(from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-senate-gop-20141014-story.html, What A GOP Senate Would Mean)
“. . . That said, it would be a mistake to assume that a Republican-held Senate would not be able to assert its will on public policy in a meaningful way. It might not be able to pass game-changing legislation high on the GOP wish list — a complete dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, for instance — but it might be able to nibble at the edges or put vulnerable Democrats on the spot. In the case of Obamacare, the targets are clear — go after the tax on medical devices, the employer mandate or other unpopular elements in the program. The strategy would be to weaken Obamacare, put it deeply in the red or make it so dysfunctional that eventually a repeal would seem like an act of euthanasia. . .”
This is what our ‘lawmakers’ do - destroy what the OTHER SIDE has done instead of helping their constituents. Wouldn’t it make more sense to ‘fix’ the unpopular elements in the program
to make that program work better to provide affordable healthcare to the population?
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
This Monday evening, Oct 20, we are delighted to welcome, all the way from Nashville, BUDDY MONDLOCK! Buddy is a SONGWRITER – his songs have been recorded by people like Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith, Janis Ian, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, Garth Brooks, David Wilcox and more… He has co-written with Janis Ian, Garth Brooks, and others. He co-wrote and played and sang on an album with Art Garfunkel and Maia Sharp. He is a Kerrville New Folk winner, and also has a Kerrville award for Song of the Year… What does all this tell you? He is an A-List touring singer-songwriter and we are lucky to have him drop by to feature for us on Monday! This is a show you do not want to miss! When people whose names you recognize record someone’s songs, and they are songwriters themselves, it usually means the songs are EXCEPTIONAL! They are! Come and listen! www.buddymondlock.com
The piano prelude this week is from ROCKIN’ RAY JOZWIAK, who for many years has visited us every month to demonstrate how to get out of corners he seems to have painted himself into. Just when you think he has finally trapped himself – a deft flurry of the cape and he has escaped again! If you have never heard Ray before, he has often been compared to Keith Jarrett. He is also part of our ad hoc house band at the end of the evening, when he lets his rock’n’roll out… Come early to be sure of good seats (don't forget we start at 7:15 pm now); you may come up after 7:00 pm so long as Katherine is ready, and performers may come upstairs as soon as they arrive.
Three-song cameos this week are from REID SCHOENFELDER, whose rock background occasionally pokes through his excellent singer-songwriter material, show promoter and Alt-Country/Americana fiend DOMENIC CICALA, and Todd’s Pick this week, BRIAN KEITH. As usual, poet JOHN HOLLY will be reciting a couple of poems and I'll throw in a poem and some songs later on. TOMY WRIGHT was supposed to be with us this week but was unfortunately called away again, so we hope he'll be able to make it next week.
MISTER RON GOAD will be filling the drum and percussion chair as usual, so performers please feel free to call on him. He is beautifully trained and extremely intuitive, so he won't trample all over your songs – well, he usually doesn't, anyway. Please don't say the word “Toad” when asking him to play, or you may have to wait 11 minutes before you can continue…
Brewer's Alley Restaurant & Brewery
124 North Market Street Frederick, MD 21701 Telephone: 301-631-0089 Fax: 301-631-1874
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
Website where artist's music may be heard: http://www.rayjozwiak.com/music.html
Music Category Need Help? Jazz (for lack of a more accurate choice)
Product Information
Product Title 2014 Format online
Released April 2014
Cover Designer R.M. Jozwiak
Comments: A 'scenic overlook' of the musical life of Baltimore's creative musician and Gonzo Pianist Ray Jozwiak.
List your top accomplishments from October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014
1. A 'scenic overlook' of the musical life of Baltimore's creative musician and Gonzo Pianist Ray Jozwiak.
2. Approaching 8th anniversary of association with the Brewer's Alley Songwri
3. Conceptual & recording progress on OHO's upcoming release
Are you a current member of WAMA? Yes
It may take up to a week for your listing to appear at - http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jspf=001ApQpr8-4v8OQ5oZ4O1dDElAJcgpyVteTw3CcjXLQJC07QoTwrTIkxS0qFJE_iXDsnAtHkRpHrx1s05COhnt73oaAaJQaqdvrKJWjIrFizVaLkH0HkaJiUTyvCI_oXrqN3G_v9IdFjuMtEPAadcHgU1Rcf4sXLG26mFRu4BrNr5h6AmVrFowQLxOQ8W-2yYZImzVQR42xe6I=&c=-0RZGJFnL_qR5ylJ_g0LLdPy4xPFKq5u8b8bJuDSi5P4lLKjCpWVw==&ch=y8t4CulyMZWJN96_jbi1wZFKRXxdF5cHAH9xt0X-epmmHA0xKV20tQ==
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
The Vatican is finally admitting that a group they formerly chose to strongly repress now has "gifts and qualities to offer". A newly released document asked if Catholicism could accept gays and recognize positive aspects of same-sex couples. Church conservatives called it a betrayal of traditional family values, you know, those VALUES that require repression of SOME group of individuals that they barely know and absolutely do NOT understand.
John Smeaton, co-founder of the conservative group Voice of the Family, said: "Those who are controlling the synod have betrayed Catholic parents worldwide." He failed to explain precisely how they accomplished that or how any of this relates to parents or children. He called it "one of the worst official documents drafted in Church history".
