Re Morse

I've been influenced of late by reading the fiction of Colin Dexter, the inventor of Inspector Morse of the Thames Valley PD, Oxfordshire, England, UK. The Better Half and I have enjoyed the recent PBS run of "Masterpiece Mystery," which features "Inspector Lewis" (played by Kevin Whately), the protege of the late Inspector Morse (played by the late John Thaw). We liked the characters so well that I got Morse novels and have been reading them with much enjoyment.

Turns out Inspector Morse was a sodding pedant, always correcting the grammar, spelling, and content of statements of (then) Sergeant Lewis. Morse is an arrogant alcoholic (I can identify with that) and somewhat of a lecher (no comment, or should I say nolo contendere). Morse is a terrible snob and approves only of Wagner (that's VAHG-nehr, Vil-helm Rikh-ard, the German opera composer, the one Hitler loved, the anti-Semite) and not of Bach (the guy who signed all of his music "to the glory of God"). Morse weeps when he listens to Wagner. (I weep too but for different reasons. I keep telling myself I'm going to learn about opera, starting with Mozart, then the Italians, then maybe just a little of Wagner. (In Wag's bloated case, a "little" would be about one scene of one act of his shortest opera.) Just so I can say I know something about opera. Like reading Shakespeare plays before watching them.) Morse does like Mozart's Requiem too, and Mahler and Bruckner. Kudos to him for that. Morse is very fallably human with many foibles and when he stops being an arsehole at times can be likable. For some arcane reason, he is irresistible to women. Smacks of James Bond. These British writers get their jollies from the supermacho seductive chaps of their fiction.

I like the way the TV Lewis has picked up the Rugby ball and has scored a big goal. Lewis is a likable bloke, and Kevin Whately, who favors the late Richard Crenna in looks, is entirely believable as Lewis, who has now acquired the Christian name of "Robbie." His partner is James Hathaway (Laurence Fox, son of James ("Lord Darlington" in "The Remains of the Day"), who, unlike Robbie, has gone to Oxford, and who has studied theology, and thus continues as the pedantic (but not obnoxious) foil of the proletarian Robbie ("Not Shakespeare again! I'm gettin' sick of bloody Shakespeare...)

The setting is Oxford University, a beautiful place on earth, and the characters -- the perps -- lot of crime in Oxford -- are dons (profs) and students. It's a fun series.

Jon Stewart Interview on TRMS, aired 11/11/2010

My Dear Rachel: I was frustrated and ultimately angry with the behavior of Jon during your interview with him. He was arrogant, overbearing, condescending, and he continually interrupted you. Jon said that calling Bush a war criminal "stops debate." But pouncing on every point you made and making his points instead stopped the debate too. He wanted the last word, and he seemed to get it, at the expense of your charitable behavior toward him. (After all, he was a "guest," right?) It was nice of him to say at the close of his monologue that he "likes" you, but I'm not so sure he does: I felt like it was some sort of appeasement for the cavalier way in which he treated you. Another way of saying it is, instead, he likes only himself -- at least in interviews. I remember how rude he was with Tucker Carlson when he was a "guest" on that late CNN show "Crossfire" and I liked it then because I thought the show's shouting was worthless and I frankly do not like Tucker Carlson, whom I regard as also arrogant. But I do not equate you with Carlson, or Bill Kristol, or John Bolton, or George W. Bush, or Karl Rove, or Samuel Alito, as deserving a comeuppance. You are the Joan of Arc of journalism to me and I will not have anybody mistreating my heroine. It was nice for you to say that Jon is a mensch, but I'm not so sure. I can think of other Yiddish words to describe him, at least while on your show -- again as a "guest" -- and they mostly begin with "schm--." (In fact, the Anglo-Saxon word that comes to mind also begins with the "sh" sound.) There was at least one unflattering comparison of late of Jon with Stephen Colbert, with Stephen being favored, and it caused me to imagine how Stephen would behave in an interview with you. I think he might take a satirical "Papa Bear O'Reilly" tack for a while, but his true graciousness would come out at some point, and you would know it, and we as viewers would all know it. I know I love you, and I'm quite fond of Stephen, but I'm not so sure I like Jon all that well right now. Voltaire or Mark Twain or Will Rogers or even Mark Russell he's not, just yet.

Always your loyal viewer,
John T. (JT) Evans
Madison, Indiana

Jim Wallis on the Gulf Catastrophe

I am watching unbelievable pictures tonight of endless swaths of brown oil mixed with the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico, of dying wetlands and marshes, of miles of contaminated coastlines, of dead birds and animals, of helpless and hopeless Gulf Coast residents sadly witnessing their livelihoods and their lives slipping away. With the explosion and sinking of the BP oil rig six weeks ago, the immediate talk was about environmental threats and technical fixes, economic losses and political blaming, and debates about responsibility for the costs. But with the failure of the latest attempt to stop the spill, and with both BP and the federal government admitting they still really don’t know how much oil has already spilled or will spill, a national discussion is beginning about the fundamental moral issues at stake, and perhaps even a national reflection on our whole way of life based on oil dependence and addiction.

