Povey Prattle

BY ROGER EBERT Sun-Times Movie Critic I think I might be able to explain some of Sarah Palin's appeal. She's the "American Idol" candidate. Consider. What defines an "American Idol" finalist? They're good-looking, work well on television, have a sunny personality, are fierce competitors, and so talented, why, they're darned near the real thing. There's a reason "American Idol" gets such high ratings. People identify with the contestants. They think, Hey, that could be me up there on that show! My problem is, I don't want to be up there. I don't want a vice president who is darned near good enough. I want a vice president who is better, wiser, well-traveled, has met world leaders, who three months ago had an opinion on Iraq. Someone who doesn't repeat bald- faced lies about earmarks and the Bridge to Nowhere. Someone who doesn't appoint Alaskan politicians to "study" global warming, because, hello! It has been s...

Borrowed from my friend the Revd. Elizabeth Kaeton of Chatham, New Jersey. See her wonderful blog at http://telling-secrets.blogspot.com/ September 11th 2008 Lord, take me where You want me to go, let me meet who You want me to meet, tell me what You want me to say, and keep me out of Your way. Fr. Mychal Judge, OFM, Chaplain, NYFD. First official recorded victim 9/11 attack . His picture and his prayer.

Top to bottom Zodiac, Zephyr, Consul, Anglia, Prefect, Popular I’ll leave the “McSame/Pistol Packin’ Momma” ticket alone for now, lest anyone should suspect that I detest their politics! There were very few car owners in the working class area of Bristol where I grew up. My parents never owned a car, and I was the first of my siblings to own a car (which I bought when I was 23 years old). For reasons I do not understand or explain, as a non car owning boy and early teenager, I thought that Ford (of Britain) cars were the very finest. In 1960 (when I was sixteen years old) Ford produced cars under six model names. They were the “Popular”, “Prefect” and “Anglia” (names which Ford had used since before World War II), and then the “Consul”, “Zephyr” and “Zodiac”. My dream car was the Ford “Consul”. The very first car I owned was a Ford “Estate Car” (which is what we British called what the Americans know as a “Station Wagon”). I am not certain, but I seem to remember that it was a Ford “E...

The McCain/Palin ticket is leading in the opinion polls. Groans from me. John McCain is a man of the 20th Century. He seems not to understand the 21st Century situation, in which the United States is no longer the dominant power. Sarah Palin is a sharp and shrewd candidate. Despite her retrograde and antediluvian views she appeals to the 50 million or more American Christian fundamentalists. Her selection as Republican candidate for VEEP has energized the “Christian Right”. The great and wise Roman Catholic Nun, Sister Joan Chittester lays out the issues in her recent posting. See http://ncrcafe.org/node/2085 Sarah Palin has a murky record. She is not all “sweetness and light”. See for instance (from the Democratic Party) http://mudflats.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/palin-2006-vetting.pdf But demonising Sarah will simply not cut it. It might make Liberals such as I feel “good and righteous”, but such demonising will also energise the Radical Right. Senator Obama has his work cut ou...

We are in a mess. We are in a fiscal mess and a national mess. The United States is in hock to China and to the oil producing nations. They are calling the shots. We (the U.S.A.) are now a financial colony of China and OPEC. China and the OPEC countries now effectively control our fiscal policies. We are in a mess because of our reckless and ideologically based foreign policies (see Georgia, Iraq, and Iran etc for details). These policies have been based on neo-conservative theory , rather than on State Department and Defence Department wisdom and experience. We are in an internal mess because the voters and the Congress bought into Ronald Reagan’s untried and un-tested ideas that taxes were intrinsically bad; and that government regulation was abhorrent. Reaganology has led to record American budget deficits, and to the disastrous failures in the Banking, Mortgage, Housing, and Airline industries. Despite this, America may yet elect the heirs of failure (McSame and the Pistol Pack...

I took myself down to St. David’s in Englewood this morning. This is the parish, some 45 minutes drive south of Sarasota where I help out from time to time. The Rector is a good man, and the congregation is wonderfully friendly. But the Liturgy drives me crazy. It is all so low key; so lacking in energy. It drags on and on. At one point this morning I thought “If this gets any slower it will go backwards”. I was seated up front behind the Altar, all decked out in my vestments, so I had to look engaged and interested. But my mind was not in the same place as my body! I was thinking about the first Lesson and the Psalm for the day. Here are a couple of extracts: Exodus 12 v12For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; Psalm 149 v6Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, 7to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples...