Y’know, ever since this year’s Episcopal Church (”TEC”) General Convention I’ve been looking for a sign that someone - anyone - in my Church’s leadership will wake up and see just how truly dire its situation is. How dire? I suppose I could turn this post into a virtual cornucopia of statistics with accompanying analysis, but then I wouldn’t have any readers at all!

(For those interested, however, two examples of domestic TEC church attendance analysis - the most critical because a) that’s where TEC is based, and b) that’s where the money is - can be found here and here.)

Figures aside, it doesn’t take a genius to see that TEC, like most mainline Protestant churches, is in trouble - big trouble. Ever since the controversial 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson - a gay priest living in a committed relationship with another man - much of the Church’s energies have been focused on internal problems and controversies borne out of the growing chasm between the so-called “liberal” and “orthodox”: money squabbles, threats of legal action by bishops against parishes and priests, declining membership, aging congregations, and departing parishes. Sensing weakness in its commitment to the Gospel and its ability to maintain and enforce structure and order, foreign Anglican provinces (primarily from Africa and South America) began undertaking the ordination of American “missionary bishops” and the planting of “orthodox” Anglican parishes right under the noses of their TEC counterparts.

Since the Robinson consecration, TEC’s standing within the Anglican Communion has come under almost constant fire by its fellow provinces within the Communion - most especially, African and Asian provinces experiencing the most explosive growth - for being theologically “soft” on its commitment to traditional Church teachings, especially homosexuality and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This culminated in 2004 in the release by the Eames Commission’s Windsor Report, which, among other things, recommended that each Anglican province ratify a “covenant” that would commit them to consulting the other provinces in the Anglican Communion when making major decisions, and urge those who had contributed to Anglican disunity (read: TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada, where certain dioceses had taken to consecrating same-sex unions) to express their regret.

With all these controversies going on, I have found it hard to concentrate simply on worshipping God as an Anglican (really, an Anglo-Catholic) and an Episcopalian. Particularly, having witnessed the internal machinations of how the Church works in more than a few of its dioceses from my time of discerning my call to the priesthood and having experienced more than my share of “spiritual dryness” over the past five years, I find myself craving confident leadership with a theological backbone and an honest vision of what my Church is and where it’s going. I think this is so important now in a world so fractured that it is difficult to identify yourself as anything and seek that “quiet center” where you feel yourself as part of some greater good and whole.

As an Episcopalian, I never felt that way about our previous Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold. Anyone looking for strong statements of faith or a visionary leader could only find disappointment in Griswold’s lukewarm pluralism and theological underpinings. As David Virtue once observed:

It was at the 1998 Lambeth Conference when Griswold uttered his now famous line that he (Griswold) believed in “pluriform truths” startling the then-Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey and causing the media to scratch its collective head and ponder what he meant.

Over time it became horribly apparent. Griswold would never settle for any one truth, or one particular interpretation of the truth, rather there were many truths, even contradictory “truths” that could and should be held together in tension, without the need to come down absolutely on any one side or the other. To hold things in tension was to live comfortably with ambiguity, even doubt. To say you knew or that Jesus was ‘the way, the truth and the life’ was to demonstrate an arrogance that he could not support or condone. What might be true for you might not be true for someone else, and one should be prepared to absorb the other truth or simply to live along side it because one might encounter the mystical ‘other’ in another person, and to miss that might be sin. Conversely, to say Jesus is the only way might be true for us as Christians but we should never suppose that God had not spoken in other ways, through other persons and we should be “humble” enough to accept that.

So, when General Convention came around this year, I was quite interested in seeing who would succeed Griswold as Presiding Bishop. Like many, I was suprised when Katherine Jefforts Schori, considered a minor candidate, was elected with no small assistance, as it turns out, from a number of “orthodox” bishops. Not knowing anything about her, I had no preconceptions as to what I could expect from her, except that from the few interviews I saw following her election I surmised that, regardless of the help she had received from that quarter, she was no friend of the “orthodox”.

But what kind of a leader was she, or could she be, I wondered?

Imagine my surprise, then, when I opened up my July 17 issue of Time Magazine and found Bishop Schori the subject of their weekly “10 Questions For” column. While most of the questions were softball tosses that dealt with her unique background (she’s multi-lingual, an oceanographer, and a licensed, instrument-rated pilot), one question and response in particular caught my attention:

Q: What will be your focus as head of the U.S. church?

A: Our focus needs to be on feeding people who go to bed hungry, on providing primary education to girls and boys, on healing people with AIDS, on addressing tuberculosis and malaria, on sustainable development. That ought to be the primary focus.

Oh really. What about better roads and more money for public education, I asked? ‘Cause for a second there, I wasn’t sure if I was reading the focus of TEC’s new Presiding Bishop or that of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You see (silly me), I always thought the focus of the Presiding Bishop ought to somehow be aligned with that of the mission of the Church (which, as I see in the Catechism on p. 855 of the Book of Common Prayer states:

Q: What is the mission of the Church?

A: The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.

So here we are, the Church is hopelessly fractured over the issue of homosexuality, people are leaving in droves, congregations are getting grayer, mission work at the diocesan and parish level is often almost non-existent, dioceses are in financial chaos, and priests are leaving and taking their parishes with them, and what is our new Presiding Bishop’s focus? Health, eduation, and welfare.

I’m sorry, but this is about as close to the last straw as can be for this Anglo-Catholic. Even an idiot - and I don’t use that term lightly - would understand that social welfare in and of itself is NOT the mission of the Church and should NOT be the primary focus of the Church. Rather, it is the logical outpouring of love, compassion, service, and generosity inspired by the Holy Spirit of God that results when people are drawn to, and united around, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. What Schori seems to want to focus on here is not mission, but ministry. However, in terms of the Church, without the former, there’s no context for the latter. Without mission, you might as well be just another private or public social service agency among many.

For God’s sake, if she - the Presiding Bishop of TEC - doesn’t understand that, there is no hope for the Episcopal Church, and you can count me out. If Jefforts Schori really - and I mean REALLY - believes that’s what her focus and vision is and ought to be, I have a better, more practical suggestion: why not just shut down the Church’s administrative infrastructure, offices, and overhead, close all the churches, sell all the properties, then open up community centers across the U.S. and the world with the handsome profits. I say this in all seriousness. When a Church stops being a Church and becomes just another arm of the social welfare system and infrastructure, that’s when I jump ship.

Look, I know she’s new and, in a forum like Time Magazine, she may be looking to appeal to a wider audience than traditional Episcopalians like myself. However, there comes a time when even the most committed Episcopalian is looking for a sign that their leadership is aware of the issues currently tearing the Church apart and threatening its very future. In times like this, one would think its new elected leader would be sensitive to the need to share her vision for the survival and sustainable future of the body she has been elected to. To not see this articulated as her primary focus is disappointing, indeed. Make no bones about it - for this Episcopalian and many others of my stripe, Jefforts Schori is on a very short leash, and the leash is getting shorter with every passing day.

A little over two months away from our Hawaiian cruise. Perfect time for checking out a couple of the latest happenings around the former Sandwich Islands:

* Sounds like the U.S. Navy and environmentalists have reached a compromise on the use of active sonar in naval exercises that take place near the Islands.

The settlement reached Friday prevents the Navy from using the sonar within 25 miles of the newly established Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument during its Rim of the Pacific 2006 exercises. It also imposes a variety of methods to watch for and report the presence of marine mammals.

Navy officials have said the value of training to detect stealthy submarines would have been severely diminished without the sonar, which bounces sound off objects in the ocean.

But don’t tell that to environmentalists, though. Here’s their take:

Environmentalists claim whales have stranded themselves on beaches after being exposed to high-intensity mid-frequency sonar. In some cases, whales bled around the brain and in the ears. The sonar is also claimed to interfere with the ability of marine mammals to navigate, hunt, take care of their offspring and avoid predators.

“Military readiness does not require, and our laws do not allow, our natural resources to be sacrificed in the name of national defense,” said Joel Reynolds, a Natural Resources Defense Council attorney.

Funny, I don’t recall marine life encountering any problems while the Seaview was doing its thing. (Boy, they don’t make TV shows like that anymore, do they?)

* I can’t imagine the Humuhumunukunukuapuaa not being the official state fish of Hawaii, but obviously others have. Geez, what’s this world coming to? What’s next to go the way of the dodo - the little grass shack in Kealakekua? Or the little grass skirt for that little grass shack?

From time to time I like to take a few minutes to see what’s cookin’ on the sites Goodboys Nation has linked to on its Blogroll. Shall we get started, then?

