My maternal grandmother

Hattie Daugherty, 85, Falmouth

Hattie M. Daugherty, 85, of Falmouth, Ky., passed away on Tuesday, February 28, at River Valley Nursing Home in Butler, Ky. She was a long-time member of Turner Ridge Baptist Church and more recently Falmouth Baptist Church. Born on April 15, 1920, she was the daughter of the late James O. and Belva (Lovelace) Sorrell. Her husband, Charles C. Daugherty, passed away in 1999. She was preceded in death by her sister, Mabel Easton, and six brothers, Calvin, Duane, Larry, Winston, Floyd, and Lloyd Sorrell. She worked many years for Hyde Park Clothing in Newport, Ky., and Dr. Scholl's Shoes, in Falmouth, Ky. Hattie and her husband Charles were long-time farmers in Pendleton County. Hattie was a great people person who was highly regarded throughout the community. She was very devoted to her family, friends, and church. She loved God's creation and enjoyed working in her yard.

She is survived by two daughters, Linda (Merwyn) Borders, Seymour, Tn., and Ada (J. W.) Wright, Falmouth, Ky., four grandchildren, Kevin Borders, Angie Wright, Paula Jacoby, and Brooke Cervantes, four great grandchildren, Tiffany Tipton, Ahnna Jacoby, Abigail Jacoby, and Ellie Borders, two grandsons-in-law, Jamie Cervantes and Randy Jacoby, one granddaughter-in-law, Susan Borders, and one sister, Ada Moore, Falmouth, Ky.

A service of celebration was held on Saturday, March 4, 2006, at Peoples Funeral Home in Falmouth, with pastor Don Mays and Merwyn Borders officiating. Pallbearers were Terry Sowder, Barry Sorrell, Kent Sorrell, Larry Bishop, Jamie Cervantes, Randy Jacoby, and Kevin Borders.

Interment took place in the Riverside Cemetery, Falmouth.

Memorials can be sent to Falmouth Baptist Church's Missions Fund.

What has happened to America's Jesus?

Opinion: What has happened to America's Jesus? from USA Today.com

By Rob Borsellino Mon Feb 13, 7:12 AM ET

I remember when Jesus Christ was about religion. That goes back to when he was caring and compassionate all the time, not just during the political campaign season.

He used to bring people together and give them hope. He wouldn't have his people get in your face and tell you to fight gay rights or you'll burn in hell. That's not what he was about. That's not the Jesus who made folks such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson rich and famous. He was a different guy from the 21st-century American Jesus Christ.

When I recently visited Sicily, Italy, the old Jesus was all over the place. His statue was on the counter at the restaurant and the coffee house. His image was on the wall at the clothing store and in the hotel lobby. And there was a huge painting of him on the side of an apartment building.

Sometimes he was with his mom and dad, and sometimes he was sitting with his pals - the apostles. Mostly he was hanging from the cross. Whatever he was up to, it was all about religion.

It was interesting because I didn't go to Sicily looking for a religious experience. I went looking for what's left of my family. My grandfather and his brother came to the United States in 1904 and left behind their parents and two sisters. The sisters had kids, grandkids, great grandkids.

I never met any of those people, and I knew nothing about Sicily except the obvious - pizza and the Mafia. My wife thought it was time to connect. She made some calls and let the family know we were coming.

We landed in Palermo, got our bags and were met by my cousin Peppino Rizzuti, who was holding a handwritten sign with my name on it.

He was there with three other cousins. They hooked us up with more family and spent the next seven days driving us all over the island and stuffing us with mozzarella, prosciutto, olives and about 50 kinds of pasta.

My cousin Maria made the sign of the cross before she ate. My cousin Antonio's car had a figurine of a saint on the dashboard. My cousin Gian Marco had a beautiful cross hanging from his neck.

But nobody was going on about God, Jesus and religion. It didn't come up. I saw all that and was reminded that you can be a decent person - a good son, husband and father - and still oppose the war in
Iraq. You can be a caring, thoughtful member of your community and still question whether Justice
Samuel Alito should have been confirmed. Jesus won't get mad at you.

Several times during the week, I thought about telling my family what's happened to Jesus in the United States - how he's been kidnapped by politicians and preachers who decide what he does and doesn't think. They speak for him, and it doesn't always make sense.

