Our son Thomas recently passed his Commercial Driver's License. I better not show this picture to his mother.
Via Woodsterman
Friday, December 31, 2010
No, stay on the highway!
Our son Thomas recently passed his Commercial Driver's License. I better not show this picture to his mother.
Via Woodsterman
Guess who is running for mayor of Chicago?
The following was written by Basil, a guy who is a contributing blogger at IMAO.
« BTW «» Random Thoughts »By the way, I’m running for mayor of Chicago, too
Posted by Basil on December 28, 2010 at 8:02 am
Did you miss the news the other day?
The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners ruled that former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is a Chicago resident and can run for mayor.
Part of the problem is that Emanuel doesn’t actually live in Chicago. Hasn’t for a couple of years. He says he’s paid taxes there. And that whole selling his house thing? He wasn’t really selling it.
The Board, in true Chicago style, said that as long as Emanuel was planning on going back, he was a resident.
Which brings me to my point: I’ve been to Chicago. Spent days there. Drove the roads and paid the tolls … which are road taxes. Even been to a White Sox game. And plan to go back to see a Cubs game at Wrigley.
Like Rahm Emanuel, I’ve been to Chicago, paid taxes there, and plan to go back.
Therefore, I am a Chicago resident.
So, I’m running for mayor, too.
And, since it’s Chicago, I want everyone to register so you can vote for me. I mean, it’s Chicago. Dead people vote there all the time. I don’t see why being alive should disqualify you. Just tell them you’re a Democrat. That should cut through any red tape.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I’m elected mayor of Chicago. I suppose I should think up some campaign promises or something. I mean, it’s what people running for office do, right?
Here are some of the things I’ve come up with:
Rename US Cellular Field to Cominskey Park.
Daily contests between Lou Malnati’s and Pizzeria Uno’s for best Original Chicago Style Pizza.
Every holiday gets a massacre. St. Valentine’s Day has ridden that gravy train for too long!
Oprah has to give cars to everybody.
Lake Michigan is renamed Happy Fun Lake and is declared off-limits to Canada.
I’m looking for more ideas. When I’m elected mayor, I’ll have jobs for everyone who submits ideas and otherwise contributes to the campaign. As mayor of Chicago, I’ll be able to do that.
Barry's Hawaiian vacation, and a superhero from the north
Apparently our President is on vacation in Hawaii. Be careful out there, Mr. President.
Via Andy's Place
Via Andy's Place
New Rules for Congress
John Boehner, expected to be the new Speaker of the House, has announced new rules. The Constitution will be read (I am not clear whether this is to be done every day or just one time at the beginning of the new session of Congress), and all new bills must be shown by the author of the new legislation to be linked to the Constitiution. It sounds great, but is there any doubt we need to hold their feet to the fire?
Our Dumb World
Want more than just a chuckle? Try reading The Onion's Our Dumb World, The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth. This book travels to all corners of our globe with magnificent satirical descriptions of all the countries. You should avoid this book if you can't stand a satire that includes the United States, or if you are offended by the "f-word." No country escapes the withering satire of The Onion's writers. There is a part of me that would love to write for The Onion.
Michael Barone: A Truce in Culture Wars as Voters Focus on Economy
Mitch Daniels’s proposal is already a fact of life.
Back in June, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, who many think would be an attractive 2012 presidential candidate, was quoted by Andrew Ferguson in The Weekly Standard as saying the next president “would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues.”
That quickly attracted some harsh criticism from opponents of abortion and same-sex marriage. But Daniels has declined to back down, telling the Indianapolis Star the other day that such issues are secondary to the economy and foreign policy.
I think both Daniels and his critics have missed the point. The fact is that there is an ongoing truce on the social issues, because for most Americans they have been overshadowed by concerns raised by the weak economy and the Barack Obama Democrats’ vast increase in the size and scope of government.
Those with strong positions on both sides of the abortion and gay-rights issues don’t like to hear that. They base their views on strongly held moral beliefs that are intellectually defensible and not vicious in character.
