A good reason to keep boycotting Exxon/Mobile

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the record $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the nation's worst tanker spill.

By a 5-3 vote, the high court ruled that the punitive damages award should be slashed -- limited by the circumstances of the case to an amount equal to the total relevant compensatory damages of $507.5 million.

The justices overturned a ruling by a U.S. Court of Appeals that had awarded the record punitive damages to about 32,000 commercial fishermen, Alaska natives, property owners and others harmed by the nation's worst tanker spill.

In the majority opinion, Justice David Souter concluded the $2.5 billion in punitive damages was excessive under federal maritime law, and should be cut to the amount of actual harm. "We ... hold that the federal statutory law does not bar a punitive award on top of damages for economic loss, but that the award here should be limited to an amount equal to compensatory damages," Souter said.

Soaring oil prices have propelled Exxon Mobil to previously unforeseen levels of profitability in recent years; the company posted earnings of $40.6 billion in 2007.

It took Exxon Mobil just under two days to bring in $2.5 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2007.

The Exxon Valdez supertanker ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound in March 1989, spilling about 11 million gallons of crude oil. The spill spread oil to more than 1,200 miles of coastline, closed fisheries and killed thousands of marine mammals and hundreds of thousands of sea birds.

....

No punitive damages!?!?! When the company knowingly allowed a relapsed alcoholic to repeatedly pilot a vessel filled with millions of gallons of oil through a wildlife reserve!?!?!

Jewish names for God

For a current project I'm working on, writing new berachot, I recently began looking for a list of alternate names for God derived from Jewish scripture. The Reconstructionist prayerbook series sometimes employes such alternatives for the words Adonai (my Lord) or Melech (king) used in the traditional introductory beracha formula of Baruch atah Adonai, eloheinu melech ha-olam, in order to avoid their patriarchial and hierarchical imagery.

I know for myself, I've always found those two words troublesome, and very far removed from my own personal theology.

It took awhile to assemble this list of alternatives, doing electronic word searches through the Tanach, so I thought I'd post them here, in the event they might save someone else some time!

Alternative names for God

Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, I will be what I will be — Exodus 3:14 *
E’in Sof, God the Infinite — a Kabbalistic name
El De’ot, God of Knowledge — 1 Samuel 2:3
El Echad, the One God — Malachi 2:10
El Elyon, God Most High — Psalm 57:3
El HaShamayim, God of the Heavens — Psalm 136:26
El Olam, God of Eternity — Genesis 21:33
El Rachum, God of Compassion — Psalm 86:15
El Roi, God Who Sees Me — Genesis 16:13
Elohim Chaiyim, Living God — Jer. 10:10
Elohay Kedem, God of the Beginning — Deut 33:27
Elohay Marom, God of Heights — Micah 6:6
Elohay Mauzi, God of my Strength — Psalm 43:2
Elohay Mikarov, God Who is Near — Jer. 23:23
Elohay Tehilati, God of my Praise — Psalm 109:1
HaMakom, the Place — a Kabbalistic name **
Immanu El, God Is With Us — Isaiah 7:14
YHVH Rapha, God Who Heals — Exodus 15:26
YHVH Yihre, God Will See — Genesis 22:14

* Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, “I will be what I will be” — One of the most famous verses in the Bible, this is the sole response Moses receives when he asks for God’s name in Exodus 3:14. It is generally interpreted to mean “I shall be what I shall be” or “I am that I am.” The Tetragrammaton may derive from the same verbal root.

** HaMakom, “the place” — A name of God used in rabbinic literature. In Jewish mysticism, tzimtzum refers to the kabbalistic theory of creation that God “contracted” its infinite light to allow for a “conceptual space” in which a finite, seemingly independent world could exist. This contraction is known as the tzimtzum. Because the tzimtzum results in the conceptual “space” in which the physical universe and free will can exist, God is referred to as HaMakom.

R.I.P. Caribbean monk seal

There's nothing like starting a Shabbes morning with a good cry ...

Caribbean Monk Seal Becomes Extinct
By JAYMES SONG, AP

HONOLULU (June 7) - Federal officials have confirmed what biologists have long thought: The Caribbean monk seal has gone the way of the dodo. Humans hunting the docile creatures for research, food and blubber left the population unsustainable, say biologists who warn that Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals could be the next to go.

Hunters have wiped out the Caribbean monk seal, which was last spotted in 1952. The sea creatures' close cousin, the Hawaiian Monk seal, above, in Oahu in 2002, is facing a similar fate, with only 1,200 remaining. The Mediterranean monk seal is in even worse shape, with only 500 left.

The last confirmed sighting of a Caribbean monk seal was in 1952 between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service confirmed Friday that the species is extinct.

The federal agency says there are fewer than 1,200 Hawaiian and 500 Mediterranean monk seals remaining, and their populations are declining.

The Hawaiian monk seal population, protected by NOAA, is declining at a rate of about 4 percent annually, according to NOAA. The agency predicts the population could fall below 1,000 in the next three to four years, placing the mammal among the world's most endangered marine species.

Monk seals are particularly sensitive to human disturbance. And the sea creatures have been losing their food supply and beaches, officials say.

"Once Hawaii, the Caribbean and the Mediterranean were teeming with fish, but these are areas under severe fishing pressure," the NOAA said. "They'll eat almost anything - shellfish or finned fish - but their food supply is waning and they're in competition with man."

The Caribbean monk seal, first discovered during Christopher Columbus' second voyage in 1494, once had a population of more than 250,000.

Article on deaf rabbi

The Jewish Week has published a wonderful article on one of my classmates, just ordained last weekend. Hope you enjoy:

www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c37_a12132/News/National.html

All Lovers Have Secret Names

I've discovered a beautiful poetry collection by Marge Piercy called The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems with a Jewish Theme. I thought I would share a few favorites.

This one would be particularly lovely during a wedding ceremony:

All Lovers Have Secret Names

The day I forget to write
the day I forget to feed the cats
the day I forget to love you
the day I forget your name
and then my own.

Until then I will not cease
this spinning pattern: part weave
of skeins of soft wool to keep
us warm, to clothe our too open
flesh, to decorate us --

and part dance, through woods
where roots trip me, a dance
through meadows of rabbit holes
and old ribs of plowing hidden
under thick grass.

Until then I will whirl
through my ragged days.
Like a spindle, like a dreydl
I will turn in the center
of my intricate weave

spelling your name in my dance
in my weaving, in my work,
your hidden name which
is simply, finally,
love.

Blessing and cursing

From "The Art of Blessing the Day":

The blessing for the return of a favorite cat,
the blessing for love returned, for friends'
return, for money received unexpected,
the blessing for the rising of the bread,
the sun, the oppressed. I am not sentimental
about old men mumbling the Hebrew by rote
with no more feeling than one says gesundheit.

But the discipline of blessings is to taste
each moment, the bitter, the sour, the sweet
and the salty, and be glad for what does not
hurt. The art is in compressing attention
to each little and big blossom of the tree
of life, to let the tongue sing each fruit,
its savor, its aroma and its use.

Attention is love, what we must give
children, mothers, fathers, pets,
our friends, the news, the woes of others.
What we want to change we curse and then
pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can
with eyes and hands and tongue. If you
can't bless it, get ready to make it new.

-- Marge Piercy

Fast Times in the Cattery

My brother Brad is very glad he went to the trouble of schlepping this beautiful hand-carved wood serving bowl for me, all the way back from South Africa. As you can see, it is very popular with the fur children.

Sweet Pea in a Bowl

Little Bear in a Bowl