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And the Hall of Democratic Party Shame…
No Votes (215)
Jason Altmire
John Adler
Rick Boucher
Allen Boyd
Brian Baird
John Barrow
Dan Boren
John Boccieri
Bobby Bright
Ben Chandler
Travis Childers
Lincoln Davis
Artur Davis
Chet Edwards
Bart Gordon
Parker Griffith
Tim Holden
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
Dennis J. Kucinich
Larry Kissell
Suzanne Kosmas
Frank Kratovil Jr.
Mike McIntyre
Jim Matheson
Jim Marshall
Charlie Melancon
Betsy Markey
Eric Massa
Michael E. McMahon
Walt Minnick
Scott Murphy
Glenn Nye
Collin C. Peterson
Mike Ross
Ike Skelton
Heath Shuler
John Tanner
Gene Taylor
Harry Teague
Interesting notes: Dennis is no longer planning to run for national office in the Democratic party. He can’t expect any party support with votes like this. The vast majority of the “No” votes were cast by white males from the South. I detect a trend here…and suggest that these wolves in sheep’s clothing go ahead and pack up their crap and move across the aisle.
“This is one of those bills that takes a system that is the best in the world and will turn it on its head, and I don’t believe this is what the American people want,” said Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee.
This is what the American people understand and want:
The reform measure would limit how much people can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses. And it would forbid insurance companies to cancel coverage because someone gets sick, deny coverage because of a pre-existing condition or put annual or lifetime caps on coverage.
Deal with it.
As per a ruling by an independent hearing judge today, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has been directed to hike the rates of its supplemental Medicare by no more than 3.8%, a figure much lower than the 36.7% the firm had sought.
The shameless robbery and strong-arm tactics of the health insurance cartel needs to be dealt with at the national level, not just at the state and local level.
Poor, pitiful microsoft. This is sad. Funny, but sad.
Eye candy with a bit of mathematics thrown in for good measure.
The Nobel Peace Prize 2009 – Press Release:
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world’s leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama’s appeal that ‘Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges.’
Oslo, October 9, 2009″
These four short paragraphs tell the story that the world has been waiting to hear. Thank you, and congratulations, President Obama!
This blog has one of the most eclectic, bizarre, and all-around cool stuff you can imagine. This series is just a small sample, and a big reason why I’ve subscribed to his feed for a while now. Go check it out!
But very cool, even if it does boggle the mind a bit. Besides, little mind boggling never hurt anybody anyway, I always say.
The step-by-step process is a lesson in transformation, and the power of technology. Amazing.
…that carbon paper was patented on my birthday. Well, now I do. Happy Birthday to me and to that invention that is now called “graphite paper,” for no apparent reason. Times change, and so it goes.
Job: Chapter 8
Bildad speaks: Job should repent (v. 1 – 22)
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
2‘How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? 3Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? 4If your children sinned against him, he delivered them into the power of their transgression. 5If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty, 6if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore to you your rightful place. 7Though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.8‘For inquire now of bygone generations, and consider what their ancestors have found; 9for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing, for our days on earth are but a shadow. 10Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding?
11‘Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish where there is no water? 12While yet in flower and not cut down, they wither before any other plant. 13Such are the paths of all who forget God; the hope of the godless shall perish. 14Their confidence is gossamer, a spider’s house their trust. 15If one leans against its house, it will not stand; if one lays hold of it, it will not endure. 16The wicked thrive before the sun, and their shoots spread over the garden. 17Their roots twine around the stoneheap; they live among the rocks. 18If they are destroyed from their place, then it will deny them, saying, “I have never seen you.” 19See, these are their happy ways, and out of the earth still others will spring.
20‘See, God will not reject a blameless person, nor take the hand of evildoers. 21He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy. 22Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.’
The words of Bildad are like an abrupt blast of lava and noxious fumes from a long-dormant volcano, suddenly erupting with fury and destruction raining down white-hot cinders and flaming missiles on the once-peaceful countryside surrounding an angry mountain.
His words bring to my mind the diametrically opposed, and altogether more restrained, conclusions of the wise man in the eighth chapter of Ecclesiastes:
14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people who are treated according to the conduct of the wicked, and there are wicked people who are treated according to the conduct of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun.
16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how one’s eyes see sleep neither day nor night,17then I saw all the work of God, that no one can find out what is happening under the sun. However much they may toil in seeking, they will not find it out; even though those who are wise claim to know, they cannot find it out.
What special insight into wisdom does Bildad appear to think is his? What hidden knowledge of the workings of Spirit has he laid claim to with such ferocity? Why does he display such an utter lack of compassion and humility in the face of such tragedy?
The Teacher of Ecclesiastes concludes, in a much gentler and more convincing way, in the twelfth and final chapter of Ecclesiastes:
9 Besides being wise, the Teacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs. 10The Teacher sought to find pleasing words, and he wrote words of truth plainly.
11 The sayings of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings that are given by one shepherd. 12Of anything beyond these, my child, beware. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone. 14For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Job: Chapter 7
Job Replies: My Suffering is Without End (v. 1 – 21)
1‘Do not human beings have a hard service on earth, and are not their days like the days of a laborer? 2Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like laborers who look for their wages, 3so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me. 4When I lie down I say, “When shall I rise?” But the night is long, and I am full of tossing until dawn. 5My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out again. 6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to their end without hope.
7‘Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. 8The eye that beholds me will see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone. 9As the cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Sheol do not come up;10they return no more to their houses, nor do their places know them any more.