* Over at All Too Common, Andy’s on his honeymoon (congrats, Andy and your lovely bride!). Last summer he wrote an essay, “Why I Am Anglican”, which not only generated some interesting comments at that time, but generated this follow-up post which is just as interesting. Clearly, with all the recent goings-on in the Episcopal Church, a lot of people are looking inside their hearts and praying for direction on where God might be leading them. I’m doing the same myself; glad to see its a very big boat.

* At And Rightly So!, they’ve got pictures of the floating replica of the Godspeed, one of the ships that brought the original settlers to Jamestown, VA, the first successful settlement in the New World. Very cool. The pics are worth a look all by themselves!

* Dangle 24/7 is now over at A View From The Evil Center.

* Bryan Woods at StormTrack posts some amazing pictures of Biloxi, MA and the Mississippi Gulf Coat nearly one year after Katrina. (BTW, this is a perfect time to remind everyone that the good folks who live on the MGC are still in need of whatever help you can offer. I’m sure Leslie and her friends at Katrina Networking would be grateful, even if you just dropped them a line of support to let them know their message is not following on deaf ears.)

* And, of course, Dollar Bill is still in da house! But this time, from the sounds of it, he’s got company.

* Dave Richard (The Great White Shank’s bro) is after the politically-connected down in Forsyth, GA like a terrier on pant leg. Geez Dave, it seems to me that you’re connected-ly challenged!

* Things are always hopping over at the House Rabbit Society. Here’s a cool article about how a member’s attention to a Suburu commercial got the advertiser to change its tune. Power to the people, right on!

* Megan Heckeroth is a player on the LPGA Futures Tour (sorta the LPGA’s AAA minor league team, if you know what I mean). She has a wonderful blog (thanks, Golf Blog!) and, from the sounds of it, a great personality. Given my own Goodboys Invitational tournament later this week, I found one of her posts on one of her recent events truly inspiring. Heck, if she can shoot 78-78-74 in difficult windy conditions, I can do the same. (Of course, all my scores would be after nine holes!)

Tonight (actually as this post goes live, thanks to the marvels of modern technology!) I’m winging my way back East for this year’s Goodboys Invitational. It’ll be great to get out of this amazing heat (32% humidity doesn’t sound like a lot, but put it on top of a 110 temperature, and you feel like a half-chicken in a broaster), and into something more amenable to playing golf. See y’all in the Eastern Time Zone!

…begins with a single step, so the ancient Chinese proverb goes. Today, my seemingly-thousand mile journey back to the Church began with the single step taken by attending Mass down the street at St. Anne Catholic Church. An Episcopalian since birth, but more of an Anglo-Catholic since my awakening to Christ more than a decade ago, I decided to try this Roman Catholic church to clean the palate, so to speak, and start anew my journey back to the Church (in whatever form that might ultimately take) in a place I’d never seen, and in a denomination where I could simply melt into the background and enjoy attending Church without any baggage, expectations, or commitments.

Since moving to Arizona, my attempts at returning to regular church attendance have been both unsuccessful and unfulfilling, to say the least. I’ve attended two Episcopal churches on occasion - Church of the Epiphany and St. James, both in Tempe (the latter of which experienced the loss of its rector and much of its congregation following the consecration of V. Gene Robinson, an openly-gay priest, as Bishop of New Hampshire), but found my worship experiences at both places unsatisfying and uninspiring, both theologically and as an overall church-going exercise.

In truth, that’s only part of it, for I have come to realize that, as much as I still enjoy the comfortable familiarity of the Episcopal liturgy and style of worship, whenever I attend services at any Episcopal church I can’t seem to separate present from past and the memory of seven crazy years (1994-2000) of intense - and I mean really intense - church involvement during two ill-fated attempts at being accepted into the ordination process for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church.

In truth again, that’s only a part of a part of it, for, truth be told, today’s Episcopal Church is not yo’ mama’s Episcopal Church - heck, it’s not even the same Episcopal Church as it was back in 1994, when I started my extended period of heavy involvement and ministry. I’ve written on it before, and will do again shortly, but suffice to say for this particular post, the sense of conflict and estrangement I feel with today’s “progressive” Episcopal Church has led me to hours upon hours of prayer, contemplation, and meditation, trying to figure out what God wants me to do with my life, and where. It was, and is, a puzzle that needs solving, but how?

