Can't Say I'm Surprised, Bill: But It's a Wise Decision

Retiring Senator Bill Frist announced today he will not run for president in 2008. It's a wise decision. I admire him for listening to advisers who have undoubtedly told him that his chances of being elected president now are slim to none. I also respect him for sticking to his guns about serving in the Senate for only two terms, and think all senators and representatives should follow his lead.

If we can ever get term limits enacted and budgetary earmarks eliminated, we will have made significant progress in the political arena.

On another political note, a new poll finds Rudy Giuliani to be the most popular politician in the country and Condi Rice more popular than either Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton. Not surprised here either. Just feel er, pleasantly pleasant, filled with pleased pleasantness.

Oh yes, oh yes I am.

Oh, Please.

All he wants is a cookie.

Every Proper Queen Needs Her Wellies and a Good Ghillie, Part 2

As the terrible week following Di's death in Paris unfolds, the queen continues to be sequestered at Balmoral Castle in Scotland with her immediate family, grandsons and a small staff. The longer she and the Royal Family keep their lives and turmoil private, the louder the world clamors for her attention.

It is a time of unprecedented soul-searching for her if not conflicted, though subdued, emotions.

While this movie could have gone off in all sorts of tangential directions focusing on the ever widening public and worldwide commotion of these days; in the end, its power lies its ability to stay calm and focused on the queen, the queen, and nothing but the queen. The outside issues are dealt with only as they directly impact and are impacted by the lady herself.

This is as it should be: it's far more satisfying for the audience to know the central character in greater depth, than its being carried off in all directions, like a chicken with its head cut off. The director is to be commended for this.

Everyone plays a supporting role to the queen, even as the boys who have just lost their mother are seen off in the distance--in their bedroom and on the river practicing their casting--to the unfolding story of their grandmother with her dilemma of how best to serve her family and her people in the face of such unchartered events.

What of this woman and her character as revealed in The Queen? What then commends it to an audience and how most poignantly is her character conveyed?

Quietly, subtlely and in an understated, dignified manner. (This is one of the reasons that this movie can be seen again and thought about for days. It also attests to the staying power of the queen herself in an institution many, including me, thought was near extinction. I would no longer bet on it.)

To my own great delight, one of its most powerful and revealing scenes takes place with the queen outdoors, alone in the wildlands of Scotland.

It starts at her ghillies' cottage, where her gameskeepers are gathered. She comes knocking at the door whereupon she is greeted informally. There is respect accorded any lady, but all formal queenly protocols are suspended. The queen shines as she asks for directions to her husband's hunting expedition. Though the head ghillie offers to accompany her, she will have none of it, preferring instead to go on alone in her old Land Rover.

Of course this is all projection on my part, but I can't help but think this must be delicious time for the queen, even as she grapples with one of the greatest crisises of her reign. Time alone, batting around in beautiful scenery, fresh air, peace and quiet. Time not having to talk or be talked to, as the rest of the world seems to be going mad.

The scene progresses, she comes to the river which she must cross. As she drives through shallow water, the axle hits a rock, cracking her vehicle's front shaft, stalling her journey indefinitely.

While she waits for her ghilly's arrival and assistance after calmly calling him on her cell phone, the queen begins to take in the sights and sounds of the natural beauty around her with a sense of quiet awe.

It is then she begins to cry. Stranded, alone, and surrounded by creation, she finally allows herself the indulgence of a good cry.

Some people claim they can only have such a cry in the presence of a loved one or good listener. But I'm with the queen here, as some of the best cries I've ever had have been on a stream, alone.

But even her private flow of emotion is short-lived as she hears a rustle and turns to see a large 14-point stag staring her in the face. It's as if this magnificent creature has come to commiserate the human condition and unavoidable paradoxes of life and death.

As she looks through tears in startled delight, she finds solace in the unexpected eye contact with this creature. The Queen of England and the King of the Highlands cross paths in a momentary rapt mutual admiration society.

And then, hearing gunshots off in the distance, the queen shoos the great stag away, back into the wilds from wence he came, hoping to save his life, even for a little longer.

I shall be back one more time on some more observations on The Queen and why we need her and what she stands for more than ever.

Then again, I may become a career blogger on all things queen. It sure beats posting on the likes of sex expert Scarlett Johansson, new House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi or presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton.

They, and I, could surely take a few lessons from the queen who has endured for over 50 years both in her private as well as public life.

