Month: December 2004

It rained much of the day and I didn’t have to go to the dentist! I spent most of the day reading mystery novels. Not bad at all for a Monday! Later, while surfing the ‘Net, I found this gem of a story from http://jmatt.net/ElecEq/ralphlauren.html:

Ralph Lauren and the Glamorous Equestrian Lifestyle

Another gem that was making the Internet circuit, with no clue as to its origin except for the “Maryland, USA” at the end.

MY LIFE AS A RALPH LAUREN MODEL
So. I was in the mall the other day, and was noticing a display of Ralph Lauren clothing that was accented by some well-placed English saddles, polo mallets, and even a few photogenic straw bales (you have never seen such glowingly clean straw in your entire life). There were some posters on the walls between the racks that showed impeccably dressed ladies and gentleman, lounging in a palatial and equally spotless stable, or leading a perfectly groomed mount through the tall grass. There were mock hunt coats, mock breeches, and even mock boots. Depicting and selling the life and times of the horsey set isn’t exactly new territory for Ralph Lauren, but the sentiment here is clear: “Ah the life and times of the horsey set. Country life, palatial estates, glowing, well-groomed mounts-glamour, personified.”

Excuse me one second.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Phew! OK, I feel better now. While I will admit that there is a certain amount of money involved in horses, what most people fail to realize is that we nutty horse people spend whatever we have, on the horses, and that country life is far more dirt, sweat, bug, and hard labor intensive than is ever seen in the Ralph Lauren catalog. Take the Ralph Lauren catalog, drag it through the mud, and leave it out the elements for a few days, and then you’ll have a closer idea to what most horse people’s lifestyle is truly like. Rather than the spotless country frocks, and (horrors) white pants of Ralph’s world, most horse folk are usually found in “barn clothes”. This is the euphemism that we use for “clothes most people would be embarrassed to give away to the Good Will.” In the summertime, barn clothes are usually some kind of cut-off shorts, usually stained, usually with holes, and usually of a style and color that could kindly be referred to as “out.” The t-shirt or tank top usually has a matching set of stains and rips, and often carries the logo from some long forgotten competition or adventure.

In the wintertime, we often look like stained abominable snowman. You know those days when non-horse folk sit inside their houses, watching the snow fall and wind howl, and say, “t’aint fit for man nor beast.” Well, those are the days we still have to go out and feed and muck and look after our horses. If you really are a fashionista of the barn set, your preferred winter outfit doubtless includes some item manufactured by the Carhart company (I have the overalls), which keep you warm and dry in the worst weather, but are as attractive and fashionable as industrial tarp. On days when the Carharts seem too heavy, jeans (with long underwear visible under the rips),sweatshirts, ski hat, gloves-basically think “suburban hobo” and you have the look we are going for.

And as far as the glamorous activities of country life, well, they are too numerous to mention. There’s nothing more glamorous than spending a day knee deep in the manure pile (because it needs to be shifted), sweating it out for several hours on horseback in the blazing sun (because that left lead canter needs to be better), and then having your arms lengthened because the yearling had his first good look at the neighbors dog while you were walking him down to the field.

Or there is the mowing and weed eating which tends to stain your shins an especially attractive tint of green that makes it look like you’ve massacred an alien horde. Or how about the “healthy glow” you get from dragging the ring-the resultant dust gives you a nice “tan” without the use of messy creams or lotions!

At the end of a given Saturday, rather than martinis with the beautiful people down at the hunt club, I usually only have the strength to ring up for pizza and watch Trading Spaces (trying to get ideas of ways to make my neglected house look better without actually putting any money into it).

But what about showing? That must be glamorous right? All the hunt coats and polished boots and braided manes. Indeed, what could be more glamorous than that? Well, after getting up at 4:00am, bathing the horse (which of course transfers all the dirt and loose hair on to you),cleaning all the tack and equipment (which gets you covered in polish, soap, and Brasso), braiding, loading horse and all equipment in to the trailer, driving several hours to the middle of nowhere, unloading, wiping off, tacking up, and getting on, well, by 9:00am you look like something the cat ate, threw up, and then dragged in.

Funny, of all the equestrian archetypes I’ve seen in old Ralphie boy’s catalogs, I don’t remember the Girl With Black Shoe Polish on Her Nose, Dirt On Her Legs, A Stain of Unknown Origin on Her T-Shirt, and Hair Crusted Out In Several Directions By Sweat and Helmet Head. If they did feature that doyenne in a photo shoot, instead of the usual sultry expression, her face might register mild nausea from having just swallowed a braiding band. Or possibly a bug.

Without question, the most glamorous week of my life took place early in 1995. I was living with a roommate on a farm of 15 horses in small town, on a dirt road, in what is pretty much the middle of nowhere Virginia. For those of you who didn’t live on the eastern seaboard in 1996, you may have forgotten we had a significant blizzard here. Our house, barn, road, driveway, everything was covered with feet, and feet, and feet of snow. We had drifts that were 8-10 feet high, and we were trapped on our farm for 9 days before the National Guard was able to get the blowers in to free us. Now, we were hardly the only ones trapped by the storm, yet when everyone else was lounging by the fire, or playing in the snow, my roommate and I were slogging through hip-deep snow back and forth from the barn several times a day, to bring hay, chip ice off the water buckets, and hand walk the horses up and down the aisle to help keep their guts moving as the drifts had trapped them in the barn. We were cold and wet for 9 days. But our horses all came through the experience healthy and happy, and to us that was all that mattered.

