A House of Prayer

St Thomas/High Altar/5 Av/53 St/NYC

From a journal – May 2003

...Rushing to my express bus on Fifth Avenue I glanced up the steps into an unused entrance to Saint Thomas Episcopal Church, a structure I have mentioned before in this journal – (a place where I have gone to pray and mediate and admire the unique massive stone altar piece and stained glass)...

I saw a Muslim engaged in his 4th (?) prayer of the day. He was shoeless – white socks on gray stone – I had seen something like this before, at this same spot, on a cold dark winter night at 5:30 P.M. last winter or one winter ago – one loses track of time here in New York –

...glanced before, at that time, and did not pay much attention to that scene – (did not wish to stare or to intrude on prayer which can be both a public or a private thing). (I was also in a hurry to catch my bus). Later I tried to recollect the scene, reconstruct the scene – but the memory did not fit. Was not reminded of it again until today.

I thought that there were stone saint icons on the side of that locked wooden door area. Today, in less darkness, I noticed the angle of the pray-er’s focus. That focus was not in the direction of the stone statues but on stone support columns – round pillars rising up to typical gothic angle – an arabic angle? – a muslim angle? Which came first, the gothic or the...-

Does not matter. I am reminded of this pray-er and Isaiah’s words. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” Those words more than ever are needed today in this world.

God be praised!...

http://thisculturalchristian.blogspot.com/2008/06/house-of-prayer.html

http://urbaninfidel.blogspot.com/2010/09/muslim-day-parade-2010.html

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Todd Akin’s Friend Father Benedict Groeschel – on Child Abuse – the Victim’s Fault - Sick!

TV evangelist priest Father Benedict Groeschel misses the good old days when you could rape children and get away with it – He lives and works in Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s ”Moral” Bailiwick?

"Director of the Office for Spiritual Development for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York"???  Does he work in an office next door to Bill Donohue at the Catholic League?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_Groeschel

(9:25 PM 31 August 2012 EST --  There are sixteen edits, changes, to Wikipedia, in Benedict Groeschel's history data file today, viewed upon later inspection. As of 10:51AM 31 August 2012 EST my quote stands as “He is the director of the Office for Spiritual Development for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York”. Many other changes on Wiki for 30 August as well. So many changes and so little time.)

1:49 PM 1 September 2012 - Apparently Groeschel has a huge history, a lot of baggage of enabling priests to continue to abuse children.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news/2003_03_04_Kremen_RodimerPsychologist.htm

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2003_01_06/2003_03_02_Egerton_PriestPlays.htm

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Gina Rinehart is so Rich and so Fat She wants Australia for Lunch – Princess of Woop Woop - worth $30 Billion

Gina Rinehart - Princess of Woop Woop in Oz

Once again it is those lazy poor people living off the system who make life so miserable for the very RICH.  Princess of Woop Woop Land in Australia Gina Rinehart thinks $15.96 minimum wage Austalian, $1.029 to $1.00 American rate, is a burden for her company to pay for a working man to support his family for his first 38 hours of labor. 

She is jealous that Americans only get $7.25 minimum wage in the United States and wants a similar deal for workers in Oz.

What a fucking greedy pig! Go buy a bottle of shampoo darling and a bar of soap too I think while you are at it as well.

Oh dear.  Where is the catsup mate? I want to eat Australia for lunch! Same as the Koch Brothers are already munching on America’s assets.

Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart, the richest woman in the world (yes, richer even than Christy Walton) must think she’s some kind of Dagny Taggart OR SOMETHING. Rinehart penned an offensive editorial column in a mining industry magazine that’s being widely condemned in Australia. Considering that she owns much of the media there, and undoubtedly many a politician, too, that seems significant.

Rinehart’s fortune is estimated to be in the range of $30 billion and apparently the mining heiress thinks those drunken shrimp-on-the-barbie poors are just jealous of people like her and her rich friends. During a month when Rinehart is actively engaged in petitioning the government to lower the minimum wage and slash taxes on the wealthy, her timing couldn’t be worse.

