The Importance of Public Morality

Pete Hitchens goes yard. Just read the whole thing. Then take a break and read it again.

The money quote for me is "A person properly schooled in right and wrong is safe with any weapon. A person with no idea of good and evil is unsafe with a knitting needle, or the cap from a ballpoint pen."

{H/T Kim du Toit}

Class in Embalming

The children of God having left, the remaining Episcopalians in San Joaquin have been asked to help those in other breakaway dioceses remain Episcopalian. I assume that there will be seminars in how to ditch those pesky Standing Committees, how to pry largesse out of 815, how to have some level of input as to who your new bishop will be, basic lawsuit filing, and of course the ever popular labyrinth design workshop.

For a denomination that prides itself on dialog, the Episcopal Church resorts to scorched earth tactics in lieu of negotiation entirely too much. Our leadership not only can no longer use the language of Christianity, it can not act Christ-like either.

I am very much in favour of those who wish to stay Episcopalian staying Episcopalian. I am also in favour of those who wish to leave, being allowed to leave. And I am keenly aware of the fact that there are only a limited number of churches that I have ever contributed money to and that under any sense of fairness I would ever presume to feel that I have some sense of ownership. Anglo-Catholic I may be, but I didn't build those buildings, I didn't work in them, raise children in them or get buried near them. I have no right to have a voice in their disposal.

I wish like heck that those who have no direct interest in the building (I am looking at you Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori) would keep their big fat flapping mouths shut and mind their own business. If you feel you have a steward's obligation towards the properties, then may I ask what efforts you have ever put towards their construction and maintenance? As to the funds you have direct and overt authority over, is handing them to Goodwin-Procter really the highest and best use for them? I assume you learned at your recent poverty summit that there are still poor people in America.

Some factual background information:

The reconstituted Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin consists of six parishes (churches that are self supporting) and ten missions, one of which has its own building.

Diana Rigg as I Will Always Think of Her

More flashbacks to a mis-spent youth.

Cows With Guns

Thursday Morning Renaissance

Chey in my earlier post about Renaissance asked if they had done a song called 'Mother Russia'. They did. The concert Youtube video that is available of it is not the best quality, but here is a recorded version:



(the video is about the last Tsar's family)

If anyone wishes to explore their music more, the "Live at Carnegie Hall" album is perhaps the closest they ever came to a 'greatest hits' album.

Retro Wednesday- Carpet of the Sun

In the seventies, I was probably one of two Renaissance fans in North Carolina. Annie Haslam's voice still gives me chills.

Small Groups and Minority Rule

Let's suppose that you are in charge of organizing a conference of some kind. You know that the attendees you agree with constitute about 400 or so. You know that the attendees you disagree with number around 480. If you allow any sort of mass vote on whatever issue has you divided, then your side will lose.

What you have going for you is that you are in charge of the organizing. Knowing something of the history of post colonial Massachusetts, you arrange for a no-lose situation. You break the 880 total participants into 22 smaller groups of forty each.

Your 400 pals get divided into 16 groups of 25 each. Each of those 16 groups also contain 15 of your opponents. The remaining 6 groups are composed entirely of your opponents. You announce that all work, and therefore decisions, will be made by the groups.

Your side wins all decisions 16 to 6 every time.

In politics that is known as gerrymandering and it has a long and ignoble history.

I wonder if there will be a new name coined for it in the context of Anglican church politics?

Heavy Metal Cello

H/T to Sven

Tuesday Afternoon Hollywood Moment

because I don't post enough Ann-Margret

What Will Happen At Lambeth

There has been some discussion of what the indaba groups are and how they will function. I thought I would give those unfamiliar with them or with facilitated groups in general, some idea of how these thing work.

Truth in Lending

Friday Fun

The Only Celebrity I Know

Poster Child for the Foreclosure Crisis

Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) of Long Beach bought a second house in Sacramento when she was a state representative. Shortly thereafter she ran for Congress and won.

What followed was pretty much inevitable.

I wonder how safe her seat is?

The Very Best Guide to Marriage on TV

The Way the World Ought to Be

From the movie "The Gumball Rally". Which was robbed at the Oscars.

The Great Debate

This series of videos has it all: Islam, demographics, Mark Steyn and law students. The subtext is fascinating, how much do we value freedom of speech? How much should we value it?

Authority, Speaking With

Think Piece on the State of British Politics

Brian Micklethwait nails it, in my judgment. What he says has much broader application than just to the British Isles.

Here in the US I can remember Yellow Dog Democrats and true blue Republicans. Political brand loyalty was much, much stronger in my childhood. The irony is that while the parties forty years ago were essentially similar, the party loyalists were not. Today, the parties are ideologically a bit more differentiated and the base for each is more similar to the other, with a much larger pool of voters who are willing to switch parties given the proper circumstances.

How My Day is Going

Well, maybe not that bad......