So Ralph, I’m waiting for the call-my horses and I are ready for your next snapshot of country life.

Maryland, USA

Dave and I went on vacation up to Monterey and Aptos (just south of Santa Cruz) just before Christmas. We stayed in B&B’s at both places. The rooms Jabberwock B&B in Monterey were full from the time we arrived to the time we left. We had some very interesting discussions with other guests at our sumptuous breakfasts and in the sitting room. One man tried to convince some of us that all Moslems are like the radical sects that hate Christians and naturally would not listen to reason. I got the feeling he’s not really as conservative politically as he would’ve liked us to believe but that mostly he’s a bit of a troublemaker in the sense that he likes to debate and will take on the devil’s advocate role. In any event, we didn’t spend much time with him. The highlights of our trip included all the walking we did, a fabulous dinner at The Bath House, and visiting the baby Great White Shark at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The Sand Rock Inn B&B in Aptos was much more peaceful. We had the place to ourselves. The location did not lend itself to walking around much but we drove to the beach and visited the old cement hulled ship docked and falling apart at the end of the pier. We also drove up to the Henry Cowell State Park and hiked in the old growth redwoods..

We returned home on Christmas Eve and had a peaceful Christmas to ourselves. This morning I got up to attend the healing service at All SAints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. I was deeply moved to tears by the laying of the hands on my head and being prayed over as I knelt at the altar. I couldn’t say why I was so moved or what my tears were about. Maybe about the scary state of the world, with so much anger, violence, and hatred. Our fearless leader is not leading us in a direction of peace, joy, and love but encouraging this hatred, divisiveness, and violence. I read something on the Internet recently, a speech by Bill Moyers I believe, about this “secret” conservative, religious right, who hope to bring about the Rapture by desecrating the environment and waging war. Frankly I’m not sure which religious brand they ascribe to that would reward such behavior — a glorious reward for the rape and pillage of our precious resource Earth and its people? On that note, I’ll close with a speech by Dr. Robin Meyers:

Dr. Robin Meyers
Oklahoma University Peace Rally
November 14, 2004

As some of you know, I am minister of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City, an Open and Affirming, Peace and Justice church in northwest Oklahoma City, and professor of Rhetoric at Oklahoma City University.

But you would most likely have encountered me on the pages of the Oklahoma Gazette, where I have been a columnist for six years, and hold the record for the most number of angry letters to the editor.

Tonight, I join ranks of those who are angry, because I have watched as the faith I love has been taken over by fundamentalists who claim to speak for Jesus, but whose actions are anything but Christian.

We’ve heard a lot lately about so-called “moral values” as having swung the election to President Bush. Well, I’m a great believer in moral values, but we need to have a discussion, all over this country, about exactly what constitutes a moral value — I mean what are we talking about?
Because we don’t get to make them up as we go along, especially not if we are people of faith. We have an inherited tradition of what is right and wrong, and moral is as moral does. Let me give you just a few of the reasons why I take issue with those in power who claim moral values are on their side:

— When you start a war on false pretenses, and then act as if your deceptions are justified because you are doing God’s will, and that your critics are either unpatriotic or lacking in faith, there are some of us who have given our lives to teaching and preaching the faith who believe that this is not only not moral, but immoral.

— When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral.

— When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head (you know, Sermon on the Mount stuff like that we must never return violence for violence and that those who live by the sword will die by the sword), you are doing something immoral.

— When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.

— When you find a way to avoid combat in Vietnam, and then question the patriotism of someone who volunteered to fight, and came home a hero, you are doing something immoral.

— When you ignore the fundamental teachings of the gospel, which says that the way the strong treat the weak is the ultimate ethical test, by giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us so the strong will get stronger and the weak will get weaker, you are doing something immoral.

— When you wink at the torture of prisoners, and deprive so-called “enemy combatants” of the rules of the Geneva convention, which your own country helped to establish and insists that other countries follow, you are doing something immoral.

— When you claim that the world can be divided up into the good guys and the evil doers, slice up your own nation into those who are with you, or with the terrorists — and then launch a war which enriches your own friends and seizes control of the oil to which we are addicted, instead of helping us to kick the habit, you are doing something immoral.

— When you fail to veto a single spending bill, but ask us to pay for a war with no exit strategy and no end in sight, creating an enormous deficit that hangs like a great millstone around the necks of our children, you are doing something immoral.

— When you cause most of the rest of the world to hate a country that was once the most loved country in the world, and act like it doesn’t matter what others think of us, only what God thinks of you, you have done something immoral.

— When you use hatred of homosexuals as a wedge issue to turn out record numbers of evangelical voters, and use the Constitution as a tool of discrimination, you are doing something immoral.

— When you favor the death penalty, and yet claim to be a follower of Jesus, who said an eye for an eye was the old way, not the way of the kingdom, you are doing something immoral.

— When you dismantle countless environmental laws designed to protect the earth which is God’s gift to us all, so that the corporations that bought you and paid for your favors will make higher profits while our children breathe dirty air and live in a toxic world, you have done something immoral. The earth belongs to the Lord, not Halliburton.

— When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral. We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.