Setting aside the fact that it’s patently ridiculous that a single family could be allowed to make that kind of money by mining a natural (and therefore national) resource like iron ore out of the ground, Rinehart inherited her fucking money in the first place (Just like Francisco d’Anconia inherited his copper mines in Atlas Shrugged, eh? And remind me again how Dagny Taggart came to be running Taggart Transcontinental? Ah, yes, through an accident of birth!) Via Raw Story:

“There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working. Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others”

Rinehart blamed what she described as “socialist”, anti-business policies for the plight of Australia’s poor, urging the government to lower the minimum wage, as well as taxes, unless it wanted to end up like Greece.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_law

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Senile Drooling Republican Party – Time to change your Depends

Last seen in a limousine outside his Tampa hotel Waiting for his date Marilyn Monroe - poor senile drooling symbol of the senile drooling old white man's party Clint Eastwood. 

It is time in America for the Republican Party to change its Depends, adult pampers. 

Sad. Very sad final performance of both Clint and the GOP.  Talking to empty chairs to deal with their inability to talk to real people in person. 

Do you talk to empty chairs all day Clint - at the home?


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Koch Brothers’ Mistress Gina Rinehart - Richest Woman in the World - $30 Billion worth - thinks Poor are Lazy and Minimum Wage Too High -- in Australia that is

Once again it is those lazy poor people living off the system who make life so miserable for the very RICH, namely dear sweet Gina Rinehart and global business mining cohort of the Koch Brothers.

Oh dear.

Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart, the richest woman in the world (yes, richer even than Christy Walton) must think she’s some kind of Dagny Taggart OR SOMETHING. Rinehart penned an offensive editorial column in a mining industry magazine that’s being widely condemned in Australia. Considering that she owns much of the media there, and undoubtedly many a politician, too, that seems significant. 

Rinehart’s fortune is estimated to be in the range of $30 billion and apparently the mining heiress thinks those drunken shrimp-on-the-barbie poors are just jealous of people like her and her rich friends. During a month when Rinehart is actively engaged in petitioning the government to lower the minimum wage and slash taxes on the wealthy, her timing couldn’t be worse. 

Setting aside the fact that it’s patently ridiculous that a single family could be allowed to make that kind of money by mining a natural (and therefore national) resource like iron ore out of the ground, Rinehart inherited her fucking money in the first place (Just like Francisco d’Anconia inherited his copper mines in Atlas Shrugged, eh? And remind me again how Dagny Taggart came to be running Taggart Transcontinental? Ah, yes, through an accident of birth!) Via Raw Story: 

“There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working. Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others” 

Rinehart blamed what she described as “socialist”, anti-business policies for the plight of Australia’s poor, urging the government to lower the minimum wage, as well as taxes, unless it wanted to end up like Greece.

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Clint Eastwood’s Senile Rambling Endorsement of Mitt at the RNC – With a cut you know whose throat gesture – Cute but definitely senile

Don’t give a black man the dignity of a pink slip.  

Hang him from the local KKK tree Clint – 

you senile old racist Bugger. 

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Bain Capital / Mitt Romney - Dead Peasants Life Insurance Fund Scam – Worth Billions?

My bank pays 1.5% on deposits.  For Romney to make an annual income of 20 million, that 8% return on his 250 million fortune.  Interest on savings is taxable as income. But he pays little or no taxes claiming capital gains.

Life Insurance Pay Out is not taxable and depending on the loose loopholes surrounding purchase of and maintenance and tax deductibility for paying insurance, how many of the fired peasants of Bain Capital does Bain Capital and or Mitt Romney benefit from their deaths, probably caused by lack of health insurance, through life Insurance.

And besides all the victims, from the “Dead Peasants” at Bain, Mitt has a whole other block of victims to insure with his literal vulture capitalism, all the people who worked on the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, good middle-aged and elderly Mormon volunteers, who probably signed away their rights to benefit from their own life insurance policies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate-owned_life_insurance

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Romney Ryan GOP - Holy Shit - Always look on the Bright Side of Life

.Cheer up, Brian. You know what they say.

Some things in life are bad,

They can really make you mad.

Other things just make you swear and curse.

When you're chewing on life's gristle,

Don't grumble, give a wistle!

And this'll help things turn out for the best...

And...

(the music fades into the song)

...always look on the bright side of life!

(whistle)

Always look on the light side of life...

If life seems jolly rotten,

There's something you've forgotten!

