Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving Day 2011

We've crossed the tipping point on the calendar in Northern Virginia where fall looses the battle against the encroaching winter. We find ourselves between a waning sun and a biting onslaught from the Arctic. Can you think of a better time to gather loved ones together for a celebration of thanksgiving for the year's bounty?

I woke with the sun this morning, mostly due to the fact that I've brushed up against a cold and the throat was screaming at me for some relief and hydration. The silence of the house provided an opportunity to consider the blessings of 2011 and the things which to be thankful for. The list isn't exhaustive, but it includes:

  • Another year spent on the green side of the sod
  • The fact that there are those who love me in spite of me
  • Blessed Assurance
  • Successful sons
  • The opportunity to serve the saints at Celebration Church
  • The blessing of being a part of the Anglican awakening in North America
  • The privilege of serving a Godly Bishop (+John Guernsey)

Happy Thanksgiving wherever you are today! Many will be gathered with families. Some will be with shipmates afloat. Some will be at a firebase somewhere in Asia. Others will, sadly, be celebrating this day alone. May you all be blessed.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Monday Evening Reverie

The Booing of the FLOTUS

I didn't witness it, and any take I have on the event is based on what has been reported. Apparently, the FLOTUS, Mrs. Obama received a chilly reception during yesterday's final NASCAR run at Homestead-Miami Speedway in South Florida. Both she and Mrs. Biden were "booed" by some in the crowd prior to directing the racers to "Start your engines". Come on folks, your mama's raised you better than that.

Mrs. Obama, like Mrs. Clinton before her, has been a low-level source of controversy since her public debut. She openly shared her disdain for the American Republic prior to her husband's nomination as Democratic Party candidate. She has been very vocal about American eating habits while unabashedly enjoying Five Guys burgers and fries. And also like Mrs. Clinton, she has apparently interjected herself into the policy making process. In all, she has appeared as a Nanny-Stater, a position that many regardless of party affiliation find baneful.

Now, before the full time grievance apparatchiks spin up, let's make the fact clear that this had little to do with race. (Yes, there are knuckle-dragging trogs out there that base their hatred of an individual based on their dermal melanin levels; save your breath on these reprobates because they're not listening). I suspect the motivation was overwhelmingly political. This said, I reiterate my earlier statement: Come on folks, your mama's raised you better than that.

At the risk of sounding like a professional scold or mainstream media hack, let me point towards the need for manners and civility. Booing, heckling and similar behaviors only serve to make us smaller. The most powerful and civil expressions of our disapproval is our ballots.

Truthfully, as a Christian Libertarian, this administration's policies make my head explode. I've been disappointed by our President and his seemingly "America Last" Agenda. My ballot will reflect this disappointment.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Romantic Love on a Monday



Many might dismiss this song as being simply mush and sentimentalism. But I believe that, truth be told, any real love has a palpable component of mushy, romantic love. I'll refer this aspect of the relationship to being "nuts in love".

What is "nuts in love"? Its the state of being enveloped by a heart full of a plethora of emotion for the object of one's affection. Its being a forty-something who, when thinking about their beloved, is transported back to North Brandywine Junior High School and the seventh grade.

Embrace your sweetie tonight! Let him or her know that they rock your world.

Early on a Monday

Sunday Reverie


This is, at least in my humble estimation, the greatest bit of sacred music written in the past century.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Frank Griswold Opines

Frank Griswold, scion and pastor to the Upper Main Line and 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, spoke of the calamities experienced by the church of late in an interview with Duke Divinity School's Faith and Leadership publication. Notably, he touches on the two earthquakes that have effected the body in which he was steward.

He speaks to the 25 million dollar damage experienced by the National Cathedral during the the Virginia quake of August 23, 2011, and the quakes radiating from the issue of gay ordinations during his tenure. In all of this, the Bishop views this as a Desert experience.

To use an image from the Old Testament, maybe this is the desert time.

The desert was a period of purification and self-knowledge in order that they were prepared to enter the promised land. All the things that happened in the wilderness, the struggle and the suffering, were part of being shaped and formed and being made ready to enter the promised land, especially where they could receive it as gift rather than acquisition.