After the failure of “top kills” and “cut and cap” strategies, it now appears the gushing of oil into the sea could continue until at least August, or maybe even longer. This could be one of those moments when the nation’s attention all turns to the same thing, as in 9/11 and the days after Katrina. To use an over-used phrase, this could be a “teachable moment,” but as 9/11 and Katrina demonstrated, we don’t necessarily learn the right lessons from teachable moments. This time we had better do so.

First, we have to change our language. This isn’t a little “spill,” it is an environmental catastrophe -- the potential contamination of a whole gulf (already a third is now off limits for fishing) and hundreds of miles of coastline, and it threatens to expand to an ocean and more coastlines. It will bring the destruction of critical wetlands, endanger countless species, end human ways of life dependent upon the sea, and now, it will increase the danger of a hurricane season that could dump not just water, but waves of oil just miles inland from the coasts.

Theologically, we are witnessing a massive despoiling of God’s creation. We were meant to be stewards of the Gulf of Mexico, the wetlands that protect and spawn life, the islands and beaches, and all of God’s creatures who inhabit the marine world. But instead, we are watching the destruction of all that. Why? Because of the greed for profits; because of deception and lies; because of both private and public irresponsibility. And at the root, because of an ethic of endless economic growth, fueled by carbon-based fossil fuels, that is ultimately unsustainable and unstable.

It’s not just that BP has lied, even though they have -- over and over -- to cover up their behavior and avoid their obligations. It is that BP is a lie; what it stands for is a lie. It is a lie that we can continue to live this way, a lie that our style of life is stable and sustainable, a lie that these huge oil companies are really committed to a safe and renewable energy future. BP should indeed be made to pay for this crime against the creation -- likely with its very existence.

But I am also reminded of what G.K. Chesterton once said when asked what was most wrong with the world. He reportedly replied, “I am.” Already, we are hearing some deeper reflection on the meaning of this daily disaster. Almost everyone now apparently agrees with the new direction of a “clean energy economy.” And we know that will require a re-wiring of the energy grid (which many hope BP will have no part in). But it will also require a re-wiring of ourselves -- our demands, requirements, and insatiable desires. Our oil addiction has led us to environmental destruction, endless wars, and the sacrifice of young lives, and it has put our very souls in jeopardy. New York Times columnist Tom Freidman recently wondered about the deeper meaning of the Great Recession when he asked, “What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last fifty years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall -- when Mother Nature and the market both said, ‘No More.’” The Great Spill makes the point even more.

There is not one answer to this calamity; there are many: corporate responsibility, for a change; serious government regulation, for a change; public accountability, for a change; and real civic mobilization to protect the endangered waters, coasts, species, and people’s livelihoods. But at a deeper level, we literally need a conversion of our habits of the heart, our energy sources, and our lifestyle choices. And somebody will need to lead the way. Who will dare to say that an economy of endless growth must be confronted and converted to an economy of sustainability, to what the Bible calls stewardship. What about the community of faith?

I am told this morning that the smell of oil is already apparent in the parks and playgrounds near the Mississippi coast. Unless this crisis in the Gulf finally becomes the wake-up call that signals a new national commitment to end our dependence on oil, our children may now be smelling their future.

The first step forward is building awareness. Would you forward this SojoMail to 20 of your friends?

This Says It All about the So-called Tea Party

http://ephphatha-poetry.blogspot.com/2010/04/imagine-if-tea-party-was-black-tim-wise.html

Regarding Forgiving

"It's just that God began to act like Sam-I-Am from Green Eggs and Ham. Everywhere I turned there were helpful household hints on loving one's enemies ... and reminders that [not forgiving] usually doesn't hurt other people so much as it hurts you. In fact, not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die. [My italics. I laughed out loud at this because it is so true.] [Other reminders] -- yet I kept feeling that I could not, would not forgive her in a box, could not would not forgive her with a fox, not on a train, not in the rain." (Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies)

Do We Lack Conviction?

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

Those lines from Yeats' poem, The Second Coming, have fascinated me ever since I first discovered them a good many years ago. About the only "pleasure" I derive from them is that the words are so true and so concisely put; they afford the same kind of enjoyment that I get from Shakespeare's aphorisms although so many of those lines are about sadness and suffering and it is a "sadder but wiser" person who nods at their truthfulness.

Contemplating "the best" and "the worst" right now in American life, I see the passionate intensity with which the worst, the so-called lawmakers, have fought reform of any kind because those lawmakers represent the interests of those mighty few who have so much, against those many who have so little -- the ones Jesus stated clearly were "the best." (He actually called them "the least" of his children, saying that whatever wrong we did to them we did to him and whatever compassion we gave to them we gave to him.)

I see the passionate intensity with which the worst, the rabble-rousers, the ones with guns and bricks and foul mouths and nasty tempers, full of hatred and envy and self-loathing, turned outward to dangerous other-loathing, on the verge of mob rule and insurrection call names and try to threaten and intimidate innocent people who "work hard and play by the rules."

Do we who see the injustice and understand that it is unjust by any standard of decency on this God's earth -- do we lack conviction? Can we muster the passion to fight this oligarchy and mob rule we're faced with? Do the best lack all conviction?