And Again

Yes, I know; it's been used.

When I heard about the case of Alton Sterling this morning, my first thought was to wonder whether Louisiana was a concealed carry state (it is, but one needs a permit).  That was probably because the fact that the body cams of the officers in question apparently "fell off" sounded too much like pre-meditated murder.  (The convenience store's video has already been impounded, and the owner didn't view it.)

The owner of the convenience store where Sterling was killed said he's sure the shooting was caught on his store's surveillance cameras, though he hasn't seen it. Police took the video later Tuesday, he told CNN.

What about body cameras?

State Rep. C. Denise Marcelle, who said the police chief briefed her, told CNN affiliate WAFB-TV that the officers were wearing body cameras, but the cameras fell off during the struggle and did not capture the shooting.

Um.

Y'know, I read "The Jigsaw Man" forty years ago, in which the death penalty had been extended to traffic violations so organs could be harvested.  This guy seems to have been executed (yes.  I went there) because he was black, selling CDs in public, and possibly defending himself, if the call to the police dispatcher is accurately reported.  This, and Ferguson, and Staten Island, and Chicago, and Oakland, is forcing me to consider that the only people allowed to be cops should be Buddhist monks.  (Which probably will get me in trouble with Buddhists; they get angry and frightened and adrenaline-rushy just like everyone else.)

God is merciful.  We fall short of that.

[ETA:  Zandar Versus The Stupid has better sources and a better essay conclusion:

What I know is that I'm bone weary of this happening, and that there's little I can do in order to try to stop it.]

Requiescat in Pace

Father Seamus Genovese

ETA:  Also, Sir Terry Pratchett.

Gallimaufrey

Disclaimer:  No Doctor Whos were harmed in the making of this post.

• "What ISIS Really Wants," the article that appeared in The Atlantic last month for the March issue, is long and, I believe, intended to frighten.  The scholar who provided some of the information has since explained what he meant.  (I saw it here -- Fred Clark makes a further point about extremism and perceived authenticity.) 
• Gordon Atkinson (formerly Real Live Preacher) has an irregular series of essays on Lent, of which this is the most recent (as of today, that is); last year's Lenten essays are here.  (I'd meant to post that link last year.  Better late than never.)  His spiritual journey is never less than fascinating.
• Racism 101.  ETA:
• "Why We Must Call White Supremacy By Its Name" by Jesse Curtis.
• "Addicted to White Victimology:  Artie Lange Doubles Down..."by Chauncey DeVega.
• Sponsors of California's now-voided Proposition 8 are not exempt from the state's campaign finance disclosure laws, said the US Supreme Court.
• Doubling down on stupid.  My own experience with this sort of thing is that I did not believe any of that stuff about President Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, or the dress until overwhelmed with the evidence (and confessions).  I blame years of Perry Mason et al.
• Olive oil falsification.  (via twistedchick at Dreamwidth)

  ...69% of all store-bought extra virgin olive oils in the US are probably fake. This study reported that the following brands failed to meet extra virgin olive oil standards:
  
  Bertolli
  Carapelli
  Colavita
  Filippo Berio
  Mazzola
  Mezzetta
  Newman’s Own
  Safeway
  Star
  Whole Foods
  Seeing brands that pride themselves on being healthy and natural like Newman’s Own and Whole Foods is very disappointing. However, it’s very likely that the fault goes back to the supplier.

• Honduras as libertarian "paradise" and why the Galt-goers aren't relocating there in droves.

Meta, fsvo Meta

• From AlterNet, an excerpt from Karen Armstrong's book Fields of Blood, about "religion," war, evolution, and reverence toward life.  Many things have changed...
• Louis Gossett, Jr., makes some points.  (CBC Radio transcript.)  (The Oscar nominations have garnered some controversy this year.)

On the Way

In the Kingdom of God, there is respect for all life, all dignity.

Whether the life in question is a fetus, a condemned prisoner, a pauper, a Person Not Of Your Tribe (on whatever axis), or Your Sworn Enemy.

We do not have the Kingdom of God.  We are still trying to get there.  That is why it is called "journey" and not "estimated time of arrival."

Tango In The Night

1. I am fine.  Shaken but fine.  (I'm not in Napa County.)
2. As I look at the news from last week, I am reminded that humans (I include myself here) fail consistently in the "Love one another." requirement.  Which is really why we can't have nice things.

