To celebrate a very belated Texas Independence Day (March 2nd) here are some links from the world's most beautiful city, Austin.

Image from Insidestatesman.com

• AustinPostCard.com - a collection of old postcards from Austin, TX (Be sure and check out this one. It is one of my favorites of the collection.
  

• Austin History Center Association
  

• The Lady Bird Johnson National Wildflower Center
  

• Webcams and radar from Austin, TX
  

• The Daily Texan: Writing on the walls --- Local photographer documents Austin's mural history
  

• Gallery of Austin muralist Doug Jacques. Be sure to check out one of my favorites: Le Bonheur de Vivre, which is painted at the corner of 24th & Guadalupe Streets in Austin.
  

• “In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art. Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God. It must therefore translate into meaningful terms that which is in itself ineffable” (letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to artists, 1999)
  

• The next quote is in honor of St. Patrick's day. St. Patrick (c. 385-461 A.D.) was an incredible servant of the Lord who was the 2nd greatest missionary in world history (next to only St. Paul) and did so much to shape the world we now live in. We (Christians and non-Christians) owe so much to him, especially in the scholarly tradition he began in Ireland that preserved so much of the knowledge that we take for granted.
  

  This prayer is called St. Patrick's breastplate and is believed to be written by Patrick himself.
  

  
  

  Today I put on
  a terrible strength
  invoking the Trinity
  confessing the Three
  with faith in the One
  as I face my Maker.
  

  Today I put on the power
  of Christ's birth and baptism,
  of his hanging and burial,
  His resurrection, ascension,
  and descent at the Judgement.
  

  Today I put on the power
  of the order of the Cherubim,
  angels' obedience,
  archangels' attendance,
  in hope of ascending
  to my reward;
  patriarchs' prayers,
  prophets' predictions,
  apostles precepts,
  confessors' testimony,
  holy virgins' innocence
  and the deeds of true men.
  

  Today I put on
  the power of Heaven,
  the light of the Sun,
  the radiance of the Moon,
  the splendour of fire,
  the fierceness of lightning,
  the swiftness of wind,
  the depth of the sea,
  the firmness of earth
  and the hardness of rock.
  

  Today I put on
  God's strenghth to steer me,
  God's power to uphold me,
  God's wisdom to guide me,
  God's eye for my vision,
  God's ear for my hearing,
  God's word for my speech,
  God's hand to protect me,
  God's pathway before me,
  God's shield for my shelter,
  God's angels to guard me
  from ambush of devils,
  from vice's allurements,
  from traps of the flesh,
  from all who wish ill,
  whether distant or close,
  alone or in hosts.
  

  I summon these powers today
  to take my part against every implacable power
  that attacks my body and soul,
  the chants of false prophets,
  dark laws of the pagans,
  false heretics' laws,
  entrapments of idols,
  enchantments of women
  or smiths or druids,
  and all knowledge that poisons
  man's body or soul.
  

  Christ guard me today
  from poison, from burning,
  from drowning, from hurt,
  that I have my reward.
  

  Christ beside me,
  Christ before me,
  Christ behind me,
  

  Christ within me,
  Christ beneath me,
  Christ above me.
  

  Christ on my right hand,
  Christ on my left,
  

  Christ where I lie,
  Christ where I sit,
  Christ where I rise.
  

  Christ in the hearts of all who think of me,
  Christ in the mouths of all who speak to me,
  Christ in every eye that sees me,
  Christ in every ear that hears me.
  

  Today I put on
  a terrible strength,
  invoking the Trinity,
  confessing the Three,
  with faith in the One
  as I face my Maker.
  

  Domini est salus.
  Domini est salus.
  Domini est salus.
  Salus tua, Domine, sit semper vobiscum.
  

  
  

• Guardian: Game publicity plan raises grave concerns
  

• NY Times: As scandal keeps growing, church and its faithful reel
  

  This story is very sad, but I think it worth reading for the questions it asks. Here are few excerpts:
  

  From schools of theology to dining- room tables, a growing number of Catholics are questioning the bedrock on which the church is built — the all-male, celibate priesthood. Parishioners are calling for open dialogue and debate about a tenet that Pope John Paul II has said is closed for discussion.
  

