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| Selecting a Chandelier by Formula |
One of the most difficult parts about selecting a light fixture can be figuring out the sizing. A too small or too big light can look glaringly out of place. Luckily, there are several formulas out there to guide you through the process.Formula 1: Add the length and width dimensions of the room in feet, [...]
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light, chandelier, formula, selecting |
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Area baby food firm wins ad ban
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A federal judge has ordered the maker of baby formula Enfamil to cease advertisements that contain inaccuracies about store-brand infant formulas produced by a Gordonsville company.
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How effective is Obama’s Palestine policy?
I have been among the many criticizing Obama for moving WAYS too slowly on Arab-Israeli and specifically Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking. However, evidence is now emerging that his "slow and steady" approach is bearing some significant fruit: Item #1: Marc Lynch, just back from a quick trip to Israel and the West Bank, blogged this last night:
without much publicity Obama's pressure has already started generating some important results on the ground -- not just Netanyahu's carefully hedged uttering of an emasculated two state formula, but the significant easing of checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank... That Israel has quietly made significant changes to the checkpoints in the last few weeks -- after ignoring six years worth of Road Map commitments, snubbing Tony Blair and the Quartet's persistent demands, dismissing the recommendations of the World Bank and other international development agencies, and greatly expanding them even while negotiating during the Annapolis process -- suggests that Obama's tough love approach has actually been the only one able to achieve real results.
Item #2: On Tuesday, JTA reported this:
According to the survey of 800 registered [U.S.] voters, which was conducted June 9-11 by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, those who believe Israel is committed to peace has dropped to 46 percent this month from 66 percent last December. The poll found that some 49 percent of American voters call themselves supporters of Israel, down from 69 percent last September, and only about 44 percent of voters believe the United States should support Israel -- down from 71 percent a year ago .
Item #3: Rep. William Delahunt's "Sense of the House" bill that spells out support for a two-state solution and for George Mitchell's peace mission, now has 105 co-sponsors , reflecting the success of the campaign that the White House and several pro-peace organizations have undertaken to slowly and steadily build congressional support for thse positions. These are all key pieces of evidence that Obama's strategy is working... Though it has until now been, as I said, a painstakingly slow one. I completely recognize that the removal of, actually, just a handful of the roadblocks with which the Israeli occupation stifles normal life, including normal economic life, in the West Bank is a thin 'achievement' indeed. (The PDF of the UN-OCHA's latest weekly update on the situation is here .) Also, steps like that or, for example, an increase in the number or types of goods Israel allows into Gaza each week, are incredibly easy to reverse. We can recall, too, what the cocky Likudnik strategic thinker Efraim Inbar told me about what he expected from Obama when I spoke with him back in March:
"The Americans may push us some, so we’ll remove one or two outposts or one or two roadblocks. We’ll play with the Americans.”
And meantime, the occupation as a whole grinds on and on and on... and so does Israel's expropriation of additional amounts of Palestinian land, its construction of additional blocks of settler-only housing, and its continued maintenance of military law over the 2.3 million Palestinians of the West Bank and of a punishingly tight siege against the 1.5 million Palestinians of Gaza... It is that big problem of the occupation that Obama has set himself to tackle. And so far he's taken only baby steps toward doing so. But here's the important thing: In taking those baby steps and in presenting the Palestinian-Israeli issue in the way he has to the US public and Congress, Obama has actually succeeded in building up, rather than diminishing, the support his approach in the US public and Congress. That is unprecedented for US Presidents trying to move towards a more even-handed Arab-Israeli peace policy. One of my friends who works this issue intensely reports that Sen. Mitchell has actually spent just as much time "working" key members of Congress on the issues as he has doing fact-finding in the Middle East. However, I don't think anyone in or out of the administration judges that "just" getting a few more West Bank roadblocks removed, or a few settlement outposts theatrically "demolished" (only to be re-erected someplace else the very next day, as has often happened in the past), or "just" getting the Israeli military's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) to add beans into the "diet" of the Gazans this week, or potatoes next week, or whatever, is going to solve this problem. Everyone understands this is above all a political/diplomatic problem; and if Obama and Mitchell don't take some significant steps at the level of authoritative diplomatic engagement pretty soon, then the whole, still perilously fragile balance in the Arab-Israeli region could still, oh so easily, explode. That, at a time when the US military is working overtime to finetune the modalities of a safe exit from Iraq , the situation in Iran remains extremely murky, and NATO's entire situation in Afghanistan/Pakistan is poised on a logistical knife-edge. So the actions Obama and Co. have taken until now-- expressing a firm stand on Israeli settlement construction (though not, actually, doing anything yet to hold Israel accountable on that score), and expressing a firm stand on opening up the crossings into Gaza (again, without any actions to implement it)-- are in a sense an overture to the main, that is diplomatic, act that should, and I believe will, follow. They have also served to both test and prepare public opinion in both the US and Israel for the main act. (And the results of that 'testing' would, I think, encourage them to move ahead even more boldly.) But when will they make the big diplomatic move? Nobody knows. This team has proven incredibly good at holding its cards close to its chest. It's also good at using a little tactical deception when it wants to. For example, until today, nobody has a clue whether Dennis Ross's latest move-- over to the National Security Council, from the State Department, is a move up, sideways or into some form of bureaucratic sidelining. As Politico's usually very well-informed Ben Smith writes : "As for how much influence he'll have, we'll have to wait and see." For my part, I believe Ross will now come more effectively than before under the command of General Jim Jones, who runs a tight ship on the NSC. But as Smith says, we'll have to wait and see.
