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Sunday, April 28, 2013

UPDATE: The world has lost a giant Daily Kos: Religious indoctrination in the military is now a serious issue

Daily Kos: Religious indoctrination in the military is now a serious issue:


The world has lost a giant - Janos Starker

He was 88.
Since 1958 he taught at the Jacobs School of Music at the University of Indiana.
He was, simply put, one of the greatest cellists to ever live.
I offer that evaluation as one who was himself as an adolescent a very serious cellist and as one who had the opportunity to play in an orchestra behind him.
perhaps this will give you a sense of his mastery:
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He was, according to friends who studied at Indiana, an absolutely superb teacher, as you can see here:


another week of treatment for Leaves on the Current

As I write this, it is the weekly anniversary of that fateful visit January 27 to the x-ray center at Virginia Hospital Center where this all began.
It has been a relatively quiet week.  Chemo began again on Tuesday for another 2-week cycle.  As a result blood tests taken before receiving chemo, Leaves was temporarily put on a supplement to adjust one of her mineral levels - not a big deal, but a pill that had to be broken in to.  Otherwise her lab work has been excellent.
Still, between us we take lots of pills, me for my cholesterol and high blood pressure as well as my permanent problem with my sinuses, her as part of the overall plan to whip this cancer back into remission.
Today is Palm Sunday for Orthodox Christians.  Tomorrow begins an intensive week of services.  She does not know whether she will make the full length of each, but was able to stand and sing in choir for more than an hour this past Wednesday, then stay for a lecture by the now retired priest who married us back in 1985.  She has can dress or undress herself without me.  She can put on and take off Gregor, her back brace.  She can even get what she wants to eat or drink.  And once I have set up all the pills for the week??  Am I really still necessary?  Well, she isn't allowed to deal with cat litter (and that would also require bending over) so with four felines I still have my irreplaceable responsibilities.  It's nice to feel necessary for some things, even nicer that I am still wanted for things she can do but which I can make easier.



Religious indoctrination in the military is now a serious issue

It must be.   After all, Sally Quinn, wife of former legendary editor of the Washington Post Ben Bradlee and author of the "On Faith" part of the paper, wrote that U.S. military should put religious freedom at the front.
There are others here for whom tracking the Dominionists in America, including what they are doing in the military, is their main focus.  Thus you could - and should - have read Death by Dominion by Frederick Clarkson, who is an acknowledged expert on the topic.  When I pointed out the Quinn piece to him, he encouraged me to write about it.
What I offer is placing the authorship in context.  Sally Quinn is as representative of "The Village" - the conventional wisdom of the permanent pundit class of Washington - as is anyone.
The occasion for this piece is a conversation Quinn had with three men - former chief of staff to Colin Powell Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, and head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation Mikey Weinstein (who has been attempting to get people to address this issue for a number of years).
Wilkerson pointed out that proselytizing and sexual assault both undermine the bonds necessary for a