And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing,

When you're feeling in the dumps,

Don't be silly chumps,

Just purse your lips and whistle -- that's the thing!

And... always look on the bright side of life...

(whistle)

Come on!

(other start to join in)

Always look on the bright side of life...

(whistle)

For life is quite absurd,

And death's the final word.

You must always face the curtain with a bow!

Forget about your sin -- give the audience a grin,

Enjoy it -- it's the last chance anyhow!

So always look on the bright side of death!

Just before you draw your terminal breath.

Life's a piece of shit,

When you look at it.

Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true,

You'll see it's all a show,

Keep 'em laughing as you go.

Just remember that the last laugh is on you!

And always look on the bright side of life

(whistle)

Always look on the bright side of life

(whistle)

PAUL RYAN - JESUS - AYN RAND (John Fugelsang)

Ayn Rand – Born in Russia 1905 - born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum – Died 1982

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Whatever Happened to Stephen Baldwin the Actor?

Only rich white men (Capitalism) can do better charity than through Government – The Reverend Stephen Baldwin

I just watched the worst couple of minutes of dead air time in a long time, watching the Martin Bashir Show on MSNBC watching a literal deadhead in the form of meal ticket evangelist Stephen Baldwin.

He equates the Republicans with God because they are against abortion and are therefore the party of white male entitlement and or “family values”

Morally superior Stephen Baldwin is in Tampa with his hands out for a bigger share of faith based profits to feed him, support him while he preaches his dead cow, eat the cow, form of Christianity.  If he had fed the cow and maintained a steady career path in show business, he would not be begging for charity subcontractor jobs at the GOP convention in Tampa. What a shame.

He was claiming that trickle down charity from billionaire capitalists will get the job done, with him as a middle man, instead of the government as benefactor.

Whatever.

Obama Bores Me - but - Romney Puts Me To Sleep ZZZzZ !

Obama bores me but Romney puts me to sleep.  ZZzZ!



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Respect over Love - Chris Christie's Republican View for America

And if you little people don't like it, when they take Social Security and Medicare away, Governor Christie won't miss any sleep or more importantly won't miss any meals over it.

Mussolini Lives!

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Desmond Tutu Refuses to Share Stage with “Iraq War Criminal” Tony Blair

Morality against White Male Entitlement and War Crimes

Hey Desmond get with the program, white Anglo-Saxon males are incapable of war crime.  Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney etc. It is called “white male entitlement”. It is the first “law of nature”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9504259/Archbishop-Desmond-Tutu-pulls-out-of-event-with-Tony-Blair-because-of-Iraq-War.html

The Nobel Peace Prize winner who was the first black archbishop of Cape Town made the protest because of the former Prime Minister's “morally indefensible” decision to lead British forces into Iraq in 2003. 

However Mr Blair hit back in a statement, insisting that such "decisions are never easy morally or politically”. 

Mr Blair and Archbishop Tutu, who received the Nobel Prize in 1984 for campaigning against apartheid, were due to appear at a leadership summit in Johannesburg later this week. 

A local Muslim party has already announced that it would attempt to arrest Blair when he arrives in Johannesburg for “crimes against humanity”. 

Archbishop Tutu’s office said in a statement: “Ultimately, the Archbishop is of the view that Mr Blair's decision to support the United States' military invasion of Iraq, on the basis of unproven allegations of the existence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, was morally indefensible.

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Cosco Kirkland Dress Shirts - Made in China - Mitt and Ann Romney

And before they were made in China, they were made in Mauritius. 

How pretend middle-class chic Mitt and Ann.

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Brazil Court Orders Nestles to Label its Monsanto GM Genetically Modified/Mutated Foods

The creeping arm of the Corporate Food Monster has been set back a bit in Brazil regarding GM (genetically modified/mutated) Food and GMOs (genetically modified/mutated organisms).

After a long legal battle in Brazilian court, Swedish food corporation Nestlé has lost and will be forced to label their food products sold within Brazil as containing genetically modified ingredients. 

As a major purchaser of Monsanto’s genetically modified crops, many, if not the majority of, Nestlé’s products contain ingredients from genetically modified food. The court ruling mandated that the food giant be required to label anything containing more than one percent genetically modified ingredients accordingly. 

