May someday his prayer for peace in his beloved Sri Lanka be answered.

The Dalai Lama, speaking to reporters, urged his countrymen to show restraint.

He said that “if things become out of control” his “only option is to completely resign.”

Later, one of his top aides clarified the Dalai Lama’s comments.

“If the Tibetans were to choose the path of violence he would have to resign because he is completely committed to nonviolence,” Tenzin Taklha said. “He would resign as the political leader and head of state, but not as the Dalai Lama. He will always be the Dalai Lama.”

The recent protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, led by monks, began peacefully March 10 on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. But they grew increasingly violent, culminating Friday with widespread street violence. Chinese officials say 16 people were killed, but the Tibetan government-in-exile put the toll at 80.

George Orwell, in his “Reflections of Gandhi”, noted Gandhi suggested non-violent resistance to a possible invasion by the Japanese in 1942. Perhaps the Dalai Lama should take a look at Orwell’s response, since the Dalai Lama’s resignation would suit Communist China just fine.

If you are not prepared to take life, you must often be prepared for lives to be lost in some other way. When, in 1942, he urged non-violent resistance against a Japanese invasion, he was ready to admit that it might cost several million deaths.

At the same time there is reason to think that Gandhi, who after all was born in 1869, did not understand the nature of totalitarianism and saw everything in terms of his own struggle against the British government. The important point here is not so much that the British treated him forbearingly as that he was always able to command publicity. As can be
seen from the phrase quoted above, he believed in “arousing the world”, which is only possible if the world gets a chance to hear what you are doing. It is difficult to see how Gandhi’s methods could be applied in a country where opponents of the régime disappear in the middle of the night and are never heard of again. Without a free press and the right of
assembly, it is impossible not merely to appeal to outside opinion, but to bring a mass movement into being, or even to make your intentions known to your adversary.

Meanwhile, the news blackout in China and in Tibet continues, even as the violence continues.

Arrrgh.

Look. They don’t attract votes. They use up valuable volunteer time. They get campaigns in trouble (illegal placement, etc). They cost too much money. They’re worthless if you don’t win. They fall down right away. The weather wrecks them right away. And if someone doesn’t get enough yard signs campaign staff members have to run around dropping off more signs and answering stupid phone calls about them. The wires cost an arm and a leg and then you’re stuck with them. Your volunteers never distribute as many signs as they say they will and then the day before the election return a bunch of them to clutter the campaign office. Did I mention the wires get grease on your clothes, usually right before some important meeting or event?

Oh yeah, and the yard signs get “stolen.” What a freaking pain that is listening to volunteers and candidates complain about (this is a family-friendly blog) stolen yard signs. WHO THE (this is a family-friendly blog) CARES?

Do you know yard signs are good for? Finding the neighbor of the other candidate that really dislikes him or her and putting a really big sign in the neighbor’s lawn so the opposing candidate can see your candidate’s name every day when they come home from wherever. Or finding a renter in the opposing candidate’s rental property to stick the sign in their window. Or my favorite (although I swear I did not do this), steal the opponent’s yard sign and put it up in front of the adult book store. THAT’S IT.

If I ever run another campaign again (and I never will), I swear it will not include yard signs. I don’t care how much the candidate begs me, I don’t care how much the volunteers beg me, I don’t care if someone swears on a stack of Bibles that they will be 100% responsible for the ordering, purchasing, distribution and replacement of yard signs, the next campaign I work on will have no yard signs.

Unless I’m the one running.

The Pope’s remarks on Iraq:

“At the end of this solemn celebration in which we have meditated on Christ’s Passion,” the Holy Father said today: “I would like to recall the late Chaldean archbishop of Mosul, Monsignor Paulos Faraj Rahho, who tragically died a few days ago.

“His beautiful witness of fidelity to Christ, to the Church and his people, whom he did not want to abandon despite numerous threats, moves me to cry out forcefully and with distress: Enough with the bloodshed, enough with the violence, enough with the hatred in Iraq!”

Lift up your heads

The Holy Father went on to plea for an end to the upheaval caused by the war in Iraq, which began five years ago this week.