Every Proper Queen Needs Her Wellies and a Good Ghillie, Part 1

Yes, yes, we all know the Queen has a supporting cast of royal family members who over the decades we've come to know, love and hate just as intimately as if they were our own. It seems the worlds'--and our--fascination with her and her often scandalous family is without bounds.

We're way too familiar with her snooty, often righteously indignant and irreverant sporting husband, her dignified Scotch-swigging mummy, her irascible children and grandchildren with their lovers, spouses and exs, and finally her royal pack of yelping corgis. She certainly is at no loss for dramatic distraction, pathos and scandal in her life.

Add to that deliciously wicked mix, a bright, new Prime Minister with a perfectly compatible, clever wife, members of Parliament and royal attendants (those with scruples and those without) and it's obvious why we've been enthralled with these people for generations.


Then, just when we think we know everything about our royals and their soap opera lives, a new source of fascination shows up: here comes "The Queen" to US movie theaters everywhere.

It's a fascinating look behind the scenes at the the queen and the royal hubbub at Balmoral Castle in the Highlands of Scotland, during the time of Princess Di's scandalous death in Paris and Tony Blair's election as Prime Minister of England in September, 1997. While the rest of the world was erupting in orgasmic grief and emotion over Diana's tragic accident, the queen and company were keeping their own counsel privately, quietly at Balmoral, much to the consternation of the rest of the world.

It is film worth seeing if you're fascinated with that time, those people and like beautiful, dramatic scenery in faraway places.

Not only did I like this movie, I came to see and admire the Queen in a light I never dreamed possible. I found her to be in many ways my kind of gal.

Such a statement is a 180 degree change from a time I found her to be a hard-hearted battle-axe of a woman, presiding over an anachronistic institution whose time had long since come and gone.

That was all before I saw Her Majesty at Balmoral Castle batting around alone on the 40,000 acre royal game preserve, driving herself in a beat-up old Land Rover with her head shrink-wrapped in a silk scarf, and getting her vehicle stuck in a trout stream before calmly having to call her ghillie for assistance for a broken front shaft.

Now there's a woman I can jolly-well identify with. More in Part 2.

Loneliness and the Life of Joseph, the Kid Sold Into Slavery by His Brothers in Genesis 40

One of my favorite stories from the Old Testament is the tale of brotherly treachery and the way God used it for good in the life of Joseph, son of Jacob. Dr. David Jeremiah talks about it here.

After being falsely accused, hear how iron entered Joseph's soul and toughened him up for leadership beyond his wildest dreams in the loneliness of prison.

*******************************************************

A prayer for those earnestly searching for Truth.

Lord Jesus, you claim to be the way, the truth, and the life. Grant that I might come to know You in a living way and not just through another dead religion. Grant that I be undaunted by the cost of following you, as I consider reasons for doing so. If what you claim is true, please guide me, teach me and open me to the living reality of who you are. Give me an understanding of you that is coherent, convincing, and that leads to the life you promise. Amen.

(Thanks to Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City, for this prayer.)

Saturday

"Your religion is what you do with your solitude."
---Archbishop William Temple

Thanksgiving, 2006

There is not a year that goes by that I don't feel ever more grateful to live in this country at such an amazing time in our history. The abundance of her resources---spiritual, human, natural, and technological---are incomparable. I pray that we wake up and become ever more willing to defend the freedoms in the days ahead that our forefathers fought and died for and which we so easily take for granted today. These freedoms are under assault as never before on a myriad of fronts.

May we also take whatever steps necessary to defend and protect that basic building block of society and civilization, the traditional family unit.

May God bless our country, our families and all of our troops fighting in far away places to extend the privileges and responsibilities of democracy and freedom throughout our world.

Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving weekend.