And for more than a decade, they had gotten used to a politics in which the demographic variable most highly correlated with voting behavior was religion, or degree of religiosity, and in which positions on abortion were very highly correlated with partisan preference.
Our politics in the years from 1995 to 2005 or so was like a culture war between two approximately equal-sized armies fighting it out over small bits of terrain that made the difference between victory and defeat. In that context, abortion and other cultural issues were litmus tests in the contests for both parties’ presidential nominations.
I don’t think that’s likely to be the case in the future. You don’t hear potential contenders for the 2012 Republican nomination talking about cultural issues very much. And the intramural arguments among Democrats are over things like tax cuts for the rich and the public option in the health-care bill.
Even as economics is overshadowing all else, we seem to have reached a truce in the culture wars because important issues have been settled as a practical matter.
Abortion remains controversial. But we are not going to see abortion criminalized, not in a country where the Supreme Court has been ruling for 37 years that it’s a right.
At the same time, we are seeing abortion disfavored and restricted by state laws that are widely popular and have at least in some cases been upheld by the courts. Polls show that young voters, liberal on most cultural issues, have slightly more negative views on abortion than their elders.
On gay rights, we also see something in the nature of a truce. Polls suggest majority support for Congress’s repeal of the ban on open gays in the military, and the Marine Corps commandant, who opposed the change, promised to work hard to implement it.
Same-sex marriage is accepted in Massachusetts and nearly gained majority support in referenda in Maine and California. But many states have passed constitutional amendments banning it. It is unlikely to pass muster with voters or legislators in most of the South anytime soon, if only because most black voters are opposed (blacks voted 70 percent against it in California).
There’s a sharp difference between old and young voters on same-sex marriage, and my guess is that young voters will continue to favor it by wide margins as they grow older — but maybe not. In the meantime, discrimination against or disparagement of gays and lesbians is increasingly frowned on by larger and larger majorities.
American history is a long chronicle of, among other things, people with different views on religious and cultural issues living in more or less close and amicable proximity with one another. Sometimes that’s hard, when government faces binary issues (should abortion be legal?) that must be decided one way or the other.
But on the cultural issues that have been the focus of political contention, we seem to have reached a status quo that, while not acceptable to some with strong views on both sides, is one most Americans can live with. The truce that Mitch Daniels called for and that his critics decry is a fact of life.
— Michael Barone is senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News Channel contributor, and a co-author of The Almanac of American Politics. © 2010 the Washington Examiner.
from: National Review Online
Back in June, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, who many think would be an attractive 2012 presidential candidate, was quoted by Andrew Ferguson in The Weekly Standard as saying the next president “would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues.”
That quickly attracted some harsh criticism from opponents of abortion and same-sex marriage. But Daniels has declined to back down, telling the Indianapolis Star the other day that such issues are secondary to the economy and foreign policy.
I think both Daniels and his critics have missed the point. The fact is that there is an ongoing truce on the social issues, because for most Americans they have been overshadowed by concerns raised by the weak economy and the Barack Obama Democrats’ vast increase in the size and scope of government.
Those with strong positions on both sides of the abortion and gay-rights issues don’t like to hear that. They base their views on strongly held moral beliefs that are intellectually defensible and not vicious in character.
And for more than a decade, they had gotten used to a politics in which the demographic variable most highly correlated with voting behavior was religion, or degree of religiosity, and in which positions on abortion were very highly correlated with partisan preference.
Our politics in the years from 1995 to 2005 or so was like a culture war between two approximately equal-sized armies fighting it out over small bits of terrain that made the difference between victory and defeat. In that context, abortion and other cultural issues were litmus tests in the contests for both parties’ presidential nominations.
I don’t think that’s likely to be the case in the future. You don’t hear potential contenders for the 2012 Republican nomination talking about cultural issues very much. And the intramural arguments among Democrats are over things like tax cuts for the rich and the public option in the health-care bill.
Even as economics is overshadowing all else, we seem to have reached a truce in the culture wars because important issues have been settled as a practical matter.
Abortion remains controversial. But we are not going to see abortion criminalized, not in a country where the Supreme Court has been ruling for 37 years that it’s a right.