— When you tell people that you intend to run and govern as a “compassionate conservative,” using the word which is the essence of all religious faith-compassion, and then show no compassion for anyone who disagrees with you, and no patience with those who cry to you for help, you are doing something immoral.

— When you talk about Jesus constantly, who was a healer of the sick, but do nothing to make sure that anyone who is sick can go to see a doctor, even if she doesn’t have a penny in her pocket, you are doing something immoral.

— When you put judges on the bench who are racist, and will set women back a hundred years, and when you surround yourself with preachers who say gays ought to be killed, you are doing something immoral.

I’m tired of people thinking that because I’m a Christian, I must be a supporter of President Bush, or that because I favor civil rights and gay rights I must not be a person of faith. I’m tired of people saying that I can’t support the troops but oppose the war.

— I heard that when I was your age, when the Vietnam war was raging. We knew that that war was wrong, and you know that this war is wrong–the only question is how many people are going to die before these make-believe Christians are removed from power?

This country is bankrupt. The war is morally bankrupt. The claim of this administration to be Christian is bankrupt. And the only people who can turn things around are people like you–young people who are just beginning to wake up to what is happening to them. It’s your country to take back. It’s your faith to take back. It’s your future to take back.

Don’t be afraid to speak out. Don’t back down when your friends begin to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut. Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real Muslims, and real Hindus, and real Buddhists–so do all the faith traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is precious. Every human being is precious. Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.

And war — war is the greatest failure of the human race — and thus the greatest failure of faith.

There’s an old rock and roll song, whose lyrics say it all: War, what is it good for? absolutely nothing.

And what is the dream of the prophets? That we should study war no more, that we should beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Who would Jesus bomb, indeed? How many wars does it take to know that too many people have died? What if they gave a war and nobody came? Maybe one day we will find out.

Today’s topic is flotsam and jetsam. I’m exhausted. Too much holidaying, involving mostly rich foods
that do not sit well and keep me awake into the night. Top that with a 3-hour helicopter orbitting over the
neighborhood starting around 3:30 this morning. Helicopters in the night are not unusual. Often they come
in, keep an eye on a perpetrator until the patrol cars arrive — 20 minutes or so. This morning the helicopter
circled and circled and circled. We kept hoping it would go away. I got the idea that it was not the police
but a disgruntled moron who was buzzing his ex-wife’s house. The alarm went off at 5:30. I showered and
dressed to the sound of the chopper. At 6:00 I called the police department to find out what the heck was
going on. Apparently some cretin broke into a car about 1/2 mile away and the police were still trying
to capture the suspect. Three hours of helicopter for a car burglary??? How many blocks of houses and
condos were kept awake for that? Does this kind of chase justify the crime? This morning as I drove to
campus at 6:30, I certainly didn’t think so. What if it was my car? Well, I have had a car broken into before.
That happened up in benign Mount Vernon, WA. I’m not sure any police even came. Certainly no helicopters.

How would I feel if my house were broken into? A lot differently I’m sure. However, I am almost sure that our
house has been cased. I mean why not? We live in LA. Often we’re not home. The thing is, there is nothing of any value in our house. Our TV is 13″, the stereo a hand-me-down from Dave’s parents. Dave’s snowboard is
used, no one steals skis anymore. Our computer is ca 1998 — ancient. What you can see if you peer into our
often open windows are bookcases full of books. No one risks breaking into houses for books. Most of our neighbors
have dogs so if anyone did want to break in the alarm would be sounded and someone would notice eventually.
I picture robbers carefully removing the screen to one of our open windows, climbing in, being greeted by one of
the cats, then looking around and wondering why they even bothered. Still, if someone did bother to break
into our house, I’d want helicopters but it better not take three hours!

And now some jetsam: The following is an excerpt of the sermon Father Bacon gave following the election.
The first part of the sermon is about All Saints Day, which is not a tradition I remember from the Lutheran
Church I grew up in. This exerpt is a good model for all of us to follow, whether we’re Christians, christians,
or simply decent human beings:

