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ice cream

Posted on August 27, 2006 | Filed Under personal life

Stoney enjoying his favorite dessert — ice cream!

arctic national wildlife refuge under siege

Posted on August 24, 2006 | Filed Under the natural world

Once again the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is under threat. Some people just don’t understand “No!” No, it is not worth it to us to add a few more gallons to our oil reserves if it means the sacrifice of this precious piece of wilderness.

a tank full of gas: $60
drilling a new oil well: $5 million
preserving the home of the caribou, the black bear, the moose, the Dall mountain sheep, the Gwich’in Indian: priceless

In the words of the our own government (from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife website):
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was established to preserve unique wildlife, wilderness …

making sense, moving forward

Posted on August 23, 2006 | Filed Under favorite posts, grace, humility, spirituality, tolerance

We live in a world that is so different from the world of the generations that have preceded us. The pace of change is dizzying. The amount of accessible — unavoidably accessible! — information is overwhelming. We bear the burden of knowing too much, almost more than we can bear to know. It is not only the problems of family and community and region that weigh on our hearts, but the problems of a whole world: famine and disease and natural disaster, war and oppression and unabashed genocide, injustice and mistrust and entrenched hatred. We know so much about the …

a sensible ruling

Posted on August 19, 2006 | Filed Under general

An excerpt from the decision handed down by U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor declaring the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program unconstitutional:

“Implicit in the term ‘national defense’ is the notion of defending those values and ideas which set this Nation apart. … It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of … those liberties … which makes the defense of the Nation worthwhile.”

our nation’s greatness?

Posted on August 10, 2006 | Filed Under torture

From an article by R. Jeffrey Smith in the Washington Post, August 9, 2006: The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments …

“People have gotten worried, thinking that it’s quite likely they might be under a microscope,” said a U.S. official. Foreigners are using accusations of unlawful U.S. behavior as a way to rein in American power, the official said, and the amendments are …

a shameful co-incidence

Posted on August 9, 2006 | Filed Under justice

… the Senate defeated a motion to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour (though it voted for a pay increase for senators.) (From the August 8, 2006 edition of The Christian Century. Read the rest of the editorial …)

Put what spin on this you may, offer whatever reasoned argument you may, and this still stinks! There is no justification for allowing the working poor to get poorer, when there is something that can be done, something that is simple to do and effective in addressing the need.

hiking buddies

Posted on August 2, 2006 | Filed Under personal life

Stony enjoying the view from the top of Penobscot Mountain in Acadia National Park …

Stony and his hiking companion after returning to the Jordan Pond House …

I was hopeful that Stony would prove to be a good hiking companion … and he more than exceeded my expectations! We hiked Blue Hill, Burnt Head and White Head on Monhegan Island, and Penobscot Mountain in Acadia overlooking Jordan Pond. …