Bah, Humbug

I think I get the angriest letter award among the several the Times is running December 25 on Wendell Jamieson’s skewering of Bedford Falls. I don’t know how I managed to sound bitter while critiquing cynicism.  But I did.

Merry Christmas to you all and blessings in 2009.  May 2009 be full of at what is good.

Letters

To the Editor:

I wasn’t much of an “It’s a Wonderful Life” fan until I read Wendell Jamieson’s “Wonderful? Sorry, George, It’s a Pitiful, Dreadful Life.”

Mr. Jamieson’s attempt at iconoclasm says so much about what’s wrong with the world. It misses the point of what doing the right thing on a daily basis, instead of the exciting thing in one heroic moment, adds up to in George Bailey’s life, or would add up to in anyone’s life.

A “cooler” nightlife cannot replace the many difficult, selfless choices so many unsung people make on a regular basis. Such a worldview, which allows no room for the redemption that comes with living a good life in a broken world, is not just cynical. It’s morally bankrupt. It does not reflect the reality of the world we live in and what it needs.

[–]
Washington, Dec.20, 2008

Love Came Down at Christmas (Jars of Clay)

India photos, September 2008

These photos are awfully late, but editing hasn’t been a priority lately.  Email me for a link to the entire album.

In the Muslim village of Mohan Mundhera:

YMCA relief camp, night:

Shoba and her children:

Groundskeeper at the old British Residency:

Dinnertime at a relief camp in Orissa:

Traffic:

Self-sustaining sewing workshop attached to Deveraj’s Christian home for formerly trafficked women and their children:

Calcutta:

Barber shop, Padrouna, Uttar Pradesh:

I’m amazed at what big news this is throughout the world

A Kiwi friend, “The world is watching.”

An Italian friend wrote me this morning, “All the world is waiting for US presidential election results. Please let us dream…disappointed italians very tired of their governement [sic] really care about it!!!” This comment really struck me. I mean, wow.

And of course, Le Monde, this was the story splashed across their homepage all day long (screen shot linked at thumbnail). They tracked it better than we did. (Or, I should say, in more detail. That piece painting Ohio as McCain land was kooky — in the meantime Obama swept it by 9 percentage points.)

Dupont Circle is going crazy. I can hear firecrackers and car horns going off, NBC is covering the impromptu party on U Street.

John McCain gave a classically gracious concession speech. I was glad to catch it. Whatever you think of the race he had to run, this is a man who really did spent his whole life sacrificing for his country.

And whomever you supported, it’s a thing to celebrate, America’s first black president. The President Elect seemed pretty verklempt in his acceptance speech.

For the next four years, my church will be praying for President Barack instead of for President George. Let us hope the audacity promised will deliver. It’s time for Obama to show whether he can.

Election returns mapped

Le Monde’s map of rolling election returns is brilliantly laid out. I’ve been checking it obsessively all day.

Don’t need to read French to understand it. Click here or the thumbnail at left.

It’s showing Ohio neck and neck. I’ve also been phone-banking and spoke to a voter in Ohio who is undecided because he is worried either Obama or Palin will be assassinated if elected. I had no script for that….

They’re about ready to call it in Paris!

Aux Etats-Unis, un résultat plus tôt que prévu ?
LEMONDE.FR | 04.11.08 | 20h45 • Mis à jour le 04.11.08 | 20h57

Vu l’ampleur du vote anticipé et l’importance stratégique d’une poignée d’Etats de la côte Est, le nom du probable vainqueur pourrait être annoncé dès minuit, heure de Paris.

Read on.

Also, this bizarre little item. The French are obsessed about swing states, too. At Le Monde: L’Ohio “profond” : l’Amérique en accord avec les valeurs du républicain John McCain – Les élections. It’s about Ohio as small-town America, supposedly McCain’s America: guns, God, and women.

I read Le Monde, but I always read Le Monde when big things are happening over here.

They love Obama in Taiwan

Everyone here thinks Obama is going to go all the way, before he got the nomination. He is on every news broadcast. I’ve seen McCain coverage exactly never.

Irresistible

John Augustine Chung (8 lbs 6 oz, 21 inches) and the tree his parents planted for his birthday.

 

Sarkozy does it again

When I first saw the lead story on the Le Monde homepage (screen capture), I thought, If only what the president says about human rights made headlines (main article) in papers here, too — and an editorial (Mauvaise manière)! But then, our president doesn’t praise the HR records of dictatorial nations, either. Still, the outrage seemed somewhat French and probably as much of an objection to Sarkozy’s ironically guileless capitalist instincts.

AFP covers it in English (“Sarkozy praise for Tunisian rights ‘progress’ sparks outrage”).

Every wedding needs a photo booth

I always thought this would be a cool idea, and now I have proof that it is:

Photos courtesy of Hannah Bee and Kristi Kiger