do we acknowledge that the system is so broken that we're no longer willing to participate?" wondered Maryn Olson, a coordinator with Postville Response Coalition, a group established after the raid.

But as the Obama administration considers a new policy on immigration raids, another Iowa town less than 100 miles away has emerged from a raid on its largest employer with a different perspective.

Read more. . .

really cool

Anyone know the history of this? It's really cool.

current certified congregations

According to the UUA Data Services website with its List of Congregations That Submitted Membership Numbers to the UUA between November 15, 2008 and February 2, 2009, the

Total certified congregations, including those with no financial contribution: 997.

Update: Some earlier congregational membership data is online here.

a baby step

We're told by John Morton, President Obama’s choice to head ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency), at his Senate confirmation hearing this week, that the new administration will target employers who hire undocumented immigrants rather than the undocumented workers themselves.

“We cannot make sustained reductions in illegal immigration without deterring employment of unauthorized labor,” Morton told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. “We need to place renewed focus on employers to ensure that they are playing by the rules.”

Morton vowed to “vigorously pursue” civil fines against employer violators. The Bush administration did not exact a single dime of civil penalties from employers in 2005 and 2006, Morton testified, compared to $25 million imposed as recently as 1996.

The Obama administration so far this year has imposed $2.3 million in civil fines against employers, Morton said, adding: “I would encourage this trend.”

our country's fundamental ideals

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American non-profit legal organization, internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of hate groups.

The SPLC, founded in 1971, is based in Montgomery, Alabama, in the Southern United States as a civil rights law firm. In addition to free legal service to the victims of discrimination and hate crime, the Center publishes a quarterly Intelligence Report which investigates extremism and hate crimes in the United States.

SPLC Report Finds Low-Income Latinos in South Targeted for Abuse, Discrimination

Low-income Latino immigrants in the South are routinely the targets of wage theft, racial profiling and other abuses driven by an anti-immigrant climate that harms all Latinos regardless of their immigration status, according to a report released today by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The report — Under Siege: Life for Low-Income Latinos in the South — documents the experiences of Latino immigrants who face increasing hostility as they fill low-wage jobs in Southern states that had few Latino residents until recent years.

"This report documents the human toll of failed policies that relegate millions of people to an underground economy, where they are beyond the protection of the law," said Mary Bauer, author of the report and director of the SPLC's Immigrant Justice Project. "Workplace abuses and racial profiling are rampant in the South."

Under Siege is based on a survey of 500 low-income Latinos — including legal residents, undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens — at five locations in the South. The locations were Nashville, Charlotte, New Orleans, rural southern Georgia, and several towns and cities in northern Alabama.

The survey findings, coupled with accounts from in-depth interviews, depict a region where Latinos are routinely cheated out of wages by employers and denied basic health and safety protections. They are racially profiled by overzealous law enforcement agents and victimized by criminals who know they are reluctant to report crime to these same authorities. Even legal residents and U.S. citizens of Latino descent said racial profiling, bigotry and other forms of discrimination are staples of their daily lives.

A number of immigrants in the survey described the South as a "war zone."

"The assumption is that every Latino possibly is undocumented," Angeles Ortega-Moore, an immigrant advocate in North Carolina, told SPLC researchers. "So it [discrimination] has spread over into the legal population."

Maria, who came to Tennessee from Colombia, told SPLC researchers her immigration papers are in order, but she is still afraid of being stopped by the police. "You never know when you will come across a racist police officer," she says in the report.

Discrimination against Latinos in the region constitutes a civil rights crisis that must be addressed, the SPLC report says. The report concludes that comprehensive immigration reform — including a workable path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants — is the only realistic, fair and humane solution.

Reform legislation must be coupled with strong enforcement of labor and civil rights protections. This would make crime victims and communities safer, curb racial profiling and other abuses, and better protect the wages and working conditions of all workers, according to the report.

