Bellevue Chapel

Looking down upon the river's edge
And at the end of a crooked road,
There stands a little chapel,
It has a gentle sort of mode.
It's clothed with fine stone of grey
That never shines by night or day,
But yet this tiny house of God
Will appear to nod and seem to say,
"Come through my humble doors and pray."
--Lynda Rossiter

This is the lovely little chapel where we will be married!

Evan Wiley

Your prayers are requested for the two month-old son of Kami Karcher Wiley, a classmate of mine from high school. Evan is in the intensive care unit of CHOC. His blood vessels are under-developed which is causing extreme strain on his heart.

The specialists have not determined a cause. The family, in addition to requesting prayers, is asking that if you know of anyone who had a condition like this to please refer to the below website to post or e-mail that information.

Also, please get the word out to any one else you know that might have an idea of the cause or courses of action.

A website has been developed for Evan. On this website, it will be possible to send prayers, words of encouragement, and any information. The URL is: http://www.prayersforevan.com.

Thank you for your prayers and support for the Wiley family.

Keep an Eye on the Blog for Me...

The boy will be left unattended with it while I am on a recon mission to Ireland to make wedding plans. Be good! Be back soon, with pictures!

Kosmo’s Picks for August

Movie: Stardust

Movie: Bourne Ultimatum

Movie: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix


Book: Harry Potter (Book Six)
The Half Blood Prince

Book: Harry Potter (Book Seven)
The Deathly Hollows

The Sky is Falling! Or is it?

The Sky is Falling! Or is it?
By Jon Coupal

As the stalemate over the budget continues into its seventh week, taxpayers are troubled over mischaracterizations in the mainstream media about who is responsible. The negative attention is focused on Senate Republicans who are being portrayed as the obstructionists. But viewed fairly, their position is both reasonable and mainstream. They want to see a balanced budget -- rather than saddle future generations with a massive debt load -- and they want to ensure that the $42 billion dollars of bond financing for infrastructure just passed by voters last November is actually spent on infrastructure. Moreover, the position which these Senators have taken is neither an attack on the needy nor an effort to undercut existing environmental protections.

Although the budget passed by the Assembly reflects some progress towards fiscal responsibility, the Senate should make it better by reducing spending by at least another $700 million dollars. Taxpayers remain concerned about billions of dollars of unrealistic assumptions in this budget, revenue that almost certainly will not be there when we need it. This includes: not accounting for a $600 million revenue shortfall in May and June, and an overstatement of property tax and tribal gaming revenue among others. Even with a balanced budget, it is not inconceivable that our structural budget deficit could increase by billions of dollars heading into the next fiscal year.

Lawmakers who are looking after the taxpayers' interests are also trying to clarify the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in order to ensure that overzealous politicians cannot inhibit the will of taxpayers. Last year the Legislature passed AB 32, a bill that set a cap on greenhouse gas emissions. Using this law as a base, Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a CEQA lawsuit earlier this year against the County of San Bernardino saying that its General Plan fails to take into account AB 32 greenhouse gas standards. The only problem is that these standards have yet to be developed. This means that billions in bond proceeds could be bogged down by mind-numbing litigation between the state and counties, resulting in nothing more than taxpayers suing taxpayers. Senate Republicans have proposed a reasonable solution that says that these lawsuits cannot be filed until greenhouse gas standards are set.

The response of some Democrats and the media has been to parade out environmentalists to claim falsely that Republicans are trying to "roll back" CEQA. Such Chicken Little fear-mongering from the far left obscures the main issue and guarantees that more tax dollars will be wasted fighting phantoms instead of providing direct benefits to Californians.

The argument that the CEQA clarification has little to do with the budget is not compelling. Taxpayers have the common sense to understand that $84 billion worth of bonds (after interest payments are included) are at risk here. Insistence that the bond proceeds be spent effectively is little different than desiring to close a $700 million operating or a $5.3 billion structural budget deficit.

Equally lacking in intellectual honesty is the suggestion that the majority party has taken the moral high ground when it comes to the impact on the disadvantaged caused by the budget stalemate. When the Senate met to take up the budget on August 1st, Senate Republicans made motions that would have balanced the budget by making $800 million worth of cuts (AB 191) and making a separate emergency $10 billion appropriation to fund needed programs during the budget impasse (AB 207). Democrats voted down both motions. When put to the test to see how much they really cared about the poor and disabled individuals they claim to care so much about, they failed. What's more, Senate leader Don Perata revealed the disingenuous nature of all that "sky is falling" rhetoric. Right after these votes, he adjourned the Senate for three weeks. The "obstructionist" Republicans, on the other hand, have said that they are ready, willing and able to meet for ongoing negotiations.

The budget impasse has given rise to the predictable calls to strip the Republicans of their veto power over the budget. How? By changing the Constitution to permit passage of the budget by a simple majority, rather than the two-thirds vote currently required. Indeed, the Sacramento Bee on August 9th, yet again, called for just such a change.

But what Republicans need to understand is what the voters think. Voters were given the opportunity to eliminate the two-thirds vote requirement less than four years ago when Proposition 56 appeared on the ballot. It wasn't even close. In an extraordinary slap down, 65% of California voters rejected the idea.

Yes, we all want a timely budget. But most Californians are aware that the tendency of the ruling political class is to spend money the state simply does not have. Taxpayers who pay the bills find that the current death spiral of debt we are leaving for future generations is more offensive than a tardy budget.

In My Own Way

"No--I must keep to my own style & go on in my own Way;

And though I may never succeed again in that,

I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other."

Jane Austen in a letter to James Stanier Clarke
April 1, 1816

I found this delightful quote on a wonderful website called Jane Austen Quote of the Day. I know that everything is Jane lately, but Lori Smith seems to be one of us who has always loved her. Lori is the author of A Walk with Jane Austen (to be published in October '07)--a book I am looking forward to with great anticipation.