They say Jesus is "pro life," but he doesn't seem to have a problem with the death penalty. And he thinks stem cell research - something that would save lives - is no different from murdering babies. They say he's the embodiment of kindness, love, decency and compassion. But he hates gays, lesbians and Muslims. And he's not too crazy about Buddhists, Hindus and the rest. Jews? He can put up with them if he has to.

The Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka claims to speak for Jesus and goes around the country talking about how "
AIDS cures fags." Pat Robertson says it would be a good idea if the United States killed the president of Venezuela. It would be a lot cheaper than starting another war.

All week I went over that stuff in my head and decided not to mention any of it to the family.

It would make America look ridiculous.

Rob Borsellino is a columnist for The Des Moines Register and author of So I'm talkin' to this guy ...

Our Deepest Fear?

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequte,
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us.
We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people
won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to manifest the glory that is within us.
It is not in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we consciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear;
our presence automatically liberates others.

(NOTE: I've just learned that this has been incorrectly attributed to
Mandela's inagural address).
This is really from Marianne Williamson's A Return to Love: Reflections on the Princples of a Course in Miracles

Many thanks to Jennifer for the correction!

It's Meme time!

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Florist
2. Dishwasher
3. Graduate Research Assistant
4. Assistant Social Work Research Professor

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn
2. Much Ado About Nothing
3. Truly, Madly, Deeply
4. Roxanne

Four places I have lived:

1. Bethel, Vermont
2. Yuma, Arizona
3. Montreal, Canada
4. Louisville, KY

Four places I’ve vacationed:

1. Falmouth, KY
2. Jeckyll Island, GA
3. Edinburgh, Scotland
4. Dublin, Ireland

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Chicken and Rice
2. Scallop Chowder
3. The Big Kahuna Pizza (Canadian bacon, pineapple, madarin oranges)
4. Eggs sunny-side up and sausage

Four sites I visit daily:

1. Boing Boing
2. Daily Kos
3. Ain't it Cool News
4. Dooce

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. In bed with a good book
2. Jeckyll Island, GA
3. On the treadmill
4. With friends camping in the woods

JFK's The Purpose of Poetry

I read something interesting in the current edition (Jan/Feb, 2006) of the Atlantic Magazine written in 1964 by President Kennedy about the purpose of poetry. Excerpts:

The men who create power make an indispensible contribution to the nation's greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensible, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us...

When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstones of our judgement.

In free society art is not a weapon, and it does not belong to the sphere of polemics and ideology.

I look forward to a great future for America--a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral strength, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.

And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world, not only for its strength, but for its civilization as well.

And I look forward to a world which will be safe, not only for democracy and diversity, but also for personal distinction.

So, all that poetry you had to read in high school has a purpose after all!

Slow reading start to New Year

January is nearly over, and I have yet finish a book of fiction. I am far behind past years already. I am working my through a thought-provoking baloney sandwhich, though. What is a baloney sandwhich, in the context of books, you may ask?

Well, I'm glad you did ask. It's a phrase coined by my father-in-law to describe books that you just read for distraction, or for fun. I've also hear them called "mind candy," and "books without any socially redeeming qualities."

I'm currently reading Alternate Generals, a book of alternate history where different generals appear in different time periods. The short stories in this edited collection are, for the most part, well written, and thought provoking.

One of my favs is "Billy Mitchel's Overt Act," where the U.S. bombs a Japanese carrier force on the way to attack Pearl Harbor. Because the US struck first, and because there was no major loss of US life (sunk battleships, etc.), the US reluctantly declares war on Japan, (the public is never fully behind the war) and the war ends 2 years later when the US and Japan sign a peace treaty. The good news is that no nuclear bomb is dropped on Japan by the US, but the implication is that the US and Japan will fight again.

I've thought a lot about this, because I think a key reason we went fully into WWII was because of the tragedy of Pearl Harbor, and our national outrage and sense of loss.

Tom Delay a la Dr. Seuss

From The Witlist:

Tom DeLay Denies All Charges (As Told by Dr. Suess)

That Abramoff!
That Abramoff!
I do not like that Abramoff!

"Would you like to play some golf?"

I do not want to play some golf.
I do not want to, Abramoff.

"We could fly you there for free.
Off to Scotland, by the sea."

I do not want to fly for free.
I don't like Scotland by the sea.
I do not want to play some golf.
I do not want to, Abramoff.