This comes shortly after Poland banned GMO corn and Peru banned GMOs completely. 

Talk of Nestlé’s loss has been all over Facebook and twitter, and has fed the fire of debate over the safety of GMO food. The U.S. government has been a huge advocate of GMOs and Monsanto, but concerned citizens of California have put Proposition 37 on the ballot for the November election. 

Prop. 37 would require that genetically modified foods sold within the state of California be labeled accordingly to protect consumers and allow them to make informed choices about their food. Concern surrounding the safety of GMOs is at an all-time high, and Nestlé has failed to engage in the conversation via social media – even as their brand has been at the center of the debate, lately.

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/social-media/honesty-and-transparency-in-business-what-to-learn-from-the-nestle-trial-0264032#XD5Bqclbeki4dzor.99

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/why-arent-g-m-o-foods-labeled/

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Ann Romney's GOP Speech - Who I would rather listen to...

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Vulgar Loud Mouthed Dago Gov Chris Christie of Joisey Trashes Governor Jerry Brown of California In Tampa

Mean Spirited is not a pasta sauce. For some it just comes naturally.

Dripping with his usual street charm and grease from his peppers and sausage lunch, “Tiny Chris” Christie ripped into Jerry Brown to drunk stoned GOP delegates yesterday having a hurricane party.

Christie pissed that Romney picked an Ayn-Ryan Catholic over himself, a good Italian Catholic, a member of a good Italian Catholic parish where forgiveness of sins is purchased by the pound – of hundred dollar bills etc., is in Tampa to play Romney's goomar, number #2 VP choice, and give a speech anyway for the sake his 2016 ambitions. No problem.

But waiting around inside out of the rain, he could not hide his vulgar street education and manners and trash the only decent Catholic politician in the Country, one that really cares about the poor and the gospels. Forgeta bout it.

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2012/08/27/christie-rallies-california-delegates-skewers-gov-brown

Gov. Chris Christie clearly doesn't think highly of his California counterpart, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.

"California made a bad choice by going with an old retread," Christie told a crowd of California delegates at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. "I mean he won the New Jersey presidential primary over Jimmy Carter when I was 14 years old." 

 The age references energized the crowd, as Christie encouraged the California delegates to elect conservatives in their typically blue state, just as blue-state New Jersey did by voting for Christie.

Mean Spirited greasy street thug!

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In Honor of a Drunk - Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco – Stoned Jesus at a Gay Wedding

Good son Sal Cordileone was driving his mom home along with a male friend from a party, Gay Wedding(?), in San Diego.

Although Sally Cordileone was drunk as a skunk, he, alpha male, top that he is, insisted on driving momma home and not calling a cab.

The official apology is heavy on the whining sorry stuff for being caught endangering the public driving his automobile in an inebriated state and short on just how 88 year old mom got home after the cops tested his breath for alcohol, handcuffed him and hauled his heinie off to the country drunk tank.

In honor of pure innocent 110% Vatican Catholic street Sal, a repeat performance to my “Jesus Stoned at a Gay Wedding”.

We understand Sal. Unmarried priests taking mom home after a party is something many unmarried gays also do every day but do not necessarily get arrested on a DUI while doing so. Unmarried because they are not allowed to marry in certain h8te filled provinces of the Empire.

Have a nice day. Regards to mom. We assume she eventually got home safely. And not in the hands of a drunk driver, your male companion? Taxi cab?

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Deist on the Cusp of Theism – and Areligionist too

(Wm.) Blake on Man (Newton)

Eduardo Paolozzi 1924-2005

Just a reminder to my readers to refresh your memories.  I remain areligionist. Without religion or dogma. Remain a cultural christian (small c). 

I heard a remark from comedian Kathy Griffin on one of her comedy specials about not believing anything but not wanting to join the atheists – an anal lot mostly. I agree.

So for the sake of further clarification I am a:  Deist on the Cusp of Theism (want my cake and eat it too)

The use of the word theism to indicate this classical form of monotheism began during the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century in order to distinguish it from the then-emerging deism which contended that God, though transcendent and supreme, did not intervene in the natural world and could be known rationally but not via revelation. - - Wikipedia

“Just because man invented God does not mean that God does not exist” - - M. McShea

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Republican Jews – Yiddish Curses – Paul Krugman

Oy yey, Jesus.
Such a catch. And still single.

