See, for some reason — someone's little joke, I think — I'm on the mailing list for White House Press Releases. At least the religious ones. Funny, eh? Life's funny. Someone should sell tickets.
So, here it is, emphases added:
From: White House Media Affairs Office
To: filops@yahoo.com
Sent: Wed, February 17, 2010 7:05:19 AM
Subject: Statement by the President on Ash Wednesday
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 17, 2010
Statement by the President on Ash Wednesday
Michelle and I join Christians here in America and around the world in observing Ash Wednesday. We mark this solemn day of repentance and promise, knowing that Lent is a time for millions to renew faith and also deepen a commitment to loving and serving one another.
###
So.
There y'go.
We'll all be watching for those fruits (Matthew 3:8).
Posts
39 comments:
...aaaaaaaaaaand now I see my blog has just suddenly decided to display all links as underlined.
Sigh.
Anyone know how to turn that off? I didn't knowingly do anything.
/c:
Oh come on, Dan. You know that it's just words to those people. It doesn't really mean anything! It's just a religious word.
If you have access to the CSS stylesheet, you can do this:
A { text-decoration: none; }
Or you can be more specific:
A:link { text-decoration: none; } //unvisited links
A:active { text-decoration: none; } //while you're clicking
A:visited { text-decoration: none; }
I'm sure that's brilliant, Jug, but I'm not. Went into the html Template, saw no "CSS" anything. Stuck in
A { text-decoration: none; }
but it made no difference.
/c:
How do you "renew faith?" I thought you either have it or ya don't.
Repentance by Blackberry.
I joined the residents of Pennsylvania in observing and marking Groundhog Day, but that doesn’t mean that I checked to see if saw my shadow or not.
Is he making this comment after a full day of drinking and flashing people down in New Orleans?
Remember, O Bama, that dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. Repent, and believe the Gospel.
Noticing something is not the same as doing that thing.
I can easily say "We mark this solemn day of Ramadan and promise, knowing that Ramadan is a time for millions to renew faith and also deepen a commitment to loving and serving one another"
And not have any personal connection with Islam.
Ah, but LeeC, he "joins" to "observe", and that implies "participation".
I'm awaiting the fruit as well.
Dan, if you look at your view source from the post page you'll see your html has underline in line 94, 421, and 423(check to be sure). Do you think replacing with none would fix?
I think he "observes" the liturgical holiday in the same way that non baseball fans observe the existence of the World Series as it passes on the nightly news..
Thank you very much for the effort, Joyce, but I find nothing like that in the HTML of the blog template.
/c:
Line 94 with hover could be okay as underline as my blog View/Source has that in the code(only place) and does underline with mouseover while links aren't underlined unless I < u > & < /u > code. Does changing the other two underlines in the html get you back to where you want to be? My blog recently began adding line spaces in the sidebar only and immediately upon opening each section to edit. Blogger is glitching??? Needs be rocket scientist ~
The only way to really know is to check for ashes on his forehead and inspect the menu at the White House. In my usual hypocrital fashion I couldn't get away from work for the imposition of ashes and planned spaghetti bolognese for tonight's dinner. I guess I will have to work extra hard for my salvation through the remainder of Lent.
hmmmmm...me sorry. The V/S is typically somewhat in the dashboard template area. Do you see the underline wording when you click to View Source? Wonder if VS and the template being different reflects it being Blogger? Sorry I couldn't be more helpful ~ :-)
Should do this email but am popping off the computer after this comment...
Try this ~ go to the dashboard, layout, edit html. Click Edit(on browser page top), then Find on this Page and type in underline. See if it highlights the 3 underlines I'm seeing when looking at your blog's ViewSource(leave hover as is) and the other two a:link, a:visited??? Not sure changing would fix but only thing I could think of to try if it were on my blog ~
This Mum must log off ~
Here's what I've got:
a:link {
color:$linkcolor;
text-decoration:none;
}
a:visited {
color:$visitedlinkcolor;
text-decoration:none;
}
a:hover {
color:$titlecolor;
text-decoration:none;
Now, that's just not nice. All I saw was the headline, and my pulse shot through the roof, and...
Ah, sorry.
If it ever actually happened, we might be talking caps, and exclamation points.
If it ever actually happened, we might be talking caps, and exclamation points.
If it ever actually happened, there would be multitudes of news commentators discussing its ramifications and impeachment possibilities.
Good point, Barbara. If he repented, you'd not need me to tell you.