At the same time, we are seeing abortion disfavored and restricted by state laws that are widely popular and have at least in some cases been upheld by the courts. Polls show that young voters, liberal on most cultural issues, have slightly more negative views on abortion than their elders.
On gay rights, we also see something in the nature of a truce. Polls suggest majority support for Congress’s repeal of the ban on open gays in the military, and the Marine Corps commandant, who opposed the change, promised to work hard to implement it.
Same-sex marriage is accepted in Massachusetts and nearly gained majority support in referenda in Maine and California. But many states have passed constitutional amendments banning it. It is unlikely to pass muster with voters or legislators in most of the South anytime soon, if only because most black voters are opposed (blacks voted 70 percent against it in California).
There’s a sharp difference between old and young voters on same-sex marriage, and my guess is that young voters will continue to favor it by wide margins as they grow older — but maybe not. In the meantime, discrimination against or disparagement of gays and lesbians is increasingly frowned on by larger and larger majorities.
American history is a long chronicle of, among other things, people with different views on religious and cultural issues living in more or less close and amicable proximity with one another. Sometimes that’s hard, when government faces binary issues (should abortion be legal?) that must be decided one way or the other.
But on the cultural issues that have been the focus of political contention, we seem to have reached a status quo that, while not acceptable to some with strong views on both sides, is one most Americans can live with. The truce that Mitch Daniels called for and that his critics decry is a fact of life.
— Michael Barone is senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a Fox News Channel contributor, and a co-author of The Almanac of American Politics. © 2010 the Washington Examiner.
from: National Review Online
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
The year of the nannies
2010 was the year of the nannies. Michelle Malkin identifies the most egregious examples here.
Take a quiz on how well you followed the news in 2010.
The Pew Research Center has a quiz on how well you followed some of 2010's top news stories. Take the quiz here.
"The redistribution of health"
Laura Ingraham blogs here about the "redistribution of health" and "hospice chutes."
Rare-Earth Metals
Which country supplies the world with 95% of the "rare-earth minerals" used in high tech batteries, television sets, cellphones and defense products? That's right, China. In the second half of 2010 China decided to cut its exports of rare-earth minerals by 72%. Read more about this issue here.
A Cautionary Tale
Motel Zero has a cautionary tale. If you are a gingerbread man, don't look at this post.
We will be thinking of you tomorrow, Al Gore
Tomorrow we have a "100% chance of precipitation," with high winds and 5-10 inches of snow predicted. They always add "heavier accumulations in local areas." Then, for the next three nights, our temperatures will be below zero.
Al's photo courtesy of The Looking Spoon
Al's photo courtesy of The Looking Spoon
The Pleasure of My Company
I like a book that makes me chuckle. Steve Martin's The Pleasure of My Company did just that. I had been seeing his name on the best seller lists, and decided to see what I could check out from the library. First I checked out Shop Girl, but that one did not hold my interest. The Pleasure of My Company definitely did. It is filled with irony, yet also with much sweetness. It is written in first person from the point of view of a 31-year-old man who is a prisoner of his own neurotic obsessions. A neighbor in his apartment building, while the two are jogging, helps him to see that he can break free from one of those obsessions.
Our main character becomes the caretaker of the toddler son of his therapist, who is a graduate student in psychology, and he decides he wants to leave this child free of the constrictions he has erected in his own life. A woman, to whom he has long been attracted, who is a pharmacist who fills his prescriptions at Rite Aid, sees how sweet and kind he is to the toddler, and she becomes attracted to him, too. She has a great sense of humor, and divides his obsessions into three categories: acceptable, unacceptable, and hilarious. He decides to make the most of one of his obsessions, silent counting and alphabetizing, and becomes gainfully employed at Hewlet Packard.
The book has a very happy ending, which I won't ruin with this review.
