Homecoming Week

A trio of my favourite people are headed this way for the weekend - Jane Ellis, Jim Larson, and Terry Harrigan. The Portland/Seattle troupe will be featured at a Saturday supper at Ralph and Julia Kibby's new McMansion on Fritz Cove Road. It will be big-time fun. Champaigne, good food, good company. Doesn't get any better than that...

Unfortunately, the weather has turned...drizzle this morning and it sounds like more of the same off-and-on throughout the weekend. Still, I cannot complain after the past two weeks of magnificent sunshine.

I've spent considerable time the past couple of days soliciting funds for the Juneau Junior Golf Club. It has been slow going. Perhaps I am not as charming as I once thought...

Still, I can take some personal comfort in the fact that a couple of my hoped-for donors mentioned that their reluctance is a reflection of the proliferation of youth-related good causes resulting from the opening of our second high school. It seems that every high school group has now multiplied amoeba-like with two hands now outstretched where previously there was only one.

I will persevere. After all, this is GOLF for kids. The future investment bankers and CEO's of America! Hmmm. Never mind...

In other news, yesterday I attempted to get interested in the confirmation hearings for Judge Sotomayor. I failed. The only question in my mind is which was more pointless and dispiriting - the banal questions asked (repeatedly) by the Judiciary Committee's Republican Braintrust or the tediously insipid responses of the Judge (Sorry, boys, just not gonna tell you what I personally think about gun-toting wingnuts). The hearings have failed both as a serious political exercise and as entertainment - although Senator Tom Coburn did manage a passable imitation of Rickie Ricardo. On the bright side, I believe the utlimate outcome will be positive.

Of more interest to me is the continuing saga of Senator John Ensign and Governor Sanford. Not that I care about their infidelities - I really don't. But I am increasingly intrigued by their spiritual lives - specifically the organization known as "The Family" to which both belong. Here's the wikipedia entry on the organization:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_(Christian_political_organization)

I have not had the time to do any serious reading about this group - and what you hear and see on the "talking heads" shows should always be taken with more than one grain of salt.

Nevertheless, it appears that the current head of "The Family," Pastor David Coe, is particularly adept at stroking the egos and trousering the cash of the rich and powerful (or at least the semi-powerful like Ensign and Sanford). As I understand it, a central theme of the good pastor's preaching is that the rich and powerful are, in fact, rich and powerful because god has personally deemed them worthy. Not sure what that means for the rest of us - sounds like the meek shall inherit the earth bit is NOT a big part of this particular program. But the message resonates well with a sizable portion of the targeted demographic as one can well imagine. Great marketing.

Stay tuned for further developments on this subject...

In the meantime, I'm off to the elders. Should be wood to chop today. The boilers have not been lit the past couple of weeks due to the warm weather; but I expect we'll be firing-up the trusty old Earth Stove today. And tomorrow it's off to the hospital for an ultra sound of the ol' coot's heart. He's not doing so well...

Later gang...