Wednesday, April 26, 2006

We won't drill, but Castro will.

Read it and weep.

Castro could drill off Florida coast

U.S. lawmakers aren't the only ones who, because of spiraling oil and gas prices and an unstable commodities market, have been studying the possibility of producing more domestic energy. Fidel Castro has also taken an interest, and his ambitions will, in a surprisingly short period of time, bring the Cuban drilling program much closer to the Florida coast.

Who can blame him? Castro has for years looked for new opportunities to develop his economy in the face of our trade embargo. He could only expect to rely on Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's oil and gas giveaway for so long. So, with the intention of claiming billions of dollars in new revenues and reducing his country's dependence on foreign energy, Castro has taken to the high seas in an effort to acquire and produce as much oil and gas as he can.

But there's a rub: Cuba has neither the capacity nor the technical capability to produce this energy by itself. Castro has called in contractors from Canada, Spain, Norway -- even China -- to do it for him.

And not only has Cuba convened its own little United Nations to help get at vital and abundant supplies of offshore energy, it has chosen tracts of real estate in the Gulf of Mexico as close as 45 miles from Florida. Forty-five miles is just a bit farther than the distance between the University of Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Imagine what Castro is thinking as we spend our time quarreling over whether we should produce American energy 100, 150 or 250 miles from the Florida coast while he makes arrangements to set up shop hundreds of miles closer. He must love that we've allowed emotion to win out over reason, facts to be dwarfed by fear and our nation's energy policy to be driven by unreasonable environmental concerns.

JOHN E. PETERSON, representative, 5th Congressional District, Penn.

So, what do you think of the possibility of China helping Cuba drill for oil 45 miles off our coast? I wonder if they will be overly concerned about spilling oil and messing up our pretty beaches?

---Katie

Thursday, April 13, 2006

The View from Canada

Are we in trouble? Here is what one Canadian thinks:

Despite a variety of unparalleled challenges to American life and liberty, the direct result of eight years of irresponsible gross mismanagement under the panty-raid administration of the 90s, the Bush Administration has managed to prevent 911 follow-up attacks, liberated 24 million in Afghanistan from the brutality of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, another 25 million from the brutality of the Hussein Regime in Iraq, delivered the lowest unemployment rate and the highest home ownership rate, while leading the country to record numbers in the stock market. Yet the Administrations approval rating stands between 36 and 39%, according to the press. How is that possible?

Americans awake each day to a daily body count of soldiers lost in combat in Iraq. It’s usually the top headline of every paper, TV news show and NPR update throughout each day, for the last 1100 days in a row. There are no headlines of how many innocent Iraqi citizens didn’t die at the hand of Hussein, that would have had we not removed him from power. There are no reports of how many schools, hospitals, businesses and jobs have re-opened in Iraq. No stories about kids playing soccer in the streets with American soldiers, who once were imprisoned for their parent’s anti-Hussein views. Just a running body count, as if that tells the entire story, because that is the entire story for those seeking to regain political power by undermining any support for their opponents.


Click on the title. There's a lot more.

---Katie

News from the front

This is a neat article from a blog that shares real stories from real soldiers. You will never see any of this in the lamestream media, so here is an excerpt:

Little Things Can Mean A Lot

By Tim Boggs

My name is Tim Boggs and I am a sergeant in the Army. I’m serving on my second deployment to Iraq. When I reflect on my experiences in my first deployment, one particular story sticks out above the rest.

I was stationed in southern Iraq near the port of Umm Qasr. I was in a quartermaster unit and our job was to support camp operations. We purified water, supplied fuel, and did what we could to help improve the quality of life for soldiers there. Our camp was set up in the middle of the desert, inside an old dump, a few minutes away from Umm Qasr. At the front gate of our camp a sign said, “Welcome to Hell” and after living on the base for just a few days I would say the sign was quite accurate. We were pretty much in the middle of the desert with no shade and no amenities. During the summer the temperature was excruciatingly hot, sometimes reaching upward of 140 degrees.

After I had been there a few weeks, I noticed that several Iraqi families had moved into tents right next to ours. It wasn’t long before some of the people in my unit began to interact with the families. We soon found out why they were living by us. One of the families had helped the military and was living there in fear of reprisals from anti-American forces. Another family, a mother and her three small children, were living there to escape their abusive husband and father. Several of the soldiers including myself became particularly fond of the kids in this family. We started hanging out with the oldest two kids, both boys, who were about six and three years-old.