Surge is 'Working,' But True Success is Up to the Iraqis

Surge is 'Working,' But True Success is Up to the Iraqis
By Col. David Hunt

"To surge or not to surge; that is the question." If you are a Republican running for president, you have a strong opinion about the surge. If you are Democrat running for president, you have a strong opinion about the surge. If you are a soldier serving in Iraq — actually in the surge — you have an opinion, but nobody cares.

In February of this year, President Bush ordered the military to send an extra 30,000 soldiers to Iraq in order to provide the Iraqi government with a “security bubble,” which would allow the Iraqi people to build their police, military and government into something resembling a police force, a military and a government.

Predictably, and with great respect, I am happy to report that everyday, again and again, the American military is kicking serious ass. Wherever the American soldier fights in Iraq, security and safety ensue. We should all be very proud of these amazingly dedicated and brave men and women. The problem is they, the soldiers, were never meant to, or even allowed to, carry total victory in Iraq. The soldiers gave the Iraqi people and this president a great victory almost five years ago. What the soldiers are doing now is giving the Iraqi people their chance and they are blowing it BIG TIME.

Tactically we are winning, again, while politically and economically we are losing, again. We got what we wanted: a safer environment. What we didn't get were all of the things that were supposed to follow.

The United States military will always win the battles and the wars, despite some of the most insipid senior civilian and military leadership in history. However, the United States military is not designed to, nor equipped to, build countries. That is a task for our entire government. That is a task that is usually led by our Department of State. In the case of Iraq, Rumsfeld won the battle with Powell on who was going to be in charge of Iraq and we got what we got — chaos.

We wished that the surge would work; it did. However, things are still not better in Iraq.

How come? Because without the full, not half-assed, participation and cooperation of the Iraqi government, police, military and people, all the success, bravery, victorious battles, and killing of bad guys by the hundreds a day, will not get it done.

The fate of Iraq, once we took the place, was always up to the Iraqis. The American soldier has done it all: killed insurgents, terrorists, jihadists and members of Iranian militias. They have rebuilt cities, inoculated every child in Iraq, built over 3,000 schools, cleaned up polluted rivers and, oh yeah, died and gave up body parts for the Iraqi people. It has been enough, fini, no more, nil, full damn stop.

We won, and the American soldier did what he always does, win. The Iraqi people have been given their freedom; it is way past time they began to earn it. We wished for the surge to work and it did on our end. True success was always up to the Iraqi people and that we cannot wish for, that has to be done.

We should not abandon Iraq. To do so would be stupid. But we have to stop fighting for it. We can support. We can train. We can continue to spend billions of dollars a week. But we can and must stop dying for it.

Tested by Fire?

We are currently undergoing some pretty intense testing by an outside power who-as-yet-will-remain-unnamed, and by chance (!? Ok, clearly NOT by chance!), I came across these quotes from dear Lanier at one of my favorite blogs, Lanier's Books.

“The road must be trod, but it will be very hard. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us very far upon it. This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

"God gives us the vision, then He takes us down to the valley to batter us into the shape of the vision, and it is in the valley that so many of us faint and give way…The vision is not a castle in the air, but a vision of what God wants you to be. Let Him put you on His wheel and whirl you as He likes, and as sure as God is God and you are you, you will turn out exactly in accordance with the vision. Don’t lose heart in the process. If you have ever had the vision of God, you may try as you like to be satisfied on a lower level, but God will never let you."

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
They will run and not be weary,
They will walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40: 30, 31

How perfectly timely! Thank you, Lanier for the reminder, and the resolve to soldier on towards the goal--together!

Spanish Nights Concert

James--absconding with Sean's glasses.
(He can't see anything just now, can you tell?)

Happy Us!

Back From Camp

and covered in an inch of dirt!

Fortune Cookie Say:

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy on the birth of baby Wallace! He's beautiful!

Friendship

I have been running around like a crazy woman for the past few days helping my son prepare for a week away at Boy Scout camp--for the first time ever. I've never been away from him this long--and especially without talking on the phone or any contact at all. I'm sure he'll be fine, but this is a big step--for both of us!

In the midst of this temporary insanity (Did you pack your toothbrush? Soap?), and worry about Cinnamon, a few dear friends managed to pull me away for some "girl time". And, it was wonderful! I am blessed to have such wonderful, godly friends in my life, and I'm so thankful for all their support through so many years.

A friend is one to whom you can pour out the contents of your heart, chaff and grain alike, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping,
and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

~George Eliot

Cinnamon, the Wonder Dog

Some bad news today on Cinnamon. My recent guess that it was her shoulder that was causing her to limp was correct. (We'd been looking at her paw and a small tumor on her lower leg for 2 months trying to figure this out!) She has a tumor over her shoulder joint-----bone cancer. Dr. Evans says that it is the worst possible diagnosis. To treat it would require removing the leg up to the shoulder and providing radiation treatment. But he said that she almost certainly has tumors elsewhere, and that it has likely already begun to spread to her lungs. Further, because of her age and the fact that she's also dealing with kidney disease, it would just be too much to ask of her body. His recommendation is to make her comfortable and enjoy her while we can.

We're doing ok--no idea how long she has yet. He's prescribed a pain killer for her and said to think about it and let things settle in. He'd like to see her again in 2 weeks to see how she's doing and answer any questions we have.

She's been so healthy for so long, and such a great dog, in spite of what some said when I adopted this gentle, intelligent half pit/half shepherd creature. I can't have asked for a better companion! It's hard to see her weak like this, but her spirits are still good--she's not a complainer, dear thing!