"We're talking about a matter of basic human rights here," said SPLC President Richard Cohen. "By allowing this cycle of abuse and discrimination to continue, we're creating an underclass of people who are invisible to justice and undermining our country's fundamental ideals."

Postville

From the home page for the city of Postville, Iowa:

The City of Postville is a diverse community rich in industry and culture. As we look towards future goals and visions, we strive to make Postville the best town it can possibly be for the residents and business community who live and work here, but also for future generations and businesses.

Our mission, for the City of Postville is to maintain and improve the quality of life for all citizens in our community and to provide superior services and public facilities for the community.

The City of Postville is committed to meeting and improving the needs of the community by providing for essential services such as law enforcement, public utilities, streets, parks and recreation for today and for the future.

We strive to make Postville a "Hometown to the World" where people of all walks of life can call Postville home.

Sounds like a good place to live.

America's toughest sheriff

East Valley Tribune wins Pulitzer for Arpaio series

The East Valley Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize — the most prestigious journalism award — for its five-part investigative series about Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s illegal immigration efforts.

The articles reported that MCSO’s ability to protect the public suffered because of its increased immigration enforcement. Tribune reporter Ryan Gabrielson and former Tribune reporter Paul Giblin spent about six months on the project, which was published July 9-13, 2008.

a year without a Guatamalan? might be more appropriate

We're approaching an anniversary that we need to discuss and we will do that here. Mother Jones has a good story about a year without a Mexican but that may be too narrow.

It all began with the whir and flicker of helicopters on May 12, 2008, an incongruous sound in a tiny Iowa town tucked amid cornfields. All over Postville, people craned their necks from orderly lawns, phones rang, and gossip flew. Reverend Stephen Brackett, the town's Lutheran pastor, was on his day off and didn't hear the helicopters at first, but when his church secretary called to tell him something unusual was happening, he at once suspected what it was. For years, there were rumors that the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant at the edge of town was under scrutiny by immigration authorities. Later that morning, Brackett's wife called with confirmation: She'd spotted two helicopters and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in jackets and flak vests down by the slaughterhouse.

What happened in Postville is larger than that. We'll be discussing it between now and the May 12, 2009 one-year anniversary.

Postville, Iowa and undocumented workers

moved by God

I cribbed the quote below from UU Covenant Groups, Lay Preaching & Evangelizing.

The Quakers meet together, all of them silent, until one is move by God to speak.
The UU's meet together, all of them talking, until one of them is moved, by God, to shut up.

legalize pot

The post 5 Reasons Why We Should Legalize Pot has some merit but does not address the primary reason I might favor legalization: the saving of countless lives south (and probably north) of the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

Spring and grandsons

Our grandsons were over this weekend and the eleven-year-old demonstrated his skills with our little digital camera.

Just thought I'd take the opportunity to share the continuation and warming of Spring in southeast Texas.

Obama Doctrine

Interesting post at Embodied Fragments.

what would the designer do?

soup's on

If there are secrets to making a good home-made soup - and I'm inclined to think that are a few - one such secret is as simple as sautéing all (or most - individual judgment and taste always to the fore...) the ingredients you plan to use that take the longest to cook. The brown from the sautéing in olive oil adds a dimension (and color if it will be mostly a clear broth) that is really most apparent when you cook the same soup twice - once following the above advice and once ignoring it. The difference is worth the notice.

Today is a good soup day in Houston - dark skies, thunder and rain all day - soup for a afternoon lunch after a wet trek on the bayou to satisfy the needs of our pups (not really pups since the two ladies are as ancient in dog years as the A Lady and I are in human years). The soup is on.

here for the long haul

Yep, I've been told more than once that if I don't like what's going on in my country, I should just get out. Looks like the shoe may be pinching someone else's foot. I guess it bothers some folks that some of us got fed up the last eight years and took Thomas Jefferson's advice as expressed in the declaration:

"...Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

(Okay, I understand that it was just an election and not a resurrection.) But wait, now that we've elected a new president (one who as a candidate ran on a set of fundamentally different notions than our previous administration) and our country seems to be changing course back toward our ideals, there are a bunch of folks (even while their confederate battle flags continue to flutter from their pickups and state capital grounds) who have changed their rhetoric. What I may not have understand earlier, when these folks were telling me, "If you don't like it here, leave!" was that they meant that I could pack up the entire state in my suitcase before walking out the door. Even if I'd thought I had that option, I'd still be here. I'm here for the long haul.

