[photopress:mightymouse_1_2.jpg,thumb,alignright]Long ago in the days of computer yore, I used a Mac. We had four of them for high school yearbook staff, but my folks couldn’t afford anything besides a hand-me-down Apple IIe. So there was little Mac use for me aside from the occasional term paper in the college computer lab.

And then there was Windows 95. Cheap, Mac-like, and it worked well enough when it was crashing or locking up. Macs were still outrageously expensive, so I found a Mac-looking all-in-one Compac to get me through seminary. I have been using PCs ever since. Click to continue reading “Building toward a Macgasm”

We discussed prayer at our 20/30something discussion group a couple nights back. (For those of you who aren’t UU, prayer isn’t much of a UU thing these days, although there are certainly exceptions.) During the conversation I found myself saying that I missed the richness of good old fashioned liturgical prayer, like in the Book of Common Prayer.

And so I am writing some myself. Assembling, really. Using the 1894 Universalist Book of Prayer (that Scott has so kindly posted) as a template, I scoured through the hymnal looking for appropriate material. And, I think, I’ve got something now that might work.

Here’s a PDF of my progress so far. What do you think? Click to continue reading “Can UUs do (morning) prayer?”

But will that lead to a much needed complete overhaul? We’ll find out once the study is done a couple of years from now.

I only assume the best of my fellow human beings. Therefore, I can only assume that my fellow Ikea shoppers (some several dozen thousand of them) this weekend were all following the posted Ikea shopping rules that I’d somehow failed to notice on the way in. Judging from their behavior, those rules are:

1. If you see something you might like, stop immediately where you are. No need to move off to the side of the pathway first. Or walk over to it. There’s no chance that several dozen thousand people are right behind you trying to get somewhere too.

2. If you want to talk to your friend about something, stop immediately where you are and begin talking. No need to move to the side of the pathway. There’s no chance that several dozen thousand people are right behind you trying to get somewhere too.

3. Other good places to stop and chat with several people are bathroom doorways and just before or after stairwells, elevators, escalators and check-out lines. There’s no chance that several dozen thousand people are right behind you trying to get somewhere too.

Joe Bageant, hands down, writes the best description of life under our global corporate feudalism, empire, wealth bondage, what have you, that I’ve yet to read—“Welcome to Middle-Class Lockdown.”

I am inspired, and disturbed. This is required reading. Go read it. And then read it again. And then print it out and give it to friends. And enemies. And then go read it another time.

I feel like I’ve just heard John the Baptist preaching in the desert, and watched him eat locusts and honey, and now I know myself to be unclean. But whose baptism can cleanse me from this sin? (Hat tip.)

Steve Greenhouse and Michael Barbaro report:

In a confidential, internal Web site for Wal-Mart’s managers, the company’s chief executive, H. Lee Scott Jr., seemed to have a rare, unscripted moment when one manager asked him why “the largest company on the planet cannot offer some type of medical retirement benefits?”

Mr. Scott first argues that the cost of such benefits would leave Wal-Mart at a competitive disadvantage but then, clearly annoyed, he suggests that the store manager is disloyal and should consider quitting.

Um, why is it okay to expect taxpayers to pay for Wal-Mart employees’ health benefits, but not Wal-Mart?

Oh wait. They do offer health coverage. Let’s see. If you make $8 and hour, you’re making something like $16,000 a year. Once you’ve been at least three months—assuming they don’t park your ass one hour a week under the benefits ceiling—Wal-Mart’s family health coverage will run you around $1700. Then there’s the $1000 deductible.

A living wage here in Atlanta comes out to something like $10.50 an hour, so working at Wal-Mart puts you around $5000 behind what it actually takes to feed and house a small family. Then another $2700 out of pocket before Wal-Mart will not pay for your kid’s measles vaccine. Click to continue reading “Paid your Wal-Mart tax yet?”