"Would you, could you, take this bribe?
Could you, would you, for the tribe?"

I would not, could not, take this bribe.
I could not, would not, for the tribe.

"If we strong armed corporations
Into giving you donations?
They'd be funnelled to your PAC.
Would you then cut us some slack?"

I would not, could not, cut you slack.
I do not care about my PAC.
I do not want to play some golf.
I do not want to, Abramoff.

"A plane! A plane! A plane! A plane!
Would you, could you, for a plane?"

I could not, would not, for a plane.
Not for a bribe, not for the tribe.
Not for donations from corporations.
Not for my PAC, not for some slack.
Not from any schmoe named Jack.

"Would you help us buy some ships
Perfect for quick gambling trips?
Talk to people in the know
For a little quid pro quo?
Oh come now, don't be a snob.
Let us give your wife a job."

I will not help you buy some ships.
I do not wish for gambling trips.
My wife does not need a job
Even if she is a snob.
We do not like bribes, can't you see?
Why won't you just let me be?

"You do not like bribes, so you say.
Try them, try them, and you may.
Try them and you may, I say."

Jack. If you will let me be
I will try them, then you'll see.

Say.... I do like playing golf!
I like it, I do, Abramoff!
I do like Scotland by the sea.
It's such a thrilling place to be!
And I will take this bribe.
And I will help the tribe.
And I will take donations
From big corporations.
And I will help you buy some ships.
And I will take quick gambling trips.
Say, I'll give anyone the shaft
As long as it involves some graft!

I do so like playing golf!
Thank you! Thank you,
Abramoff!

Green is the new red, white and blue.

The New Red, White and Blue
01/10/2006
New York Times


By Thomas L. Friedman

As we enter 2006, we find ourselves in trouble, at home and abroad. We are in trouble because we are led by defeatists - wimps, actually.

What's so disturbing about President Bush and Dick Cheney is that they talk tough about the necessity of invading Iraq, torturing terror suspects and engaging in domestic spying - all to defend our way of life and promote democracy around the globe.

But when it comes to what is actually the most important issue in U.S. foreign and domestic policy today - making ourselves energy efficient and independent, and environmentally green - they ridicule it as something only liberals, tree-huggers and sissies believe is possible or necessary.

Sorry, but being green, focusing the nation on greater energy efficiency and conservation, is not some girlie-man issue. It is actually the most tough-minded, geostrategic, pro-growth and patriotic thing we can do. Living green is not for sissies. Sticking with oil, and basically saying that a country that can double the speed of microchips every 18 months is somehow incapable of innovating its way to energy independence - that is for sissies, defeatists and people who are ready to see American values eroded at home and abroad.

Living green is not just a "personal virtue," as Mr. Cheney says. It's a national security imperative.

The biggest threat to America and its values today is not communism, authoritarianism or Islamism. It's petrolism. Petrolism is my term for the corrupting, antidemocratic governing practices - in oil states from Russia to Nigeria and Iran - that result from a long run of $60-a-barrel oil. Petrolism is the politics of using oil income to buy off one's citizens with subsidies and government jobs, using oil and gas exports to intimidate or buy off one's enemies, and using oil profits to build up one's internal security forces and army to keep oneself ensconced in power, without any transparency or checks and balances.

When a nation's leaders can practice petrolism, they never have to tap their people's energy and creativity; they simply have to tap an oil well. And therefore politics in a petrolist state is not about building a society or an educational system that maximizes its people's ability to innovate, export and compete. It is simply about who controls the oil tap.

In petrolist states like Russia, Iran, Venezuela and Sudan, people get rich by being in government and sucking the treasury dry - so they never want to cede power. In non-petrolist states, like Taiwan, Singapore and Korea, people get rich by staying outside government and building real businesses.

Our energy gluttony fosters and strengthens various kinds of petrolist regimes. It emboldens authoritarian petrolism in Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Sudan and Central Asia. It empowers Islamist petrolism in Sudan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. It even helps sustain communism in Castro's Cuba, which survives today in part thanks to cheap oil from Venezuela. Most of these petrolist regimes would have collapsed long ago, having proved utterly incapable of delivering a modern future for their people, but they have been saved by our energy excesses.