I agree with Warrior Tang's conclusion:

It is with interest then that I read about a State Sovereignty Movement which is encouraging state legislatures to issue declarations of their States' Rights under the 10th Amendment. As of this writing, assemblymen in 19 state legislatures have introduced some version of a State Sovereignty Act since late January, starting shortly after Barack Obama was inaugurated. I hope it is not news to anybody that President Obama is not a picture of the Aryan ideal. No matter how sanitary the text of such a proposal and no matter how well it legally conforms to actual states' rights, the context of these proposals is not exactly a context of pure legal scholarship. There might be a case for discussion of the proper legal roles of the state and federal governments; I don't think this is it.

denimless dudes

No matter how sexy, or not, was Mark Twain correct, do clothes really make the person? Or is it merely a matter of taste and what best fits one occasion or another? George Will argues

. . . the appearances that people choose to present in public are cues from which we make inferences about their maturity and respect for those to whom they are presenting themselves.

He agrees with Daniel Akst that if

hypocrisy had a flag, it would be cut from denim, for it is in denim that we invest our most nostalgic and destructive agrarian longings -- the ones that prompted all those exurban McMansions now sliding off their manicured lawns and into foreclosure, dragging down the global financial system with them.

But is it really the denim that bothers Will and Akst or is it more a matter of generation or, perhaps gender? Certainly Will, at least, acknowledges where he thinks the line should be drawn (both as to gender and generation):

For men, sartorial good taste can be reduced to one rule: If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don't wear it. For women, substitute Grace Kelly.

Mark Twain was not alone in arguing that Naked people have little or no influence on society. After all, one dresses to kill, not the other way around. But that's not really Will's and Akst's argument since, as far as I can find, they neither publicly advocate nakedness. Their argument seems to be more that someone should set the acceptable taste standard and they obviously consider themselves up to the challenge.

my man madden

The A Lady and I lived in Berkeley and North Oakland during the time Madden coached the Raiders. He was in his thirties, a young man on a mission. His .759 winning percentage during the regular season ranks highest among coaches with 100 career victories. During his tenure, the Raiders were a Team to Behold. The sideline at Raider's games was as entertaining, and sometimes as complex, as any opera. Like Verdi's Rigoletto the Raider sideline, with Madden holding forth center stage, was a mixture of comedy and tragedy, a masterpiece of apparently heterogeneous elements. So, I appreciated Coach Madden. But Lo, the advent of John the Broadcaster was of almost biblical proportion. Mostly a truth-teller, certainly an adept ad-libber, and an expert on the game of American football, he was the consummate color commentator along side his broadcast sidekick Pat Summerall. In my mind, only Don Meredith, comes close (as a very distant 2nd) to Coach Madden's everyman take of football, philosophically acute, without being cute, he seemed to never be bored with explaining the x's and o's. Watching football will not be as much fun.

Sorry to wax eulogistic, he continues very much alive. But I sure enjoyed his standing front and center for a time. Best wishes, John!

John Madden to Ride into the Sunset:

After serving for 123 years in different capacities with NFL, John Madden has already decided to retire from his broadcasting duties. Now, he has to say goodbye to the job where his enthusiastic and down-to-earth style made him one of the most renowned broadcasters in the field of sports for three decades.