He conveniently forgot about the documents that denounced contraceptives, premarital sex, masturbation, abortion, artificial insemination, voluntary sterilization, lifelong celibacy for priests, nuns, and monks – and all others who never marry. Occasionally, the Church even shows signs of its old opposition to “bad thoughts” about sex (i.e., thoughts associating sex with pleasure), and to marital acts of sexual intercourse engaged in for pleasure rather than procreation. As recently as Pope John Paul II, husbands were urged “not to commit adultery with their wives by desiring sex for its mere pleasure and the satisfaction of instinct”
Hopefully the Catholic church will continue this evolution toward the proper direction and stop marginalizing those who are DIFFERENT from them, or formerly marginalized in an age of ignorance or pre-scientific knowledge.
(sources: http://humanismbyjoe.co/catholic-sex/ and http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/vatican-document-gays-have-gifts-qualities-offer-church-n224691)
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
(http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/opinion/bill-maher-isnt-the-only-one-who-misunderstands-religion.html?_r=1)
Bill Maher’s recent rant against Islam has set off a fierce debate about the problem of religious violence, particularly when it comes to Islam.
Mr. Maher, who has argued that Islam is unlike other religions (he thinks it’s more “like the Mafia”), recently took umbrage with President Obama’s assertion that the terrorist group known as the Islamic State, or ISIS, does not represent Islam. In Mr. Maher’s view, Islam has “too much in common with ISIS.”
His comments have led to a flurry of responses, perhaps none so passionate as that of the actor Ben Affleck, who lambasted Mr. Maher, on Mr. Maher’s own HBO show, for “gross” and “racist” generalizations about Muslims.
Yet there is a real lack of sophistication on both sides of the argument when it comes to discussing religion and violence.
On one hand, people of faith are far too eager to distance themselves from extremists in their community, often denying that religious violence has any religious motivation whatsoever. This is especially true of Muslims, who often glibly dismiss those who commit acts of terror in the name of Islam as “not really Muslim.”
On the other, critics of religion tend to exhibit an inability to understand religion outside of its absolutist connotations. They scour holy texts for bits of savagery and point to extreme examples of religious bigotry, of which there are too many, to generalize about the causes of oppression throughout the world.
What both the believers and the critics often miss is that religion is often far more a matter of identity than it is a matter of beliefs and practices. The phrase “I am a Muslim,” “I am a Christian,” “I am a Jew” and the like is, often, not so much a description of what a person believes or what rituals he or she follows, as a simple statement of identity, of how the speaker views her or his place in the world.
As a form of identity, religion is inextricable from all the other factors that make up a person’s self-understanding, like culture, ethnicity, nationality, gender and sexual orientation. What a member of a suburban megachurch in Texas calls Christianity may be radically different from what an impoverished coffee picker in the hills of Guatemala calls Christianity. The cultural practices of a Saudi Muslim, when it comes to the role of women in society, are largely irrelevant to a Muslim in a more secular society like Turkey or Indonesia. The differences between Tibetan Buddhists living in exile in India and militant Buddhist monks persecuting the Muslim minority known as the Rohingya, in neighboring Myanmar, has everything to do with the political cultures of those countries and almost nothing to do with Buddhism itself.
No religion exists in a vacuum. On the contrary, every faith is rooted in the soil in which it is planted. It is a fallacy to believe that people of faith derive their values primarily from their Scriptures. The opposite is true. People of faith insert their values into their Scriptures, reading them through the lens of their own cultural, ethnic, nationalistic and even political perspectives.
After all, scripture is meaningless without interpretation. Scripture requires a person to confront and interpret it in order for it to have any meaning. And the very act of interpreting a scripture necessarily involves bringing to it one’s own perspectives and prejudices.
The abiding nature of scripture rests not so much in its truth claims as it does in its malleability, its ability to be molded and shaped into whatever form a worshiper requires. The same Bible that commands Jews to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) also exhorts them to “kill every man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey,” who worship any other God (1 Sam. 15:3). The same Jesus Christ who told his disciples to “turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39) also told them that he had “not come to bring peace but the sword” (Matthew 10:34), and that “he who does not have a sword should sell his cloak and buy one” (Luke 22:36). The same Quran that warns believers “if you kill one person it is as though you have killed all of humanity” (5:32) also commands them to “slay the idolaters wherever you find them” (9:5).
How a worshiper treats these conflicting commandments depends on the believer. If you are a violent misogynist, you will find plenty in your scriptures to justify your beliefs. If you are a peaceful, democratic feminist, you will also find justification in the scriptures for your point of view.
What does this mean, in practical terms? First, simplistic knee-jerk response among people of faith to dismiss radicals in their midst as “not us” must end. Members of the Islamic State are Muslims for the simple fact that they declare themselves to be so. Dismissing their profession of belief prevents us from dealing honestly with the inherent problems of reconciling religious doctrine with the realities of the modern world. But considering that most of its victims are also Muslims — as are most of the forces fighting and condemning the Islamic State — the group’s self-ascribed Islamic identity cannot be used to make any logical statement about Islam as a global religion.
At the same time, critics of religion must refrain from simplistic generalizations about people of faith. It is true that in many Muslim countries, women do not have the same rights as men. But that fact alone is not enough to declare Islam a religion that is intrinsically more patriarchal than Christianity or Judaism. (It’s worth noting that Muslim-majority nations have elected women leaders on several occasions, while some Americans still debate whether the United States is ready for a female president.)
Bill Maher is right to condemn religious practices that violate fundamental human rights. Religious communities must do more to counter extremist interpretations of their faith. But failing to recognize that religion is embedded in culture — and making a blanket judgment about the world’s second largest religion — is simply bigotry.
Reza Aslan, a professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, is the author, most recently, of “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.”
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak
My latest solo release, '2014' of original, instrumental piano music, can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak4)
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