  In a startling step, the official Catholic newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston said in an editorial on Friday that the Catholic Church must now confront questions and commission studies about whether the celibate, unmarried, all-male priesthood should be continued.
  

  Cardinal Law, who is considered a conservative Vatican loyalist, said on Friday night that the editorial was not intended to question the church's position on clerical celibacy but to reflect issues raised by others because of the abuse cases. No church leaders expect any immediate change in a doctrine that has served the church for centuries. But the practical effects of the scandal are evident.
  

  I think the Catholics are right and wrong on this issue. There is gift of celibacy that is mentioned and celebrated in scripture. Most people don't have that gift (I know I don't, hence my loneliness of late.), which is why God said "It is not good for man (or woman) to be alone." But for those that do, it is a blessing. The Apostle Paul was person that did have that gift and he spoke in (ref) of the blessing that being single for God can be.
  

  I think it is good that the Roman Catholic church encourages gifted men and women to be celibate, but I also think they are wrong to put that burden on those who do not have that gift. There is a tremendous need for priests in American catholicism, and allowing married men (and women) to pursue the priesthood would make sense. The problem right now is that there are many men who do not have the gift of celibacy who are trying to live like they do, so as to following their calling to the priesthood. If these men were allowed to marry, then maybe some of these problems wouldn't occur.
  

  Liberal and traditional Catholics, long at war over such issues as abortion and divorce, are now clashing over the causes of the abuse cases.
  

  Some argue that sexual abuse in the church grows out of fundamental flaws in Catholicism. "The division of body and soul is a mistaken model," said Eugene Kennedy, a psychologist and former priest, who wrote, "The Unhealed Wound: The Church and Human Sexuality."
  

  Mr. Kennedy added: "The church uses sexuality to control people in a punitive atmosphere. If flesh is evil, you cannot teach celibacy in a healthy way."
  

  Amen to that. We are body and soul. The catholics (and for that matter most protestants) maintain a false dichotomy between body and soul. That is whack. The promise for those who have passed on is not to be free from the body, but rather a resurrection of their physical (but changed) bodies. Sexuality is integral to who we are as human beings.
  

• MSNBC: Mideast cease-fire to be declared, Sharon will meet on Sunday with Palestinians
  

  Praise God for some good news for once. I wish though that the US hadn't sat out for so long on this. We should have sent in Jimmy Carter several months ago.
  

• MSNBC: China accuses U.S. of 'nuclear blackmail'
  

  Hmm... and what nation has threatened the US with nuclear war multiple times during the last 10 years? China. China is enemy #1, and contrary to popular belief is much more dangerous than the Taliban or anyone else. The PROC is the only extremely repressive nation on earth that possesses nuclear weapons. (ok, excepting Israel who is rumored to own them)
  

• MSNBC: Music to my ears --- I’m no thief! I download songs, but I also buy CDs
  

  I'm glad to see this column, and hope that the recording industries read it. I am very simliar to the author of this article, as far as my music listening habits. I download tons of songs, but also buy many CD's. (probably 1-4 a month) Downloading songs is nice (especially for live and obscure tracks) but often is a hassle. I do most of my music listening in the car, and it cheaper for me (time is money) to buy a CD, than to spend several hours downloading tracks to burn to CD.
  

  However, if the record industries continue their stupid attacks on the music buying consumer, I will go out of my way to not buy CDs which are produced by major labels. Screw corporate music! Support independent artists and labels!
  

• MSNBC: Experts debate risk and benefits of mammograms
  

• MSNBC: Herbs boost food's health benefits
  

• MSNBC: Amateurs discover Comet Snyder-Murakami
  

• NY Times: Saudis warn against attack by U.S. on Iraq
  

• USA Today/Yahoo: The sexual revolution hits junior high
  

  So sad...
  

• NY Times --- The Laramie Project Archives
  

  This an archive that republishes 17 New York Times articles about the murder of Matthew Shepard, the trial of those who murdered him, the nationwide debate about hate-crimes legislation that it provoked, and the impact of the murder on Laramie, Wyo., and its residents.
  