I believe that Bishop Griswold is correct in his discernment of the Hand of the Almighty in the August temblor. Two historic American icons were shook and damaged; as easily as they could have been spared, they could have fallen in a heap. Yet, the Bishop has only captured one segment of the Desert Walk. True, Joshua, son of Nun and Caleb, son of Jephunneh stepped out of the wasteland on the other side; one million or so of their contemporaries were left to bleach in the sterile wilderness of the Sinai. Or if one considers the scapegoat, we see one who is sent to wander the desert never to return.

If Bishop Griswold is correct in his assessment, it would be helpful not just to identify his church's placement, but the purpose of this placement (and displacement). Herein will lie the result of whether the Episcopal Church emerges from the wilderness at Jordan's banks, or will permanently fall in the cruel Sinai.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

D.W. Griffith Rides Again

The Left, for all of its self-flagellation, simply can't exorcise its racist past. The events of late serve to bring this back into sharp focus. I could focus on the rife antisemitism thats boiling over down at your local Occupy Wall Street (OWS) event. There's enough outrage to devote an entire essay to that. No, I want to talk about something equally insidious, and that is the Lynching of Mr. Herman Cain.

I've been watching the events unfold since Mr. Cain's rise to the center of our focus. Mr. Cain is an unhyphenated American with a will of steel, tough skin and a tender heart. He has earned the scorn of the establishment left because he is not beholden to the benevolent plantation owners or their grievance industry trustees. He is disparaged by the neoconservatives in the establishment right because Herman Cain has identified them as "part of the problem" through their fiscal liberalism. So, from the standpoint of both sides, Mr. Cain has become like a rock in their running shoe; one who must be marginalized, and done so quickly.

We saw it coming, or at least we should have seen it coming. A story so tawdry and banal broke on the scene; one so slimy, it could have been crafted by Larry Flynt. Suddenly (though predictably) the "Black man as sexual predator" meme was dredged up out of the swamp last week. This is no new invention, even predating the Justice Clarence Thomas affair by decades. In the past century, the very ploy was used (successfully sadly) against the giant-killer boxer and Heavyweight Champion, Jack Johnson. Though tawdry, its a simple meme to employ, simply playing on what one Blogger from Philadelphia has referred to as "Color Arousal". This same ploy was used, unsuccessfully, against Justice Clarence Thomas in September 1991.

A quick examination of the current libel against Mr. Cain wends down a trail that ultimately leads to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, by proxy. Looking at the aggrieved, we see a triad emerge consisting of David Axelrod, Chicago and the Obama administration. We see what will be shown to be an opportunistic individual playing the part of useful idiot.

When this all washes out, the DNA of the DNC will be all over this hot mess. We'll see (for he who hath eyes to see, let him see...) the true benighted soul of the party of Nathan Bedford Forrest, D.W. Griffith, Grand Wizards, Southern Segregationists, et al. Sadly, all we'll hear from the sycophants in the establishment press will be co-dependent, enabling denial or just the sound of crickets.

Sunday, November 06, 2011

On the Sunday following All Saints

From the book of Common Prayer:
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

It was quite the day today at Celebration. It was a Deacon's mass as the priest was on the road to Charlotte, NC to celebrate at a plant of the Falls Church in the absence of their priest. It was a great morning.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Title 18 U.S.C Chapter 115

Title 18 U.S. Code Chapter 115 covers Treason, Sedition and Subversive Activities. It would do my heart good to have a team of Constitutional Lawyers and federal Law Enforcement officials who take their oath of office seriously, to investigate this rouge's gallery in order to see if they are in violation of the aforementioned statue. Though not explicitly on the list, The Episcopal Church joins the list by implication with its own words.

When you swear an Oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, its not an a la carte affair, its a zero-sum affair.

Some prominent members of this list include:
  • The Government of North Korea
  • The Revolutionary Guards of Iran
  • "Tio" Hugo Chavez
  • Hezbollah
  • The American Nazi Party
  • The POTUS
  • The VPOTUS
  • The Hon. Ms. Nancy Pelosi

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

For All the saints, Who from their Labors Rest

On the Feast of All Saints:
Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

If you've spent any time at all perched in the seat, you'll know that the following video has become a tradition at All Saints. The lyrics are in themselves powerful enough. The imagery adds mega-tonnage. Its a reminder that Martyrs aren't a relic of some misty past. Each day, that mighty cloud of witnesses attested to in Hebrews grows steadily and inexorably. Remarkably, we here in the Great Suburbia Majora have been mostly immune to the unending onslaught that effects saints globally, there's no guarantee that this will be the rule until the end.