These soldiers who have "died" so that we might have "life" are effectually mini-saviors who play the role of Jesus Christ in history. It is not Jesus whose sacrificial death saves us from the forces of evil so that we might have life. Rather, it is the military of the state.

[via ICTHUS]

People with great gifts often start with the right kind of humility and awe of the power given to them, only to crash and burn in the fire of their own pride. The process of getting to that point is rarely visible to the naked eye. It's why Christians are often in shock when a man or woman whom God has endowed with seemingly endless ability falls into sin. It seems like a sudden thing when it is really a gradual decline.

[via The Gad(d)about]

It's a sign of the times when Coffee Perks now is online.

Sometimes I wonder. Maybe the last word is eternal judgment, and the word after that is bizarre practical jokes.

[via The Paris Project]

"Naturally, our own irrational demands
strike us as having the force of needs,
while other people's needs strike us
as capricious indulgences."

Daphne Merkin, quoted at Chiasmus.com

Graffiti on the Wall, Paranoid Left-Wing Ranting and The Cathy J Weblog are added to the linkage list.

Other blogs that link to me are featured on the right.

Adjustment:

What happens when both sides that posture are equally wrong and equally weak...

I have been thinking about names and family history. We try to draw from genetics a molecule of courage or brilliance, some talent that will make us shine above the rest.

Part of me feels like I'm letting go of my former life (even though I haven't lived that life in a long time) as I've been sorting - deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. It's really only symbolic but it seems to hold meaning. I don't understand it all. But I'm glad I'm doing it now...I want to be able to look to the past with fond memories, but not to cling to it.

The past is buried in cement. You can try to expunge unfortunate facts from your biography when you tell it to other people—celebrities and their publicists do it all the time—but those facts are still there. Conversely, the future is liquid, waiting to be created. If you retreat into the past, with its previous defeats or triumphs, you are escaping from the future and thus from your freedom. Many people live in the past solely so they don’t have to think about their next move. Or even worse, to justify why their next move will be exactly like past moves.

quotes:

top: from wendycooper.net
middle: from Worship Warrior
bottom: from SOMA

Just remember, they ain't the Christian Heritage Party of Canada:

So the CPC is, like, totally necking with the Religious Reich now. I don't know what to think about this. I have trouble believing that anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-sex education, anti-abortion bigots like Focus on the Family could possibly have the success in moderate, socialist Canada that they have had in America. But still. This is a scary trend. If they have the pull to get nominations, they have the pull to get votes....

these people, they just live the families, yknow. Except for single parent families, families with working mothers, families with two dads or two moms, families which would rather plan themselves than live on social security, non-Xian families, Xian families which don't want to embrace their fag-hating, woman-hating fundamentalist line, and, yknow, basically, families. That's right: Pro-Family Advocates Hate Families.

[via Paranoid Left-Wing Ranting , emphasis mine]

If we were to take 30 percent of the effort spent on legislation and invest it instead on sensible and palpable persuasion, we would get an awful lot farther.-- Brian McLaren in 10 Questions for Brian McLaren

Maybe it's just politics, not strictly the Liberals...

Corruption is present in all levels of politics (must I really link to some of the many stories that have been swirling this past week to prove this?). Having worked and lived up north in many different settings I certainly also know that corruption is also rampant within the Aboriginal leadership structure.

[via Reflective Musings]

[via Been There...Still There]

Terms such as "accidental addict" do not serve us well. It's not a case of "whoops! my doctor prescribed me this medication and now I use it compulsively to zone out or get high." It's a case of "whoops! my doctor is in bed with the powerful and preadatory pharmaceutical companies and now they both are making big money by causing millions of us to become dependent upon brain damaging drugs thereby ensuring we will always be in their 'care.'"

See? It ain't addiction, and it for sure is NOT accidental.

Shifts in power don't come at election time: they're only realized at election time....

When I pointed out to my own MP certain indelicate problems of racism and sexism that were occurring with the constituency board in our electoral district, coupled with a tremendous over-focusing on religious issues, nothing happened and nobody cared. So, I didn't go back.

-- from the post Harper's Image at Heart of Canada

When you're spring cleaning...

An older man (as in older than me) brought in a very old American Indian blanket, possibly once owned by Kit Carson. The appraiser was beside himself, and after describing how wonderful it was, "a national treasure", he told the guy it was worth between $350,000 - 500,000. The guy started crying! It was very cool as I'm sure he will find a good auction house to sell it and have money for his golden years (which are only golden if you happen to have some gold). He was absolutely joyful.

So, the moral of the story might be if there are people rich enough and crazy enough to spend half a million dollars on a blanket, at least an older man and his family will have fun spending it.

[via The Cathy J Weblog]

Uhhh...are you sure, Paul Martin?

On Belinda's Leadership Aspirations...