No matter what happens in Iraq, we cannot dry up the swamps of authoritarianism and violent Islamism in the Middle East without also drying up our consumption of oil - thereby bringing down the price of crude. A democratization policy in the Middle East without a different energy policy at home is a waste of time, money and, most important, the lives of our young people.

That's because there is a huge difference in what these bad regimes can do with $20-a-barrel oil compared with the current $60-a-barrel oil. It is no accident that the reform era in Russia under Boris Yeltsin, and in Iran under Mohammad Khatami, coincided with low oil prices. When prices soared again, petrolist authoritarians in both societies reasserted themselves.

We need a president and a Congress with the guts not just to invade Iraq, but to also impose a gasoline tax and inspire conservation at home. That takes a real energy policy with long-term incentives for renewable energy - wind, solar, biofuels - rather than the welfare-for-oil-companies-and-special-interests that masqueraded last year as an energy bill.

Enough of this Bush-Cheney nonsense that conservation, energy efficiency and environmentalism are some hobby we can't afford. I can't think of anything more cowardly or un-American. Real patriots, real advocates of spreading democracy around the world, live green.

Green is the new red, white and blue.

Tony Campolo: Is Christianity a Casualty of War?

More thoughts to ponder for the new year:

The Blog | Tony Campolo: Is Christianity a Casualty of War? | The Huffington Post

The Blog | Steve Martin: Leap Second Lovers Are Traitors Says Bill O'Reilly | The Huffington Post

Something to start off the new year:
The Blog | Steve Martin: Leap Second Lovers Are Traitors Says Bill O'Reilly | The Huffington Post

Oil Dots

I've had a lot of fun reading Esquire magazine's December 2005 Best and Brightest issue. The one person I'll focus on now is Amy Myers Jaffee who is the director of the Energy Forum at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Here are her Seven Ways to Fix the Oil Crisis:

1. Build a safety net: just in time delivery when it is oil is catastrophic when there is a natural disaster

2. Double (auto) fuel efficiency.

3. Tax gas--by dollars not cents: this has allowed the Europeans to become more efficient, and kept demand stable.

4. Work with China: instead of competing with them for energy, work together to lower costs, create new technologies.

5. Drill more. Regulate more. Drill in more areas (costal), give the EPA more authority to adequately regulate oil companies.

6. Open foreign energy markets: no more state energy monopolies.

7. Commit to solar energy: virtually no waste stream, carbon or radioactive. Solar needs to be at the 3 cents/killowat hour to become competitive; it's currently 20 to 30 cents.

Crafting Manifesto

As we rush into the holiday season, focusing on buying instead of family, the birth of a tiny babe, Ulla-Maaria Mutanen has been thinking about why we like to make things, and has written up a "Craft Manifesto." I really like this and am thinking of ways I can become more "crafty:"

1. People get satisfaction for being able to create/craft things because they can see themselves in the objects they make. This is not possible in purchased products.

2. The things that people have made themselves have magic powers. They have hidden meanings that other people can’t see.

3. The things people make they usually want to keep and update. Crafting is not against consumption. It is against throwing things away.

4. People seek recognition for the things they have made. Primarily it comes from their friends and family. This manifests as an economy of gifts.

5. People who believe they are producing genuinely cool things seek broader exposure for their products. This creates opportunities for alternative publishing channels.

6. Work inspires work. Seeing what other people have made generates new ideas and designs.

7. Essential for crafting are tools, which are accessible, portable, and easy to learn.

8. Materials become important. Knowledge of what they are made of and where to get them becomes essential.

9. Recipes become important. The ability to create and distribute interesting recipes becomes valuable.

10. Learning techniques brings people together. This creates online and offline communities of practice.

11. Craft-oriented people seek opportunities to discover interesting things and meet their makers. This creates marketplaces.

12. At the bottom, crafting is a form of play.

I first read this manifesto in the 4th issue of Make Magazine.

Still too much time on my hands?

So, I took another one of those "tests..."

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Extreme
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Low
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

So, I took yet another of those "personality" tests, and here's my results:

Possessing a rare combination of wisdom and humility, while serenely dominating your environment you selflessly use your powers to care for others.

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

Galadriel is a character in the Middle-Earth universe. You can read more about her at the Galadriel Worshippers Army.

Looks like I took this test on a good day... (I swear I didn't write this...)

You too can take the test here.