May your son the doctor introduce you to his fiancée, Bristol Palin.

May your child give his Bar Mitzvah speech on the genius of Ayn Rand.

May your grandchildren baptize you after you’re dead.

May you find yourself insisting to a roomful of skeptics that your great-grandmother was "legitimately" raped by Cossacks.

May you grow so rich that your widow’s second husband is thrilled they repealed the estate tax.

May you have a large store, and have it all dismantled by vulture capitalists.

May you have a rare disease and need an operation that only one surgeon in the world, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, is able to perform. And may he be unable to perform it because he doesn’t take your insurance. And may that Nobel Laureate be your son.

May G-d give you a daughter-in-law who is as kind as she is beautiful, as patient as she is rich, as wise as she is devoted, a virtuous woman in every way. And then may a ballot initiative invalidate her marriage to your fat lump Rebecca.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/oy-vey/

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GOP Convention Reinvention - Etch A Sketch Resurrection

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An American tragedy. Downsizing. Unemployment. Anger. Revenge? Insanity? Suicide by Cops?

I am surprised that there was not more collateral damage to bystanders in terms of the cops going into top fifth gear in reaction to a killing on a sidewalk across the street from the Empire State Building.  Considering the density of the space, time of day, crowds, traffic and the stone, concrete and granite present, ricocheting bullets are a believable scenario. Glad I wasn’t there.

53-year-old Jeffrey T. Johnson has been identified as the gunman who opened fire at the Empire State Building Friday morning, shooting and wounding 9 people, and killing his former co-worker, before being gunned down himself by police ...

Jeffrey awoke alone Friday in his upper East Side apartment, put on his gray suit and grabbed his briefcase. On his way out the door, promptly at 7:30 a.m., Johnson said hello to the building’s super. 

Neighbors described Johnson as a loner who bought the same takeout meal each day at a McDonald’s near his home — and then dined alone in his room. 

Other than an occasional pop-in by his mother, Johnson never welcomed any guests to the simple apartment. 

Here are a few things you need to know about what happened when Johnson opened fired yesterday morning:   

-Johnson used a 45 semi-automatic caliber handgun.-He worked at Hazan Imports, a women's accessories design line, for 6 years.-Johnson was laid off a year ago due to downsizing.-Johnson shot his former co-worker, a 41-year-old named Steven Ercolino, in the head in front of the office building at 10 W 33rd street. Ercolino had been the Vice President of Sales at Hazan Import Corp. since December 2005.-After Johnson shot his former colleague, a construction worker followed him, then spoke to police nearby. Johnson turned his .45-caliber pistol on officers and they returned fire. Johnson was shot and killed by police.

Read more: http://globalgrind.com/news/jeffrey-johnson-picture-empire-state-building-shooter-hazan-corp-photos#ixzz24ZNGAwww

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/25/justice/new-york-empire-state-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

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Cardinal Dolan's Prayer for the 1% GOP Convention

My fellow Angry White Males

Let us Pray 

For dear fellow One Percenter Mitt

And One Percenter Paul

Whom God has chosen to bless

With lots of PAC cash and

To lead us forward

Out of the darkness caused 

By you know who 

In the White House
(pause for boo-s, house noise)

Restore our Nation

Restore Religious Freedom

So savagely ripped from our 

Christian breasts by the 

Godless Pro-Choice crowd

And…(pause for applause)

(of) politics and fraud—

We’ve made a pretty mess at home,

Let’s make a mess abroad.

And let us ever humbly pray

The Lord of Hosts may deign

To stir our feeble memories

Lest we forget—the Maine.

Take up the White’s Man’s burden.

To you who thus succeed

In civilizing savage hordes,

They owe a debt, indeed;

Concessions, pensions, salaries,

And privilege and right

With outstretched hands you raised to bless

Grab everything in sight.

Take up the White Man’s burden

And if you write in verse,

Flatter your nation’s vices

And strive to make them worse.

Then learn that if with pious words

You ornament each phrase,

In a world of canting hypocrites (like me)

This kind of business pays.

A-men.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5477/