DATE OF SERMON: 11/7/04 PAGE 4OF 4
GOSPEL: MATTHEW 5:1-12
PROPER 27C
And now let me tell you what happened to me on Thursday morning. I woke with a gift that
seemed to come from God—a sense of energy and newness and purpose. The Beatitude “Blessed
are they who mourn for they shall be comforted” had actually taken place in my own soul. I gave
thanks to God for this Church. I gave thanks to God for our mission together. I gave thanks for Jesus
Christ who stood within the prophetic tradition. The Eighth-Century prophets and Jesus never
defined moral values in terms of individual salvation; they never defined moral values in terms of
bigotry or retaliation. The Eighth-Century Hebrew prophets and Jesus of Nazareth always defined
all moral values in terms of whether their impact contributed to liberty and justice for all.
I have never in my priesthood been more excited about the future years of talking about and
living out both spirituality and moral values – spirituality and moral values that are accountable to
“the fundamental truth of our time and of this morning – that of the inter-connectedness and the
mutual inter-dependence of all human beings on this planet”. All policies and theologies and
choices that religious groups advocate for in the future must realize that “there is no way to care
about any group of human beings without caring about every one else”.
(Lerner, Michael, “Tikkun at Eighteen: The Voice of Radical Hope and Practical Utopianism,” Tikkun,
November/December, 2004, p. 34)
Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.”
On this All Saints Sunday let us recommit ourselves to a moral vision rooted in the divinely
knitted global community.
I want to say that while we courageously point out any negative impact that choices and
theologies and policies have on women, gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, the poor, and our
uninsured and our uneducated children, it will not be helpful for you and me to demonize anyone
who sees moral values in ways different from the way we see them or to portray our adversaries or
those with whom we disagree as fundamentally stupid or evil. Elitist self-righteousness is
incompatible with the fellowship divine. While the fellowship divine cannot stand silently by and
with neutrality while there is any dehumanization of any group, it is very important for you and me
to engage those with whom we disagree. To lock eyes with them, to say and mean, “I love you, I
honor you and I respect your dignity as a member of the unbroken circle of the fellowship divine and
I want you to know that it is not moral to discriminate against any class of humanity. And it is not a
moral value not to share our resources with the poor and it is not a moral value when you claim Jesus
as your personal Lord and Savior the one who called for peacemaking—it is not a moral value to be
a war-maker instead of a peacemaker.”
We must this day affirm our common humanity…the circle that is unbroken, remembering
the deep spiritual lesson of this day that “our own well-being depends on the well-being of everyone
else on the planet and our own well-being depends on the very well-being of the earth itself – a
lesson rooted deeply in the spiritual wisdom of virtually every religion on the planet. We are called
to be stewards of the planet; we are called to love the stranger; we are called to pursue peace and we
are called to create a society based on justice.” (Rabbi Michael Lerner, “The Democrats Need a
Spiritual Left,” Thursday, November 4, 2004 found at CommonDreams.org) When you and I live
lives that embody these moral values we will indeed be basing peace on the only security there ever
was—that all are one in God for all are God’s. If we do that we will be known as peacemakers, the
sons and daughters of God.
Amen.

This is a very cool website about Chernobyl:

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/

How about a non-political post for a change? Today has been much warmer than it has been for months.
I can’t say I’m thrilled. I’d rather have rain and cooler weather than 90F in December. However, 90F in July
would be a welcome relief from the often 100+ temps.

We had rain earlier in the week so I hadn’t ridden since last Saturday. Sophie, the wonder horse, is sound
again! This morning was the second time I’ve gotten to ride her since she had her bout of lameness. Poor
girl, I hope she stays sound. We had a nice lesson over a course this morning and will do it again tomorrow
morning. Part of the idea is to bring her back slowly and not jump too many courses in one lesson.

My trainer is still horse shopping for me. She has her assistant scanning Horse Trader to find something
suitable. I’d love a good mare because some day I’d like to have the mare bred and have a little foal
around the place.

More good news is that Fall quarter has ended. I have to go to campus on Tuesday to proctor the final for
hours and finish grading term papers and my part of the final. Then I’m free for a few weeks. Hallelujah!
Since we’re getting a DVD player for Christmas, I intend to try out Netflix.

Other good news is that since I joined Weight Watchers a month ago, I’ve lost 9 pounds! It hasn’t been
too difficult this time. I tried WW last February when I thought I was getting too fat. The program felt
too restrictive to me. Then I had a very stressful class and ended up losing a bunch of weight Spring
quarter anyway. Unfortunately I gained it all back and more over the summer and fall. Back to the drawing
board. I’m pleased to report that my pants are fitting much better and I’m starting to feel like my normal self
again.

Another article that resonates mightily:

No Longer a Christian

by Karen Horst Cobb

I was told in Sunday school the word “Christian” means
to be Christ-like, but the message I hear daily on the
airwaves from the “christian ” media are words of war,
violence, and aggression. Throughout this article I
will spell Christian with a small c rather than a
capital, since the term (as I usually hear it thrown
about) does not refer to the teachings of the one I
know as the Christ. I hear church goers call in to
radio programs and explain that it was a mistake not
to kill every living thing in Fallujah. They quote
chapter and verse from the old testament about smiting
the enemies of Israel. The fear of fighting the
terrorists on our soil rather than across the globe
causes the voices to be raised as they justify the
latest prison scandal or other accounts of the horrors
of war . The words they speak are words of
destruction, aggression, dominance, revenge, fear and
arrogance. The host and the callers echo the belief in
the righteousness of our nation’s killing. There are
reminders to pray for our “Christian” president who is
doing the work of the Lord: Right to Life, Second
Amendment, sanctity of marriage, welfare reform, war,
kill, evil liberals. . . so much to fight, so much to
destroy.

Let me tell you about the Christ I know. He was
conceived by an unmarried woman. He was not born into
a family of privilege. He was a radical. He said, “It
was said an eye for and eye and a tooth of a tooth,
but now I say love your enemies and bless those who
curse you.” He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those
who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are
the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children
of God.” (Matthew 5: 3-9) He said, “All those who are
called by my name will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
He said, “People will know true believers if they have
the fruit of the spirit–love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control.”

He knew he would be led like a sheep to the slaughter.
He responded with “Father forgive them.” He explained
that in Christ there is neither Jew nor gentile, slave
or free male nor female. He explained that even to be
angry is akin to murder. He said the temple of God is
not a building, but is in the hearts of those are
called by his name. He was called “the Prince of
Peace.” His final days were spent in prayer, so that
he could endure what was set before him, not on how he
could overpower the evil government of that day. When
they came for him he was led away and didn’t resist
his death sentence.

