Boss And Big Boss

That's Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, and Archbishop of Canterbury Roman Williams (center, with beard), preparing for ++Rowan's evening talk at General Convention.

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"The Wilderness:" Sermon For 5 Pentecost

While human-made systems offer their people security in exchange for increments of freedom, spiritual freedom is in unlimited supply. For Christians, the key to being free is to avoid being fearful -- including about what others may think of us. My July 5 sermon is here.

Jerusalem Meets Anaheim

When 20 pilgrims from St. John's visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth in August -- whether bobbing in the Dead Sea, touching the rock of Golgotha, or walking streets Jesus Christ may well have known -- we'll be in the tender care of Canon Iyad Qumri, renowned Holy Land guide and interpreter. I caught up with Iyad today at the Episcopal Church's General Convention in Anaheim, where he's a guest along with his wife, Simone, a member of the staff of St. George's Episcopal Cathedral and College in East Jerusalem, where we'll be staying in August. And yes, that's Pastor Karen, our distinguished former associate vicar.

On Friday night, Kathy and I are taking the Qumris to President Nixon's favorite Mexican restaurant. Who knows what it's called?

Never Mind, Mordecai

Andrew Sullivan notices Gov. Palin's Esther quote from the Hebrew Testament, noted here Tuesday afternoon.

News From The Grassy Knoll

Andrew Sullivan is still yearning for scandal, preferably one that erases his shameful journalistic error.

We'll Always Have Paris

Sometimes A Wide Stance Makes Good Sense

If I were the President
I'd work on my body language
Putin's a smaller man
But the way he sits
He owns the room

Esther Rising

Palin has gained support.

One Day, Two Fixes

Having disputed Joe Biden's assertion that the Obama administration misjudged the economy, the President also says that Biden was wrong to have green-lighted an Israeli attack on Iran. Good thing Palin didn't get in, huh?

Fresh Popcorn By The Bushel

Farmer's market in front of Edwards 10, Brea, California

Politics Or Bible Study? You Decide

Conceding that stepping down as governor entails some risk, Gov. Palin said today, "If I die, I die. So be it."

Heard that before? Just ask Madonna. In Esther 5:16, Esther says as much to Mordecai as she promises to risk her life to save her people.

Came out okay for Esther, by the way.

It's My Job, And I'll Quit If I Want To

John Podhoretz:

[Nobody] accused, say, Govs. Kathleen Sibelius of Kansas or Janet Napolitano of Arizona of “abandoning their posts” when they resigned to take cabinet jobs in the Obama administration. Nobody accused Rahm Emanuel of dissing his Chicagoland voters when he quit Congress weeks after winning reelection in November to become White House chief of staff. That these elected officials took other jobs in public service is meaningless; they all ran for full terms and decided that they wanted to do something else, so they went ahead and did something else. That’s fine, and so is Palin quitting for whatever reason she chose to quit. Being elected is not a prison sentence; just ask Barack Obama, who didn’t let his promise to Illinois voters that he would serve out a full term impede him from running for office; same with Hillary Clinton, for that matter.

Palin And The Politics Of Class And Gender

Ross Douthat in the New York Times:

Here are lessons of the Sarah Palin experience, for any aspiring politician who shares her background and her sex. Your children will go through the tabloid wringer. Your religion will be mocked and misrepresented. Your political record will be distorted, to better parody your family and your faith. (And no, gentle reader, Palin did not insist on abstinence-only sex education, slash funds for special-needs children or inject creationism into public schools.)

Male commentators will attack you for parading your children. Female commentators will attack you for not staying home with them. You’ll be sneered at for how you talk and how many colleges you attended. You’ll endure gibes about your “slutty” looks and your “white trash concupiscence,” while a prominent female academic declares that your “greatest hypocrisy” is the “pretense” that you’re a woman. And eight months after the election, the professionals who pressed you into the service of a gimmicky, dreary, idea-free campaign will still be blaming you for their defeat.

All of this had something to do with ordinary partisan politics. But it had everything to do with Palin’s gender and her social class.

Biden This Time

Andrew Sullivan wrote eloquently and angrily last year about the Presidential candidate whose choice of an ill-prepared, inapt VP candidate demonstrated his lack of judgment. Of course, he was writing about Sen. McCain's choice of Gov. Palin, whereas today, Sullivan wrote:

Why is Biden allowed on national television? He's incapable of staying on message which, in terms of foreign policy, is a disaster.

Thrilla In Wasilla Gets A Fair Shot From NBC

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Sullivan Seeking Redemption

Though he hides it behind a sneer, Andrew Sullivan can't conceal his hope that Gov. Palin resigned because last fall's fictionalized pass-the-baby story, the most effective libel of the '08 campaign, which he shamefully repeated and amplified before checking the facts and personally kept alive for all the months since, is really true. He writes:

Is Trig really Tina Fey's child?