I chatted today with the pastor of a Claremont church which erected a nativity scene depicting Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees separated in cages https://t.co/MGl82HTZ3n
— James Queally (@JamesQueallyLAT) December 9, 2019
… Ristine, who has served as the church’s lead pastor only since July, said the church often uses its Nativity scene to tackle a societal issue. Southern California’s homelessness crisis has been invoked in past depictions, she said. A more traditional Nativity scene, showing the Holy Family reunited, can be found inside the church, which serves a congregation of about 300 people, Ristine said.
“We don’t see it as political; we see it as theological. I’m getting responses from people I don’t know … I am having people tell me that it moved them to tears,” she said. “So if the Holy Family and the imagery of the Holy Family and the imagery of a Nativity is something you hold dear, and you see them separated, then that’s going to spark compassion in many people.”…
Rep Cicilline "all of the potential articles of impeachment are on the table." pic.twitter.com/t3E0PJ2M7J
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) December 8, 2019
Dug out my copy of The Friends of Richard Nixon, written by former Assistant U.S. Attorney George V. Higgins, and found this in the introduction:
… Thinking ahead, in criminal business, is of surpassing importance, even more so than in legitimate commerce and in politics, where it certainly does no harm. The professional outlaw seldom loses sight of the possibility that he, or someone working for him, may make a mistake, or suffer some bad luck, or succumb to overconfidence and get hooked for something big because he bungled something small. He is on guard from the instant he begins to make his operational plans (he does not cause his conferences to be tape-recorded, and he invites to those discussions only those with a pressing need to know, and he does not confide this agenda to the uninvited). If something goes wrong, and the cops come, he is not reduced to frantic, random foraging in the early morning hours, for a willing though sleepy attorney, and a bail bondsman. Nor does he negligently permit his operatives to carry his phone number in their belongings, helpfully annotated to show that, yes, it is his number. The practical crook is a man of provident humility, who sees to it, in advance, that investigation will be arduous, protracted, dispiritingly unproductive, and, in the long run, unsuccessful. By that foresight in frustrating the orderly procedures of American criminal justice (by leaving nothing to chance, and very little to be found), he exonerates himself from the alternative, more difficult, and vastly more dangerous obligation to obstruct the processes of American criminal justice. There is no substitute for knowing what you’re doing…
It looks to be Rudy Giuliani’s week for going under the Trump bus. Mr. Giuliani, during his long career flirting with the romance of Big Crime, might’ve done himself better if his reading (okay, viewing) had included more narratives from the side of the prosecution, IMO.
And finally, a happy dream to start the week…
AP Interview: Elizabeth Warren says she believes Americans are ready for a presidential ticket with two women at the top, rejecting concerns from some Democrats that a woman can't beat President Trump. https://t.co/8wHcarzJTj
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 8, 2019
My dream ticket. pic.twitter.com/Jz4dtJIbQF
— Khashoggi’s Ghost (@UROCKlive1) December 9, 2019
Monday Morning Open Thread: Seasons’ GreetingsPost + Comments (126)