Our main character becomes the caretaker of the toddler son of his therapist, who is a graduate student in psychology, and he decides he wants to leave this child free of the constrictions he has erected in his own life. A woman, to whom he has long been attracted, who is a pharmacist who fills his prescriptions at Rite Aid, sees how sweet and kind he is to the toddler, and she becomes attracted to him, too. She has a great sense of humor, and divides his obsessions into three categories: acceptable, unacceptable, and hilarious. He decides to make the most of one of his obsessions, silent counting and alphabetizing, and becomes gainfully employed at Hewlet Packard.
The book has a very happy ending, which I won't ruin with this review.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Drugging our kids
The 2009 results are in. We are drugging our kids at a world record rate. The Wall Street Journal reports on the total number of prescriptions or refills dispensed to children and teens.
ADHD Medications: 24,357,000. Included in that number were 7,018,000 to children ages 0-9, and 17,339,000 to children 10-19 years old.
9,614,000 Antidepressants (1,026,000 to children 0-9 years old and 8,588,000 to children 10-19 years old).
6,546,000 Antipsychotic medications (1,396,000 to children ages 0-9, and 5,150,000 to children ages 10-19.
More than 25% of U.S. children are taking a medication on a chronic basis. That number includes asthma and antihypertensive meds.
ADHD Medications: 24,357,000. Included in that number were 7,018,000 to children ages 0-9, and 17,339,000 to children 10-19 years old.
9,614,000 Antidepressants (1,026,000 to children 0-9 years old and 8,588,000 to children 10-19 years old).
6,546,000 Antipsychotic medications (1,396,000 to children ages 0-9, and 5,150,000 to children ages 10-19.
More than 25% of U.S. children are taking a medication on a chronic basis. That number includes asthma and antihypertensive meds.
No Christmas in Iraq's Muslim-ruled areas
Daphne at Jaded Haven wonders how it can be a good thing that Christians are being targeted in Iraq's Muslim-ruled areas.
Monday, December 27, 2010
The Federal Reserve: Whom is it helping?
The Burning Platform is a blog that does its homework. In this essay about our economy, the writer supports his argument with graphs and persuasive data. Here is an example of 2010 price increases we have all had to deal with.
The blogger's main points are that Federal Reserve policies have hurt senior citizens and squeezed the middle class terribly, while enriching Bernanke's true masters, "the ruling elite who control the wealth in this country
"Only an Ivy League academic could examine the following yearly price data and conclude, as Bernanke has, that inflation is well contained:"
Unleaded gas up 24%
Heating Oil up 28%
Corn up 50%
Wheat up 48%
Coffee up 56%
Sugar up 27%
Soybeans up 30%
Beef up 26%
Pork up 22%
Cotton up 101%
Copper up 33%
Silver up 72%
The blogger's main points are that Federal Reserve policies have hurt senior citizens and squeezed the middle class terribly, while enriching Bernanke's true masters, "the ruling elite who control the wealth in this country
Kwanzaa and other faiths
President Obama gave us this Kwanzaa greeting yesterday:
Visit the Moonbattery blog and scroll down to find two December 27, 2010 posts that you will not find in your local newspaper. Moonbattery gives us background information about Kwanzaa and also some history of the President's own religious faith.
"Michelle and I extend our warmest thoughts and wishes to all those who are celebrating Kwanzaa this holiday season. Today is the first of a joyful seven-day celebration of African-American culture and heritage. The seven principles of Kwanzaa — Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity and Faith — are some of the very values that make us Americans."
Visit the Moonbattery blog and scroll down to find two December 27, 2010 posts that you will not find in your local newspaper. Moonbattery gives us background information about Kwanzaa and also some history of the President's own religious faith.
Price of silver rises 51% in 2010
The Wall Street Journal has this story today about the price of silver soaring. Guess which countries are producing the most silver? Peru, Mexico, and China. The United States ranks eighth. Maybe we'll see some mines open back up here in Colorado and other western states.
New Medicare regulations bring death panels to life
Fausta's Blog breaks this story about Death Panels being written into Medicare regulations. Implementation date? January 1, 2011!