Using my God-given gifts for problem-solving and systemic thinking, I went back to the beginning and the books that initially drove my theological and philosophical formation more than a decade ago. While it wasn’t a surprise, I did take note that most of my cherished books were by Roman Catholics - Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Benedict Groeschel, St. John of the Cross, and others. Like me, they all too had their conflicts with their Church, but somehow found a way to let God transform those conflicts into gifts of wisdom and ministry.

I also noted that, earlier this year, when the first signs appeared that my five-year period of spiritual dryness was starting to lift and I was finding the occasional desire to return to my prayer table, it was hearing on secular radio in the space of one weeks’ time Raymond Arroyo discussing his biography of Mother Angelica, and Scott Hahn discussing his conversion from Presbyterianism to Roman Catholicism, both with such joy and passion that I couldn’t help but take notice.

Of course, it’s one thing to appreciate the mystics and movers and shakers of Catholicism, it’s a whole ‘nuther thing entirely to even consider leaving one’s own faith tradition for another. My feeling was - and still is - that such a prospect is too much of a jump to consider without taking very small baby steps and careful stock of where things stand along the way.

Which brought me to St. Anne Catholic Church today. Like most Catholic churches in the area, it’s pretty-good sized, very modern, and very short-staffed when it comes to priests. It had a nice mix of elderly folk and young families. There were no liturgy or music books in the pews - instead, both were projected in a very pleasing fashion against the white walls on either side of the sanctuary. The music was fairly harmless, even bland, but VERY well done - quite a change from my recent Episcopal church experiences.

What struck me more than anything, however, were the priest’s homily and the prayers. The homily itself was rock-solid, based on the day’s lessons and Gospel, and steeped in sacramental theology, yet very accessible in terms of style and delivery. He even chastised those in the congregation who had been leaving immediately after the Eucharist, saying that it cheapened the sacrament and the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice. Now THAT’S something you don’t see everyday. I was impressed. I also particulary enjoyed hearing prayers for, among other things, an end to abortion, artificial means of contraception, embryonic stem-cell testing, and capital punishment. Whether you agree with these positions or not, it was refeshing to hear a church unafraid to state what it believes and put it out in the open via its prayers, without compromise.

Will I go back? I don’t know. What I do know is that, for the first time in a long time, I find myself aware that I have begun a new journey, one just underway. I don’t know where it will lead, or even if it will, but I sense within a new-found desire to expose myself once again to the whims and wills of God’s guiding Hand. I have not prayed for this, neither have I even prayed for the grace to be able to pray for something like this. It just is what it is for now, and that seems good enough for me.

Yeah, I always liked that song growing up, although I didn’t hear it until several years after it was released. I already knew Barry McGuire from his days as a member of the New Christy Minstrels, a folk group my parents had bought several albums by when were young ‘uns.

(BTW, the composer of the song, P.F. Sloan, had solid links all across the emerging L.A. contemporary rock scene of the mid-’60s, with connections to Brian Wilson and Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys during their Pet Sounds/SMiLE era, Terry Melcher and Roger McGuinn (in the early Byrds days), and, of course the great Phil Spector and all those great “Wrecking Crew” musicians.) Whooooooo…..great stuff!

But I digress. Unfortunately. More on that another time, perhaps…

Of course, what’s going on the Middle East is truly a powderkeg, and I’m afraid things there are only going to get a whole hell of a lot worse before they get getter, unless cooler heads prevail and Syria and Iran keep their grimy, terror-enabling, blood-stained hands off the situation. Like I said yesterday, I don’t think Syria or Iran were prepared for either Hezbollah’s kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers or the iron fist of Israel’s response. Now they have to decide if now is the time to make good on their threats of the past several months. My guess is they don’t, because they know both Israel and the U.S. are just itching for an opportunity to shock-and-awe Iran’s nuclear program back a decade or so.

Captains Quarters has some great analytical posts on the crisis, and I hope you’ll check Captain Ed’s site out. Powerline comments on a David Horowicz piece and agrees that if Iran is to be struck by anyone, there will never be a better time than what Israel has now. Hugh Hewitt also is blogging over the weekend, and the connections he has as a result of his syndicated radio program make his site worth visiting as well.

The next 48 hours will be critical, as it will be in this timeframe where Iran’s and Syria’s plans for either confrontation or de-escalation of the conflict will be revealed. Hang on to your hats, folks, the ride could get a little bumpy.

