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Archive for January, 2018

When the soul lies down (Ruminating)

Posted in Uncategorized on January 20, 2018| Leave a Comment »



“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”

    There is a community of the spirit.
    Join it, and feel the delight
    of walking in the noisy street
    and being the noise.
    Drink all your passion,
    and be a disgrace.
    Close both eyes
    to see with the other eye.

    Photo by Tony Rath, Dangriga, Belize

    Late, by myself, in the boat of myself,
    no light and no land anywhere,
    cloudcover thick. I try to stay
    just above the surface,
    yet I’m already under
    and living with the ocean.

    ——-
    From Essential Rumi
    by Coleman Barks

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Why Protest? Why Speak Out? (Here’s Why)

Posted in Uncategorized on January 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »


I don’t call out political lies and injustices here and on Facebook and Twitter because I think I’m going to change anybody’s mind.

When I lived in Dallas I certainly never attended any protest rallies against needless wars or our unjust immigration policies because I thought it would achieve any immediate results. (And if I were still living in North Texas I’d be attending more rallies than I ever did for DACA kids, women’s rights, peace, and more causes.)

I don’t blog or speak my mind on Facebook against injustices because I want to be popular or loved or liked by everybody, even though I much prefer to be popular and loved and liked by people.

My views frequently go against the beliefs and convictions of many of my own best, lifetime friends and some family members, who love me (most of them) in spite of thinking I lost my mind a long time ago when I so adamantly protested the invasion of Iraq. That was definitely NOT a popular opinion in the wake of 9-11. (Remember all those Bush/Cheney bumper stickers and little SUPPORT OUR TROOPS magnets that were on 80 percent of the vehicles in Bush/Cheney strongholds like Dallas? Whatever happened to all that Bush love?)

I didn’t go to town hall meetings to voice my opinions opposing the war or the treatment of undocumented immigrants and LGBT folk to lawmakers because I knew that by-god they’d listen to me and come around to my way of thinking.

I don’t insist on speaking God’s truth as I see it because I think I’m going to get results — or at least any immediate results.

I do it because of something Thomas Merton said to a young Christian peace-and-justice advocate who sometimes wondered “what’s the use” of agitating and advocating for peace and justice.

Merton wrote a letter to that young man, saying:

    “Do not depend on the hope of results.

    “When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on . . . you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect.

    “As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself.”

“And the truth shall set you free.”

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Victims of Fake News! Mr. Trump & Miss Stormy!

Posted in Uncategorized on January 17, 2018| 8 Comments »


That’s Mr. Trump on the left, and very much of Miss Stormy Daniels on the right. They are victims of a misunderstood relationship that would have made for bad political optics.

I have to say something about these lies in the fake news lately about Mr. Trump having a year-long affair with a porn storm named Miss Stormy Daniels.

Mr. Trump was married to Ivanka, who was pregnant, when this ALLEGED affair occurred.

It’s obvious from pictures and some stuff that Mr. Trump and Miss Daniels knew each other and were quite friendly with each other at one time.

But my thinking is this. I’m sure this Miss Stormy Daniels is a very nice person and that her relationship with Mr. Trump was strictly platonic.

We know this about Mr. Trump: Mr. Trump loves women, he employs many women and pays them very, very highly (including black women which PROVES he’s not a racist and anyway, NBC retained him on a TeeVee show with very high ratings to-boot), and he respects women.

And by the way, his beloved wife and daughter are women. First Lady Ivanka is the love of his life. Ergo … do you really think for one minute he could ever in good conscience betray his pregnant wife?

I’m guessing that IF Mr. Trump “paid off” Miss Daniels, it was for a good reason. It would have been very “bad optics” for the story of their friendship to come out at the very time Mr. Trump was calling for the lockup of shrill Hill.

It would be worse optics now that God has put Mr. Trump and Jesus back in the White House.

But we all know this payoff accusation is all so much fake news anyway probably, amiright?

Fake news is like an optical illusion. It’s not really real or not what it appears to be.