11‘Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.12Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you set a guard over me? 13When I say, “My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint”, 14then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, 15so that I would choose strangling and death rather than this body. 16I loathe my life; I would not live for ever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath. 17What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them, 18visit them every morning, test them every moment?19Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle? 20If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you? 21Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.’
There is a line in this passage that contains, for the first time in the Book of Job, a reference to Sheol:
9As the cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Sheol do not come up;10they return no more to their houses, nor do their places know them any more.
A quick look at Wikipedia reveals the most succinct, non-theological definition of Sheol that I was able to find:
Sheol (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Introduction: Sheol (pronounced “Sheh-ole”)[1], in Hebrew שאול (Sh’ol), is the “abode of the dead”, the “underworld”, or “pit”.[2] Sheol is the common destination of both the righteous and the unrighteous dead, as recounted in Ecclesiastes and Job. Sheol is sometimes compared to Hades, the gloomy, twilight afterlife of Greek mythology. The word “hades” was in fact substituted for “sheol” when the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek (see Septuagint). The New Testament (written in Greek) also uses “hades” to refer to the abode of the dead. By the second century BC, Jews who accepted the Oral Torah had come to believe that those in sheol awaited the resurrection either in comfort (in the bosom of Abraham) or in torment. This belief is reflected in Jesus’ story of Lazarus and Dives. At that time Jews who rejected the Oral Torah believed that Sheol meant simply the grave. Christian translations of the Hebrew scriptures have variously rendered the word sheol as “hell”[3] or “the grave”.[4]
Etymology: The origin of the term sheol is obscure. One theory is that Sheol is connected ša’al, the root of which means “to burrow” and is thus related to šu’al “fox” or “burrower”.[5] Biblical scholar William Foxwell Albright suggests that the Hebrew root for SHE’OL is SHA’AL, which means “to ask, to interrogate, to question.” John Tvedtnes, also a Biblical scholar, connects this with the common theme in near-death experiences of the interrogation of the soul after crossing the Tunnel.
Sheol in the Hebrew Bible: In the Tanakh, which is the Hebrew Bible (the books that Christians call the Old Testament), the word “sheol” occurs more than 60 times. It is used most frequently in the Psalms, wisdom literature and prophetic books. Jacob, not comforted at the reported death of Joseph, exclaims: “I shall go down to my son a mourner unto Sheol” (Genesis 37:35). Sheol may be personified: Sheol is never satiated (Proverbs 30:16); she “makes wide her throat” (Isaiah 5:14). Other examples of its usage: Job 7:9 “Just as a cloud dissipates and vanishes, those who go down to Sheol will not come back.”Psalm 18:5-7 “The breakers of death surged round about me; the menacing floods terrified me. The cords of Sheol tightened; the snares of death lay in wait for me. In my distress I called out: LORD! I cried out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry to him reached his ears. Psalm 86:13: “Your love for me is great; you have rescued me from the depths of Sheol.” Psalm 139:8: “If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.” Jonah 2:2: “…Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice.”
Sheol in the New Testament: The New Testament follows the Septuagint in translating sheol as hades (compare Acts 2:27, 31 and Psalm 16:10). The New Testament thus seems to draw a distinction between Sheol and “Gehinnom” or Gehenna (Jahannam in Islam). The former is regarded as a place where the dead go temporarily to await resurrection (according to some traditions, including Jesus himself), while the latter is the place of eternal punishment for the damned (i.e. perdition). Accordingly, in the book of Saint John’s Revelation, hades is associated with death (Revelation 1:18, 6:8), and in the final judgment the wicked dead are brought out of hades and cast into the lake of fire, which represents the fire of Gehenna; hades itself is also finally thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15).
Job: Chapter 7
Job Replies: My Suffering is Without End (v. 1 – 21)
1‘Do not human beings have a hard service on earth, and are not their days like the days of a laborer? 2Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like laborers who look for their wages, 3so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me. 4When I lie down I say, “When shall I rise?” But the night is long, and I am full of tossing until dawn. 5My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out again. 6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to their end without hope.
7‘Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. 8The eye that beholds me will see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall be gone. 9As the cloud fades and vanishes, so those who go down to Sheol do not come up; 10they return no more to their houses, nor do their places know them any more.
11‘Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 12Am I the Sea, or the Dragon, that you set a guard over me? 13When I say, “My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint”, 14then you scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, 15so that I would choose strangling and death rather than this body. 16I loathe my life; I would not live for ever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath. 17What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them, 18visit them every morning, test them every moment? 19Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle? 20If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity? Why have you made me your target? Why have I become a burden to you? 21Why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity? For now I shall lie in the earth; you will seek me, but I shall not be.’
In this passage, I can feel the depth and expanse of the sorrow and pain that Job is suffering on a deeply personal level. I think everyone has felt, at some time or another, the utter hopelessness that is described in these lines–our human condition, that of a spiritual being in a physical plane, is often full of sorrow, pain, and fear. We all have those burdens–physical, emotional, spiritual–that cause us to stumble and fall, and even consider giving up. Even the most faithful of God’s children, those in constant contact with Spirit, have those times when their faith seems to disappear, never to return. It is in my perseverance, despite all outward signs of failure, that I know that any time of upheaval will ultimately come to an end. It is my choice whether that ending is with God or not. The freedom of the choice given to each of us comes with an equally important responsibility: to use those choices wisely, and to always remember that the choices we make are in the freedom that Spirit has endowed each soul on this path.
“However greatly the soul itself labours, it cannot actively purify itself so as to be in the least degree prepared for the Divine union of perfection of love, if God takes not its hand and purges it not in the dark fire.” (Dark Night of the Soul, St. John the Divine, 16th century Spanish mystic)