He said: “And at the same time I make an appeal to the Iraqi people, who for five years have endured the consequences of a war that has provoked upheaval in its civil and social life: Beloved Iraqi people, lift up your heads and let it be you yourselves who, in the first place, rebuild your national life!

“May reconciliation, forgiveness, justice and respect for the civil coexistence of tribes, ethnic groups and religious groups be the solidary way to peace in the name of God!”

from the Pope’s Palm Sunday homily:

Benedict XVI said that Christ’s zeal for the temple should lead Christians of today to reflect: “Is our faith pure and open enough that, beginning from it, the ‘pagans’ — the persons today who are seeking and have their questions — can also intuit the light of the one God, can associate themselves with our prayer in the atriums of faith and by their seeking perhaps become worshippers?

“Does the awareness that greed is idolatry also reach our heart and our life practices? Do we not perhaps also allow idols to enter even into the world of our faith? Are we disposed to let the Lord purify us again and again, allowing him to chase out of us and the Church what is contrary to him?”

The Holy Father went on to say Christ’s action in the temple shows that “a new moment in history has been foretold.”

“The time in which animals were sacrificed to God has ended. Animal sacrifice had always been a miserable substitution, a gesture of nostalgia for the true way of worshiping God. [...] The body of Christ, Christ himself, enters to take the place of the bloody sacrifices and the food offerings. Only the ‘love to the end,’ only the love for men for which he gives himself totally to God, this is the true worship, the true sacrifice. Worshipping in spirit and truth means worshiping in communion with him who is truth; worshipping in the communion of his body, in which the Holy Spirit unites us.”

“The fact that Jesus now chases out the merchants does not only impede abuse, but indicates the new action of God,” the Holy Father continued. “The new temple is formed: Jesus Christ himself, in whom God’s love comes down to men. He, in his life, is the new and living temple. He, who passed through the cross and is risen, is the living space of spirit and life in which the right worship is realized. Thus, the purification of the temple, as the culmination of Jesus’ solemn entry into Jerusalem, is the sign both of the incumbent destruction of the building and the promise of the new temple; the promise of the kingdom of reconciliation and love that, in the communion with Christ, is established beyond every frontier.

“To the trafficking in animals and the money exchange, Jesus opposes his goodness that makes well again. It is the true purification of the temple. He does not come as a destroyer; he does not come with the sword of the revolutionary.

“He comes with the gift of healing. He dedicates himself to those who because of their infirmities have been pushed to the end of their life and to the margins of society. Jesus reveals God as he who loves, and his power as the power of love. And thus he says to us what will always be a part of the true worship of God: healing, serving, the goodness that makes well again.”

When: Tuesday – Friday, March 18, 19, 20 & 21. 7:30 PM
Where: Eastbrook Church Worship Building

Experience the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ as if you were there. In this interactive drama the audience becomes the crowd in Jerusalem and watches the passion unfold around them. The Eastbrook Worship Choir provides glorious music. For more information, visit morningstarproductions.org. Tickets may be purchased by calling 228-5220 x385 or at the door.

I think I’ve told this story before, and I can’t verify it’s accuracy. Supposedly on Election night in 1960 John Kennedy asked Kenny O’Donnell if he weren’t Irish, what would he be?

“I’d be ashamed.”

via Monsters and Critics

The sound of church bells wafted through Jerusalem’s Old City, marking Palm Sunday and the beginning of Easter Holy Week.

Pilgrims from around the world carried olive and palm branches into the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulcher, believed to be the place of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

Priests and monks in festive red and white robes celebrated Palm Sunday mass in a fragrant cloud of incense. Among the worshippers was Jim Nichols from the central U.S. state of Wisconsin.

“It is overwhelming, emotionally overwhelming, over-joy of emotions. It just reaffirms what I believe,” said Nichols.

And in the meantime, Owen Robinson has promised everyone in Waukesha we can borrow some of his radium-free drinking water. We’ll just need to run a hose to his house in West Bend and help ourselves to as much as we want.

Owen, I suggest you get one of them multi-headed ends for your outdoor spigot. Maybe a whole bunch.