Blessing of the Animals A Chance to Remember the First Covenant

We’re having a blessing of the animals service at church this coming Sunday in observance of St. Francis of Assisi.   People will bring pets from home and at one point in the service will be invited to bring them forward for a blessing.  Then, during communion, people can bring their pets with them, where they will receive a biscuit or appropriate treat while their humans receive the bread and wine.  Last year we had about 7 dogs and 1 or 2 cats.    Our first service attracted a bird, a rabbit, a hamster, a rat, plus assorted canine and feline companions. The first year we did this there was anxiety over bringing pets indoors into the sanctuary space, along with reservations about the whole idea of having such a service to begin with.   We planned to hold the service outdoors, but the weather intervened, and so indoors we went.  It was a smash hit with everyone, and our fellowship time after worship was one of the most lively ones in memory, with people and pets socializing with one another.  People had a chance to meet one another’s animal companions and to hear from their friends how meaningful the relationship with animals can be.

In years past I’ve used the second creation story in Genesis, beginning at Gen. 2:4b, as the First Reading.  It’s a story that reveals, among other things,  the importance of relationships between God, humans and animals.

This year we’ll be using the Genesis account of the very first covenant agreement made by Yahweh with Noah and with the whole creation in the aftermath of the Great Flood.  God promises never again to flood the earth and bring destruction upon humans and animals alike.  As the representative steward of all this wildlife, Noah becomes the covenant rep with whom Yahweh makes the agreement, sealing the deal with the sign of Yahweh’s own war-bow hung in the sky.  While the covenant is made with Noah, it’s a promise made to all the critters on the ark as well, and speaks to the mutually healthy relationships intended for all creatures, us included.

Here’s a video that sums it up pretty well.  I’ve posted it before, but it’s worth repeating.

An Unusually Dramatic NFL Season in Only Week 3

Normally I’m a college football addict and glance only at the more interesting pro games and teams.  For me that would be your Broncos, your Cowboys, your Titans, your Steelers, and whatever team is willing to hire on that aging mercenary warrior named Bret Favre.   This is a bit ironic, since the NFL gold standard has lately been found in the two franchises that play in Indianapolis and in Foxboro, and whose shining stars are the two most dominant quarterbacks at work in this latest version of the modern era.  Tom Brady, until last year’s injury, marched his offense up and down the field like an uber Bart Starr; managing the game when he had to, taking the spotlight when he had to; all the while making reads and throws against defenses in the same way an Aztec priest would cut out the heart of the sacrifice du jour.  With unblinking precision.

Meanwhile, a ways down south, Sir Peyton of Manning Clan would be conducting the symphony known as the Indianapolis Colts Offense.  If Brady is uber Starr, then Manning is uber Unitas.   The Young Master can take the gameplan, go out on the field and call his own plays, probing, then carving up opposing defenses with laser-like accuracy, while carrying the fortunes of his team on his shoulders.  This is a phenomenal moment in NFL history, considering what happened after St. Bill Walsh engineered the West Coast offense into such vogue that everybody had to copy it and adopt his style.  The role of Quarterback faded from Field General to Middle Manager.  Personnel changed based on down and situation, bringing with them the plays from Above.  The quarterback’s job then became one of seeing what defense the opponent would throw against him and choosing the correct option of the options available to him in that designated play.  Sure, Landry did it with the 60’s and 70’s Cowboys.  But the real thing that Walsh did was resurrect the influence of his one-time mentor, Paul Brown, who pioneered the notion of A Genius System that would flatten anything or anyone that stood in its way.  Ironic, since Brown turned against Walsh when Walsh was still his disciple in Cincinnati, and did everything in his power to keep Walsh from getting any NFL job beyond equipment manager.  The quarterback in the Genius System is a game plan manager.   Sir Peyton of Manning Clan is a Quarterback in the old-school, Bobby Layne/Johnny Unitas heritage.  He takes the personnel changes and whatever play gets sent in, then sizes up the defense, changes the formation and dials up a play on the spot.   I’m surprised I don’t follow him and the Colts as much as I should.  When he leaves the game, we’re not going to see anything like his style of quarterbacking for many years to come.

Well, I digress.  Manning is not the big story this year, his level of excellence has sadly become that ordinary to us.

Brady’s return to the Pats is a key NFL storyline this year, but for unpredictable reasons.  Brady hasn’t returned to the Patriots of Yore; many of New England’s perennial blue-chippers are no longer on the team.  Brady could have used a solid offensive line at season’s outset, to help him find that old comfortable and confident rhythm he had before his injury.   It hasn’t happened.  Teams are learning that you hurry and harass Brady constantly, because his line now can’t stop you from doing this.  And when you blitz, pressure and continually get licks on a pocket passer,  he suddenly will begin to look very ordinary and vulnerable.  The only thing that would appear to save Brady and his team from a mediocre season would be the emergence of a running game strong enough to take some of the burden off the quarterback.