John Earl Madden, who was born on April 10, 1936, is a former American football player in the National Football League, a former Professional Football Head coach with the Oakland Raiders, a football video game magnate and a color commentator for NFL telecasts. He began his pro football career as a linebacker coach at Oakland in 1967 and was named head coach two years later, at 33 the youngest coach in what was then the American Football League. Madden also led the Raiders to their first Super Bowl victory and retired in 1979. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his coaching career in the year 2006.

Happy Easter

Cherry Blossom Under the Moon
a painting by Soojung Cho

© Soojung Cho

Used by permission of the artist - more later.

poem

The poem I found on the Internet and posted a few days ago was an early version of a now published poem:

Notes From A Sodbuster's Wife, Kansas, 1868
-Peter Ludwin

What really got us in the end--
we women who didn't make it,
who withered and blew away in the open--
was the wind. Space, yes, and distance,
too, from neighbors, a piano back in Boston.

But above all, the wind.

In our letters it shrieks hysteria from sod huts,
vomits women prematurely undone by loneliness,
boils up off the horizon to suck dry
their desire as it flattened the stubborn grasses.
Not convinced?? Scan the photographs,
grainy and sepia-toned, like old leather.
Study our bony forms in plain black dresses,
our mouths drawn tight as a saddle cinch,
accusation leaking from rudderless eyes, betrayed.

I tried. Lord knows I tried.
Survived the locusts and even snakes
that fell from the ceiling at night,
slithering between us in bed.
I dreamed of water, chiffon, the smell
of dead leaves banked against a rotting log.
I heard opera, carriage wheels on cobblestone.
Cried and beat my fists raw into those earthen walls.

The wind. Even as it scoured
the skin it flayed the soul,
that raked, pitted shell.
And how like the Cheyenne,
appearing, disappearing,
no fixed location,

not even a purpose one could name.

© Peter Ludwin

Notes From A Sodbuster's Wife, Kansas, 1868 is reprinted here with the permission of its author. The poem originally appeared in South Dakota Review and can be found in Peter's just published collection, A Guest in All Your Houses.

The book is available from Word Walker Press or, in a few weeks, from Amazon.

Peter Ludwin’s poems have appeared in numerous journals, most prominently The Antietam Review, Chaminade Literary Review, Coal City Review, Illya's Honey, Karumu, Hurricane Review, Lullwater Review, Midwest Quarterly, Permafrost, Raven Chronicles, Lake Effect, Small Pond Magazine of Literature, South Carolina Review, South Dakota Review and Whiskey Island Magazine.

Cross-posted from peripatetic patter.


Update: Here is a review of the book.

questions

I have a couple of questions that I hope someone will answer. I also hope that the second question isn't of the kind that Oliver Wendell Holmes spoke to when he said, "That's a question that answers itself." Actually, I've just seen that attributed to Justice Holmes but I'm not certain that he actually said it. He did say,

Controversy equalizes fools and wise men - and the fools know it.

and that's a better quote (though it appears to have nothing to do with either of my questions).

Question One: I trying to understand after reading Important Information about Voting by Ministers and Credentialed Religious Educators, does a congregation with professional leadership thereby gain additional delegate strength at GA over the congregation without professional leadership?

Under the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) bylaws, ordained and fellowshipped ministers and credentialed religious educators (Masters Level) are also entitled to represent their congregations as General Assembly delegates and vote in the election (absentee or on site). However, to have delegate status and vote in the election, a minister must be in preliminary or final fellowship with the UUA, and must be either settled in a certified congregation or have been awarded minister emeritus/emerita status by a certified congregation not less than six months before General Assembly. And to have delegate status and vote in the election, a credentialed religious educator must have achieved Credentialed Religious Educator—Masters Level status with the UUA, and must be either employed by a certified congregation or have been awarded director of religious education emeritus/emerita status by a certified congregation not less than six months before General Assembly.

The appropriate number of absentee ballots for each congregation's ministers and credentialed religious educators will be included in the mailing to congregations in early May.

