A Budget Speech

The (AP) news headlines from yesterday read:

Obama budget could bring $9.3 trillion in deficits
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's budget would produce $9.3 trillion in deficits over the next decade, more than four times the deficits of Republican George W. Bush's presidency, congressional auditors said Friday.

Wow! Well I am just about speechless about this, but I came acros a historic speech which I feel could be applied to this occasion.

Excerpts from Gladstone's attack on Disraeli's Budget (1852)
('A Budget which may imperil our safety')

"I vote against the Budget…, not only because I disapprove upon general grounds of the principles of that Budget but emphatically and peculiarly because in my conscience is my firm conviction that the Budget is …the most subversive in its tendencies and ultimate effects which I have ever known submitted to this House.

It is the most regardless of those general rules of prudence which it is absolutely necessary we should preserve…Sir, the… is a noble assembly, worthy of its historical and traditional associations; but it is too much to expect that we should teach the executive its duty in elementary matters of administration and finance…

You are now asked to vote for a Budget which consecrates, as it were, the principle of a deficiency, and which endangers the public credit of the country, and which may peril our safety—if, indeed, the circumstances of the present day are circumstances of uneasiness;…

I say, then, that I vote against this Budget, feeling that in giving that vote I do the work, so far as depends upon me, which you ought to join with me in doing.

I do not express that sentiment in an offensive, manner, but I say it because I feel deeply attached to the institutions of the country,…and I feel it my duty to use that freedom of speech which I am sure, … you will tolerate, when I tell you that if you give your assent and your high authority to this most unsound and destructive principle on which the financial scheme of the Government is based…,

My belief is that the day will come when you will look back upon this vote—as its consequences sooner or later unfold themselves—you will look back upon this vote with bitter, but with late and ineffectual regret."

Ode to Spring

O spring, O spring,
You wonderful thing!
O spring, O spring, O spring!
O spring, O spring,
When the birdies sing
I feel like a king,
O spring!

by Walter R. Brooks

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

In case the first poem was a little too juvenile for you, here's another one by Robert Frost:

A Prayer in Spring

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.

The Lorica of St. Patrick

(St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer)
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In preachings of the apostles,
In faiths of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a mulitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and evil,
Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.
Christ shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that reward may come to me in abundance.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation

St. Patrick (ca. 377)

Gymnastics Tie-Breakers

Tie-Breakers

Some of my myriad readers (LOL) may know that my 10 year old daughter is a competitive gymnast. She’s been doing gymnastics since she was three. She moved up this Spring to the Optional level 7. US competitive gymnastics starts with 3 compulsory levels where every gymnast does the exact same routines to the exact same music. It makes for some very looong meets when you hear the same dinky music over and over again about 300 times or so. In the optional levels every gymnast picks (in conjunction with her coach of course) her own music and has her routines choreographed especially for her. It’s so much more fun that way.

I know that every sport has its ups and downs, pros and cons, but I am becoming intimately familiar with the ins and outs of this wonderful sport called women’s artistic gymnastics. You may think I’m about to write about the latest crisis at the gym, and it’s a doosey. I’ll just say that there was about a week or so where things were really shaping up at my daughter’s gym, after the knee thing and then the ankle thing.

Well, I would write about it, except that I’m still processing it, and the thing is still unfolding, so we’ll just keep a positive attitude and press ahead. Once things settle down I’ll give an update on that.

But I learned something yesterday from my friend, who also happens to be the meet director for some of the largest and best gymnastic meets in Southern California. She explained to me how ties at gymnastics meets are handled differently by different states.

In California, if two or more gymnasts get the same score on an event or in the all around, then the place medal or ribbon is awarded to all of the girls with the same score as a tie. This is what we’re used to since all but two of Aimee’s meets have been in California.

I thought there was something wrong when we recently went to a meet in Las Vegas, Nevada. I don’t remember exactly, but I think it was a four-way tie on one of Aimee’s events. The ribbons and medals were awarded to the girls 2nd place, 3rd place, 4th place, 5th place (and Aimee got the 5th place ribbon.) I didn’t think it was fair since they all had the same score.

Now I understand, they use tie-breakers in Arizona. The places are awarded according to the highest all-around score. In the meet in Arizona, since Aimee only competed in 3 out of the 4 events, her all-around score was naturally low, hence the 5th place.

Tie-breakers in the all-around are awarded according to who got the highest score on any event.

I think I like the California system better. But I was glad to have that question answered. Thanks Stephanie!

Spring Forward Tonight!

Daylight Savings Time

In Spring when maple buds are red,
We turn the Clock an hour ahead;
Which means, each April that arrives,
We lose an hour
Out of our lives.

Who cares? When Autumn birds in flocks
Fly southward, back we turn the Clocks,
And so regain a lovely thing—
That missing hour
We lost last Spring.

By Phyllis McGimley

Galileo's Daughter

I wrote a while back about accepting the Astronomy Reading Challenge. I just finished one of the books I picked to read about an astronomer, Galileo's Daughter, by Dava Sobel. I've been wanting to read this book for a while now, but for some reason I was under the impression it was a novel, not a biography. That was probably because I've read both of the Rashi's Daughters novels (and waiting patiently for the third one to be written). This also explains why I never found it when I looked for it several times in the fiction section of the library.

Anyway, it is a biography, and it's more of a biography of Galileo than his daughter, which is just as well, because Galileo was the famous astronomer, not his daughter. The book is uses the correspondence between Galileo and his daughter, who was a nun, to frame the story of Galileo's life. There are 124 surviving letters, all of them from Suor Marie Celeste to her father Galileo; none of Galileo's letters to his daughter have survived.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it is well-written, interesting and informative. I was especially interested in Galileo's thoughts on the intersection of science and religion. Even though he was convicted of heresy by the Inquisition for expounding the view that the earth moves around the sun, Galileo remained a faithful believer in the Scriptures and in the God-given ability of man to discover by means of his senses and intellect the way the universe works.

“I believe that the intention of Holy Writ was to persuade men of the truths necessary for salvation, such as neither science nor any other means could render credible, but only the voice of the Holy Spirit. But I do not think it necessary to believe that the same God who gave us our senses, our speech, our intellect, would have put aside the use of these, to teach us instead such things as with their help we could find out for ourselves, particularly in the case of those sciences of which there is not the smallest mention in the Scriptures; and, above all, in astronomy, of which so little notice is taken that the names of none of the planets are mentioned. Surely if the intention of the sacred scribes had been to teach the people astronomy, they would not have passed over the subject so completely.”