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A comment from a friend about our governor’s declaration of “Confederate History Month”
I have not heretofore commented on Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell's declaration of "Confederate History Month" and his appalling omission of any mention of slavery until his statement became national news. My lack of comment in no way reflects any trivializing of this on my part. If anything, I am still groping for words on this one.
So it was definitely helpful that on Thursday my friend Wallace Adams-Riley , the rector at St. Paul's, Richmond, commented on his blog . Allow me to pass along to you his comment in full:
Consciousness, the Light of April 14, 2010 My Dear People, Memory: a golden bowl, or a basement without light. --Mary Oliver, Poet The light of consciousness is the light of the One. --Eckhart Tolle, Mystic + I joked with a friend last week, while in South Carolina, that I was getting used to being in Virginia and being embarrassed by South Carolinians (my distant cousin Joe Wilson's "You lie!," the governor's "hike on the AT," the lieutenant governor's comparison of the poor to stray animals), but it was a new thing, for me, to be in South Carolina and be embarrassed by something a Virginian did. But so it was a week ago, with our governor's proclamation of April as Confederate History Month. A lot of commentary has gone under the bridge since then, as would be expected. (I commend to you, by the way, yesterday's RTD op-ed by Charles F. Bryan, Jr. ; and M.P. Williams' column , particularly as it quotes U of R's Ed Ayers.) Embarrassment has been a common motif, as has sadness; and there has been talk of blindness. Language like "shockingly amateurish" and "gaffe" has been used. Apologizing for leaving African-Americans and slavery entirely out of the proclamation, the governor explained that he had not been "focused" on slavery. The thing is, this was not merely about a misstep, or an inattentive moment. This was not a gaffe. This was not about things being done in an amateur fashion, versus professionally. To think or speak of it in those terms is to trivialize the substance of the matter, is to miss entirely what is important about the moment. Something much deeper and much more significant was and is at play. + He was standing by Hagood's side on the right of the line, when Hoke's aide brought the order to advance. The men, who had been told to follow his lead, were intently watching him, and when he was ordered to go, without speaking, he drew his handkerchief from his breast and raised it aloft. The men sprang over the parapet with a yell and rushed upon the enemy across the intervening space, he moving upon the right of the line... When they were driven back and had laid down in the oats (as they were instructed), to await the coming of the supports, he moved east along the whole length of his line under the close fire of the enemy and shortly after reaching the left, disappeared. "He," like me, was a South Carolinian in Virginia; and he was my great-great-great grandfather Nelson. He died that day, in 1864, in between the lines at Petersburg, just below the Appomattox River. I was raised to be very proud of him, and my ten other direct ancestors who served in the Confederate armies. I grew up, meanwhile, with no meaningful consciousness of what that whole war meant for African-Americans. + My sons will grow up differently. They will be conscious of their two great-great-great-great grandfathers named Nelson, one who served in the 7th South Carolina, and one who served in the 7th Vermont, both of whom died honorably in that service. They will also grow up more consciously than I did of what that war meant for and means to African-Americans, namely, the end of an "evil and inhumane practice," as the amended version of the governor's proclamation put it, and the beginning (albeit a far from perfect beginning) of liberty and justice for African-Americans. + The religious quest can be spoken of in many ways. There is, however, no more apt way to speak of the religious quest (or, to put it another way, the human quest) than to speak of waking up; of consciousness; of emerging, from the unconscious darkness, into the light of consciousness. ("In him was life, and the life was the light of all humanity," the Gospel of John says of the Word made flesh, Jesus.) Let us pray for a greater and more whole consciousness, for ourselves; for all Virginians, including our governor; and for all people; especially as we approach the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War and of Emancipation. Again, last week's excitement was not about a mere gaffe. It was about being awake; it was about being conscious. And how we talk about our history (memory) is as true a sign as any of how conscious we are; of how awake we are; of how much the light of the One shines in our minds, in our hearts, and in our lives, today. + May our history be for us, not a basement without light, but a golden bowl. As the song says: Shine, Jesus, shine. Your brother in Christ, Wallace+
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And so it begins again: What happens in Holy Week
We enter into Holy Week tomorrow: We remember the events of betrayal, crucifixion, and entering into Hell itself. At the end of Holy Week comes the joyous declaration of Resurrection, new life. The fruits of Easter – and Spring - will soon be with us.
Before we go there, I’d like to sketch for you what transpires at St. Paul's in Holy Week. It is my hope and prayer that you will not rush through this the holiest of weeks of our year. I’d like you not to skip from Palm Sunday to Easter without experiencing the richness of what comes in between and the depth of its meaning for us in our walk of faith.