Preface to my second question: Until the last couple of years I was a member and an elected leader of a congregation that, while we had ministers for a few years, opted to call no minister. Our services were mostly lay-led though we also were blessed with visiting ministers from time to time. During this period, some of us formed a Sunday Service group, named 'The Pulpiteers,' to present Sunday Services that were done with a great deal of care - we rehearsed the "talk" to be presented as well as other elements of the service as needed. Most of our talks were written within the congregation but we also scoured books and the library (this was before UU sermons were so readily available on the Internet) for sermons we thought would fit our Sunday Service format. And we found a bunch of good ones. We always attributed the author of the sermon (though because we honed our delivery, in the early presentations, some of our members thought we were attending seminary in the evenings). Recently, I was invited back with the specific request to present the address that Rev. Forrest Church gave at last year's GA. I was given a copy of the sermon and found slight variations of the Rev. Church's talk on the Internet and was also able to listen and watch his delivery of the Sermon (I think it was at All Souls in Tulsa).

Question Two: Even if clearly attributed, does a congregation need permission from the Minister/author before presenting one of his/her sermons as part of a Sunday Service?

prevention of cruelty to animals

Good morning coffee time and this from Monkey Mind:

. . . it is a good thing to mark today as the foundation of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The ASPCA was founded as the result of the work of Henry Bergh, himself inspired by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The nascent ASPCA incorporated on this day in 1866. Originally concerned primarily with working animals such as horses, pigeons and livestock, household pets gradually became a major focus.

The ASPCA was chartered to enforce anti animal cruelty laws. As such the ASPCA is unique among the various organizations around the country that include the words "society for the prevention of cruelty to animals" in their names.

humanity for nonhumans . . .

Earlier today I read Nicholas D. Kristof's column (a habit really) titled Humanity Even for Nonhumans and made a note for myself to include a link in a post this weekend (more time to compose on the weekends). But this evening, after work, I read a post by Rev. Dr. Marilyn Sewell wherein she stated:

. . . if I had to kill an animal in order to get its flesh for food, I would almost certainly be a vegetarian . . .

and I knew I could not wait for the weekend.

So that you better know the source of the thoughts in this post: I have not intentionally eaten red meat for over 18 years (my wife suggests that the number is over 20 years). My reasons are mostly, what seem to me to be, an ethical choice (health has crept into the equation, but has always been a distant second or third).

I find that I cannot eat packaged flesh for which I have taken no responsibility - were I in a position to raise animals for food and were I to decide to kill the animal to eat, I might could do it. I could have done it 18 year or so ago. But, I refuse to go into a supermarket, pick up a package of pig or cow and go home, pleasantly remarking to my neighbor how fine the bridal's wreath looks in her yard, and then sit down to a steak or pork chop dinner (both of which I used to very much enjoy eating) with little or no idea how those animals were treated - what lives they may have lived (or endured).

The slaughter of animals for consumption in this country has been, and continues to be, for the most part, on a level of brutality that is completely unacceptable. That is my opinion.

friends, books and memories

This picture of a portion of one of my bookshelves includes enough memories to keep me blogging another lifetime or two. That may not (literally) happen but the interim may include a couple of anecdotes, including a smile that the picture brings forth (most of the memories are connected to the books and the points in my life when I first acquired the paper and attempted to acquire the authors' thoughts).

The couple in the picture are two of my best friends (one of them is my wife). Without consultation, they each chose a scary costume for our Fellowship Halloween party (some years ago now) and the serendipity was a splash at the party and a wonderful time later at a late-night piano bar with dim, indirect lighting that partly obscured the other, mostly convivial, patrons.

We had a really good time and when my friends (D & A) took the dance floor, it was almost a religious moment, a Kazantzakis moment of bliss: if we had had the wherewithal to pass a straw basket, we might have met the pending building fund at the Fellowship. Alas, so wrapt were we in the moment, that we perhaps lost a chance at an extra square yard added to the religious education wing of the new building (I'll try to remember to show you a picture of the final building later).

ethical issues as well . . .

