On a Web and a Prayer . . . .

According to an article in the New York Times this week there's hope for bloggers out here in the "internets" after all:

If You Post It, They Will Pray
By ALLEN SALKIN - November 30, 2008

LET us pray that Steve will be receptive.

On the Web site prayabout.com, Steve’s wife, whose online profile notes that she is a Catholic from St. Charles, Mo., asked other users of the site to submit prayers that her husband will listen to his psychiatrist. She also asked for prayers that the psychiatrist will “see that my husband has major issues that need to be worked on ASAP.”

The post received 19 prayers in response. Jaqueline1712 from India asked Jesus to heal Steve’s broken spirit. A user from Kentucky, whose profile photo shows her hugging a baby, prayed that God would take away Steve’s anger.

“Give this family hope!” wrote Mr.Dan2, of New Mexico.

Prayer has found a home on the Web. Sites such as prayabout.com and ipraytoday.com have recently joined longstanding toll-free telephone services that allow anyone to request, for free, that strangers pray for them.

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The most common prayers are for physical healing, Ms. Brown said. The second-most requested prayer is usually for inner peace, but, unsurprisingly, there has been a major uptick in the last few months in prayers about financial concerns.

The economy is clearly on the minds of users of prayabout.com, which made its debut a year ago and is not affiliated with any religion (although an advertiser is a Christian dating Web site).

One user, mmlgallow, requested prayers for his family business. “Please Father let our business pick up enough to pay our bills and break even so that we do not lose our home. I would also like to pray for the employees that we had to lay off that business picks up enough to bring their jobs back.”

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Not everyone is playing nice. “There have been a lot of attacks on the site from militant atheists,” Mr. Desai said. “They have tried to exploit the site to spread their message.”

Instead of answering prayers, the atheists point to the Web site Godisimaginary.com. The site urges nonbelievers to spread the word by posting links to Godisimaginary on forums, blogs and news groups.

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Believers believe.

Paige Maurer Wheeler, the founder of ipraytoday.com, said the idea for the Web site, which she started last year from her home in Phoenix, came to her in a dream. “I told my husband, ‘I’m going to start a prayer Web site and we’re going to show the power of prayer.’ He said, ‘O.K.’ ”

Ms. Wheeler said she now has thousands of registered users and a stock of testimonials.

“We had a 78-year-old woman fall off a stool,” she said by telephone. “She was paralyzed. Her friend wrote in and said, ‘Pray for Marsha.’ And there she was, the next day, walking.”

MS. Wheeler said the stock of testimonials would be deeper, but her Web site programmer lost a lot of her data.

Which proves the old maxim true: "Garbage in, garbage out" in 'puter land.

Speaking of 'puter land and the "internets," our lowly blog has actually made it to the final round of the Canadian Blog Awards.

Unreal.

You can vote here if you're so inclined . . . .

(H/T "drf")

We'd Like to Thank . . . .

whoever nominated us to the Best GLBT Blog in the Canadian Blog Awards. You can vote here if you're so inclined.

"We are not worthy, we are not worthy", but, gee, we're touched.




Kind of makes us feel like real Canadians . . . .

Home Again . . . .

Two and a half weeks after leaving Vancouver for a tour of the Southeast US, it's great to be back home.

A photo log of some of the sites for your enjoyment:

No, that's not snow on the beach -
That's the actual colour of the sand
in our part of Florida.

An early morning fog over our bay.

Huge lake north of Atlanta showing how low the
water levels are. Shades of things to come.

In case you're not familiar, this is actual
cotton growing in South Alabama.

Cotton-pickin' equipment

The last sunrise over our Florida bay
prior to returning home

Best shot of all - out our balcony window
on my first morning home. Looking toward
the holiday-decorated Hotel Vancouver.

Home sweet home, indeed . . . .

The Real Morning in America . . . .

A good friend from California sent this, and it's worth sharing:

One sunny day in 2009 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine looked at the man and said, 'Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.'

The old man said, 'Okay' and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine again told the man, 'Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.'

The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same U. S. Marine, saying 'I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.'

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, 'Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I've told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don't you understand?'

The old man looked at the Marine and said,

'Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.'

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, 'See you tomorrow.'

Gotta love it . . . .

(H/T Paula)

US Enviable ? ? ? ?

While perusing Progressive Bloggers yesterday this post by Paulitics caught my eye. It deals with the impression inside the US that the rest of the world envies them.

Quite well done.

Check it out . . . .

Texas Two Step . . . .