That’s why Mr. Trump is planning to award “fake news awards” today. (Those who say he is doing this to distract from the story about his harmless relationship with Miss Stormy Daniels are the godless haters who can’t get over him being elected by no less than 3 million people in the popular vote, give or take six million.)

Let’s talk about Bill Clinton. Why hasn’t he ever been raked over the coals for being a sexual predator and probably a rapist?

And not to change the subject, but why haven’t the Clintons’ theft of money that was supposed to rebuild Haiti ever been covered?

Why hasn’t Hillary ever been investigated for letting Americans be killed in Benghazi?

This is all because the dishonest news media and Democrats and communists (I repeat myself), they hate Mr. Trump and are totally silent about all the rape, plunder, and murder attached to the Clintons. (Rush is right: they had Vince Foster and others murdered, you know. They will stop at nothing!)

And by the way, why has Obama never released his college records to prove once and for all that he was NOT born in Kenya? Why can’t we see the place of his birth on THOSE documents? And did he make all D’s and F’s but get passed by liberal Harvard teachers? (Makes you wonder, huh?)

It’s not fair the way they treat Mr. Trump. Just because he’s politically incorrect when he froths at the mouth and says things like “I just wanna grab ’em by the PUSSY!!!!!”

Come on, man. It’s locker room talk.

That’s how Mr. Trump’s golf heroes like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus talked in the locker room when they were popping each other with wet towels, I’m sure.

Men like Mr. Trump just talk trash in the locker rooms but are very, very successful businessmen and a lot of people hate very successful businessmen because they are very rich people and they have envy for those rich, successful titans like Mr. Trump who makes great things like America even greater than it used to be.

You think Mr. Trump cares what his critics say and do?

He laughs in the face of all those snowflakes falling in all the stormy winter weather today.

God bless America, baby.

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Music Therapy With Sting & Co. (For Paulita McKay)

Posted in Uncategorized on January 16, 2018| Leave a Comment »


Paulita McKay, who lives in a stick house, a nice stick house with a view and fruit trees.

A song for Paulita McKay, who lives in a “stick house” with a privy outside and a poop bucket inside, located high on a hill with a breathtaking view of lush-green mountains all around.

It’s a wonderful, love-filled home with friendly, kind neighbors who visit one another and care for one another all hours of the day and night.

And for all the girls and boys of so many beautiful colors in supposed shit-hole (or is it shit-house) countries where not everybody can afford to live in the bubble of a “gated community” or a suite in Trump Tower and or golf resort in Florida and wouldn’t want to live in such an insular property anyway.

The God who made the good, green, providential earth that powerful men have screwed up and exploited for eons makes God’s children.

Which means God don’t make no trash.

Enjoy this beautiful, meditative song from Sting and his friends.

It’s helping me cope with my fury which I pray will pass soon.

Him and his white daughter in the Florida White House back in the day.

From the 2009 album “If on a Winter’s Night,” written by Sting and his longtime rock and classic guitarist Dominic Miller.

Hush child
Let your mommy sleep in to the night until we rise
Hush child
Let me soothe the shining tears that gather in your eyes

Hush child
I won’t leave I’ll stay with you to cross this Bridge of Sighs
Hush child
I can’t help the look of accusation in your eyes
In your eyes

The world is broken now
All in sorrow
Wise men hang their heads

Hush child
Let your mommy sleep in to the night until we rise
Hush child
All the strength I’ll need to fight, I’ll find inside your eyes
In your eyes

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Martin Luther (Coon?) & Today’s “Dangerous” Pope

Posted in Uncategorized on January 15, 2018| Leave a Comment »


The Presbyterian minister Jim Rigby of Austin came up with a list of five quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I’ve shared below.

King was loved by masses of minorities and equally hated by masses of whites who gleefully called him “Martin Luther Coon.”

The hatred stemmed from King’s refusal to shut up with his relentless critiques of the excesses of capitalism, militarism, materialism, property rights (i.e., land grabs) and of course, racism.