A Thoughtful Comment, that Would Otherwise Publish in My Archives

I am happy to feature a comment that would otherwise be published in a post now in my archives. And I will respond to it at a later time but for now it is always nice to receive good feedback from all sides. Thank you for writing:

"While I am not very well educated on the other candidates that you support, I was disappointed to see that you support Rick Santorum for PA senate. As a Pennsylvania native, I must admit that the alternative choice (Bob Casey) is not much better, however I do find that anything is better then Santorum. I am sure that you would be very concerned about his record if you knew that he voted against environmental funding, for off-shore drilling and has taken many other steps that prove him to be an enemy of the environment. As for this particular vote (off-shore drilling), I believe that the solution to America’s energy crisis lies in renewable and sustainable energy. Apparently Rick has not considered that off-shore drilling is not only unrenewable (we are about to reach our peak in oil production) but also very detrimental to the environment. In addition his ethics are incredibly corrupt. (He seems to be best buds with Wal-Mart, voting against a raise in minimum wage and accepting nice favors in return.)
Thanks,
Paul’s granddaughter"

I Feel a Stemwinder Coming On, Miss Johansson

One of the reasons I started this blog, among other things, was to vent my spleen from time to time, whether anyone saw, read, listened to or agreed with me. Or not.

Miss Scarlett Johansson has recently criticized President Bush for his overly conservative views on sex outside marriage as "unrealistic."

Well, I feel a stemwinder coming on. But, I'm too busy right now to give vent to it. But get back, I shall, Miss Johansson.

And I plan to get back to "it"--some recreational venting on this subject of freewheeling sex outside marriage--more than once in the days ahead. As a child, and I do mean child, who came of age in the sixties and am still recovering from the many excesses of that time, I have some things to say on the subject of sex outside marriage, both from hard-earned experience and years of observation.

So as soon as I can, I plan to talk about the worldly view of recreational sex---anytime, anywhere with anyone one feels like---which Miss Johansson enthusiastically advocates, even as she struggles with her latest relationship difficulties here.

Meanwhile, Ace carries the ball, as best as any poor man can--- with big cleavage in his face cradled in red silk, or no, on second thought I think it's polyester. Synthetic polyester she's wearing.

Monday: Thanksgiving on My Mind

Light blogging today. Got Thanksgiving on my mind: family, food, shopping, lights, candles, decorations, clean sheets and towels and all the other things a woman is conditioned to think about at this time of year. Don't think I've even clicked on Drudge today!

The holiday season has gotten to be a bit much in recent years, but it's still the best time to sit down and take stock of so many blessings, and visit with old friends and family.

God Parting the Red Sea: The Greatest Miracle of the Old Testament

Lon Solomon, pastor of McLean Bible Church, talks about the greatest miracle of the Old Testament: God parting the Red Sea to bring almost three million Jews of out of slavery in Egypt. And he tells why it's relevant to us today, here.

Don't think it really happened? Then you might enjoy this sermon. What a completely dazzling story.

Hearing Solomon teach the Bible from a true Bible perspective has done more to grow my faith in recent years, than anything else.

We Forget to Remember to Forget

In the busyness of our hectic lives, it's so easy to forget history and events leading up to big decisions. Lest we forget to remember to forget, let us remember to remember all the intelligence leading up to the decision to go into Iraq for at least a decade before that decision was made, here.

Rememeber?

Milton Friedman on The Four Ways to Spend Money

Milton Friedman, may you rest in peace. But may your wisdom live much longer and prosper us all. A sample in its most basic form is found here.

The greatest argument for the free enterprise system here. We cannot have a free society unless such enterprise plays a greater role in our lives. Of course, that requires that our citizenry take more, not less, personal responsibility for ourselves, an anathema to our current cradle to grave nanny state.

If asked to choose between personal freedom and government assistance, Friedman always erred on the side of freedom in all aspects of life. Michael McClellan remembers Friedman well, here.

Thursday: When Will We Remember?

The Family Holiday Circus Has Begun: My Sister at Starbucks

My younger sister and I have an annual contest to see who pulls the ditziest, most dingbat stunt of the year.

I think she's going to win the prize in 2006. Heaven forbid that I top this one in the 45 days remaining in this year.

My sister called me this morning. She had just gotten to our hometown yesterday after driving two days from Colorado with a car full of stuff and two dogs, where I am also returning.

Seems that when she arrived, she couldn't get into her rental condo until later in the day. So she went over to Starbucks to chill out, have a latte and, well, use the facilities.

After waiting to get into the bathroom, she finally went in. Minutes later she turned to flush the toilet with her purse on her shoulder. Quicker than a jack rabbit, the purse slipped and her keys fell out of her overstuffed bag into the toilet and disappeared without a trace into the abyss of the gyrating, screaming, flushing commode.

"It was one of those power flush toilets from hell," she moaned.

It instantly sucked all ten of her keys, key rings, keychain, and a big red pepper spray cannister she had attached to the keys for protection into the centrifugal force of the water before gulping the ensemble into middle earth for all eternity.