  These stories should be read for one important reason. If we don't know our history, we are doomed to repeat it.
  

• NY Times: Florida Town Finds Satan an Offense Unto It --- Mayor Carolyn Risher of Inglis, Fla., said that more than four months ago God told her the town should pass a proclamation banning Satan.

• MSNBC: Chocolate's dark secret --- Industry faces charges that slave labor is used in the Ivory Coast to harvest cocoa beans
  

• MSNBC: Drug wastes pollute waterways
  

• MSNBC: In the dorms, where are the stereos?
  

• Today I caught part of Still Breathing on IFC. What I saw of it seemed really good, but I was especially entranced by the cinematography. I just love movies filmed in Central Texas in the summer. (ok I know the film was filmed in San Antonio and some folks say SA is in South Texas. Culturally it may be, but geographically SA looks more like the Austin-San Marcos area than the country just south of it. To me, the country south of SA looks pretty much the same as the countryside of Northern Mexico) Anyway, I just love the luscious greens of the vegetation and the golden hues of the sun. (another good example of this kind of filming are Dazed and Confused, Slackers (both filmed in Austin), and Hope Floats (filmed out in the Hill Country west of Austin). Watching the movie today made me yearn to sit under a live oak tree again.
  

  Also, if you get a chance to watch the movie, look for the scene at the end with Fletcher and Roz floating down the river. That part was filmed on the beautiful San Marcos river in San Marcos, TX. (according to the movie's website, the S.M. river is the shortest river in North America)
  

I got this via email from Peter Nevland, my favorite Austin slam poet:

This Thursday (That's tomorrow night for those of you too busy to know
what day it is.) is right in the middle of SXSW Music and Film Festival here in Austin. So I'm going to be right in the middle of the action on that night.


I'm giving a "concert" on the corner of 6th and San Jacinto at 9:30 PM. No, it's not inside a building, the weather's great and there are so many more people outside. So come on out and join the other onlookers who think I'm a weirdo. It's free.

Life is about the same as yesterday, except now I'm becoming disgruntled in my melancholyness. Actually what really snapped for me was watching Ally McBeal tonight. (ok shoot me, I don't care if you think it's a chick TV show or is overly sex crazed --- yes, it is both, but is much more. I initially started watching it to get ideas on how to woo a unrequited love interest who I knew watched the show, but now dig the show on it's own merits. Maybe it's the fact that this screwball group of misfits is somehow able to forge their own way in life. Of course, it is total fantasy (judges would not let them get away with 10% of what they do, but t hat's pretty standard for all lawyer shows), but it is fun.


Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is this... one thing that grabbed me in a rerun of the show I watched tonight was when Ally confronted a hardened criminal defense lawyer from another firm (actually a crossover episdoe with The Practice) in a social situation .She said, (paraphrased) Do you want to have children... no, it's just a question, I'm not asking to bear your children... just do you want to have children some day?


He replied, yes some day.


She then said, "then for your sake of your children's innocence, try to preserve some of your own innocence.. at least what is left of it.


That interchange really made me think... am I letting life's busy-ness and the difficulties of dealing with difficult clients (I work as a legal assistant at a law firm) get to me. Am I becoming jaded and cynical about all authority figures, and for that matter all people in general?


I don't know but it does concern me.

Take a look at the Pine Ridge Journal for information on the Great Pine Ridge Earthquake of 1997.

Tonight I'm kinda down. I don't really know why, but I am. I normally am reasonably happy with my life, but tonight I'm having one of my occasional times of unexplainable melancholy. I can't explain it, it just is. Once upon a time, I might have tried to drown with something or someone but I don't want that. And God seems so far away.

That is what comes down probably. God wants me to seek Him, and I don't feel like it. I would rather drown in melancholy, drown in a bottle, drown in busyness, anything but drown in Him.