Needs vs wants

The C-J last Sunday had an article titled Gotta have it? They asked: "High heating costs have people vowing they may have to cut back to the necessities this winter. But what, exactly, constitutes a "necessity" these days?"

What a great question, so I was surprised to find out that "...many of us feel we need the Internet to stay informed, need cell phones to stay in touch with loved ones and need e-mail and faxes to transfer information. People talked about how eating out, getting their nails done were all necessities, and not luxuries.

But then, on reflection, I wasn't that surprised, for I realized that the reporter was interviewing mainly middle class people, and not the working poor, and/or those who have to choose between toilet paper and cereal (take a look at Barbara Einrich's Nickel and Dimed).

I read this statement next: "The basic aspect of economics is that we have to make choices," said Jack Morgan, recently retired director of the Center for Economic Education, which is affiliated with the Kentucky and national Councils on Economic Education. "The reason we have to make choices is because we can't have everything we want."

I first ran across statements like this while in one of my many years of graduate school, and I was puzzled by it then, and am still so now. I had thought, and still do, that economics helps producers and marketers sell goods and services. Most of us know very little about economics, and think of it as a very complex science, filled with arcane words and concepts.

I wish that economics truly were a scientific tool that would help us make good choices, (in the same way that the New Testament of Christian Scripture can help us make choices based on moral principles). This would mean that we would be better able to make clearer choices between that latte and retirement, or that weekly magazine and giving money to hurricane relief or programs that help lift the poor out of poverty.

Just some thoughts. Happy Halloween. Any ideas on how to choose the optimal candy?

Literary Musings

I've been listening to NPR's Book podcast, and heard Louise Erdrich read this from her latest novel The Painted Drum. I've been pondering the meaning, and hope it is meaningful to you as well.

Near the end of the novel, Faye Travers says:

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that.

And living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with it’s yearning.

You have to love.

You have to feel.

It is the reason you are here on earth.

You are here to risk your heart.”

Borg Nation

from an email I found dated 8/16/1994, back when Star Trek the Next Generation was on and the Borg were the nastiest villians around:

Assimilate me... tender... Elvis of Borg
Borger King. Have it our way. Your way is irrelevant.
Bush Sr. of Borg: The economy is irrelevant.
Pythagoras of Borg: Distance is irrelevant.
Drunk Borg: Rsilience in floor tile. Wan'be similated?
Geraldo of Borg: Next, brothers who assimilate sisters.

I am Bugs Bunny of Borg: What's up Collective?
I am Dangerfield of Borg: Respect is irrelevant.
I am Fudd of Borg: Wesistance is usewess!
I am Homer of Borg! Prepare to be...OOoooooo! Donuts!
I am Spock of Borg: Fascinating.
I am Ginsu of Borg. You will be assimilated: but WAIT! There's MORE!
I am Yoda of Borg: Irrelevant the Force is.
I am Zsa Zsa of Borg: Prepare to be assimilated dahling.
I yam Popeye of Borg: Prepare to be askimilated.

My other computer is a Borg.
P-Porky P-Pig of B-Borg: You will be assim-assim...absorbed.
Bjorn Borg: Tennis is irrelevant.
The Borg assimilated me and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt!
We have engaged the Borg. The wedding will be Friday.
Welcome to Borg Burger. No pickles. Pickles are irrelevant.
Whose laser thru yonder saucer section cuts? "Tis the Borg!

Alternative Giving Ideas for NOLA Giving

Here's a couple of great organizations that can use financial assistance now due to Katrina's devastation:

The People's Institute

From their website: "The People’s Institute believes that effective community and institutional change happens when those who would make change understand how race and racism function as a barrier to community self determination and self sufficiency."

"The People’s Institute was created to develop more analytical, culturally-rooted and effective community organizers."

Their New Orleans' offices were destroyed.

The Acorn Institute

From their website: "ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities."

ACORN's Headquarters, in New Orleans, LA, and the homes and neighborhoods of many of its members there, have been devastated by hurricane Katrina.

Velvet Yoda Elvis

From: Hecho en Mexico: Tacky Velvet Art




"Left the building, have I"

Five Days with Katrina

UPDATE 9/26/05 PHOTOS have been taken off the site :(

Check out this slideshow of photos of Katrina, taken by Alvaro before, during and after the storm. Absolutely amazing!!!