Disclaimer: We, my wife and I, were vegetarians for some 15+ years but began eating modest (maybe that is not a reliable adjective) amounts of seafood about 3 years ago. We have not intentionally consumed other animal flesh in over 18 years (there was the time when Grandma died - a most wonderful woman who lived to be 104 years old, but that is another post).

Here are some arguments on the consequences of eating meat.

According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads. See how easy it is to make an impact?

There is much more.

And by the by, this is by way of fallen monk.

not ultimately truly lost, but transformed

Trusting that with loss, there is renewal

. . . Perhaps like the butterfly, we must be willing to let go of ourselves . . .

transcendental meditation to rule the world?

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, performed together on Saturday to raise money to help kids learn a meditation technique as reported by Reuters via MSNBC:

NEW YORK - The surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, performed together on Saturday to raise money to help kids learn a meditation technique the 1960s icons practiced at the height of their fame.

McCartney was joined onstage by Starr for a rousing rendition of "With a Little Help From My Friends" at Radio City Music Hall at the Change Begins Within concert for the David Lynch Foundation, which promotes Transcendental Meditation.

The Beatles helped popularize Transcendental Meditation -- described as a simple mental technique to combat stress -- in 1967 when they sought spiritual guidance from an Indian guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

"It started for us when we met the Maharishi in India and it's going to get bigger and bigger and rule the world," McCartney said . . .

politics or religion?

This may be more politics than religion but this article in the Washington Monthly is well worth a read:

A RELIGIOUS RIGHT CRACK-UP?.... In general, the most noticeable fissure among politically conservative evangelical Christians is generational. In this dynamic, older evangelicals see themselves as an appendage of the Republican Party, and consider abortion and gay rights as the only "moral" issues that matter. Younger evangelicals are less partisan, and consider poverty and global warming important, too.

But there's another fissure, which in the short term, may be even more consequential. It's between leaders of the religious movement vs. those more inclined to take John 18:36 to heart (Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world").

beliefs and myths . . .

Okay I bit. I took the Belief-O-Matic personality religious test over at Belief Net after reading The New Unitarian Universalist post this morning. I am disappointed to see New Age so high on the list (albeit, still a failing score, thank god). I must also say that I don't think of myself as a Secular Humanist at all. While I surely refer to myself, from time to time, as a humanist, I don't use the adjective secular. Folks who do that are typically making a judgment call. Anyway, here's my score (my wife says I'm a "scary person"): what's your score?

1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (97%)
3. Liberal Quakers (85%)
4. Neo-Pagan (76%)
5. Nontheist (72%)
6. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (69%)
7. New Age (68%)
8. Theravada Buddhism (66%)
9. Mahayana Buddhism (54%)
10. Taoism (51%)
11. Scientology (45%)
12. New Thought (43%)
13. Orthodox Quaker (41%)
14. Reform Judaism (41%)
15. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (38%)
16. Jainism (28%)
17. Baha'i Faith (27%)
18. Hinduism (27%)
19. Sikhism (27%)
20. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (20%)
21. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (16%)
22. Seventh Day Adventist (15%)
23. Eastern Orthodox (13%)
24. Islam (13%)
25. Jehovah's Witness (13%)
26. Orthodox Judaism (13%)
27. Roman Catholic (13%)

Update: my wife who thinks I am a "scary person" based on my belief score above, agreed to take the quiz to demonstrate a "non-scary person." I thinks she succeeded in that, here is her score:

1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (89%)
3. Liberal Quakers (80%)
4. Neo-Pagan (70%)
5. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (68%)
6. Nontheist (63%)
7. Theravada Buddhism (63%)
8. New Age (56%)
9. Reform Judaism (51%)
10. Taoism (50%)
11. Mahayana Buddhism (48%)
12. Orthodox Quaker (44%)
13. Baha'i Faith (39%)
14. Sikhism (39%)
15. Scientology (38%)
16. Jainism (37%)
17. New Thought (35%)
18. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (29%)
19. Hinduism (26%)
20. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (24%)
21. Seventh Day Adventist (21%)
22. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (18%)
23. Eastern Orthodox (16%)
24. Islam (16%)
25. Orthodox Judaism (16%)
26. Roman Catholic (16%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (14%)

cultural cracks . . . ? / cracking culture. . . ?