This is a stark contrast to the call of the religious
Christian right, who vote for war and weapons, and
suggest towns and villages be leveled to bring freedom
and peace to the people. They proudly boast this
country’s superiority, suggesting God has blessed our
nation. Today, as I listened to a popular Christian
news network, I was reminded that in the last days,
even God’s elect will be deceived, (II Timothy 3:13).
When the religious media moguls preaching prosperity
spout their rhetoric, I am reminded of the difficulty
Jesus described of a rich man’s ability to enter the
kingdom of God. (Matthew 19: 24)
(http://www.4religious-right.info/rr_economics.htm)
Some who believe they are fighting evil will cry to
the Lord, and he will say “I never knew you.” (Matthew
22). They will have a form or godliness but will deny
the power (II Timothy 3:5) to move mountains through
prayer. (Matthew 17:20). Jesus explained that he has
not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power,
love, and a sound mind. (II Timothy 1:17) I wonder if
the innocent moms and dads, brothers and sisters, and
aunts and uncles, and grandmas and grandpas who were
the victims of US military weapons (the never reported
collateral damages we are protected from in the
“liberal” nightly news) felt the love of Jesus with
the shock and awe. I wonder if the surviving family
members now understand His radical love and that they
no longer have any need for weapons or defense.

The solutions to the social issues used to manipulate
good, decent people have no resemblance to how Jesus
responded to the social concerns of his time. He never
once mentioned the “right to life” the year he was
born King Herod ordered the execution of all babies.
(Matthew 2:16). He knew that passing laws does not
change the heart. As a follower of his teaching I
believe in the right to life, including the children
in Iraq who stumble onto land mines, cross the street
at the wrong time, or who are snugly tucked within the
warm bellies of their wounded or grieving mothers as
US fighter jets fly overhead. These are living,
breathing children. The killing of these little ones
are never even reported, and our tax dollars pay for
these bombs. I believe in the right to life for those
in the United States who are unwanted and
impoverished. I believe in the right to life of the
naive kid who was promised by the recruiter they could
choose a desk job and still get their education paid
or could see the world or could accelerate their life
or could play a very realistic video game from a
cockpit.

I’ve worked at a shelter, and I know first hand the
reality of unwanted children. I know the reality of
this right wing rhetoric when week after week I begged
and pleaded with people to give up only one night
every three months to sit with these unwanted living
children for a few hours while the overworked house
parents had a night off. Of the few I found, many
changed their minds when they discovered that they
would need to wear rubber gloves to change the babies
diapers. These “believers” stand on the street corners
holding right to life signs and then vote against
medical assistance for the mothers and their unwanted
children creating an impossible existence for them.
The few of these abortion activists who might adopt
some of these unwanted children generally want the
white and the healthy. The ones with hydrocephalous,
tracheotomies, emotional/ mental problems and
communicable diseases along with their life long
medical expenses can be someone else’s problems.

I cringe as many christians vote for policies that
deny help to the poor in our own county, who vote to
support the war and military strength, assuring the
latest weapons are developed and that the heavens will
be dominated by the military of the United States. We
develop electromagnetic weapons to shatter skulls ,
split the earth (http://www.raven1.net/emr13.htm) and
silently destroy a body as a thief in the night.
Studies are even now searching for the frequencies to
override the freewill. These unbelievable technologies
are a reality and DNA specific weapons can or soon
will target a specific nationality
(http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/981116/1998111619.html
).I weep as the waters Jesus walked on become
contaminated with uranium.
(http://www.greendove.net/resources3.htm) I grieve as
the missiles fly through the atmosphere on the
continent where Jesus rose into the sky, defying death
and the grave and where the Holy Sprit first
descended. I cry out at the horrors of war and the
indignity of the prisons so close to where He took
captivity captive. So I am no longer a Christian if
Christianity has become what is presented to us by our
Christian president and Christian media. I cannot
support the right of the United States and Israel to
develop and use the most heinous weapons ever
imagined. I want no part of a temple built on the
blood of the innocent. The sheep have been lead astray
by the teachings of prosperity and misinterpretation
of the final battle between good and evil. Many no
longer can recognize the voice of the good Shepherd.

Some “good Christians” even work at weapons
facilities. It is not a stretch to say that a woman
who tightens a last rivet on a shiny new missile just
off the assembly line might be the same woman who
licks the gold star on the attendance chart in morning
Sunday school. The missile could be launched by the
kid in the youth group who reads the invocation and it
will find it’s destiny at a “target of interest” which
might or might not have been a result of good
intelligence. The collection plate circulates children
are taught to love their enemies and bless those who
curse them.

The statements and lifestyle of Jesus are difficult
for me to understand. What would he say to evil
dictators? This God would not justify 15,000 or more
deaths. Even the wrathful jealous God of the old
testament spared whole cities for a few righteous
souls. For Christians, to support mass killings as a
way to prevent future deaths is not at all like
Christ. He would not say,”When I am talking about war
I am really talking about peace,” like the self
professed Christian President proudly states. Who but
God has the right to determine what price a people
should pay for their freedom? The religious leaders on
the airwaves today respond to the voices of the few
brave peacemakers who dare to speak out. They say that
pacifism is insane, and that it doesn’t make sense,
but what is forgotten is that logic and faith are
separate entities. I believe in the example of Jesus
and his admonition to love your enemies and bless
those who curse you . Do I understand how this works
on the global scale? Do I know what Jesus would say to
all the world’s leaders? No, nor do I totally
understand how the example of Christ’s life and his
message of love works in the world today. That’s why I
need faith. Am I always correct in my assessments and
actions? No, that’s why I need grace. Am I brave and
unafraid? No, that’s why I need the perfect love that
casts out fear. Some put trust in Chariots and some in
horses but I will remember the name of the lord our
God–the Prince of Peace. Perhaps politics has no
place for imitators of Christ.