"Obama repents"
Uh, uh. Read closely. That's not what he says. "We join in observing" (from a distance) "Ash Wednesday. We mark blah blah blah."
Wow, I am getting a sore neck keeping up with the twists in this comment thread. HTML and (faux) repentance don't mix well.
And on a related point, my office is near a large Catholic church. I was nearly run off the road by fanatic Romans flocking to get their ash-dots on the forehead at noon. Sad, it is.
Actually, the real story is that Obama was observing that BIDEN repented today as evidenced by the repentant smudge on his forehead.
Thank goodness the Catholic church makes mass repentance of its members such a public event, or we'd have never known about the Biden thing. I mean...two years in a row for Joe!
Hi Dan ~ not sure why the discrepancy and issue that arose. I clicked "compose" rather than "edit html" and strange things happened yesterday. It's a conspiracy, I tell ya. ;-)
The statement? Observe: aware of; notice. Mark: something animals are also known to do though it doesn't necessarily equal ownership. Knowing: Houston, we have a discern-o-meter malfunction, indeed. Who is President Obama's ghost writer these days???
Interesting - Christian Lent gets 4lines from the president, verses a whole speech extolling the virtues of Muslim Ramadan.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-President-Barack-Obama-in-Ramadan-Message/
I'd have a much bigger problem with that if I put any stock whatsoever in Lent.
Yeah, on that:
I have frequented FreeRepublic since the 90s. The commenters include truckloads of RCs, as well a Mormons, atheists, and Christians.
There was a post the other day titled something like "What will you give up for Lent?"
I was tempted to comment, "Manmade human traditions and the Gospel-perverting sects that manufacture them?"
It would have been bloody. (I know, I've been there, at the bottom of the dogpile, many times.)
I was expecting much more outrage when I said I was giving up asceticism for lent, but not a single person raised an objection. Disappointing.
Kindred spirits. As a team, I think we could do some real damage.
Spotted the following:
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", "sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;text-decoration:underline;}
Have you pasted any text from Microsoft Word in your blog post? The above style looks like an MS Word conversion.
Microsoft Word converts poorly to HTML. The best option is to paste into Notepad (or similar) and then paste the text into your blog.
Wayne
I'll have to check that, Wayne. The 0-letter was copied and pasted pretty much from Yahoo... maybe it snuck something in.
Gah! Sabotaged by the White House! I should have known!
Hey, Dan - if Wayne's solution works, then you should know that I put him on to you. If it doesn't - he's nothing to do with me. Wayne who?
I believe that I have exercised an admirable self-restraint by not rushing to the defense of the observance of Lent - true observance, mind rather than political. Lent is not a time for mindlessly giving up things (I remember in college I used to give up gin, for example, but would replace it with scotch), but rather a time of reflexion, study and recommitment to Christian principles, almsgiving and ministry. The fact that it is traditionally orchestrated by the church is hardly a detriment. Face it, left to himself, the average believer would spend about zero time actually reflecting, studying or committing to anything.
I make these remarks at what I imagine is the rump of this particular meta, so that I can take a pass on the deluge of ultra-protestant mindlessness I would probably otherwise provoke. But, of course, being the emminently reasonable person that I am, I certainly welcome whatever you want to dish out, which, kidding aside is usually not mindless.
For your illumination I leave you with the words of the Book of Common Prayer for Ash Wednesday:
"Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wickedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Old Testament Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 103, or 103:8-14
Epistle 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Gospel Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
After the Sermon, all stand, and the Celebrant or Minister appointed invites the people to the observance of a holy Lent, saying
Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith."
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.
Silence is then kept for a time, all kneeling.
If ashes are to be imposed, the Celebrant says the following prayer
Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
The ashes are imposed with the following words
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
Wayne Rowley, you rock; and Gary Benfold, you rock for pointing him here.
I stripped out all of the formatting the White House sent in the email, and now everything's cool.
And yes...
...the White House sabotaged my blog.
(c:
I have to wonder, repent for what exactly?
I really doubt that he thinks he's done literally anything wrong.
It's like I hear the ending of Genesis 3 cycling over and over through his speeches.
Wall Street.
Banks.
Sean Hannity.
Fox News.
Last Administration.
Republicans.
Chamber of Commerce.
The list goes on and on and on.
Irony is that my word verification is the word that all of the country who voted for him feels like now.
sucka
On the lent topic, I've been a Christian for five years and have never observed lent.
meh.
Logan, you find it in the Bible, you do it.
(37 years and counting, and I've never found it yet.)
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