Malkin: Prayers for the Inspector General, Please
Michelle Malkin has a breaking news story here. Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine has informed members of Congress that he is going to investigate allegations of selective enforcement of civil rights laws in the New Black Panther voter intimidation case that Eric Holder's Justice Department declined to prosecute. Malkin respects Mr. Fine, and believes this is a significant story.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Sara's Christmas 2010
Whoever created the AquaSand game should be required to clean up after each child that uses it. Sara enjoyed it while it lasted, then gave us her present to us: a 2011 handprint calendar. My three favorites were September, July, and December, so, here they are!
A New Slinky
What is Christmas without a new slinky, to replace the ones from the nine previous Christmases? Jon seems to like it.
A Christmas Card from Greg
This is the front of a poem card that 9-year-old Greg made for us today.
The inside of the card is hard to read, even if you click on it. Here is the poem 9-year-old Greg wrote: "Dear Mom and Dad,
What makes the clouds clear up?
Who goes off and buys me syrup?
Mom and Dad!
Who are the ones that tuck me in?
Who are the people that never sin?
Mom and Dad!
Who's always happy?
Who's never snappy?
I'll tell you who! Mom and Dad!
Oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas!"
Even though he overrates us tremendously, Greg is a kid who knows how to show gratitude, as do Jon and Sara. I'm thankful for that. I'm also thankful that our kids have two parents intimately involved in their daily lives.
The inside of the card is hard to read, even if you click on it. Here is the poem 9-year-old Greg wrote: "Dear Mom and Dad,
What makes the clouds clear up?
Who goes off and buys me syrup?
Mom and Dad!
Who are the ones that tuck me in?
Who are the people that never sin?
Mom and Dad!
Who's always happy?
Who's never snappy?
I'll tell you who! Mom and Dad!
Oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas!"
Even though he overrates us tremendously, Greg is a kid who knows how to show gratitude, as do Jon and Sara. I'm thankful for that. I'm also thankful that our kids have two parents intimately involved in their daily lives.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Garrison Keilor: Nonbelievers, please leave Christmas alone
December 16, 2009|By Garrison Keillor
I've just come from Cambridge, that beehive of brilliance, where nerds don't feel self-conscious: There's always someone nerdier nearby. If you are the World's Leading Authority on the mating habits of the jabberwock beetle of the Lesser Jujube Archipelago, you can take comfort in knowing that the pinch-faced drone next to you at Starbucks may be the W.L.A. on 17th-century Huguenot hymnody or a niche of quantum physics that is understood by nobody but himself.
People in Cambridge learn to be wary of brilliance, having seen geniuses in the throes of deep thought step into potholes and disappear. Such as the brilliant economist Lawrence Summers, whose presidency brought Harvard to the verge of disaster. He, against the advice of his lessers, invested Harvard's operating funds in the stock market and lost the bet. In the cold light of day, this was dumber than dirt, like putting the kids' lunch money on Valiant's Fancy to win in the 5th. And now the genius is in the White House, two short flights of stairs above the Oval Office. This does not make Cantabrigians feel better about our nation's economic future.
You can blame Ralph Waldo Emerson for the brazen foolishness of the elite. He preached here at the First Church of Cambridge, a Unitarian outfit (where I discovered that "Silent Night" has been cleverly rewritten to make it more about silence and night and not so much about God), and Emerson tossed off little bon mots that have been leading people astray ever since. "To be great is to be misunderstood," for example. This tiny gem of self-pity has given license to a million arrogant and unlovable people to imagine that their unpopularity somehow was proof of their greatness.
And all his hoo-ha about listening to the voice within and don't follow the path, make your own path and leave a trail and so forth, encouraged people who might've been excellent janitors to become bold and innovative economists who run a wealthy university into the ditch.
Unitarians listen to the Inner Voice and so they have no creed that they all stand up and recite in unison, and that's their perfect right, but it is wrong, wrong, wrong to rewrite "Silent Night." If you don't believe Jesus was God, OK, go write your own damn "Silent Night" and leave ours alone. This is spiritual piracy and cultural elitism, and we Christians have stood for it long enough. And all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write "Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we'll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah"? No, we didn't.
Christmas is a Christian holiday - if you're not in the club, then buzz off. Celebrate Yule instead or dance around in druid robes for the solstice. Go light a big log, go wassailing and falalaing until you fall down, eat figgy pudding until you puke, but don't mess with the Messiah.