Who will show the face of Christ to the world? Who
will speak His radical message? I hear from these so
called imitators of Christ that the pacifists are a
collection of kids, hippies, socialists and communists
who haven’t got a clue. Some of us, however, have come
to our beliefs as a result of careful and prayerful
study of the scriptures and admonishment from our
elders. Many are Mennonite, Amish, Quaker and other
Anabaptists, whose ancestors did not resist their
torturers and were drowned, burnt at the stake and
flogged for their pacifist stand. They truly followed
the example of Christ, and their resistance against
the catastrophic effects of the merging of church and
state cost them a great price. Churches today have
signed onto the government plan and have agreed to
look the other way in exchange for tax free
privileges. The true message of Christ still exists to
some degree in the quiet of the land to peacemakers,
but sadly these good people have been deceived by the
angry words from a righteous sounding religious media
majority broadcasting in cars and trucks and tractors
all over our land ironically preaching the “good news
of war for peace” and convincing 24-7 “liberal”
bashing. I suspect there are many who share my sorrow
at the loss of what it means to be Christ-like, but
our voice is seldom heard. The blaring rhetoric drowns
out the still small voice of the mighty God. Peace
used be the opposite of war, Conservative used to mean
the tendency to conserve resources. Liberal used to
mean kind and generous, and Christian used to mean
like Christ.

So I am no longer a Christian but just a person who
continues trying to follow the example of Christ. I’ll
let him call me what he wants when I see him face to
face. Until then, I will pray that someday people like
me will be able to reclaim the meaning of Christ’s
identity, and the world will see the effects of the
radical message of Christ’s love–the perfect love
that casts out fear.

Karen Cobb is a freelance writer and artist in Santa
Fe, NM and can be contacted at cairnhcobb@msn.com.

I’m not sure who authored this piece but I’ve seen it a couple times:

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF JOE REPUBLICAN

Joe gets up at 6 a.m.  and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. 

The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. 

With his first swallow of water, he takes his daily medication.  His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to ensure their safety and they work as advertised. 

All but $10 of his medications is paid by his employer’s medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance – now Joe gets it too.

He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs.  Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo.  His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained.

Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath.  The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for the laws to stop industries from polluting our air.

He walks on the government-provided sidewalk to subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work.  It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his workday.  He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union member fought and died for these working standards.  Joe’s employer pays these standards because Joe’s employer doesn’t want his employees to call the union.

If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he’ll get workers compensation check because some stupid liberal didn’t think he should lose his home because of a temporary misfortune.

It is noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills.  Joe’s deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe’s money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression.

Joe has to pay Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market  federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the country would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime.  Joe forgets that in addition to his federally subsidized student loan, he attended a state funded university. 

Joe is home from work.  He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country.  He gets in his car for the drive. 

His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards to go along with the taxpayer funded roads.

He arrives at his boyhood home.  His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers’ Home Administration because bankers didn’t want to make rural loans.

He is happy to see his father, who is now retired.  His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking cheese eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn’t have to.

Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show.  The radio host keeps saying that the liberals are bad and conservatives are good.  He doesn’t mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day and takes for granted today.

Joe agrees: We don’t need those big government liberals ruining our lives!  After all, I’m a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have.

For all the mothers out there — this piece breaks my heart:

==============================================
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, November 21, 2004

Mother’s view of the war
Battle fatigue on the home front

By  Teri Wills Allison

I am not a pacifist. I am a mother. By nature, the two are incompatible,
for even a cottontail rabbit will fight to protect her young.

Violent action may be necessary in defense of one’s family or home, and
that definition of home can easily be extended to community and beyond,
but violence, no matter how warranted, always takes a heavy toll.

Violence taken to the extreme — war — exacts the most extreme costs.
There may be a just war, but there is no such thing as a good war. And
the burdens of an unjust war are insufferable.

I know something about the costs of an unjust war, for my son, Nick, an
Army infantryman, is fighting one in Iraq. I don’t speak for him. I
couldn’t even if I wanted to, for all I hear through the mom filter is
"I’m fine, Mom, don’t worry. I’m fine. Everything is fine, fine, fine.
We’re fine, just fine. ” But I can tell you what some of the costs are
as I live and breathe them.

First, the minor stuff: my constant feelings of dread and despair, the
sweeping rage that alternates with petrifying fear, the torrents of
tears that accompany a maddening sense of helplessness and vulnerability.

My son is involved in a deadly situation that should never have been. I
feel like a mother lion in a cage, my grown cub in danger, and all I can
do is throw myself furiously against the bars, impotent to protect him.
My tolerance for b.s. is zero, and I’ve snapped off more heads in the
last several months than in all the rest of my 48 years combined.

For the first time in my life and with great amazement and sorrow, I
feel what can only be described as hatred. It took me a long time to
admit it, but there it is. I loathe the hubris, the callousness, and the
lies of those in the Bush administration who led us into this war.