Good God! It was already 95 degrees when we left the house this morning, and we’re heading towards a whopping 116 today. I think it goes without saying that this time of year is NOT the reason why people live in Arizona.

* The heat is also definitely on in California, where firefighters are battling two huge wildfires. And the weather sure ain’t cooperating.

* On days like this, it might be interesting to check this out and see if it really works.

* It looks like a long hot summer for the law enforcement folks here in Phoenix, who now believe they have not one, but two serial criminals loose. It also appears a similar situation exists in the nation’s capital as well. (Both links courtesy of Drudge.)

* Things are pretty hot in the Middle East as well. Pajamas Media is all over the story, with hot links covering almost every angle. They’re 24×7, so go there and just hit refresh for the latest. I find both Iran’s and Syria’s responses quite intriguing - for all Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s bluster, when the bombs started falling, he’s still blustering, but supporting only behind the scenes. And now both Syria and Saudi Arabia are calling for Hezbollah restraint.

Translation: Hezbollah took Syria and Iran by surprise in escalating all this with Israel before they were militarily ready. Question is: will Israel take advantage of this, or will they stop once Hezbollah is neutralized? That’s the great question…

…still, TKS manages to find some humor amidst a very dangerous situation.

* And things could be getting hotter between India and Pakistan. Pajamas Media also has the latest on the Mumbai bombings - seems India is now blaming rogue, possibly al-Qaeda, elements in the Pakistani secret service (ISI) for the carnage.

* Who else is feeling the heat today? My guess is that today’s round at the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic is the most important round in Michelle Wie’s marketing future. Yesterday she put up a big number, and has no chance to make the cut. If she goes low today, she saves a little face; if she puts up another big number, my guess is she’s toast as far as future men’s tour invites go - at least until she proves she can win on the ladies’ tour.

UPDATE 07/15/06: Well, after shooting 2 over par on the front 9, the child prodigy quit, complaining of stomach pains and heat exhaustion. OK, let this be a lesson to you, Michelle - you wanna play with the big boys, you gotta suffer with the big boys. There’s no room for kids out opn the PGA Tour (right, Ty Tryon?), no matter how talented you might be. A word of advice: stay in school, work on your game, play a ladies’ tour event or two for the next couple of years, then come out when you’re an adult. You’re already well on your way to being over-exposed, why don’t you say you give everyone a break and take some time to grow up. You’ve got a long, prosperous life ahead of you, why rush it?

UPDATE 07/15/06 Part II: The AP’s Nancy Armour says Wie’s critics are too hard on her and just don’t get it. Well, Nancy, let me put you straight: you can’t play ball with the big boys and expect special dispensation from criticism. That’s the way life is. If Wie can’t take the pressure being put on her, she only has to look in the mirror to see why she’s opened herself up to that kind of criticism - you can’t have it both ways. Judging from her comments following her last several tournaments (i.e., all the breaks are going against her, she’s playing well, etc.) she’s still got a lot of growing up to do. Which is OK - she’s only 16, for God’s sake. But even 16-year olds with almost unlimited talent and a future ahead of her need to recognize their place in an adult world. She’s shown so far she can’t do that yet, which given her age is not her fault. But Nancy, give the rest of us a break and don’t put the blame on us.

* Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that prayers continue for Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winner whose once-hopeful prognosis turned for the worse the other day. Seems he had a good day yesterday, but his outlook remains uncertain, at best. Hang in there, Barbaro…

(Title courtesy of Michelle Malkin. Thanks Michelle!)

Is it just me, or does anyone else see the hyprocisy - or, at the very least, the lack of consistency - in the Democrats’ relentless howl over the news that columnist Robert Novak used Karl Rove as a confirming source in the Valerie Plame CIA leak, with nary a whimper over the recent N.Y. Times / L.A. Times outing of the government’s SWIFT (financial transactions monitoring) program used to track the funding of global terrorism?

I think we can all agree that leaks of any kind involving our intelligence agencies and programs (BTW, the war being waged against the Bush Administration from Clinton partisans within the CIA, NSA, and the State Department is, sadly, yet another example of “blind-eye journalism” on the part of the mainstream dino-media) are wrong, and, in certain cases perhaps, something that should be subject to government prosection. Nevertheless, the difference between the hysteria shown over poor Valerie Plame and the relative silence following the leak of the SWIFT program (and, I might add, the NSA’s overseas phone-call monitoring program outed earlier this year) is mind-boggling, to say the least.

