I hate you. Why do you have to suck so much. Why won't you obey standards? When is your fucking standards compliant version going to come out so I can quit pussyfooting around your crappy rendering and pixel rounding?
Rarr.
Julie
Prepare Your Heart
Sunday, November 27, 2005
FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT
OUR ships sail guided by fluctuating priorities, goals often missed.
We walk in a world touched by despair, among rudderless people.
Give us hope and we will be filled with your purpose.
Pain from the land of Long Ago presses its burden deep upon our backs. We live in a world shaken by discontent, disharmony, disregard.
Give us peace that we may offer your shalom.
Mirrors reflect likenesses that we have created, a far cry from the image of God. We dwell amid those with a diminished reverence for that which grows and breathes.
Give us life and we will call on your name. Call our names and we will turn God-ward, confident that you will be our compass, relieve our burdens, and restore our images. Amen.
ADVENT CANDLE LIGHTING No longer will we be conformed to every whim and enticement the world offers. No longer will we be held captive by narcissism and apathy. This first candle of Advent is an invitation to leave our old ways and follow God's path. We light this beacon symbolizing pivotal moments of receiving our direction from God. |
God of Mercy, we repent of each act and word that distorts or diminishes any part of creation and we ask that you remember our sin no more. Bring us to fullness of life as we await the birth of the Christ Child. Amen.
- Cynthia Langston Kirk, Alive Now Magazine
I love holidays - its like high school reunion at the bars. I went out 4 nights in a row - perhaps a little too much:) I saw RENT on Wednesday - I sang the entire movie and LOVED it! Visiting the fam-damn-ly on Thursday was not as painful as I expected.
I froze my toes off walking in the Night We Light parade on Friday with the DFL candidate (Mary Olson, website coming soon) who will defeat Carrie Ruud! I also scored Sex and the City season 6 part 2 for only 17.88 (instead of 39.99) at Target (and I did not buy it on Buy Nothing Day, it was still on sale on Saturday, although you wouldn't have known it - there were no signs saying so. It's like Target didn't want anyone to know it was on sale - but I knew! Hahahaha.) So I've been having SitC marathon today.
All weekend I kept having to remind myself that it isn't xmas and I'll still have to go to class on Monday. Angi says its because we ignore Thanksgiving just rush right past it into xmas. Good point.
Unfortunately, I decided this weekend would be a good time to wipe my computer and reinstall my operating system. I backed up all my files, but it was a pain in the ass to get Photoshop and Norton AntiVirus to work again. In fact, NAV still keeps giving me an error every 2 minutes saying that it can't scan MSN Messenger. Hmmmmm.
I am extraordinary, if you'd ever get to know me | Take your memories I don't need 'em, take your space and take your reasons, but you'll think of me | ...Forgetting everything between our rise and fall. Like we never loved at all...Did you ever miss me at all? Ever long to kiss me? |
The prophet Isaiah said: "Woe to you legislators of infamous laws ... who refuse justice to the unfortunate, who cheat the poor among my people of their rights, who make widows their prey and rob the orphan." Today, I repeat those words. When our legislators put ideology over principle, it is time to sound the trumpets of justice and tell the truth.
It is a moral disgrace to take food from the mouths of hungry children to increase the luxuries of those feasting at a table overflowing with plenty. This is not what America is about, not what the season of Thanksgiving is about, not what loving our neighbor is about, and not what family values are about. There is no moral path our legislators can take to defend a reckless, mean-spirited budget reconciliation bill that diminishes our compassion, as Jesus said, "for the least of these." It is morally unconscionable to hide behind arguments for fiscal responsibility and government efficiency. It is dishonest to stake proud claims to deficit reduction when tax cuts for the wealthy that increase the deficit are the next order of business. It is one more example of an absence of morality in our current political leadership.
Budgets are moral documents that reflect what we care about. Budget and tax bills that increase the deficit put our children's futures in jeopardy - and they hurt the vulnerable right now. The choice to cut supports that help people make it day to day in order to pay for tax cuts for those with plenty goes against everything our religious and moral principles teach us. It says that leaders don't care about people in need. It is a blatant reversal of biblical values - and symbolizes the death of compassionate conservatism.
The faith community is outraged and is drawing a line in the sand against immoral national priorities. It is time to draw that line more forcefully and more visibly.
I applaud those House members who have stood up for better budget priorities and fought hard all year to keep issues of basic fairness at the forefront of this debate. And I thank those on both sides of the aisle who stood up and did the right thing in voting against this bill, despite pressure from the House leadership. These strong voices provide some hope for getting beyond an ideology that disregards the role of government for the common good.
Jim Wallis
I'm so excited!
The cost to Doug Forrester of losing again
while Dems retain New Jersey: $20 million.
The cost to California GOP of getting beat
while Schwarzenegger squanders
his meager political capital: $100 million.
W goes to Virginia with GOP down 3 points;
stakes his rep, holds a rally & heads home
...with GOP down 5 points: PRICELESS.
12 months ago, W promised to spend his capital.
I guess now it's spent. His current heft: worthless.
Pour a glass to progressive power of '05,
as we prepare to pour ourselves into '06,
at our weekly democratic drinking club.
- Justin Krebs