Can this be correct? From the same folks who told us god was dead?

The End [of] Christian America?

It was a small detail, a point of comparison buried in the fifth paragraph on the 17th page of a 24-page summary of the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey. But as R. Albert Mohler Jr.—president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the largest on earth—read over the document after its release in March, he was struck by a single sentence. For a believer like Mohler—a starched, unflinchingly conservative Christian, steeped in the theology of his particular province of the faith, devoted to producing ministers who will preach the inerrancy of the Bible and the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the only means to eternal life—the central news of the survey was troubling enough: the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 8 to 15 percent. Then came the point he could not get out of his mind: while the unaffiliated have historically been concentrated in the Pacific Northwest, the report said, "this pattern has now changed, and the Northeast emerged in 2008 as the new stronghold of the religiously unidentified." As Mohler saw it, the historic foundation of America's religious culture was cracking.

I like lists . . .

I sometimes think in lists, positing goals for the day, reviewing garden chores and the like. Out walking the ladies this morning in the foggy predawn of east Texas with a list of all the dogs that have been a part of our family . . . here are pictures of Thelma (lower left) and Blondie (on the right).

Maggie and Jiggs (some background) were a pair of hound dogs we adopted about the time I started to school - they weren't really kid-dogs, more true country hounds. We lived "out in the country" of north-central Texas with a water well and kerosene lamps. No pipes, no lines.

When we moved to town (Windthorst), a neighbor gave them a home. They were too country for town. My Shadow was a small black and brown female and she was definitely a kid-dog. She loved to go down into the storm cellar (if the cover doors were open) and sleep during the mid-day heat. In Windthorst, we had all the luxuries: running water, electricity, a store that sold practically everything, including groceries, within walking distance.

Then to a bigger town (Archer City) and I was old enough for 5th grade football. We lived beside the highway to Wichita Falls and My Shadow got a friend, a real coon hound named Snooker. In case you're not sure about the name Snooker, here's some background. Our adult male of the house played snooker at the pool hall - he was good at it.

Snooker was a great dog, a good kid-dog, but not as smart as he should have been. Now that we no longer had a storm cellar, My Shadow would find a bush or something to lie under or during cold days, the stepping stones in front of our house. On cold days, Snooker liked the middle of the black asphalt highway that ran north to Wichita Falls. We didn't have a fenced yard and didn't like to see dogs tied up. The highway was all that busy most of the time and he was pretty easy to see, but I don't think he was popular with the drivers. Every time we would find him on the highway he would get a scolding and all the dire possible consequences would be explained to him. But, he was either stubborn or just plain dumb. We had to find him a new home, away from the highway.

We moved northward to the panhandle (had to go where we could find work) just north of an even larger town (Plainview). The area we moved into was called Seth Ward (some background) and while it had an elementary school, I had to bus into Plainview for the middle school (in Plainview, we called it Junior High). Seth Ward had a great barber, a Mrs. Dean who cut hair in what must have been her "front room." Nice woman; she knew how to cut hair and she had a singer son. We adopted a new friend: Button Nose, small like my shadow but a little less laid back. Still, she was mostly a kid-dog and like to prowl the empty lots near the house.

Time to start on a different list, some Saturday morning chores to get the household moving and fed - I'll finish my dog list later.

rocket fuel chemical in baby formula

So you think we may be over regulating? Evidently not when it comes to our babies.