"And there I was, alone staring down the toilet begging my keys to come back."

"The dogs were locked inside the car, I was locked out and looked like someone out of the Beverley Hillbillies after driving for two days wandering out of the bathroom. I felt like the idiot of all time."

"So I went over to the man behind the Starbucks counter and told him what just happened. He was really sorry but offered no help. Said there were no second chances with that kind of industrial strength toilet. And then he offered me a free cup of coffee..... I wasn't thirsty."

"I think you'll win the ditzy prize this year, " I said.

Well in the end, it turned out my little sister eventually found an extra car key stashed in some hidden magnetic box attached underneath her car and was able to get back in and drive away to the condo. But she added, she was now working on getting new duplicate keys made with those space age chips that cost about $250 each."

"Can you imagine?" she said. Yes, I told her, I had been there too. But not from having my car keys flushed down the toilet.

And as for me, I can let her have the award this year, without going into great detail about my dingbat moment this summer: While hiking in the Rockies one day with a group of friends, during lunch I was passing around a package of dried plums from my pack, saying that I had never had a dried plum before.

Someone asked if I had never eaten a prune? Well sure, I said, I've eaten prunes, but never a dried plum.....they're different, you know.

I was corrected: prunes are dried plums. And the dried plum thing was just a new marketing ploy from Del Monte.

No they're not, I insisted. Prunes are prunes and plums are not prunes....I'm certain of it....certain of it....

Well, someone pressed, have you ever seen a baby prune, before it becomes a prune?

Maybe, maybe not, I said. Can't recall.

Laughter abounded from all around me, as I grasped to make the case that prunes are not dried plums in lenghty, nonsensical oratory.

Needless to say, I will not live such a faux pas down for many moons. I simply had never given any thought whatsoever to the origins of prunes. But hey, confusing prunes and plums is not the same as flushing your car keys down the toilet at Starbucks,

Is it!?

Mini Jihad Watch with Robert Spencer Today at Heritage Foundation

Today at Heritage, Robert Spencer gave a wonderful talk which I attended on Islam and his new book "The Truth About Muhammad," to a full auditorium.

All went well until the question and answer session afterwards, when it became apparent that some members of the audience were Islamic sympatheizers, there to cause trouble. And they had carefully choreographed their disruption.

Since another commenter has already described the event in detail over at Spencer's webpage Jihad Watch, I will reprint it here with only one addition to make: Increasingly at events like this, there needs to be better security. One day, some protester could walk into the building with no security checkpoint, and into the audience with a bomb straped on his belt and let it rip during such a Q&A as we had today.

I, for one, was a bit nervous when these people starting taking over the program at the end. And while security and the police were eventually called, it could have been worse. A lot worse.

Here follows details of what happened today at Heritage which gave all of us who attended pause:

"I attended the Spencer lecture, and I posted my account of what went down on another forum. Here it is again:
Today, I attended a lecture at the headquarters of the Heritage Foundation by Robert Spencer, author of various books on the threat of radical Islam. His lecture lasted for about 40 minutes. As I've noticed on his website, Jihad Watch, in his columns, and in a recent interview with Brian Lamb on CSPAN, Mr. Spencer is very knowledgeable on Islamic theology, history, and radical groups. I truly enjoyed his discussion. (If you want to watch it, go to The Truth About Muhammad. It is available in streaming video, streaming mp3, and downloadable mp3.)

The lecture itself went on without incident. It was during the Q&A period that things started to unravel. The first few questions were on various topics, and Spencer gave insightful answers and commentary.

It was one of the last questions that exposed the "infiltrators" amongst the audience.

A young woman wearing a hat, named Megan ("from Boston"), brought up the subject of child marriage, which Spencer had mentioned when talking about the bad example Muhammad has given to his followers to this day. She asked him if "Republican Congressman Mark Foley was perhaps under the influence of the evil teachings of Muhammad." Spencer laughed at the question, and bluntly said "No."

Members of the audience also laughed at her question, most likely because of its sheer absurdity. Spencer expanded on his answer, and said, "I never said that child molestation or pedophilia or anything of the kind was exclusively the province of Muslims.... I disapprove of it [this kind of conduct] from Mark Foley or anyone else" (If you want to hear this complete exhange, watch the streaming video on the link above, and using the scroll at the bottom of Windows Media Player, forward the time index to 58:01, and it follows from about 58:10 on.)