On one hand you have the unintended release of a single CIA field office agent’s identity; on the other the deliberate (and, some would say, unnecessary), outing of a secret, comprehensive (and legal!) counter-terrorism program used to monitor financial activities between identified and suspected terrorist groups - you know, the kind that could, oh, I don’t know, financially support the families of suicide bombers sent onto, say, crowded commuter trains? Not that something like that would ever happen, of course…

The fact that the Democrats and their all-too-willing mouthpieces in the mainstream dino-media would focus so much attention and effort on the leak of Valerie Plame’s identity - look at all the attention her civil lawsuit is spawning today! - and so little to those that clearly make our country more vulnerable to terrorist attacks is revealing, and just the latest example of why this country cannot risk putting the Democrats in charge of Congress this November, and the White House come 2008.

Serious times demand serious attention to our nation’s security, and if Democrats are truly serious about how our nation goes about protecting itself against those who wish to do it great harm, they need to move beyond partisan politics, which is, in the end, all the Plame case was about. I just don’t think they have it in them.

UPDATE 7/15/06: Just when you think the Joe-and-Valerie show couldn’t get any more absurd, now comes word that (thanks Raven!) they have lowered themselves to shilling for donations to cover the legal costs of their case. Memo to Joe and Valerie: Listen sleazeballs, if you couldn’t afford the lawsuit in the first place (which, BTW, I have no doubt you could) why file? The answer, is, of course, as Raven so accurately points out, these two are nothing but partisan Democrat media whores who can’t stand the thought of losing their place in the limelight. What a joke.

BTW, To make matters worse, if Joe & Val were hoping for a sympathetic comrade behind the bench, they’re in for a rude surprise, as Captain Ed is quick to point out .

The weather here in Phoenix is nearly as hot as it gets here, with heat advisories up for the rest of the week. Our pool temerature has rocketed up to a toasty 94 degrees! Thank heavens Goodboys week in Massachusetts, with its adjacent salt water and more reasonable temps, is next week. Far as I’m concerned, it can’t come soon enough.

A few equally-hot (at least I hope!) thoughts and observations while trying to cool off…

*While we have a bonafide heat wave going here, we also have one heck of a crime wave underway as well. Since May there have been at least 13 shootings committed by one or more suspects and a series of murders and rapes committed by someone they call the “Baseline rapist” (Baseline Road is a heavily-traveled road running east-west across the Valley). Supposedly, the majority of the victims have been walking or riding their bicycles alone early in the morning or late at night.

Out here in Gilbert (30 miles SE of Phoenix proper), there doesn’t seem to be any sign of concern, but then again, the weather’s been so damned hot so early in the day (the only time one can be comfortable being out and about during summer) - this morning at 8 AM when we left for work it was already 91 - not too many people in their right mind would be outside recreating anyways. The area where I work, however, seems a whole different matter altogether. While not near downtown, we are located in an urban area with various hotels and supporting businesses. Here, I’ve definitely noticed more active security guards, and hotel visitors have been warned not to venture outside alone at any time.

*Islamofacist terrorists have brought their special brand of death and brutality to India.

Thoughts and prayers go out to the innocent victims of Mumbai, whose only crime appears to have been wanting to take public transportation to or from the city. Austin Bay has some thoughts about the latest attacks, including some interesting observations about the numerology of various terror attacks linked to Islamic radicals going back to 9/11. Charles Johnson has a new name for the so-called “Religion of Peace”. He may be right about that.

*Death came to an innocent motorist traveling through one of Boston’s so-called “Big Dig” tunnels on Monday. This is more than just a tragedy and shame, it is criminal negligence on the part of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the government entity responsible for the (mis)management of the entire Big Dig project, and here’s hoping someone does jail time for it.

Anyone who lived in Massachusetts during the years of the Big Dig are all too aware of the blatant waste, corruption, and mismagement that surrounded the project from Day 1. You had the labor unions in the pockets of the politicians, and the contractors in the pockets of the labor unions, and all was rotten from the start. Heck, all you had to do was pick up a Boston Herald to know what was going on. Unfortunately no one in authority listened, and no one paid attention. So now the necessary state and federal investigations will take place, but the cold hard facts are that umpteen billions of dollars have been wasted, and a woman’s life has been taken away. The former is simply a shame. The latter is a tragedy that should never have happened.