Dallas is discovering the value of a punishing ground game, as is Minnesota,  as are the Jets.   This, combined with stout defense, can propel a team to January play.  We might also add the Bears to that mix, along with upstart Cincinnati.   The “Who Dat” Bengals may be back after a longggg winter’s nap.

The surprise team at the moment has to be the New York Jets with first-year coach Rex Ryan and rookie QB Mark Sanchez.  Their win against New England was a physical statement that these Jets aren’t going to be pushed around any more.  Their toughness reminds me of the great Steeler performances of late, and of the Ravens and Titans.  They are all tough, hard-hitting and unrelenting teams; and the Jets have appeared to join that bunch.

Closer to home here in the Rockies, the Denver Broncos are off to an unbeaten, 3-0 start.  How unthinkable a proposition, given all the tumult surrounding the firing of Mike Shanahan and the trading of Jay Cutler.  Add to that a defense that has recently looked like a bag lady fending off muggers.  Throw in a committee of  running backs that last year covered more ground with crutches on the way to see the orthopedic surgeon.  Add a heaping, helping dollop of a first-year rookie coach and the prospects of going 8-8 looked rosy indeed.   To his credit, Josh McDaniels has been persistently at work to build his new team atmosphere at Dove Valley, and the players he brought in through draft and free agency seem to be the right pieces to the puzzle he continues to put together.    Catching the Cowboys at the end of their short week, after playing a very physical Monday night game, also works to Denver’s advantage.  The Broncos are just now heading into the teeth of their tough schedule, but they look a heckuva lot better than many figured them to be, no better than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.  As much as I’d like to root for Denver this weekend, my deeply ingrained fan loyalty to the Cowboys prevents me from doing so.  And it is a fan loyalty deeply ingrained, for it has withstood the 20-year roller coaster ride that has been the Jerry Jones era.   It has withstood the firing of Tom for Jimmy, and barely survived the firing of Jimmy for Barry.  It has survived Chan Gailey and Dave Campo.  Most of all, it has survived Jerry and his Al Davis-like penchant for inserting himself in just about aspect of team operations, while making major egotistical blunders along the way.  Four words say it all: Deion Sanders, Salary Cap.   “The Palace in Dallas,” as Bob Costas calls it, may be his crowning achievement.  I’d expect that part of that grand expanse of steel, glass and concrete would include, somewhere, a place for the Jones Family Crypt.  It should be somewhere a little off the main promenade, but also accessible and prominent, a place that fans in the future could pass and pay their respects while on the way to the concession stand to get a pretzel and beer.  Shoot, for that matter, they should offer a Cowboy Columbarium, a repository for the cremains of heavy-hitters flush enough to buy into an urn space that puts them right next to Cowboy legends.   You should get on top of that one, Jerry, it would be quite the money-maker.

Well, we’ve wandered off the reservation, haven’t we?  Let’s see: Brady’s struggling, Manning’s doing his thing without Marvin Harrison, Favre is doing his thing again with the help of Adrian Peterson, the Cowboys may or may not be underachievers again.  Ditto San Diego.  The Broncos may be resurrected.  Ditto the Jets.  Ditto the Bengals.  Joe Flacco is proving he’s no one-hit wonder.  So is Matt Ryan.  Mark Sanchez and Matt Stafford are each performing in ways that say, “Don’t call me boy!”  So is Josh McDaniels.  All this, and it’s only the end of week 3 in the NFL.    For once the league is living up to its advertising.

Putting a Face on the High Cost of War

from CNN

When Iraq war veteran Angela Peacock is in the shower, she sometimes closes her eyes and can’t help reliving the day in Baghdad in 2003 that pushed her closer to the edge.

While pulling security detail for an Army convoy stuck in gridlocked traffic, Peacock’s vehicle came alongside a van full of Iraqi men who “began shouting that they were going to kill us,” she said.

One man in the vehicle was particularly threatening. “I can remember his eyes looking at me,” she said. “I put my finger on the trigger and aimed my weapon at the guy, and my driver is screaming at me to stop.”

“I was really close to shooting at them, but I didn’t.”

Now back home in Missouri, Peacock, 30, is unemployed — living in a friend’s home in North St. Louis County without a lease and paying minimal rent.

She points to the Baghdad confrontation as a major contributor to her struggles with drug abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. She says she’s one step away from living on the street.

Experts say that Peacock’s profile is similar to that of many female veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, the rate of female homeless vets is increasing in the United States, according to the federal government and groups that advocate for homeless people.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs defines PTSD as a type of anxiety that affects people who’ve experienced a particularly traumatic event that creates intense fear, helplessness or horror.

“You’re sitting on your couch and you hear a car go down the street, and you think it’s going to come through your house — so you kind of catastrophize things automatically,” Peacock said. “That’s stuff normal people don’t do, but if you’re in a combat zone on convoys all the time, you can’t help but do that.”

With the U.S. Army now at 15 percent female, and more women providing supporting roles in combat zones, female vets are becoming homeless at a faster rate than men, said Department of Veterans Affairs spokesman Pete Dougherty.

