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Benediction from inauguration of Barack Obama yesterday. Transcript here.
Now playing: Dear Mr President – Pink
From a longer letter on how Bethlehem is today, posted here.
The narrative of the Nativity has a universal resonance. It has proved the inspiration for great art. There are few people, whatever their age or status in life, immune to the story of a family, living in an occupied land, rejected by the powerful, ultimately finding sanctuary among the lowliest, and, through the birth of their child, opening a path of hope for the future. However, as a Jewish dissident, I find the silence of the majority of Christians about the situation in ‘The Little Town of Bethlehem’, particularly at Christmas, difficult to fathom.
In many ways the Israeli occupier is worse than the Romans. At least the wise men could reach the child. Today they would be turned back. No family would be able to get into the town without passing guards, checkpoints and walls.
Currently listening to Sarah McLachlan Song for a Winter’s Night
Freaky economics. Go watch.
One quote from the post-war restructuring of the US economy and the need for a new way of consuming:
Our enormously productive economy…demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption…we need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.
Victor Lebow 1955
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Now playing: Sister Rosetta Tharpe – What Is the Soul of Man?
via FoxyTunes
Why did the Marxist only drink herbal tea?
Because all proper tea is theft.
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Now playing: Ex Cathedra – Agnus Dei
via FoxyTunes
A day late for the blog. More information at Burma Campaign UK and Free Burma
If you read one book this year….
Dave Eggers What is the What is beyond extraordinary. It is a multi-storied account of what happens to people when civil war overtakes them. And somehow, against the odds, against the most inhuman opposition, humanity survives and refuses to give up.
The confusing and bewildering story of the Sudan civil struggle is told through the story of one Lost Boy’s journey which becomes almost mythic in the telling.
More on Lost Boy, Valentino Achak Deng, here
Southern Sudan 1993 photographed by Kevin Carter
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Now playing: The Weepies – World Spins Madly On
via FoxyTunes
Got trapped by enforced hospitality around MOTD on Saturday and missed the moon going into the red.
So in the style of MOTD, an action reply without Gary Lineker is Jonas Thomén’s Flickr space where you can watch it happen again.
Blessed are the poor, not the penniless,
but those whose hearts are free.
Blessed are those who mourn, not those who whimper
but those who raise their voices.
Blessed are the meek, not the soft,
but those who are patient and tolerant.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, not those who whine
but those who struggle.
Blessed are the merciful, not those who forget,
but those who forgive.
Blessed are the pure in heart, not those who act like angels,
but those whose lives are transparent.
Blessed are the peacemakers, not those who shun conflict,
but those who face it squarely.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for justice,
not because they suffer
but because they love.
Alternative beatitudes from churches in Santiago, Chile
Satellite picture of the earth at night at Earthlights.
