No degrees of separation

There has been coverage of a redhead on the TV news this week. I will not mention her name or what she has done. I will only say that somewhere I have a photo of her at age 2 or so. My brother at 3 liked her red hair. I think the news footage of her is a bit old as she didn't look that young the last time I saw her few years ago at Chautauqua. We never know who will show up where or in what circumstances later in life. Like my high school classmate Roger Ailes, Chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group.

OCICBW is back

Hallelujah! So where is my blog?

It seems that some Blogger blogs are not working on Windows machines. Pity. Apparently deleting SiteMeter will solve the problems.

So go on over to visit Mad Priest and comment on today's stay-at-home meme.

Lambeth from Panama

Once again the cast of Friday Red Mr. Peanut Bank and Gallito Mescalito has come up with an excellent depiction of events at the Lambeth Conference. I particularly like Primada Kafrin. The latest adventure is here.

The world's best grandniece

My grandniece at 9 days. She drinks 3 ounces of milk at each feeding. Fortunately my niece has plenty. So far she is a good baby. She sleeps, eats and poops and doesn't make much fuss. But when she does, she's as loud as her brother.

Her brother is still not a happy camper. He was incorrigible and irreconcilable tonight. Poor parents have to deal with a new sister and the terrible twos. argh!

I hope my sister-in-law survives this visit!

Friday cat blogging

Charlotte on the floor and Besita on the windowsill.

Friday shuffle

1. Handel: Israel in Egypt, He sent a thick darkness - Tavener Players
2. Britten: Ballad of Green Broom - The Sixteen
3. Love Letters in the Sand - Pat Boone
4. Que sera, sera - Doris Day
5. Anon: An English Ladymass, Gloria - Anonymous 4
6. The Letter - The Box Tops
7. A Teenager in Love - Dion & the Belmonts
8. Walton: What Cheer? - Choir of Trinity ?
9. You Belong to Me - The Duprees
10. Ives: Serenity - Cathedral Choral Society

OCICBW missing

"OCICBW... got attacked by a particularly vicious troll last night. It was so bad I had to close down the comments overnight.

He seems to have got his revenge by reporting me as a spam blog to Blogger and they have blocked my blog. I have asked for reinstatement but it's taking up to a week to sort out at the moment.

Would you please notify people of this on your blog and tell them to put it on their blogs. I don't want them thinking I've done a runner or been disappeared by the Church Police.

Jonathan"

Comment: Perhaps we need to investigate and use another blog server? Any recommendations?

Lost opportunity

Dear Archbishop Orombi:

You chose to boycott Lambeth. Now you want to dictate what should result from this gathering of Anglican Communion bishops?

If you were truly Anglican, appropriately humble about your opinions, knowledgeable about what the Bible says Jesus taught and willing to follow those teachings, you would have been present to offer your experiences and listen to those of others. You weren't. You gave up the opportunity to share and learn.

Like people who don't vote, you did not use the appropriate means of participating with others. So, quite frankly, you seem to admit you have no firm theological legs to stand on. Thoughtful people should dismiss you as a bigoted, sex-obsessed, control freak. Unfortunately, most people are not thoughtful about religion and some will take you seriously as if you actually represent most Anglicans. I suspect you don't.

May God find a way to help you grow in the knowledge and love of God and Jesus. Soon!

Sigh

I accidentally deleted Mom said nobody cares while trying to delete an experimental blog. I emailed Blogger but have heard nothing from them so far. If they restore my blog, I will terminate this one.

I'll restore my blogroll as I have time. Tell me if I miss yours.

Meanwhile I'll try to leave this at the top for now. To see what's on my mind, scroll down a bit.

And now for something a little different...

