A prayer for peace

As I am sure many others are as well, I pray tonight for peace in our world. I see the violence in the Middle East seeming to continue to spiral out of control and I pray for God’s peace to come and to reign not just in the areas of Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, and other Middle Eastern countries, but for God’s peace to come and reign throughout our world. I came across these Sabbath Eve liturgical prayers put together by Rabbi Arthur Waskow by Rachel Barenblat at the Progressive Faith Blog Convention. These come courtesy of Ms Barenblat’s blog and Streetprophets.com

Hashkiveinu – God’s Protecting Care
Help us to lie down in peace, Adonai our God, and to arise again to life. Spread over the world Your sheltering peace. Direct us with Your guidance and save us. Protect and keep us from enmity, illness, violence, want, and sorrow. Remove envy and recrimination from us. Shelter us in the shadow of Your wings, for You are a protecting, redeeming God. You are God, our source of grace and mercy. Guard our going out and our coming in, for life and for peace, now and forever.

Spread over us Your sheltering peace. Blessed are you, Adonai, who spreads a shelter of peace over us all, over all your people Israel, and over Jerusalem.

Baruch atah, Adonai, ha-pareis sukkat shalome aleinu v’al kol amo Yisrael, v’al Yerushalayim.

and

Aleinu
May the time not be distant, O God, when all shall turn to You in love, when corruption and evil shall give way to integrity and goodness, when superstition shall no longer enslave the mind, nor idolatry blind the eye. O may all, created in Your image, become one in spirit and one in friendship, forever united in Your service. Then shall your realm be established on earth, and the word of Your prophet fulfilled:

“Adonai will reign forever and ever. On that day, Adonai shall be One, and God’s name shall be One.”
Adonai yimloch l’olam va-ed. V’ne-e-mar, v’haya Adonai, l’melech al kol ha-aretz. Bayom hah (bayom hahu) yih’yeh Adonai echad, ushmo echad.

Fish in a barrel – Sometimes its just too easy…

Its just too easy to make fun of Ted Stevens, the distringuished senator from Alaksa. A few months ago, The Daily Show put him in the Old Fashioned Coot Off against Robert Byrd when he wanted to attack drilling in ANWR with a defense bill.

Well, now he is pulling things out that just boggle the mind. In debating the Net Neutrailty Act, our hero from Alaska came up with the classic statement that the Internet is made up of tubes! Yes, tubes! You mean like the old vacuum tubes from old TVs or computers? Yes indeed, these are the people debating the future of the internet as we know it. Just think if this is how they are understanding something as simple as the internet, I wonder how they handle things like poverty, foreign relations, or other things that are slightly more complex. I feel safer already.

See for yourself…Here’s ol Ted at his finest courtesy of wonkette.com and Jon Stewart

Save us…