I Have to Stop Getting Up Mornings...

• In memoriam: Casey Kasem, radio personality and voice-over actor.
• On this day in 1215, King John signed the Magna Carta.  The barons rather forced him.  Conservatives have lamented ever since.
• Tony Blair still believes.

  The first is there was no WMD risk from Saddam and therefore the casus belli was wrong. What we now know from Syria is that Assad, without any detection from the West, was manufacturing chemical weapons. We only discovered this when he used them. We also know, from the final weapons inspectors reports, that though it is true that Saddam got rid of the physical weapons, he retained the expertise and capability to manufacture them.

  Via Zandar Versus The Stupid.  ETA:  Ken Houghton at skippy the bush kangaroo (via Erik Loomis, Lawyers, Guns & Money) thinks Blair most culpable for Iraq war and cites Love Actually.
• EFTA:  Via thnidu on dreamwidth:  Naval intelligence officer tells how we were lied into the war with no reason by men (mostly) who had not served and whose children were not in the military.

  And so, the objective became … what?
  
  Hearts and minds and freedom and democracy and nation building and magic bunnies who fart sunshine and rainbows.
  
  Unfortunately, it turns out we’re real good at the blowing shit up part, not so good at the magic bunnies part.

• Comrade Misfit:

  So here is the essential truth of this nation in this new millennium: It doesn't matter if you skin color is Irish-pasty, Somali-black or any shade in between. It doesn't matter what your profession is, whether you're a neurosurgeon or you dry cars at a car wash. Doesn't matter what your gender or sexual orientation is. If you aren't one of the politically powerful or if you don't have at least a nine-figure net worth, you're just one of the mouthy [redacted word I don't use] that the oligarchy has to hear nattering in the background. Their only fear is that we'll show up at the polls in numbers enough to defeat a chosen candidate (i.e., Scott Brown, for one).

• "Second screens" at movies (or why I mostly don't go to large chain theaters anymore, even for stadium seating and stereo THX sound).
• A temptation (or, for that matter, a Temptation) is not responsible for people yielding to it.

Let's Get Meta

If you think of "sin" as a sidewalk peppered with bird droppings, it becomes clear that:

• You can try to avoid stepping in it, but sooner or later you will;
• You will look funny while you are contorting yourself trying to avoid the droppings;
• While it is natural and organic and fertilizing and not deliberate on the part of the bird, excrement still stinks up your shoes.

Happy New Year. Time to crash.

Note to self

God always has enough.

(L'shana tova for those who celebrate.)

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

• Washington clinched!  (Playoff berth so far.)  Those of you of a certain age remember when the Nats (which used to be short for "Senators" and is now short for "Nationals") would be considered lucky to be out of last place.  They wouldn't have a young phenom named Joe Hardy on the team, would they?  (Apparently not, but they do have Kurt Suzuki and Gio Gonzalez.)
  
  The last time the Washington team went to the post season (they didn't have playoffs unless there was a tie for first back then) was 1933.
• Naked Capitalism publishes Project S.H.A.M.E.'s exposé of Megan McArdle as a stealth libertarian conservative writer.  (Project S.H.A.M.E.'s investigations of other media lights are here.)  Mercury Rising links and has short quotes.
• Street preachers on a university campus.

  This generation wants to hear the rest of the biblical message, that faith without works is dead, do not look down on anybody, the only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love, judgment is based on how you treat the most needy people.
  
  These things, the heart of Christian living it seems to me, have not been traditionally emphasized. Instead it's like, "Repent, adopt Victorian Era sexual norms and be saved from hell!" That's not a particularly appealing message. Don't get me wrong, our culture's sexual norms are sinful. But we should not expect people who do not accept, or necessarily understand, the Gospel message to abide by Christian moral standards. Why should they? There are good reasons I waited to have sex until I got married. But we cannot make sense of that choice, which looks so silly on the surface, until we've explored all the more important stuff from which it stems: the grace of God, faith expressing itself in love, caring for the needy, etc.

• Foreclosure is taking too long, so fees are getting imposed on some mortgages.
• Conservative Conor Friedersdorf diagnoses the right wing:

  The right needs to value robust argument more highly. And to denigrate those who subvert it more forcefully. For public discourse is all it has to test ideas and formulate an evolving agenda.
  