It’s interesting that the prophetic Pope Francis, who admires and refers to King or quotes him frequently, says all the same things on a near daily basis.

For sure, the pope is loved and admired by many, but loathed, detested, and even hated by so many who worship at the altar of raw power and military might, profiteering, materialism, and consumerism.

One of the bigger fools at the always religiously correct Fox News, which is a virtual forestland of fools, once called Francis “the most dangerous man alive” in a hate-filled rant in reaction to a book-length papal document that the fool didn’t bother to read but culled for a few quotes taken out of context.

Go here for more on that loving Christian’s love letter to the Pope.

I’ve always seen the vitriol and hatred expressed toward King in his day and Pope Francis today as a measure of just how hard they hammered on the Truth.

Christ was loved and of hated for being a truth teller himself, ya know.

Dr. King said:

1. “Again we have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that Capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – both black and white, both here and abroad.”

2. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

3. “When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

4. “The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.”

5. “Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God’s children.”

And then there was the German prophet and martyr who was quite Christlike himself.

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Every Picture Tells a Story

Posted in Uncategorized on January 15, 2018| Leave a Comment »


No words necessary.

For MLK Day, a painting by Haitian artist Watson Mere.

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If Donald Trump Went to Heaven

Posted in Uncategorized on January 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Captain Stormfield on his wild, cosmic trip to Heaven.

Mark Twain is my idea of a genuinely true genius, Literature & Philosophy Div.

In his largely forgotten but high-quality fantasy *Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven, the reality of Heaven turns out to be nothing whatsoever like anybody who ever lived imagined Heaven would be. Especially white people like Captain Stormfield.

The good captain is surprised to learn, among other things, that “white-skinned people are the minority in Heaven.”

Donald Trump would be in for a similar shock, but he need not worry his orange head one bit about ever seeing Heaven anyway.
————-
*See here or go here to read the whole, fun yarn.

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CORRECTION: That would be MARTIN SHEEN, not the son

Posted in Uncategorized on January 7, 2018| 2 Comments »


Actor and devout Catholic Martin Sheen in a scene from the wonderful and deeply spiritual movie The Way. It’s about a grieving father’s pilgrimage on the road to Santiago de Compostela.

In a Q & A session with the great interviewer Krista Tippett, the esteemed actor and devout Catholic Martin Sheen articulated so well the love he feels when standing in line at worship:

    How can we understand these great mysteries of the church? I don’t have a clue. I just stand in line and say Here I am, I’m with them, the community of faith.

    This explains the mystery, all the love.

    Sometimes I’m overwhelmed, just watching people in line. It’s the most profound thing. You just surrender yourself to it.

In re-visiting that interview (read or listen to the whole thing here), I was reminded of why I’ve loved taking Holy Communion since I was a kid.

I was raised in the kind of small Texas town where everybody knew everybody or knew about everybody, or liked to think they did.

Even as a kid I was struck by the power of communion to draw many of the most powerful, and some of the most arrogant or intimidating people in town, to kneel at the altar.

At the communion rail, these powerful townspeople were willing to get down on their knees in front of God and everybody and expose all the human vulnerability that they generally weren’t comfortable showing.

For that matter, I was struck by the power of communion to bring people around to forgiveness — my parents included.

I’m thinking of a particular time when my parents had engaged in a bitter marital fight over something one weeknight. I could feel the awful distance and silence between them for days.

Then on Saturday night, we were in the den watching TV. As my dad got up from his recliner and headed down the hallway to bed he said, “We’ll all get up and go take the Lord’s Supper tomorrow.”

I looked over at my mom who sort of grinned and said, “I guess we’ll get up and go to church tomorrow.”

It was a reassuring and powerful thing to see my parents, who worked hard and mighty hard at making love work for better than four decades, get down on their knees together in front of God and everybody.

Whatever awful feelings there had been between them were left at the communion rail.

That’s what Martin Sheen was alluding to: the mystery of the body of Christ to draw people together in the healing power of love.