Christmas does not need any improvements. It is a common, ordinary experience that resists brilliant innovation. Just make some gingerbread persons and light three candles and sing softly in dim light about the poor man gathering winter fu-u-el and the radiant beams and the holly and the ivy, and you've got it. Too many people work too hard to make Christmas perfect, find the perfect gifts, get a turkey that reaches 100 percent of potential. Perfection is a goal of brilliant people, and it is unnecessary where Christmas is concerned.
The most wonderful Christmas of my life was 1997, a quiet day with no gifts and no tree, waiting in a New York apartment for my daughter to be born. And the second most wonderful was one in the Norwegian Arctic, where it rained every day and the sun came up around 11 and set around 1, not that you ever actually saw the sun, and the food was abominable, boiled cod and watery potatoes, and the people were cold and resentful, and there was no brilliance whatsoever. And I had the flu. Why was I there? Good question. But every year it gladdens my heart to know that I will not be going to Norway for Christmas. A terrific investment. Mr. Summers should be so smart. For one week of misery, I get an annual joyfulness dividend of at least 25 percent. Merry Christmas, my dears.
Garrison Keillor's column appears regularly in The Baltimore Sun. His e-mail is oldscout@prairiehome.net.
I've just come from Cambridge, that beehive of brilliance, where nerds don't feel self-conscious: There's always someone nerdier nearby. If you are the World's Leading Authority on the mating habits of the jabberwock beetle of the Lesser Jujube Archipelago, you can take comfort in knowing that the pinch-faced drone next to you at Starbucks may be the W.L.A. on 17th-century Huguenot hymnody or a niche of quantum physics that is understood by nobody but himself.
People in Cambridge learn to be wary of brilliance, having seen geniuses in the throes of deep thought step into potholes and disappear. Such as the brilliant economist Lawrence Summers, whose presidency brought Harvard to the verge of disaster. He, against the advice of his lessers, invested Harvard's operating funds in the stock market and lost the bet. In the cold light of day, this was dumber than dirt, like putting the kids' lunch money on Valiant's Fancy to win in the 5th. And now the genius is in the White House, two short flights of stairs above the Oval Office. This does not make Cantabrigians feel better about our nation's economic future.
You can blame Ralph Waldo Emerson for the brazen foolishness of the elite. He preached here at the First Church of Cambridge, a Unitarian outfit (where I discovered that "Silent Night" has been cleverly rewritten to make it more about silence and night and not so much about God), and Emerson tossed off little bon mots that have been leading people astray ever since. "To be great is to be misunderstood," for example. This tiny gem of self-pity has given license to a million arrogant and unlovable people to imagine that their unpopularity somehow was proof of their greatness.
And all his hoo-ha about listening to the voice within and don't follow the path, make your own path and leave a trail and so forth, encouraged people who might've been excellent janitors to become bold and innovative economists who run a wealthy university into the ditch.
Unitarians listen to the Inner Voice and so they have no creed that they all stand up and recite in unison, and that's their perfect right, but it is wrong, wrong, wrong to rewrite "Silent Night." If you don't believe Jesus was God, OK, go write your own damn "Silent Night" and leave ours alone. This is spiritual piracy and cultural elitism, and we Christians have stood for it long enough. And all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write "Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we'll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah"? No, we didn't.
Christmas is a Christian holiday - if you're not in the club, then buzz off. Celebrate Yule instead or dance around in druid robes for the solstice. Go light a big log, go wassailing and falalaing until you fall down, eat figgy pudding until you puke, but don't mess with the Messiah.
Christmas does not need any improvements. It is a common, ordinary experience that resists brilliant innovation. Just make some gingerbread persons and light three candles and sing softly in dim light about the poor man gathering winter fu-u-el and the radiant beams and the holly and the ivy, and you've got it. Too many people work too hard to make Christmas perfect, find the perfect gifts, get a turkey that reaches 100 percent of potential. Perfection is a goal of brilliant people, and it is unnecessary where Christmas is concerned.