Please accept my personal invitation to participate in as much of Holy Week as you can, wherever you are, and to be especially attentive to the Holy Spirit working within you. Listen for the Holy Spirit, allow yourself to be made new, just as Easter makes each of us new.
As I did last year, I will post on this site each day of Holy Week to explain a bit of what we are doing and why, and to share what I am experiencing. I will also give you a heads up on what comes the next day. And, sorry, no Monday Funnies this week, but it will return the day after Easter Day.
Holy Week is first and last about servanthood, ours to each other, and Christ as servant to all of us. The events of Holy Week represent Jesus lowering himself, step by step, into the fullness of servanthood: Jesus declares, “Where I am, there will my servant be also.”
The first day of Holy Week is tomorrow, the day called, The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday . It begins with the waving of palms and the great triumphant entry by Jesus into Jerusalem, and then Palm Sunday quickly slides into remembering the tragedy and torture of the crucifixion soon to come.
Monday of Holy Week , we will end our regular noon Prayers for Peace with a Holy Eucharist at 12:30 pm. This year we are also adding a meditation on the "Stations of the Cross" led by University of Virginia student Peter Kang. The reflections will be at 6:30 pm, ending on Good Friday. Each "station" will be at a location inside the nave of St. Paul's.
Tuesday of Holy Week , we will hold our noon Holy Eucharist, and at 7:30 pm, our university students will lead their very moving – haunting – chants of Taize.
Wednesday of Holy Week is marked by our Evening Prayer at 5:30 pm and our community night supper. Then I will lead an instructed Eucharist at 7 pm, pausing along the way to explain a bit about how and why we do what we do in the Eucharist.
The three days of Easter begin on Thursday evening at 7:30 pm – Maundy Thursday . We begin the Great Three Days on Thursday, in keeping with the Hebrew calendar in which the new day begins at sundown. The third day begins at sundown on Saturday.
During the Great three days, classically called the Easter Triduum , there are no blessings or dismissals. The reason is the Church understands the services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and the Great Vigil of Easter to be one great continuous liturgy.
The word “maundy” derives from Middle English, and it means “mandate.” Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper when Jesus “mandates” that we remember him each time we experience the bread and wine of our Holy Eucharist.
On Maundy Thursday , we recall that Jesus ate with his disciples, then washed their feet. The focus, though, is not on the meal, but on his act of lowering himself to the feet of his followers.
At St. Paul’s on Maundy Thursday , we will wash the feet of all who wish to have their feet washed, and we will celebrate our last Eucharist before the day of Resurrection. Truly, our mandate is to serve each other and the world.
We will strip the Altar to its bare wood, and we will take consecrated unleavened bread and keep it in a place of reverence in the chapel. We do so to signify that Jesus is still with us even as he hangs on the Cross.
At noon on Good Friday , Jesus lowers himself still further. He goes to the Cross, crucified between two criminals, giving to us his supreme act of love to suffer with us in our pain, and show us that there is more to life than death. We will sit in prayer and hear reflections for those three hours.
On Good Friday we will offer solemn prayers at noon, and again offer those prayers at 5 p.m. After the five-o’clock prayers, we will, in silence, distribute the bread we have reserved in the chapel, a mark of Jesus being with us especially in times of pain.
Once more on Good Friday , at 8 p.m., we will assemble for prayers, and we will dim the candles, one at a time, in the solemn observance of Tenebrae , a Latin word meaning “shadows.”
On Holy Saturday morning, at 9 a.m., we will assemble here for a brief time for the prayers of Holy Saturday, the day that marks when Christ descends into Hell itself to open the gates wide and let everyone out. The prayers of the morning are brief, and I am especially inviting those of you who are preparing our sanctuary for the evening Vigil to participate in this short service.
Holy Saturday is the anvil upon which Easter rests. Without Jesus going to the dead to break the chains of Hell, the resurrection has little to do with us.
With Holy Saturday , Jesus takes us with him at the Resurrection. I hope you will join me for a few minutes Saturday morning in the chapel.
On Saturday evening, after sundown comes our first opportunity to celebrate the third day of Easter: The Resurrection. We assemble for the Great Vigil of Easter – the biggest, most splendid and opulent worship of the entire year.
We light a fire outside, and bring the light of the Paschal candle into the church. The Paschal Candle leads our procession, and there are no crucifixes carried on this night. We are done with the Cross. Inside the church, sitting in the dim light, we hear again the story of creation. And then with lights on, and bells ringing, we declare the Resurrection – we loudly declare Christ has Risen – and we experience again the joy of Easter and our first Eucharist of the Easter season.
Bring your bells and come join us.
On Easter Day morning we come here in the sunlight, our Lent completed and our new life in Christ begun once again.
And with grateful hearts we join in our prayer for The Great Vigil of Easter : “Stir up in your Church that Spirit … which is given to us in Baptism, that we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in sincerity and truth.”
May each of you, wherever you are, have blessed and Holy Week, and a season of hope and renewal in the Easter that is to come.
James+
Paintings: "Palm Sunday Procession," 1967-1968, by Romare Bearden; "Three Women at the Tomb," 1979, by Romare Bearden; traditional icon of the crucifixion, Russian.
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