Truth be told, I even loathe the fallible and very human purveyors of
those lies. I feel no satisfaction in this admission, only sadness and
recognition. I hope that, given time, I can do better. I never wanted to
hate anyone.

Xanax helps a bit. At least it holds the debilitating panic attacks
somewhat at bay, so I can fake it through one more day. A friend in the
same situation relies on a six-pack of beer every night. Another has
drifted into a la-la land of denial. Nice.

Then there is the wedge that has been driven between part of my extended
family and me. They don’t see this war as one based on lies. They’ve
become evangelical believers in a false faith, swallowing Bush’s
fearmongering, his chicken-hawk posturing and strutting. They cheer his
"bring ’em on" attitude as a sign of strength and resoluteness.

Perhaps life is just easier that way. These are the same people who have
known my son since he was a baby; who have held him, loved him and
played with him; who have bought him birthday presents and taken him
fishing. I don’t know them anymore.

But enough of my whining. My son is alive and in one piece, unlike the
1, 215 dead and more than 8,000 severely wounded American soldiers,
which equal 9, 215 blood-soaked uniforms. That doesn’t even count the
estimated 20,000 troops, not publicly reported by the Department of
Defense, taken out of Iraq for "noncombat-related injuries."

Every death, every injury burns like a knife in my gut, for these are
all America’s sons and daughters. And I know I’m not immune to that
knock on my door either.

Yes, my son is alive and, as far as I know, well. I wish I could say the
same for some of his friends.

One young man who was involved in heavy fighting during the invasion is
now so debilitated by post-traumatic stress disorder that he routinely
has flashbacks in which he smells burning flesh. He can’t close his eyes
without seeing people’s heads squashed like frogs in the middle of the
road, or dead and dying women and children, burned, bleeding and
dismembered.

Sometimes he hears the sounds of battle raging around him, and he has
been hospitalized twice for suicidal tendencies. When he was home on
leave, this 27- year-old man would crawl into his mother’s room at night
and sob in her lap for hours.

Instead of getting treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, he has
just received a "less than honorable" discharge from the Army. The rest
of his unit redeploys to Iraq in February.

Another friend of Nick’s was horrifically wounded when his humvee
stopped on a bomb. He didn’t even have time to instinctively raise his
arm and protect his face. Shrapnel ripped through his right eye,
obliterating it to gooey shreds, and penetrated his brain. He has been
in a coma since March.

His mother spends every day with him in the hospital. His wife is
devastated, and their 1 1/2-year-old daughter doesn’t know her daddy.
But my son’s friend is a fighter and so is making steady, incremental
progress toward consciousness.

He has a long hard struggle ahead of him, one that he shouldn’t have to
face, and his family has had to fight every step of the way to get him
the treatment he needs. So much for supporting the troops.

I visit him every week. It breaks my heart to see the burned faces, the
missing limbs, the limps and the vacant stares one encounters in an
acute-care military hospital.

In front of the hospital there is a cannon, and every afternoon they
blast that sucker off. You should see all those poor guys hit the pavement.

Although many requests have been made to discontinue the practice for
the sake of the returning wounded, the general in charge refuses. Boom.

When Nick left for Iraq, I granted myself permission to be stark raving
mad for the length of his deployment. I’ve done a good job of it,
without apology or excuse.

And I dare say there are at least 139,999 other moms who have done the
same, although considering troop rotations needed to maintain that
magical number of 140,000 in the sand could put the number of crazed
military moms as high as 300,000, maybe more. You might want to be
careful about cutting in line in front of a middle-aged woman.

I know there are military moms who view the war in Iraq through
different ideological lenses than mine. Sometimes I envy them. How much
easier it must be to believe one’s son or daughter is fighting for a
just and noble cause.

But no matter how hard I scrutinize the invasion and occupation of Iraq,
all I see are lies, corruption, and greed fueled by a powerful addiction
to oil. Real soldiers get blown to tatters in their Hummers so that
well-heeled American suburbanites can play in theirs.

For my family and me, the costs of this war are real and not abstract.
By day, I fight my demons of dreaded possibility, beat them back into
the shadows, into the dark recesses of my mind. Every night they hiss
and whisper a vile prognosis of gloom and desolation. I order the voices
into silence, but too often they laugh at and mock my commands.

I wonder if George Bush ever hears these voices.

I wonder, too, just how much we are willing to pay for a gallon of gas.

Teri Wills Allison, a massage therapist and a member of Military
Families Speak Out, lives near Austin, Texas, with her husband. She is
the mother of two adult children, the older of whom is a soldier
deployed to Iraq. A ve
rsion of this piece ran on tomdispatch.com.

Just when I thought it was safe to not be angry about this administration:

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/201848_salmon01.html

Bush administration proposes 80% cutback in protected salmon habit

Wednesday, December 1, 2004

By ROBERT MCCLURE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

The Bush administration yesterday proposed scaling back Endangered Species Act protections for salmon across four Western states, drawing cautious applause from development interests and derision from environmentalists.

The proposal would drop safeguards for four-fifths of the waters previously designated "critical habitat" for dwindling salmon and steelhead runs across the Pacific Northwest — Washington, Oregon and Idaho — and half the waters previously protected in California.

Additional reductions may be authorized after a series of public hearings, federal officials said.

The rule change would make it easier in many cases to develop alongside streams and rivers, as well as areas of Puget Sound where the protected fish live. It also could affect much of what federal agencies do around imperiled salmon, such as operating dams that provide electrical power and handing out water to irrigate crops.