The most wonderful Christmas of my life was 1997, a quiet day with no gifts and no tree, waiting in a New York apartment for my daughter to be born. And the second most wonderful was one in the Norwegian Arctic, where it rained every day and the sun came up around 11 and set around 1, not that you ever actually saw the sun, and the food was abominable, boiled cod and watery potatoes, and the people were cold and resentful, and there was no brilliance whatsoever. And I had the flu. Why was I there? Good question. But every year it gladdens my heart to know that I will not be going to Norway for Christmas. A terrific investment. Mr. Summers should be so smart. For one week of misery, I get an annual joyfulness dividend of at least 25 percent. Merry Christmas, my dears.
Garrison Keillor's column appears regularly in The Baltimore Sun. His e-mail is oldscout@prairiehome.net.
Michael Rosen: Why This Orthodox Jew Loves Christmas Music
Why This Orthodox Jew Loves Christmas Music
A Jewish American hails the season.
For me, an Orthodox Jew in 21st-century America, December truly is the most wonderful time of the year.
Yes, there’s Hanukkah and the family and community celebration it entails. And, sure, there’s winter vacation, the week or so between Christmas and New Year’s when the kids are home from school and my wife and I take time off from work.
But I really love December because it’s around then that my cable provider revives its “Sounds of the Seasons” music channel, which airs round-the-clock Christmas music through early January. Yes, I admit it: My name is Michael Rosen, and I love Christmas music.
Let me be clear: I am deeply proud of my faith, which I practice rigorously. While I genuinely respect the tenets of other creeds, I abhor religious syncretism of all sorts, and I have no desire to observe Christian holidays; the 20-plus yearly holidays on the Jewish calendar are plenty, thank you very much. And I profoundly loathe aggressive proselytizers of all stripes, especially those, like Jews for Jesus, that train their fire on me and my people.
I’ve also enjoyed the recent boomlet in neo-Chanukah music, including the amusing (Adam Sandler’s iconic “Hanukkah Song” and its sequels, and Tom Lehrer’s hilarious “Hanukkah in Santa Monica”), the catchy (the sweet-natured, harmonious “Eight Days of Hanukkah” by the unlikely interfaith duo of Sen. Orrin Hatch and Jeffrey Goldberg), and the viral (“Candlelight” by the Maccabeats of Yeshiva University).
Yet Christmas music exerts a strong emotional and intellectual influence over me every December, for three distinct reasons, in increasing order of importance: its musical beauty; its deep-seated American-ness; and, most importantly, its powerful message of religious tolerance.
The first reason is more or less purely aesthetic. Christmas tunes are almost uniformly melodious and tend to evoke intense emotions ranging from joy to nostalgia. Some songs are frivolous, some serious, others uplifting, but they universally make for agreeable listening.
They also span many different genres and artists. Every superstar American musician — from Sinatra to Crosby to Fitzgerald to Elvis to George Michael to Beyoncé to (shudder) Kenny G — has performed a memorable version of at least one Christmas song, if not an entire album of such songs. Whether it’s Perry Como crooning “Do You Hear What I Hear?” or Nat King Cole scratching out “The Christmas Song,” or even Green Day screeching “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” the musical category enjoys an esteemed pedigree.
The second, more important reason I delight in Christmas music derives from its distinctly American character. Here, it’s important to distinguish the strictly religious Christmas songs, such as “The First Noël,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and “Come All Ye Faithful,” from the generic “winter season” tunes, such as “Sleigh Ride,” “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” These latter songs are as American as apple pie, expressing a seasonal commonality felt by all Americans, regardless of creed. Wintry themes such as snow, love, gifts, fires, and family offer something for everyone and remind us that Americans of varied faiths, ethnicities, and generations share much more than we think.
There’s no reason American Jews — even observant ones — can’t relate to these tunes. Indeed, as Marc Tracy and David Lehman have documented, many of the most famous of these wintry songs were written by Jewish composers, including Irving Berlin (“White Christmas”), Joan Ellen Javits and Phillip Springer (“Santa Baby”), Mel Tormé (“The Christmas Song”), and Sammy Cahn (“Let It Snow”).