Click on the title for more.

---Katie

Saturday, April 08, 2006

What the revisionists really think....

Wow. There is a breathtaking discussion going on over at Shellfish. Cick on the title for the post and make sure you go to the comments section after the actual post. Here are a couple of excerpts from the comments:

The Beloved Disciple: I understand that it may be hard for you to believe that the beloved disciple relationship is sexual. Factually there is no way to prove it either way. If not sexual, it was definitely physical and deeply intimate. Think of the last supper scene in John where the beloved disciple is laying on Jesus’ chest and Jesus shares information with him that he won’t share with the rest of the disciples. Since individuals ate while reclined during that time it would at the very least say that Jesus’ action was of a “man lying with a man.” Which is the literal translation of the act that thought to be what people who are given up by God and left to their own devices do (according to Paul anyway - Romans). Before going to this last supper Jesus told the disciples to find the male water carrier – which is the ancient equivalent of an outcast man who does woman’s work.

But what if the Gospel calls me in a state of sin, should I remain in that? Answer: If you have entered into faith and love, that is, if you are in the call of the Gospel, then sin as much as you please. But how can you sin if you have faith and love? Since God is satisfied with your faith and your neighbor with your love, it is impossible that you should be called and still remain in a state of sin. If, however, you remain in that state, then either you were not called as yet, or you did not comprehend the call. For this call brings you from the state of sin to a state of virtue, making you unable to sin as long as you are in that state. All things are free to you with God through faith; but with men you are the servant of everyman through love.



Like I said...wow.

---Katie

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Is He a Four Letter Word?

FYI

Is 'he' a four-letter word?

by Pastor Erma Wolf Brandon - Split Rock Lutheran Parish Brandon, S.D.

By what authority does the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America rewrite Scripture? By what authority is it decided that the Psalms, the Benedictus, and the Magnificat can be "emended" to eliminate all masculine pronouns for God?

The final text of the new Evangelical Lutheran Worship has recently been posted on the ELCA Renewing Worship website.

The word used by the Renewing Worship team is "emended": to improve by critical editing.
Most of the Psalms have been edited. The scriptural canticles, used in morning and evening prayers, have been edited. Two of the lessons in Night Prayer/Compline have been edited.

Various techniques have been used. Sometimes it is the simple substitution of the non-offensive "God" for the offensive pronoun "he." In other instances, third person singular description has been replaced with second person direct address (examples are the 23rd Psalm and the Magnificat).

The final product is skillful, even artful. Some real “clunkers” from earlier drafts have been removed, replaced with theologically astute and poetic language. It is a beautiful job—of censorship.

For that is indeed what it is. The members of the Renewing Worship team, the worship leaders at the churchwide offices and the ELCA Church Council (which voted to approve the entire final product at their November 2005 meeting) have—whether they realized it or not—worked together to censor the sacred Scriptures. The very Scriptures that will be used for worship, prayer and teaching in the new ELCA worship resource, Evangelical Lutheran Worship.

Real Lutherans don't censor Scripture. We don't "emend" the Scriptures to make them say what we want them to say, to make them less offensive to us.

We read, translate, study, pray, contemplate, sing, are puzzled by, argue about, witness to and proclaim the Scriptures. But what we may not do, dare not do, is censor the Scriptures. Even for the very best of reasons. No one in the ELCA has that kind of authority. How can we claim the Scriptures as "the authoritative source and norm" for us in matters of our proclamation, faith and life (ELCA Constitution 2.03) if we "emend" them to fit our modern sensitivities?

Join me in writing to our presiding bishop, Rev. Mark Hanson, and to the director for worship, Rev. Michael Burk. The final stages of preparation of the new worship materials are being done under the Office of the Bishop. Appeal to them to stop the process and restore the language of the Psalms, the Magnificat and the Benedictus in all their offensive, male-oriented language for God. Remind them of the Lutheran heritage of being faithful to the Word of God as revealed in the Scriptures, even, especially, when it makes us most uncomfortable.

If you agree with me, please send this message on to your friends and colleagues. If you are unsure or uninformed, please go to www.renewing worship.org and read the texts of the Psalms and the canticles. In any case, please keep this church body in your prayers, that we may indeed remain faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word Incarnate and to the Scriptures that bear witness to him.

Grace and peace to you,
Pastor Erma Wolf Brandon - Split Rock Lutheran Parish Brandon, S. D.

---Katie