To keep you up to speed, here's what's been going on:

I left Vancouver on Tuesday - yes, the day of the US election - for some time in our Florida residence. (Would anyone like to take it off our hands?!?!) The weather here has been glorious, as I expected it to be. Autumn in this part of the world is typically spectacular - barring any tropical storms.

So, I got to see the election results while actually being in the country involved. No big surprise, but at least the outcome was a positive one in light of the alternative. Now, let's hope Mr. Obama can deliver on his promise of "change." The proof will be in the results.

The following two video compilations have crossed my radar screen since arriving here, and I wanted to share them with you. They are indicative of some of the reasons "drf," The Four Footed Child, and myself felt compelled to leave this place for a better place. Coincidentally - or perhaps not - both take place in Texas, home of an infamous current - and soon to be former (we hope) - President.






And then this.

So. As I stated in a "queerie" posed by our friend MSEH in her upcoming ex-pat analysis:

As for actually moving back because of Obama's election, the answer is an emphatic "No." Granted, given the alternative, his election is an improvement and a BIG improvement over the past eight years. However, the US corporate power structure has taken decades to become entrenched, and a 4-year or 8-year Obama administration will not and can not substantially change that situation. That said, what would be the benefit to returning to the States? Nothing will be fundamentally different than it has been during my lifetime. There will still be a focus on military might, a lack of caring for it's citizen's welfare, gross inequities in income levels and a tendency to inject religion into politics and government.

We didn't make the decision to apply for Permanent Resident status and eventual Canadian citizenship on a whim. The two-plus year process gave us plenty of time to reconsider should we have had doubts.

Canada is by no means perfect, but in comparison to the US it's no contest for me.

I'm staying right here, thank you very much.

Is it any wonder we left?

I think not . . . .

1 Year Anniversary . . . .

Hard to believe, but today is the one year anniversary of "drf" and I receiving our Canadian Permanent Resident status.

The over two-year process from submitting our application to receiving the status was an exercise in learning patience and how to wait for long periods with absolutely no word on what was going on. Due to the advice of our other immigrant family members we made it through with our sanity intact.

To those in the audience still undergoing the process, rest assured the wait is worth it . . . .

Juror Jilts Stevens for Nag . . . .

ted "Series of Tubes" stevens loses out to a horse race.

From McClatchy today:

Stevens juror left for horse race, not father's funeral

Erika Bolstad | McClatchy Newspapers - November 03, 2008

WASHINGTON — Juror No. 4 in Sen. Ted Stevens' federal corruption trial, otherwise known as Marian Hinnant, didn't leave to attend her father's funeral in California, as she told the judge at the time.

Instead, Hinnant had a plane ticket to see the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita Park and didn't want to miss it, she told the judge Monday, in what sounded like completely irrational and perhaps even delusional remarks.

"I just wanted to go to the Breeders' Cup," she told reporters after a hearing the judge held to find out why she'd left town and lost contact with him, forcing him to replace her just hours before the jury found Stevens guilty.

Hinnant also told reporters that she would have found the Alaska senator guilty had she remained on the jury.

"He was guilty, but these other guys are just as guilty," she said, referring to other members of Congress.

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Hinnant, 52, told reporters that she works at Avis car rental in Union Station in Washington. She worked in horse racing for many years and simply wanted to see the race, since she already had a plane ticket to California.

Somehow, this sounds very appropriate to me.

After all, stevens' daily double of stupidity is exacta what caused the dam trifecta of this blow out of a court case to break down. You would have to have had blinkers on to not see the prosecution breeze to a guilty verdict and put 'ole ted on a fast track pace to a stint in the pokey place.

Sorry, I got a bit carried away there . . . .

Here Comes the Judge . . . .

Looks like bushco has encountered a bit of a snag:

Per Reuters this morning:

Judge tells White House to release wiretapping docs
Sun Nov 2, 2008 12:27pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration must give to a federal court documents related to government wiretapping of domestic communications without a warrant after the September 11 attacks, according to a recent court order.

U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy signed the order on Friday requiring the U.S. Justice Department to provide the court for private review certain documents that were sought in lawsuits filed by the civil liberties groups.

Kennedy ordered the administration to provide the documents from the White House Office of Legal Counsel by November 17, and said he will review them in private to see if their release would endanger national security.

_______________


The White House and the department could not be reached for comment.

Poor gw.

Too bad he can't just slink away in quiet infamy.

Chuckle, chuckle . . . .