Spencer answered one more question about whether Islam could under go a reform movement like the Protestant Reformation (and made a slightly-veiled jab at Unitarian and Episcopalian "Christianity" and in the process - Spencer himself is a Catholic of the Melkite rite).

After he finished his answer, the moderator for the lecture, the director of lectures and seminars for the Heritage Foundation, announced that the time for Q&A was up. As he was closing out the lecture, a young man who had has hand up for the entire latter half of the Q&A period stood up and whined loudly about how he hadn't been called on. The lecture director, in response, stated that he was welcome to talk to Spencer afterwards, and then thanked Mr. Spencer for his presentation, which started a round of applause.

Following the applause, people started to file out of the large auditorium at the Heritage Foundation. The man who had been complaining continued to shout, and as I made my way out to the lobby outside the auditorium to get my copies of Spencer's books signed, I started to hear singing. It sounded like some kind of protest song/jingle. I didn't really know what they were singing about at the time, but upon the reviewing the streaming video at the link above (starting at the 1:02:00 mark), the words were something like "Mr. Cheney, something something World War Three, one hundred thousand something die, that's like Nazi genocide." The song, of course, continued.) Between the Foley question and the jingle singers, it became pretty obvious that there were a handful of leftists that were bent on causing some kind of disruption at the lecture.

The disruption continued out in the lobby. A line formed in front of a table so Mr. Spencer could sign books. The man who hadn't been called on (and I have a feeling that lecture organizers had been warned in advance about this guy) came up to the side of the table, and started to rant about how Spencer supposedly supported the mass killing of Muslims, and how he couldn't see why so many people came out to hear him speak.......

As I left the book signing line, I noticed that the lecture director was escorting "Megan from Boston" from out of the auditorium. She left without incident. However, the young whiner continued his rant, and finally, he too was asked to leave.

Some of the Heritage staff and the people who attended the event tried to get him to leave, and with some difficulty, he moved towards the hallway where the elevators were.

I wasn't paying complete attention to the whiner and his "escorts" as they moved towards the elevators, since I wanted to get some of the food and drinks that Heritage had on hand. Suddenly, I heard shouting from the hallway. I went over to see what was going on. I saw the whiner from before trying to hang on to a corner in the hallway as a Heritage staffer escorted him out. He kept on shouting that he was being hurt.

A few minutes later, the U.S. Capitol Police showed up (the Heritage Foundation is only a block and a half away from one of the Senate office buildings). They interviewed the whiner, the staffers involved, and probably some of the witnesses who saw the whole thing go down. After some time, he was finally escorted out of the building by the police.
Posted by: M. Joseph at November 14, 2006 06:30 PM

Again, I reiterate, there needs to be better security at events like this at Heritage and elsewhere. Both the times and the subject matter beg for it.

I'm Liking Humor Right Now

"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."
--William James

"You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it."
--Bill Cosby

As the days get shorter and the holidays approach, as liberals get ready to take back Congress and run up the white flag in Iraq and elsewhere, as radical California type liberals converge to define our policies on immigration, taxation, and castagation of President Bush et al., I am feeling the need for large doses of humor and optimism to recharge my batteries. A time-out from worldly wisdom and catastropic predictions.

And I am feeling the need for large doses of prayer.

Maybe I'm alone in employing such a basket of coping mechanisms, but there you have it.

I pray optimism will come back soon. But for now, I seek solace in the small things in life, and prayer and laughter, along with long walks in the park, are certainly some of the best ways I know of to cope when sunshine seems to have fled.

If You Need A Monday Laugh....Borat with Antiques, the Humorless Feminists and Hip-Hoppers

This is some of the best slapstick I've ever seen...right here.
"We need help, baby."
More here. And here, Vanilla Face.

Hiking Along the Hudson River near Rhinebeck, NY with a Friend

Beautiful weather, lots of girl talk, walking in a Thomas Cole painting along the Hudson, finding a wifi outpost in the one of the country's oldest inns so I could blog, and sipping peppermint tea, all in the best of company. But we forgot to buy you an industrial sized rake for the thousands of leaves in your new yard... Thanks for your wonderful hospitality, 2E!

Sunday: A Fascinating Testimony of A Conversion to Christ

Lon Solomon, pastor of McLean Bible Church in McLean, Virginia tells the amazing story of his conversion to Christ from Judaism here.