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.
2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, 'I'll serve you, but don't start anything.'
3. Two peanuts walk into a bar and one was a salted.
4. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm, and says 'A beer please, and one for the road.'
6. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: 'Does this taste funny to you?'
7. 'Doc, I can't stop singing 'The Green, Green Grass of Home.' 'That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome.' 'Is it common?' Well, 'It's Not Unusual.'
8. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly, 'I was artificially inseminated this morning.' 'I don't believe you,' says Dolly. 'It's true; no bull!' exclaims Daisy.
9. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.
10. Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.
11. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day, but I couldn't find any.
12. A man woke up in a hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, 'Doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!' The doctor replied, 'I know you can't - I've cut off your arms!'
13. I went to a seafood disco last week...and pulled a mussel.
14. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.
15. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, 'Dam!'
16. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
17. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel, and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office, and asked them to disperse. 'But why,' they asked, as they moved off. 'Because,' he said, 'I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.'
18. A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt , and is named 'Ahmal.' The other goes to a family in Spain ; they name him 'Juan.' Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, 'They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal.'
19. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him. .... A super-calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
20. And finally, there was the person who sent twenty different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

I know these are old but so am I. They came from a friend. The cartoon is from Pun American Newsletter.

Where is the hope?

On The Gene Pool, +Gene Robinson mentions reading that optimism usually relies on people to get something done which often results in disappointment while hope relies on God to get things done. Unfortunately, that sort of hope often results in disappointment too IMO. As the old joke says, "Buy a lottery ticket!" Both require human effort. Hope in God requires careful consideration of what is hoped for and acceptance that God's ways are not always our ways.

I see no signs of hope or optimism from those who would declare the Anglican Communion dead or split beyond repair. I see far too much despair on the side of those who would listen to the Holy Spirit as she tries to teach us how to love. I see far too much fear on the side of those who resist opening their hearts to people they believe the Bible condemns. I see far too much, frankly, ignorance on the part of people who accept one version or another of the Bible as the final word of God - in English, no less - without studying the history of the Bible. I see far too much arrogance from certain individuals who know more about God's plans and desires than others.

Because religion and church are creations of men for human reasons, they are subject to human folly. Why don't people understand that? I don't know much about the Bible but I don't recall Jesus saying much about the institutional "Christian" church. He had plenty to say about the institutional Hebrews' church, much of which we ignore.

I think Luther said something about not wanting to go to heaven if there is no humor there. God has a sense of humor. I know because I've been the brunt of it many times. God gave us a sense of humor so we can deal with life. A cruise thru the "liberal" Anglican/Episcopal blogs will reveal frequent use of that gift tho not always in a constructive manner. A cruise thru the "conservative" blogs will reveal little humor and much call for "justice", punishment, exclusion, etc. Did God give us humor as a sign to hope?

While the "conservatives" work hard to impose their beliefs on the Anglican Communion and TEC, the "liberals" need to work hard to remind everyone of what the Bible says Jesus taught. We are to love God and our neighbor as ourselves and to leave the winnowing to God. In that there is hope. In imposition there may be optimism but there is human fallibility.

I'll stick with hope.

(The image is from sortamotivational.)

Another walk

We aren't allowed to swim anywhere other than the designated beaches. There are other reasons why we don't swim here. Ugh.

I have no idea what these red berries are and I'm too lazy to find the book and look them up. They are everywhere along the tracks and the birds don't seem interested.

The cedar waxwings gather in this tree.

I don't know what this is either but we call it the spaghetti plant.

Hazy evening, almost sunset.

Home

I need to get on the road to see my grandniece in person. Her brother is a handful according to my sister-in-law. He was when he was the center of attention.

Who's to blame?

TEC has been blamed for causing problems for African Anglican churches because of tolerance of the primary Biblical sin - homosexuality. Pshaw. The African clergy who condemn homosexuality, even to the point of calling LGBTs less than human, are the direct cause of violence such as occurred in Kampala, Uganda yesterday. By refusing to condemn violence toward LGBTs, they are supporting actions like the beating of a gay man as reported by afrol.

No student loans in Massachusetts

A Pittsburgh friend emailed this NY Times link today. Surely God is punishing Massachusetts for allowing same sex marriage by reducing the value of the investments used to help people attend college.

A Lambeth Steward's Blog

A thoughtful, intelligent blog from a New Jersey gal who is both working and observing at Lambeth is here. I'd post a photo but I'm not taking the time to find one now.

For JP