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Showing posts from August 21, 2011

Directions

Google Directions from 3901 Glen Oaks Dr East, Sarasota to the Sahib Shrine on North Beneva Rd in Sarasota.             1. Head southeast on Glen Oaks Dr E toward Ashwood Ln 420 ft 2. Turn right onto Breezemont Dr 0.1 mi 3. Take the 2nd left onto Calliandra Dr 233 ft 4. Turn right onto Circus Blvd 0.7 mi 5. Turn right onto N Beneva Rd Destination will be on the right. I live at 3901 Glen Oaks Drive East. At 4:00 p.m. on Sunday 28 th August 2011 Representative Michelle Bachmann (R) from Minnesota will give a speech at the Sahib Shrine. We will be one mile and a thousand years apart.

Visitors

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My niece Anne and her husband Stuart  (Anne and Stuart Weston) are visiting from London UK and are at Disney in Orlando, with their daughter Olivia.  So they drove over to see me today.  We went down to Sarasota's Marina and had a tasty enough lunch at "Marina Jacks" restaurant. We were delighted to be together.  ( I assisted the English Parson when Stuart and Anne got wed in Bristol, U.K.) (Anne is the youngest daughter of my oldest sister Maureen)

For God and Country?

The 8 th August 2011 edition of the New Yorker magazine has a fascinating article on the death of Osama bin Laden. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/toc/2011/08/08/toc_20110801 (see Reporter at Large “Getting bin Laden”) It’s an amazing tale of: 1. superb CIA planning, 2. excellent CIA/Navy logistics, 3. first class Presidential backing, 4. immense professional skill, courage and expertise on the part of the U.S. Navy “Seals”. It’s easy to forget that this CIA/Navy operation could have gone seriously wrong. I suppose that it was “necessary” to kill bin Laden.  I hope that his death will make our world a safer place. One part of the article made me jittery.  It’s towards the end and it reads thus: Nine years, seven months, and twenty days after September 11th, an American was a trigger pull from ending bin Laden’s life. The first round, a 5.56-mm. bullet, struck bin Laden in the chest. As he fell backward, the   SEAL   fired a second round into his head, just above his

Washington Cathedral earthquake damage

The great Church building on Mount St. Alban’s in Washington D.C. is the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul – the spiritual home for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. It is also known as the “National Cathedral” The cornerstone for the “National Cathedral” was laid in 1907 in the presence of President Theodore Roosevelt. In that era the American ruling classes were inevitably WASPS (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants).  At the pinnacle of the WASP establishment was the Episcopal Church.  Membership in the Episcopal Church became the jewel in the crown for successful businessmen, financiers, manufacturers, lawyers and politicians. The Washington Cathedral is ostensibly there “for the glory of God”.   But I believe that it is also a monument to the historical arrogance of the WASP ruling classes; and to the elitism, pride, snobbery, classism and racism which is part of the DNA of the Episcopal Church. Yesterday (23 rd August 2011) the Cathedral sustained

Watch this space

Today's Fox TV show is   "Palin  ..... Bachmann..... Perry..... experts on the constitutional right of free speech" It will be followed by a production of "Anthony Comstock Revividus"

"Facebook" is essential to western civilization, democracy and freedom of information.

Here are some "cut and pasted" comments from various of my Facebook friends. As you read them you'll understand why Facebook is utterly important (lol) (#'s 1 -8 are indeed the comments of these friends. I have not included their names for I know that each one of them is entirely modest about her/his profound wisdom.) 1.  Is about to scare myself with a film!! Wish me luck 2.What is so hard about silencing your freaking cell phone? 3. is incredibly lethargic. 4. The ' DUDE ' was looking good !! 5. I can feel it, I know it's getting close, my little heart is beating a bit faster the anxiety is lifting, the bike is almost ready! Tomorrow we ride enjoying the freedom of the road! 6. HVAC being installed in new organ loft 7. would like to not have to go to the grocery store. And yet, if I want to eat something other than PBJ for dinner, I must. 8. Can't wait to be home tonight!!! Goodbye West Virginia... At least momentarily :)

Sermon for 21st August 2011

This sermon is a “worked over” version of one of my recent blogs on prayer. The Revd. J. Michael Povey, at St. Boniface, Siesta Key, FL. Romans 12:2  “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Do you suppose that God ever gets weary with our words and whines?  Has it every occurred to you that God is bored by our prayers? Do you suppose that God sometimes wants to say “be quiet, let me get a word in!” In 1999 I spent a week at the Taize Community in Burgundy.  I went there for the music.  It was a quiet week in Taize.  There were only about two thousand pilgrims there.  At least sixteen hundred of them were under the age of thirty.  Can you imagine two thousand voices united in singing: “In God alone my soul can find rest and peace In God my peace, my joy. Only in God my soul can find its rest Find its rest and peace. The singing was everything I