*On a lighter note, here we go again. 16-year old golf prodigy Michelle Wie attempting to make her first cut at another PGA Tour event, this time at the John Deere Classic.

Sigh. Look, I don’t blame the tournament’s sponsors doing all they can to attract as an exciting field as possible to fill the coffers supporting the event’s charities, but this “all Michelle all the time” business is starting to wear on my nerves. Sure, she’s drop-dead cute and extremely talented for her age, but sooner or later, if she doesn’t either make a men’s event cut or win a ladies’ tour event, the media will simply stop paying attention or worse, go into attack dog mode. Here’s hoping she makes the cut and shuts up critics like me and Steve Duemig (of The Golf Channel’s Grey Goose 19th Hole) once and for all.

It was announced today (thanks NRO!) that founding Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett died July 7 from cancer at age 60. UK’s London Times has their obituary, and The Guardian Unlimited has theirs.

My brother Mark and I were first introduced to Pink Floyd back around 1971 when a PBS special aired called “The Pink Floyd - England’s experimental rock group”. Being aspiring rockers ourselves and looking for new inspirations following the Beatles’ breakup - our immersion into the Beach Boys would not occur until 1975 - we tuned in. What we saw enthralled us - basically, it was circa-1969-70 spacy-sounding Floyd music played to a film showing various landscape flyovers from a plane with camera suspended below, in various psychedelic colors, no less. Needless to say, we were immediately hooked, and began scarfing up one album after another as our allowances and (for me) paychecks would allow.

We didn’t know then that the band’s line-up at that time was one that had long since ditched their original leader following increasingly-bizarre episodes of psychotic behavior resulting from his continuous hallucinogenic drug abuse. Looking back on Pink Floyd’s career, it’s hard to believe the Barrett canon was restricted to just one LP (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn), three 45 RPM singles (two of which, “Arnold Layne” and “See Emily Play”, were hits), and a few curiosities (”Jugband Blues” and “Astronomy Domine”) on albums immediately following his replacement by guitarist Dave Gilmour.

Regardless, Barrett’s spirit of inspired lunacy, madness, alienation, paranoia, and psychosis became an enduring theme for much of Floyd’s subsequent work - especially on The Dark Side of The Moon (the whispered opening line “I’ve been made for f**king years…” is priceless), Wish You Were Here (the cut “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” featuring lyrics remembering how when Barrett was young his eyes had “shone like the sun” but were now “like black holes in the sky”), and The Wall albums.

The Times’ obituary summarizes Barrett’s contribution to the group’s initial formation and identity as follows:

Barrett had coined the name as a fusion of two grizzled bluesmen called Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, although hippy romantics will always prefer the story he later told of the name being transmitted to him by a flying saucer while he was sitting on Glastonbury Tor.

At first, the group played mostly R&B covers. But Barrett had begun experimenting with LSD in 1965 and the experience began to inspire his own songwriting. As the nascent post-beat, drug-based hippy sub-culture gathered pace throughout 1966, Pink Floyd — as they were now called — effectively became its house band. The R&B covers gave way to Barrett’s quirky songs and long, improvisational “space” epics, with titles such as Interstellar Overdrive and Astronomy Domine.

During this period, Barrett served in a similar role as the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, penning songs and lyrics that distinguished Pink Floyd from other groups in the “Swinging London” years of 1966-67.

The gradual introduction of adventurous self-written material and lengthy monochordal improvisations made them popular fixtures in the capital’s underground clubs where light shows simulated psychedelic experience. Snapped up by EMI, their debut single, Arnold Layne, was, as expected, self-consciously “weird” - and a Top 30 entry, despite airplay restrictions. The follow-up, a tartly-arranged See Emily Play - also composed by Syd - climbed to Number Six. Perhaps more satisfying for the group was recognition by the Beatles, who looked in during a Floyd session for 1967’s groundbreaking The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. The maiden album was penned almost entirely by the charismatic Barrett, who, as a guitarist was as capable of severe dissonance as serene, if echo-laden, melody, and whose vocal style was as English as Elvis Presley’s was American.

With the other personnel keeping pace, he’d gone far into the cosmos and back musically with Astronomy Domine, and disconnected with Earth altogether on Interstellar Overdrive. Moreover, Gnome, Matilda Mother, Flaming and medieval-flavoured Scarecrow cornered pop’s gingerbread castle hour more effectively and instinctively than, for example, the Beatles’ Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.