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Why Go to Church?: Noon Wine (With Martin Sheen)

Posted in Uncategorized on January 7, 2018| Leave a Comment »


Actor and devout Catholic Martin Sheen in a scene from the wonderful and deeply spiritual movie The Way. It’s about a grieving father’s pilgrimage on the road to Santiago de Compostela.

In a Q & A session with the great interviewer Krista Tippett, the esteemed actor and devout Catholic Martin Sheen articulated so well the love he feels when standing in line at worship:

    How can we understand these great mysteries of the church? I don’t have a clue. I just stand in line and say Here I am, I’m with them, the community of faith.

    This explains the mystery, all the love.

    Sometimes I’m overwhelmed, just watching people in line. It’s the most profound thing. You just surrender yourself to it.

In re-visiting that interview (read or listen to the whole thing here), I was reminded of why I’ve loved taking Holy Communion since I was a kid.

I was raised in the kind of small Texas town where everybody knew everybody or knew about everybody, or liked to think they did.

Even as a kid I was struck by the power of communion to draw many of the most powerful, and some of the most arrogant or intimidating people in town, to kneel at the altar.

At the communion rail, these powerful townspeople were willing to get down on their knees in front of God and everybody and expose all the human vulnerability that they generally weren’t comfortable showing.

For that matter, I was struck by the power of communion to bring people around to forgiveness — my parents included.

I’m thinking of a particular time when my parents had engaged in a bitter marital fight over something one weeknight. I could feel the awful distance and silence between them for days.

Then on Saturday night, we were in the den watching TV. As my dad got up from his recliner and headed down the hallway to bed he said, “We’ll all get up and go take the Lord’s Supper tomorrow.”

I looked over at my mom who sort of grinned and said, “I guess we’ll get up and go to church tomorrow.”

It was a reassuring and powerful thing to see my parents, who worked hard and mighty hard at making love work for better than four decades, get down on their knees together in front of God and everybody.

Whatever awful feelings there had been between them were left at the communion rail.

That’s what Martin Sheen was alluding to: the mystery of the body of Christ to draw people together in the healing power of love.

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TRUMP IS OUR CO-PILOT (Glory Be!)

Posted in Uncategorized on January 3, 2018| Leave a Comment »

“A truthful witness saves lives, but a false witness is deceitful.” Proverbs 14:25

God has yielded American air safety to His hand-picked American leaders and God must be pleased: there were no air fatalities in 2017. Glory be!

Glory be to the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and America’s Darling Leader!

Here’s a Tweet alert from the latter of the Holy Quadrilateral.

@realDonaldTrump
Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news – it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!
8:13 AM – Jan 2, 2018

I’m sure God must be glad to be relieved not to have to bear the heavy responsibility of the safety of Americans flying the friendly skies today.

Here’s more on this good news from USA Today:

    WASHINGTON — President Trump took credit Tuesday for commercial aviation’s remarkable safety record last year. But safety experts say the lack of fatal crashes among U.S. passenger airlines resulted from years of effort to improve technology and training.

So exactly has long has this safety streak been going on?

    He was describing a safety streak that has continued since the last fatal crash of a U.S. passenger airline in February 2009, when Colgan Air Flight 3407 killed 50 people near Buffalo.

So let’s see who was president from February 2009 through 2016.

Oh wait.

Nevermind.

    The unblemished U.S. safety record was part of the safest year in commercial-aviation history worldwide, according to the Aviation Safety Network, a group based in the Netherlands that tracks aircraft accidents.

Well there you go–commercial aviation in 2017 was the safest in world history with You-know-who in the international Watch Tower in D.C.

He is making not just America but the world great again!

    “Since 1997, the average number of airliner accidents has shown a steady and persistent decline, for a great deal thanks to the continuing safety-driven efforts by international aviation organizations such as” the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association and the Flight Safety Foundation, said Harro Ranter, president of the Aviation Safety Network.

Well poot.

That’s the fake news media for you.

“A truthful witness saves lives, but a false witness is deceitful.” Proverbs 14:25

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