The move was prompted by a lawsuit filed by the National Association of Home Builders. The suit was joined by the Washington counties of Grant, Kittitas, Okanogan, Skagit and Skamania, as well as the Building Industry Association of Washington, timber groups and others.

They had complained of the approach taken under the Clinton administration in 2000, which invoked the protections virtually everywhere on streams used by the protected fish, whether scientists knew the biological value of the area or not. Some 150,000 square miles were covered.

The new rules would be much more selective about which areas to safeguard, focusing almost exclusively on river reaches known to be used by the fish.

"The reason the 2000 designations were overinclusive was that we didn’t have better data available at that time," said Bob Lohn, Northwest regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Development interests and environmentalists still were trying to discern the full impact of the 606-page proposal, which was released at mid-afternoon yesterday. Scheduled public hearings on the proposal include one Jan. 18 at the Radisson Hotel by Sea-Tac International Airport.

"As cynical as I am, I’m actually surprised at how bad this is," said David Hogan of the Center for Biological Diversity, a group that frequently tangles with the government in court.

The organization took legal action to force redesignation of critical habitat after it was dropped by the Bush administration in response to the home-builders’ suit.

"It really takes the Bush administration’s assault on endangered wildlife and the Endangered Species Act to a new level," Hogan said.

Representatives of the national home-builders’ group said they were glad the federal agency was willing to distinguish between areas of known value to salmon, and other stream stretches whose value is often unknown or marginal.

"From what I’ve heard, I’m encouraged," said Christopher Galik, environmental policy analyst for the group.

But Michael Mittelholzer, the group’s director of environmental policy, said a key decision remains to be made by the Bush administration: redefining what exactly is prohibited alongside streams where the habitat designation remains. A recent court ruling threw out the standards the agency has historically used, he said — "the crux of the issue."

The Endangered Species Act tells federal fish and wildlife officials to decide whether to extend the protections of the law to a species regardless of the economic impact. Putting the animal on the list of threatened and endangered species makes it illegal to kill or harm it.

The second thing the law says is that the agencies should designate "critical habitat" — lands and waters important to the imperiled species. Then the government is supposed to draw up a plan for the species to recover. In these actions, agencies can consider economic impact.

However, a series of Democratic and Republican presidential administrations has fallen far behind in laying out areas considered critical habitat and producing the recovery blueprints.

Next year, Congress is expected to entertain proposals to drastically alter or eliminate the law’s requirement for critical habitat. A study this year by Hogan’s group showed that endangered species for which the habitat has been protected are more than twice as likely to be recovering compared with other endangered species.

"This proposal really undermines the conservation values that many people cherish, and will essentially doom salmon and steelhead to permanent endangered status," Hogan said.

A key disagreement is about the meaning of a single word in the Endangered Species Act: the "conservation" of a species. NMFS is allowed to protect areas beyond where fish live now if they are considered "essential for the conservation" of the species.

Environmentalists contend this includes areas not currently used by the fish, but which would be needed for them to rebound from current levels, which are paltry compared with historical populations despite a recent turnaround.

"Critical habitat is the lever to get endangered species off the endangered species list," said Michael Mayer, a Seattle-based attorney with the Earthjustice law firm. "It’s the best hope of making the Endangered Species Act work the way it’s supposed to. It’s critical."

But federal fisheries officials pointed to NMFS rules that allow them to declare an area of a stream not currently used by salmon as critical habitat "only when a designation limited to its present range would be inadequate to ensure the conservation of the species."

"We took a hard biological look to determine if the areas were essential to the conservation of the species," said Lohn, of NMFS.

Conservation, NMFS officials said, means keeping the fish from going extinct.

For most of the fish runs, federal scientists simply don’t know enough about areas not currently used by the fish to say how important they are. So the agency dropped those stream miles from the protected areas, the agency said. One exception was eight miles of Hood Canal that was once used by salmon but no longer is.

Nineteen areas around Puget Sound were determined worthy of being designated critical habitat — except for one thing. After NMFS economists looked at the cost of the protections to society, they said it outweighed the benefit to the salmon.

Environmentalists bitterly criticized the agency for failing to tote up all the benefits, a contention that NMFS officials did not deny.

Another agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has drawn fire for greatly reducing protections for bull trout after ordering the removal of a 55-page section of the agency’s economic analysis that counted the benefits of demarcating the fish’s critical habitat.

NMFS’ proposed rules were drafted with help from Mark Rutzick, a former attorney for the timber industry now working in NMFS’ Washington, D.C.-area headquarters, Lohn said.

The proposed rules remove the habitat designation for all military bases in Washington with salmon habitat, including the naval submarine bases at Bangor and Keyport, the Port Hadlock naval ammunition base, the naval fuel depot at Manchester, the Bremerton Naval Hospital, naval air stations at Whidbey Island and Everett, and the Army’s base at Fort Lewis. All have separate plans to help salmon.

NMFS is asking the public whether it should maintain the critical habitat designations on lands covered by other conservation plans.

Two important ones are the Northwest Forest Plan, which governs endangered species recovery on federal lands in the Northwest, and Washington’s Forests and Fish Plan, which governs forestry on private lands in this state.

P-I reporter Robert McClure can be reached at 206-448-8092 or robertmcclure@seattlepi.com

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