Rocket Fuel Chemical Found in Powdered Infant Formula
ATLANTA, Georgia, April 3, 2009 (ENS) - All 15 brands of powdered infant formula tested by scientists with the federal government's Centers for Disease Control were found to be contaminated with perchlorate, a component of solid rocket fuel, flares, fireworks and some fertilizers. The chemical has been detected in drinking water in 28 states and territories and at low levels in food supplies.

The CDC researchers tested four different types of infant formulas - those made from cow's milk containing lactose, cow's milk-based but lactose-free, soy-based, and elemental formulas, typically consisting of synthetic amino acids.

Perchlorate was a contaminant of all commercially available powdered infant formula tested. Bovine milk-based powdered infant formula with lactose had a significantly higher perchlorate concentration perchlorate than soy, lactose-free, and elemental formulas.

Keep reading story in Environment News Service.

Times co. threatens to shut down Globe

Yes, it's real enough. From the article by Robert Gavin and Robert Weisman of the Globe staff:

The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut the Boston Globe unless the newspaper's unions swiftly agree to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said.

Executives from the Times Co. and Globe made the demands Thursday morning in an approximately 90- minute meeting with leaders of the newspaper's 13 unions, union officials said. The possible concessions include pay cuts, the end of pension contributions by the company and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees now enjoyed by some veteran employees, said Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe's biggest union, which represents more than 700 editorial, advertising and business office employees.

The concessions will be negotiated individually with each of the unions, said Totten and Ralph Giallanella, secretary-treasurer of the Teamsters Local 259, which represents about 200 drivers who deliver the newspaper.

"We all know the newspaper industry is going through great transition and loss," said Giallanella. "The ad revenues have fallen off the cliff. Just based on everything that's going on around the country, they're serious."

It's beyond sad, but evidently the Times Co. posted a net loss of $57.8 million in 2008. Here in Houston, the Chronicle axed a lot of folks. That story was covered well by the Houston Press.

I majored (oh so long ago) in mass communication and have highly critical of the major newspapers in their relentless move, especially in politics, from mostly covering what is happening to mostly interpreting what is happening. Actually worse is that the big dailies have cultivated a star system and ended, as in "sports" with paying outrages salaries to a few big names to the detriment of in the trenches reporting.

Things change. In the larger picture of our society the movement from corporations owning all the news outlets to a more grassroots gathering and sharing may be positive. Even if true, it is no solace to the families of the folks who have long depended on these newspaper jobs. There will be more of this across the country. It's troubling.

Update: A pre-package bankruptcy may may be the best solution.

progressive iowa . . .

UUA President Celebrates Iowa Marriage Ruling

April 3, 2009

The following statement was issued by Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) President Rev. William Sinkford.

I rejoice at the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to affirm the rights of same-sex couples to marry. This ruling, based on the equal protection guarantee in the Iowa constitution, recognizes the necessity for equal treatment under the law of all citizens. This decision will strengthen committed same-sex couples and their families in Iowa, and bring us one step closer to full legal equality for all Americans. A few days ago Sweden became the fifth European country to recognize the rights of same-sex couples to marry, and Americans can take pride that we continue our climb toward the same goal.

There's more . . .

divine feminine

the dance of the elements

In Ireland, Imbolc is the feast of Brigit, originally a Goddess, and now a saint. The Goddess Brigit is associated with healing, poetry, and smithcraft. The saint is associated with them too, and with the perpetual flame tended by the nuns of Kildare - which possibly goes back to pre-Christian times. There are numerous folk-customs and stories associated with Brigit.

via a friend . . . mark your calendars

If you're in the area (Houston, Texas), this should be worth checking out . . .

cribbed in reverence

from Embodied Fragments:

I have been absent from the 'interwebs' recently - which has afforded me some space to grow more present to and patient with the now. One afternoon, during sunset, I stumbled across a miracle, which I belligerently tried to record (above). As we near the celebration of Jesus' resurrection, it is empowering to witness to the fact that nature has not forgotten the promise of new life - which seemingly desires companionship.

can't save everybody