Homeless U.S. veterans

Estimated homeless veterans: 131,000

Estimated homeless female veterans: 13,100

Estimated post-9/11 veterans: 7,400

Estimated number of female post-9/11 veterans: 740

12 percent of homeless veterans younger than 34 are women

Jobless rate for post-9/11 veterans: 11.3 percent

Sources: Department of Veterans Affairs, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Congressman Alan Grayson: The People’s “Werewolf-Lawyer”

The “Werewolf-Lawyer” description is inspired by journalist Matt Taibbi, who recounts a conversation-gone-nuclear-meltdown with Grayson here.

A Werewolf-Lawyer is what we all look for when forced to deal with powerful people, companies or other entities that are either threatening to badly screw us or have already screwed us badly.  We want the kind of person who behaves like gentle and caring Larry Talbot in his client meetings, but changes once the court date or deposition date arrives, becoming some ferocious, gleaming-eyed meat-eater capable of eviscerating any opposing lawyer or hostile witness with a razor-sharp legal mind and a tongue to match.

Alan Grayson fills that bill.   An Orlando-area attorney, Grayson combines a thorough Harvard pedigree with Bronx-tenement street savvy and a strong concern for social justice.  You can read his Congressman’s bio here and it’s worth reading.

Lately he’s combined his passions for law, economics, and eliminating fraud against the government (i.e., the taxpayers) by taking on all comers in the bailouts of the banks and of Wall Street.

From his perch on the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee,  Grayson brings a withering and sometimes off-kilter line of questioning to the hearings process, showing as much deference to the heavy hitters of finance and government that you’d find in, say, a werewolf.  And it’s highly amusing to see these “Captains of Finance,” whether they be private sector or government, stunned to find this Congressman grilling them as if they were some common pimps called to testify in a Bronx prostitution ring trial.   He makes good YouTube, and here are some of my favorites:

His questioning of Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, where he rips to shreds Pandit’s position that the government merely gave Citigroup and the others “insurance.”

Here he tears apart the obfuscation presented by the Federal Reserve’s Inspector General to reveal that there just hasn’t been anybody minding the cash register.

And here he grills Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about the massive, half-trillion dollar payout of government money to foreign banks.  When he notes that Congress was left out of that process, Bernanke responds that, actually,  Congress approved the Fed’s process of handling that money.  Grayson then reminds everyone that Bernanke was speaking of the original legislation creating the Fed back in 1914.  Note the facial expression of the woman sitting behind Bernanke at about 4:03 into the clip.

We continue to discover even darker and more sordid details about deals cut at staggering taxpayer expense in the two massive government bailouts of the financial industry.   Grayson is the kind of attorney you’d hate to have come after you.  It’s a good thing he seems to be very much on our side and is going after the folks who appear to have contributed to one of the greatest white-collar crimes in history.  We need more than just good representation right now.  We need a werewolf-lawyer, and it looks like Alan Grayson fills the bill.

Yep

h/t: John

Teabagger Says Obama is “Too Black to Be President”

Here’s what you get when you fuse lunacy to paradox and irony:

What this guy and his wife might consider is how this notion of “little government-big person,” as they frame it, would have kept her ancestors in shackles down on the plantation had this been the dominant social/political ethos of the 19th century.

I don’t know about you, but the people I worry about having “too black a heart”  are mostly white-skinned xenophobes and Glenn Beck Zombies.

Meanwhile, there is one elderly, white, southern gentleman who–despite the mounting criticism of his statement on both sides of the political spectrum–appears to be dead solid right.

Stand Up For the Real Healthcare Victims

more about “MoveOn.org Political Action: Video: W…“, posted with vodpod

Sounds Good, But How Many Will Pay the Price?

Toledo’s  United Missionary Baptist Church held a Sunday evening service in which about 150 people gathered to stand against gun violence.

Among the speakers in the 2-1/2 hour event was Bishop J. Douglas Wiley, founder of The Life Center Baptist Cathedral Church in New Orleans.

Some of the highlights of his hour-long sermon, courtesy of the Toledo Blade:

“Gun violence is the symptom of a nation that has turned its back on God,” he said. “The only place that God matters in America is on our money – in God we trust. We sacrifice our children on the altar of finance and money.”

Bishop Wiley said the United States has not gone all-out against the drug trade because influential people are making too much money. He also said that every time an African-American youth is shot, the EMS companies, hospitals, coroners, funeral homes, and graveyards make a profit.

“Everybody is getting paid,” he said.

Bishop Wiley said there is spiritual warfare going on today, but churches have shirked their responsibility to preach the hard truths.

“Too many people go to church to be cute and look dignified … and there are too many nice preachers telling nice people to be nicer,” he said.

He chided ministers to be bold in confronting sin and immorality, saying, “You’re not preaching until you make somebody mad.”

Putting Some Pop in the Marriage

Guns N Fireworks.    Makes me homesick.

Also makes me wonder if Bubba here has a camper shell on the back of his truck, ’cause it might be where he had to sleep for a while.

And After All, Laughter is the Best Medicine