Neil Young once sang, “it’s better to burn out than it is to rust”, and no one benefited more from this ideal than Syd Barrett. As his bandmates went on to astounding success in the 1970s and beyond, Barrett retreated into a mundane existence of living with his parents and, in his own words, “eating a lot of pork chops and watching television”. As much as his music and descent into madness became the stuff of legend, elevating him to cult figure status, Barrett’s primary contribution to the Pink Floyd legend was to establish its identity and then “flame out” of the way, giving the band something unique it could exploit and return to again and again. Regardless of Barrett’s talent, my own feeling is that the course of rock music history and the level of success Pink Floyd achieved could not have happened as it did had not Barrett crashed and burned, thus allowing a Gilmour/Roger Waters partnership to flourish.

Rest in peace, Syd - your legend is secure in the music you created and inspired.

…avoid Phoenix in July. The monsoons with their humidity have departed, thankfully (you haven’t lived until you try and play golf in 108-degree temps with 60% humidity and a constant 30-mph wind; it’s like playing in a convection oven!), leaving us high and dry with some generic, intense in-your-face summer desert heat. I think of days like these as a New England January cold-snap in reverse - rather than groove your way from one heated environment to another and avoid being outside as much as possible, here you do the same, except it’s from one AC-cooled environment to another.

Say, looking for some “cool” facts about summer life in the Valley of the Sun? A basic primer for outsiders can be found here.

Ten things not to do when the weather turns this hot:

1) Go barefoot on anything other than green grass.
2) Casually lean against your car, especially if it’s a dark shade.
3) Leave a ceramic or metal coffee cup on your dashboard.
4) Attempt anything athletic between 10 AM and 7 PM.
5) Make hot soup.
6) Drive anywhere without a container of water.
7) Ditto sunglasses.
Bring a cold drink outside and expect it to remain that way beyond 5 minutes.
9) Touch metal anywhere, in any form, at any time.
10) Spread peanut butter over your body and lay down on any green grass. If the sun don’t kill ya, the ants will.

If there were an 11th reason, it would be to avoid trying to cross the desert and illegally immigrate here. It’s this time of year when you unfortunately start to read newspaper articles like this and like this.

And a 12th might be not to walk or bike outside, period. After all, you might get shot.

There is one way to beat the heat, however - if you don’t mind watching bad baseball. And that is to attend a Arizona Diamondbacks game at Chase (formerly Bank One) Ballpark. How do they do it? Jeff Summers (no pun intended) of NowHitting.com explains:

With temperatures during the summer reaching 120 degrees, baseball in Phoenix, Arizona could become unbearable if played outside. For this reason, [Chase] Ballpark was created with a retractable roof. The roof can be opened and closed in less than 5 minutes. During the months of April, May, and October; most games are played with the roof open. The opening and closing of the roof is a show by itself. The Arizona Diamondbacks had music composed to choreograph the parting of the roof. On days when the weather permits, the roof will open approximately 30 minutes before game time. The roof will typically close 10 minutes after the game’s conclusion. If this is your first visit to [Chase] Ballpark, this experience is a must. When the roof is closed, the stadium is air-conditioned. The temperature inside is maintained at 77 degrees. If you have seats directly in line with the air conditioning ducts, it can be quite cool or even cold. On those occasions where a day game is played with the roof open, the third-base side will usually be in the shade while the first-base stands will be in the sun for nearly all of the game. Those in the pool will be in the sun for the entire game.

Regardless of the brand of ball you often see played by the hometown nine (who have fallen on hard times since their World Series championship in 2001), it is a fabulous place to watch a ballgame.

Here in the Phoenix area natural forms of water are non-existent, so what city planners have done is to create artificial waterways linked by a canal system. One of these is Tempe Town Lake, which attempts to make this area look like some half-a$$ed oasis in the desert. Of course, trying to maintain something unnnatural in natural surroundings poses its own set of challenges, but that won’t stop city planners from making the most out of this ambitious project which (I will admit) is a very attractive way to turn undeveloped desert land into a hot spot for development, regardless of God’s original intent. But that never stopped the march of progress before, so why should it now?

And, speaking of being a “hot spot”, did you know Arizona is a hot spot for UFOs? Well, it is, and you can read about it here.