Probably part of it the music I'm listening too. Too much Pedro the Lion, or maybe not enough of it. Who knows? What I do know is I am sick of my life. I'm sick of working too much, and I'm sick of wasting my time with stupidity when I'm not working. I want to paint more, write more, play my harmonica more, garden more, but instead I watch TV or dwell on the trivial, and indulge in the pursuit of pleasure which is dead dead end. I hate myself afterwards but I keep going down the same roads, over and over.

And I'm lonely.

I was in Lowe's tonight getting some stuff for a remodeling project I'm working on when I saw this young couple maybe about my age pass me. They were just walking down the aisle of the home improvement warehouse holding hands. Nothing terribly sappy, just holding hands. Maybe they were buying stuff to fix up their home or something. What I do know is that I yearn for that connection. I want to feel that surge of warmth in holding a girl's hand, and seeing her smile at me.

I want to experience true love and I don't see it anywhere in sight. All of my old romances and infatuations just don't seem there's like something there. The truth is, I know there is nothing there and life sucks and I am alone.

And yet, the truth is that even if I had true love in reach, I would probably still be in a melancholy state of mind. As much as I ache to the love a woman who loves me, I know that even then I would still be incomplete. Even if I was married, there would be nights where I would lie awake in bed next to my wife and still feel alone. . .

Maybe life is meant to be misreable. Eat, drink and be merry as Solomon would say. That doesn't seem right to me though. What about the pursuit of beauty? What about seeking what is truly real? I know this, I'm not going to give up yet. I will not seak solace in a bottle. I will not seak peace in food. I will not bang my head against a wall until my brains splatter on the pavement. There must be more. There has to be.

Sorry for the misreableness of the post you just read. Sometimes it is thereaputic to say these things. I know life isn't that bad. I just feel very out of sorts tonight and I do not know why and that makes me even more out of order than I already am.
posted by J.M. Branum at 12:32 AM | link

• I just got some very super-cool news from my friend Kimberly. She has created a blog: www.exitzine.com/kimberly which has the potential to be cooler than even Iceland. I would definitely check it out.
  

• At the same time, I ought to warn you about her opinion of the new FIF2 album Electric Boogaloo. It's always hard to compare different FIF albums, but I certainly dug this one. I don't agree with her opinion at all.
  

• Finally, in cooperation with the abovementioned Kimberly... JMBzine radio will soon become JMBzineKimberchicRadio. Stay tuned for more info.

• Yahoo/NY Times: As rabbis face facts, Bible tales are wilting
  

  As someone who has studied the Jewish scriptures (what Christians call the Old Testament, or First Testament) in the course of obtaining a degree in Bible, I can say that this news story is ridiculous. While there are revisionists who believe all of scripture is a myth and will not accept any story that is not backed by outside history, the majority of Biblical scholars see scripture as having a great deal of historical accuracy, and also recognize that due to the ancient authorship of these texts, some events will not be backed up through secondary sources. This silence on the part of secondary sources does not mean that the events didn't happen, but rather that the events are so old that secondary sources have fallen into the silence of lost history. This story makes it appear that the evidence debunking historical events of the OT is overwhelming, which is simply not true.
  

  I am not a fundamentalist in my understanding of scripture, but I do believe that the original texts as penned by the original authors is God-breathed, and is 100% accurate for the purposes it was written for. I don't neccesarily believe that the science or even history is 100% accurate, with our modern understanding of these fields, but that is only because God is far beyond human beings, that He had to lower the level of understanding with regards to science to communicate with ancient peoples. If the Bible was written afresh today, Genesis 1 would like describe the "Big Bang" event, the beginnings of life, etc.
  

• MSNBC: Young consumers face world of debt
  

  High interest credit card debt is a serious concern, but this story makes it seem trivial. Listen to this excerpt...
  

  JESSICA COLEMAN, 23, faced with $4,500 in credit card debt and a $300 monthly car payment, has put off buying a computer and an armoire. She’s scouring for bargains at TJ Maxx and Ross Stores and eats salads at TGI Fridays instead of dining on steaks at French restaurants.
  

  “I really have to budget now,” said Coleman, a Santa Monica, Calif., resident, who used to splurge on a new outfit with each paycheck.