She can't speak French. She can't give a speech. She can't answer questions off the cuff. She has no real political experience to talk about. This may have all been forgivable in a party that needed to look like they were in touch with young, urban, moderate Canadians. But in the Liberal Party, this simply won't wash. In some sense, it might be good for Belinda to run because of the 9 or 10 rumoured Liberal leadership candidates not a single one is female. And if history is any indication, money and a "cut throat kill your enemies" attitude are two keys to any successful leadership run. But until Belinda develops even passable political fundamentals, there is no way you can discuss her as a legitimate contender.

[via CalgaryGrit]

What I learned from the Liberals this week:

Like bargaining? Enjoying stealing ideas and people from others? Then join The Liberal Party of Canada:

Confident. Complacent.

If you can't keep a moderate:

I believe that Harper is partly responsible for the immense failure that was the last budget vote. No one can deny Belinda's ambition but Harper made a strategic political mistake that was a major factor in Belinda's decision.

[via The Heresy]

As if women were cautious about Conservatives already:

Not that politicians "selling out" for personal or political gain, or even out of spite, is a new trend in human history. It happens all the time. Even Winston Churchill did it for crying out loud. When men do it, well, they were bad but I'm sure they had their reasons. But when a blonde woman makes a similar move, she is labeled with "dipstick", "bombshell", "whore", "bitch" and "wench" (I was a few steps away from the person who used this last one). Of course, Conservatives across Canada are upset and angered with the budget vote hours away, but can we ever evolve as a nation and species to drop the derogatory sexist b.s.?

Did anyone notice it was the "born again" people responding with the most condemnation? Am I supposed to respond in a similar way? Listen, if Mackay had crossed the floor, people would have been mad but the comments would have been a lot different.

[via ~scottyd]

One thing I learned this week from the Conservatives:

Tired of Liberal corruption? Frustrated with independent women not towing the line? Then join The Conservative Party of Canada:

Alienation. We know it.

Mind the Independence

About the confidence vote:

I think it's great that this came down to independent votes -- voting on party lines doesn't seem as genuine as someone with no real party affiliation, who reasons through what is best for his constituents first -- before toeing his party's interests.

[via grrrl meets world]

About Belinda...

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. Assuming all Conservative MPs vote with the party (an assumption that is now questionable, I guess), it really is coming down to one swing vote.

Whatever the outcome of the Gomery inquiry and what it will say about the current Liberal government, it's beyond me why someone would want to cross the floor to the Liberals at this stage.

[via The Eagle & Child]

Hospice is a gift to the professionals that open themselves up to the gifts of end of life care... to living each day as if it were a lifetime.

[via In Our Own Words]

...people ask me all the time why I give them money when I make a living caring for people dying from cancer. My response is that "I'll be the happiest person in the unemployment line if they cure cancer." If the mega corporate high pressure hospice marketers put me out of business, I won't be smiling, but between now and then I can smile knowing that I have refused to treat hospice as anything other than a ministry to dying people and their families.

[via Hospice Blog]

Confrontation reminds us that, more often than not, logic does not prevail over raw emotion. It reminds us that, because of that fact, innocent people can get hurt for no apparent reason at all.

Being nice can be a way of blending into the background and disappearing; of being so sweet, so complacent and passive that we are too ineffectual to be considered a threat to anyone. It is a way for us to stay safe. For some it can also be away of deflecting attention so that they can fly below the radar. They never draw enough interest as to be questioned. In both cases it becomes a way of disengaging from other people. A way of becoming self absorbed, safe and anonymous. Underneath it all it also breeds a rage so potent that it smolders just behind the eyes at all times. It is fueled by every injury unaddressed, every snide comment left without an apology to accompany it and every theft of dignity, real or imagined, that ever happened. That kind of rage will lash out and surprise even the person in whom it lives, but most of the time one can temporarily recover from the inconvenience by being extra nice. So the cycle continues.
Being nice is evil.
I seem to be pretty good at it.

[via Milestoned]

Those who condemn all politicians outright are really making the same kind of generalizations that are responsible for racism and bigotry, e.g. all Indians are lazy, all Irishmen are brawling drunkards, all farmers are aid=seeking whiners. Can you doubt that some corruption, major or minor, was and is present in almost every government that has ever existed? The main difference is that it was kept hidden and quiet, though often suspected, in the past, and still is in most of the world,...

Thus though we now see and hear more news of corruption than ever before, there is probably less of it in total.

-- from Interesting tidbits found while spring cleaning by Terry Chamberlain in the Saskatoon Sun

As Revenge of the Sith Comes...

