Flighty: as a nation, we are astonishingly fickle, undependable, of short attention spans. Our outrage at Russia's aggression against Ukraine has evaporated, and our shock about 7 October. We are not reliable friends and allies. We are manipulated by the media, who, profit-minded, move us along giddily from headline to headline.    Putin is no dummy: attacking Ukraine, he knows our character and politics, that we would soon lose interest, and he had the reserves to wait us out. We fled Vietnam. We fled Afghanistan. We are backing away, and Ukraine will fall to Russian control; is this bad? IDK, none of it had to be - - I remember the Russian leader, right after 9/11, speaking of "our American friends," and I remember feeling encouraged and hopeful. Some Time, years later, I read of Putin asking rhetorically of America, "If we can't be friends, at least why do we have to be enemies?" Are we really at the mercy of what, as he left office, President Eisenhowe...

  Not that what I think matters, and not a Netanyahu fan by any stretch, this (scroll down) is a logical postwar concept in the same way that Allied occupation of Germany and American occupation of Japan was the right thing after World War 2, for rebuilding, to prevent resurgence, and to shape a peaceful future.  Over Time, the concept evolves to local governance. For all the hysterical shrieks for a Palestinian State now, the Israelis have their experience and are not likely again to be caught naively trusting and unawares. WW2 has been over nearly 80 years, and US security is still in place in Japan and in Europe, and such longevity is not unlikely for Gaza. Over a couple of generations, progress can be made and peace established if the Israelis work toward peace and mutual acceptance; and provided the cruelty and brutality of IDF hatred toward Gaza civilians is prevented, which, in view of 7 October, will require Time and discipline; otherwise, Palestinian ha...

  Up and about at 3:12, check outside, 52°F and clear, Wind N 1 mph, 77% humidity. Thursday off to a fine start.  This is our late winter here in the Florida Panhandle on the Gulf Coast. Something I read earlier in the week predicted an extraordinarily fierce hurricane season, starting early and especially violent in the second half. Where to go, what to do if H.Michaelsdottr comes ashore here?  The only thing sure is that I can sip my hot & black without its going off cold. Coffee Club for February - - to make it last more than a couple weeks I've shifted from making three cups to making two cups. CHF, to help get legs and weight down I've started Furo40 daily instead of "as needed" and trying to be more mindful of salt intake. The tomato juice and Clamato don't help. Nor does soaking my sushi in soy sauce.  Francie: the kind butcher gave her a thick slice of liverwurst; at the other shop, the vicious butcher cursed every word she uttered. As did the old Je...

  Good one!! Chapter 3 of a good old Sunday school Bible story in the lectionary for this Wednesday in the First Week of Lent: Jonah 3:1–10 The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you." So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three days’ walk across. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh: "By the decree of the king and his nobles: No human being or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not feed...

About four o'clock, the flats in the tenements across from Francie's yard came to life. Through the leaves, she looked into the open uncurtained windows and saw growlers being rushed out and returned overflowing with cool, foaming beer. Kids ran in and out, going to and returning from the butcher's, the grocer's, and the baker's. Women came in with bulky hock-shop bundles. The man's Sunday suit was home again. On Monday, it would go back to the pawnbroker's for another week. The hock-shop prospered on the weekly interest money and the suit benefitted by being brushed and hung away in camphor where the moths couldn't get at it. In on Monday, out on Saturday. Ten cents' interest paid to Uncle Timmy. That was the cycle. ++++++++ Tomato juice, Tuesday midmorning and I've just finished sipping a glass of ice cold tomato juice. I love tomato juice, and regular V8 juice that I can taste the carrots and celery. At this age, a glass of tomato juice or V8 ...

  Usually I do so, and it's tempting to step outside on 7H porch to check out St Andrews Bay and greet the Monday; but the temperature is 43°F and Wind N 5 mph, so I'm staying inside. Not too early, 3:33 when I got up, 73° inside and the dehumidifiers have it at 41% in here, which makes it feel cool enough to have my lap blanket over my legs. Some like it hot, some like it cold, I don't like our hot summers as much as I did when a boy out of school until Labor Day, but cold weather I've Never enjoyed.  So much for a start of the day. With an early sandwich of Katz's Swiss cheese melted on toasted Pepperidge Farm extra thin white bread and a smear of mayo, my sipping mug of hot & black, and my only brain Time of Earth's rotation from Monday to Tuesday, what might the jumping fingers do? Have at it, little guys. Sunday morning I was in the pew with Linda, unvested semi-mufti: why am I sitting it out instead of up front, assisting? I AM assisting: I'm takin...

  See, it's getting late and I'm running out of Time to have breakfast, shower and dress for church; moreover, this isn't going to interest anyone but me and maybe an adult Sunday school class, or a seminary Hebrew-101 class that's perusing the book of Psalms. But, WTH, the blogposts are my thoughts, jotted down for me and nobody else, so I'm having a halfwitted shot at it in the little Time before Linda rings the breakfast bell. It's about Psalm 25, our responsive psalm for today, the First Sunday in Lent, Year B (remember, there are forty days of Lent, not counting the Sundays, so the Sundays are called "IN Lent" rather than "OF Lent" - - more about that as Lent wears on, but not this hurried morning, eh?) The lectionary prescribes Psalm 25, verses 1-9: Psalm 25:1-9 1 T o you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; my God, I put my trust in you; * let me not be humiliated, nor let my enemies triumph over me. 2 Let none who look to you be put to sh...

  Propers for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday, Year B. Look at the Collect:  Almighty and everlasting God, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth your right hand to help and defend us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. "... in all our dangers and necessities stretch forth your right hand to help and defend us," is it our existential experience that God in fact does this?  That's the basis of theodicy: if God is all good and all powerful, why is there evil, suffering, pain in the world?  And yet, pausing to reflect, I honestly do see it in my life, in my choosing of roads diverging in Robert Frost's yellow wood, my adventures in what has, so far, been a normal, common ordinary human life.  That is to say, the life of a somewhat privileged White American male: did God do this for me? I'm always led down this path of bramb...