  
  

  Sheesh, you're not that poor if you're eating at TGI Fridays all of the time. If Jessica thinks this is "living frugally" then she has a lot to learn.
  

• Reuters/Yahoo: Long-Time Pot Users Show Mental Deficits
  

  I'm glad this research is being done, but I wish that all aspects of marijuana were explored. The claims of medicinal marijuana users should be investigated. It would be a crime if millions were deprived of a drug that would help them.
  

• Mother Jones: Don't leave college without it --- Universities are cutting big-dollar deals with credit card companies, and students are paying the price.
  
  First USA offers cards through 200 schools, including Yale, Notre Dame, and Duke, and now markets them through fraternities and sororities. The University of Oklahoma has a 10-year, $13 million deal that gives the company exclusive rights to market Visa cards to all employees, alumni, and students. The company is also the only lender allowed to set up tables at school football games, offering a special Sooners card to some 80,000 fans each week. "Every major university has a credit card agreement," explains Jeff Hickman, an Oklahoma spokesman.
  

  Every major university also has students burdened by massive debts that they have little hope of paying off. Sean Moyer, a National Merit Scholar, racked up more than $12,000 on 12 credit cards while enrolled at the universities of Oklahoma and Texas. In 1998, even though he was working two jobs to pay off the cards, he believed his debt would prevent him from attending law school. "He just said he felt like he was a failure," recalls his mother, Janne O'Donnell. Nine days after confessing his fears, the 22-year-old Moyer hung himself in his bedroom closet.

  
  

  Screw the $13 million.
  

  OU should break the contract and get credit card venders off campus. One life lost like this should be enough, and spokesman Hickman's "everybody's doing it" excuse doesn't cut it. Credit card companies are leaches on society and should be stopped from preying on those who do not need high interest revolving credit.
  

  Congress is considering a bill that would require companies to offer students starter cards with lower credit limits and to provide more information about fees and penalties. "There simply has to be some limit on credit card companies before more students end up in bankruptcy," says O'Donnell. Although the bill has support from Democrats, it is unlikely to win approval from the Republican-controlled House -- ensuring that many students will have to work for years to pay off cards marketed to them when they were teenagers.
  
  

  Hmm... I wonder why the Republicans think it's ok for credit card companies to enslave students under these kinds of interest rates. . . because they are bought and paid for.
  

  By the time Jon Selden graduated from Brigham Young last year, he had accumulated $8,000 in debt. Now enrolled in law school, he lives with his parents and waits tables rather than filing for bankruptcy. "Was I stupid to run up that debt?" says Selden. "You bet. But I was 18."
  
  

  One thing story doesn't mention is that bankruptcy is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Frankly, Mr. Selden might be better off declaring bankruptcy, or at least negotiating with his creditors to reduce the amount he owes.
  

• MSNBC/WSJ: China stem cell research leaps ahead
  
  “We will either condemn them [the Chinese] as godless members of an evil empire, or we will say ‘Hey, wait a second, we can’t be left out of this race,’” predicts Paul Berg, a Nobel laureate in chemistry at Stanford University.
  
  

  You hit the nail on the head Mr. Berg. The People's Republic of China is a godless evil empire that oppresses the rights of their people.
  

  The researchers say they also tried adding DNA from different types of cells to the egg, including skin cells from aborted fetuses. They say that because these cells aren’t yet fully developed, it might be easier for the egg to reprogram their DNA.
  
  

  Skin cells from aborted fetuses... if they are doing this, then likely China will begin growing skin for plastic surgery using skin cells from aborted fetuses. This is the future folks, and it's time we stopped this from getting worse. We should serious consider not allowing Chinese scientists to visit the US and get technology from us, if they are going to use it for such evil purposes.
  

• MSNBC/WSJ: U.S. to seek cigarette restrictions
  

  Some of the items discussed in this story sound good, such as requiring full disclosure of additives, but otherwise this goes too far. The government is not our nanny. Full disclosure is right, but the restrictions Ashcroft is proposing go too far in the way of restricting freedom.