Somewhere in the fifteen years between Return of the Jedi and these Prequels George Lucas became rich and famous. It would seem that his perspectives changed. People no longer cared about the little guy on some obscure planet saving the universe, or about a scoundrel with a heart of gold and a charming personality, or about terrifying Evil Dictators that cannot be stopped by anyone and hold in their repertoire lines that you want to quote over and over. NO. Now it's about arrogant Jedi who don't plug into the force that pervades the cosmos, but are born with it in their blood (?) and have no clue how to have a normal conversation with one human being they encounter. And it's about droids having more interesting conversations with each other than any humans have in the whole show. And it's about being scared by a guy named "Dooku" (oooh terrifying). Lucas has obviously surrounded himself with yes-men who do all his bidding without thinking or stopping him with, "Umm...George...this scene makes absolutely NO SENSE."

Let's face it: Anyone who's seen the original movies more than twice could have come up with better plots and dialogue than Lucas. And where is the awe and the mystery? It has disappeared. Both were found in the first Matrix and permeated the Lord of the Rings, and Lucas must of thought he had inserted them into his latest creations. He was DEAD wrong.

[via ~Scottyd]

Man, I thought I was cynical and jaded about relationships...apparently not so much.

Crutches:

The things that fall away at the wrong time

or

The things that we fall away from without even thinking about it

Gambling on Faith?



Features interviews with D. Stephen Long (from The Ekklesia Project), Bob Flynn (a sullen Baptist) and Roger Olson (author of The Mosaic of Christian Beliefs: Twenty Centuries of Unity & Diversity).

Also featuring The World Series of Evangelical Poker and something for those who hate "Sword drills", amongst other things.

Deep roots only count when you're not a weed.

Evangelicals, they don't do negativity well

I Find It Odd.....that American conservative christians will back the bloody and gorey "Passion" and balk at the not-quite-so-bloody "Kingdom of Heaven".

I'll admit, the Crusades weren't exactly a shining light in the history of Christianity but can we not take the good with the bad?

-- Eric at The Door Magazine's Chat Closet

for more: Christian right goes to war with Ridley’s crusaders

When I watched The Village I was struck with the feeling that Shyamalan was making a critique of organized religion, which is represented by "the village". The borders of the village are the rules of religious orthodoxy, which are protected by the manufactured threats of the religious leaders (ie hell). Ironically, the medicine that is required to "save" an injured member of the village can only be found beyond its borders. The physical blindness of the central character, Ivy Walker, represents the ongoing state of the village as she brings medicine back from the outside world. The life of her love is saved, but in the end the blindness of the village toward a greater reality only serves to be strengthened.

Admittedly, I may be reading way too much into this. But, I would like to pose this question: to what extent is innocence possible without ignorance?

[via Graffiti on the wall]

So hang the noose with your shame

Your peace of mind
Is my piece of sin

To be broken in

[from Hang the Noose (revised) at Nimble Neglect]

None of the Above?

[via Heart of Canada in the post Jim Goes Green]

While the Conservative Party is making claims about being unified and having strong leadership, the news I keep reading about them turns me off....

I don't like the opportunism of the NDP in making a deal with Martin, while holding their noses over sponsorship.

I don't like the Liberal's way of courting support with money and appointments. To me, it looks like bribery. Then, of course, there's Adscam.

So, realistically, I have a choice between political ignorance, opportunism, and corruption. Which do you think I'd vote for? If that's my choice during the election, perhaps I'll register an official NO vote. I've never done that before, but maybe I will this time. Can you still do that?

[from the poem Migrant at left cheek]

“Dirty!”

shout from the rooftops
the roof’s torn down
taking it to the streets
the mean old way

clouds choose to give life
i choose to stay inside

Luck:

what takes the sting from bad choices

or

what puts the randomness into good choices

Don't...patronize me?

Unfortunately, Canadians have been swept away by both shallow media hype and their own disgust. The fact remains that at the deeper political level, all the Gomery inquiry is revealing is the tried and true patronage system that has always dominated Canadian politics.

Canadians only rarely get a clear glimpse of the sleazy patronage system. But virtually all the Gomery testimony-- except that clearly revealiing criminal wrongdoing-- describes in sordid detail how patronage works. When a party wins power, it rewards its friends and punishes its enemies....

Here is where Martin deserves some credit. He broke the rules. He broke ranks with how politics has always been done. Aginst the advice of the old guard in the Liberal party, he convened a judicial inquiry. He could have stonewalled, limited the investigations to those who engaged in criminal activity and sent a few sacrificial lambs to prison. He could have kept the lid on it. It was Chretien's mess and Martin was already punished during the last election. It would have gone away as the public grew tired of the carping from the opposition parties.

But Martin insisted on opening Pandora's box and it looks like he might be the first to pay the price for lifting that forbidden lid.

Perhaps he deserves it. But then so does every past and present prime minister and premier who embraces the patronage system.

--from the article Unruly Alliance by John Conway, in the new Planet S

". . . none of us, who ever came back
From that long lonely fall and frenzied rising,
Ever learned anything at all
About swimming, but only
How to put off, one by one,
Dreams and pity, love and grace, --
How to survive in any place."

[quoted at Quotidian Light]