  If Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager reflect on why they conduct themselves with more integrity [...], even though they needn't do so to succeed in talk radio; if the most intellectually honest scholars at the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation think about why they hold themselves to a higher standard than the most hackish of their colleagues; if all the people who know better reflect on the reasons for their own behavior, they'd perhaps better appreciate why it is vital to stop staying silent when prominent co-ideologues fall short of the most minimal standards.

  [I removed a pair of names tht do not sully my space voluntarily.]
• Republic of T picks up some more reactions to Mr. Romney's remarks.
• Voting Expert (from Brookings Institute) explains extreme rarity of Republican Satanic panic voter fraud to Faux News host Shepard Smith.  Mr. Smith is still sitting on the floor with fingers in his ears screaming "Lalalalala I can't hear you.."
• A different reaction to Mr. Romney's remarks.

Living By the Book

Part 5 and Part 6 of Jesse Curtis' series on American Christianity, touching on adoption and casting one's lot with the poor.

And Four to Go

• Second part of Jesse Curtis' series on American Christian giving.
• Red Sox pre-mortem, courtesy of jurassicpork.
• Comrade Misfit notes a small problem in the attempt to get Mr. Akin to quit the Missouri Senatorial race and offers la phrase juste about the Chavis Carter case.

Walking the Walk

A Christian contemplates his faith and American practitioners thereof.

A very tiny taste:

I believe that there are millions of American Christians who want to be challenged, who want to be told to be more, do more, give more, and to be told that this is not expected just of the radical few but of the very ordinary masses, those of us without precocious talents or spiritual superpowers. Where are the leaders to challenge us along these lines?

Which dovetails with Melissa McEwan of Shakesville Expecting More.  (Sometimes searches work.)

"Drunk With Power" Not a Metaphor

Apparently, for some, having power is "disinhibiting."

1 Kings 19:11-13:

11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

[King James Version]

I have noticed for several years that noisy people tend not to have much power, or, to put it differently, the less power someone has, the more likely they are to be loud to get attention.  Seriously, although some racket may be a class thing, generally people not "privileged" tend to be loud.  It's observable in the wild.

The moneyed and powerful...are quiet.  The Lord...is hushed.

Two Things

1. On efforts to restrict the vote:

   The stated rationale for these measures is that we need to prevent voter fraud. The essential context that you need to know is that there is no voter fraud on a meaningful scale. It does not exist. George W. Bush's justice department spent years aggressively pursuing it and they couldn't find any. As much as many people may like to believe voter fraud is rampant, talking about it incessantly on talk radio does not make it so.

2. Words to live by (same source, different day):

   I cannot, at the same time, deeply feel the grace of God and look down on another person.

My Church Is Awesome!

Stand With American Nuns flyer in the church bulletin this morning!

(ncronline.org/SistersUnderScrutiny link not working right now but http://www.change.org/petitions/support-the-sisters is.)

Damn, I've Forgotten the Cool Quote I Was Going to Use

The baseball season has begun (my team lost, but the pheenom hit a homer) and, since some conservative is not only showing tush but pointing at dingleberries as well, I appreciated Dave Ettlin's account of the minor-league season opener of the Baltimore and Washington affiliate teams.

(I went with two friends, we had good seats, we had a marvelous time.  Although it was too cold.  I started thinking Irish hot cocoa.  Like Irish coffee, only with cocoa.  Antifreeze.  There really should not be night games before June.  You know?)

Easter being tomorrow, supergee at Dreamwidth linked to an Esquire article by Charles P. Pierce on Easter's radical central character (no, not the bunny).

Mr. Frothy-Mix-of-Lube-and-Fecal-Matter Santorum would probably not consider Father S a Catholic.

Father S gave a pretty powerful homily on death and marginalization and rules-lawyers (he didn't use that term) this morning.  There's a reason that church finally got me into Catholicism.

Hmmmmmmmmmm...

If God is in us and around us, then we don't have to look for God; we just have to quiet the vocal and mental processes (i.e. Shut Up) and listen.

Signpost

So the pastor of my sister's church gave the sermon, message being that faithfulness to God brings God to your side as your defender.

That's one I haven't tried