And as Lehman ably explains in A Fine Romance (Nextbook, 222 pp.), his perceptive history of the influence of Jewish songwriters on the American musical catalog, “the Jewish element in American popular song is a property not only of the notes and chords but of the words as well, or, more exactly, the union between words and music.” Jewish songwriters absorbed and displayed a discerning understanding of American culture. (This unexpected truth provoked a splenetic tirade last year from Garrison Keillor, who railed against “lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys” and un-Christianly explained that “Christmas is a Christian holiday — if you’re not in the club, then buzz off.”)
But the third and most significant reason I relish the Christmas canon pertains to the strongly religious nature of the spiritual songs. While I obviously don’t share the theology they express, the religious melodies provide a stark, visceral reminder of the Christian origins of the United States, and especially of the astoundingly warm welcome the early Americans extended to Jews because of, not in spite of, their Christian faith.
The pilgrims, of course, arrived on our continent while fleeing religious persecution and thus were highly sensitive to faith-based oppression. They also evinced a fierce devotion to the customs and history of the Hebrew people; one instance of this was the establishment, at Harvard and Yale, of Hebrew as a mandatory language. This love and tolerance deeply informed the First Amendment, guaranteeing Jews — among others — the right to freely exercise their religion in the absence of an established state faith.
In his famous 1790 letter to the Jews of Newport, R.I., George Washington expressed this fervent hope: “May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.” Washington’s encomium reflects God’s solemn promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 that “those who bless you, I shall bless, and those who curse you, I shall curse.” In other words, Washington’s devotion to his faith sparked his ardent desire to protect “the Stock of Abraham” in the new United States.
This sentiment reaches its full expression in my personal favorite of the religious songs: “O Holy Night.” (I especially enjoy the version performed by Josh Groban, whose father was born Jewish but converted to Episcopalianism.) The music, naturally, is exquisite, but the lyrics nicely illustrate the philosemitic tendencies of the Christmas canon. Composed and written by two 19th-century Frenchmen, the song, while distinctly Christian, is a paean to religious tolerance:
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
The song forthrightly acknowledges the religious obligation borne by all Christians to love the stranger, unchain the enslaved, and liberate the oppressed. It’s difficult to overstate the intellectual and emotional impact of such an approach on American Jews, whom the U.S. has welcomed with open, Christian arms. Thus, whenever I hear Christmas songs sung in English, I cannot help but swell with thankfulness that I’m allowed to freely practice my faith in such an extraordinary country, where, notwithstanding the caterwauling of extreme activists, (almost) all oppression has ceased.
Would that this tolerance were the norm around the world. Nowadays, where Christianity flourishes, Judaism thrives. But where secularism reigns, and where Islamism prevails, Jews find themselves under assault. Europe, home to the world’s largest Jewish population for centuries, has rapidly become the least hospitable place for Jewish communities to take root, as secular values and assertive Muslim populations have advanced. Tragically, oppression is on the march on the very continent that midwifed “O Holy Night.” Even here in the U.S., residents of San Francisco, the most secular of American big cities, now seek to ban circumcision.
So I take nothing for granted when it comes to religious tolerance, and I’m grateful for the musical reinforcement I receive every December. Do I get strange looks from passersby on the streets of (mostly WASPy) La Jolla when, wearing my yarmulke, I’m whistling “O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord”? Absolutely. But such are the wages of being Jewish in America in the modern era. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
— Michael M. Rosen is an attorney and writer in San Diego. Reach him at michaelmrosen@yahoo.com.
(from National Review Online)
A Jewish American hails the season.
For me, an Orthodox Jew in 21st-century America, December truly is the most wonderful time of the year.
Yes, there’s Hanukkah and the family and community celebration it entails. And, sure, there’s winter vacation, the week or so between Christmas and New Year’s when the kids are home from school and my wife and I take time off from work.
But I really love December because it’s around then that my cable provider revives its “Sounds of the Seasons” music channel, which airs round-the-clock Christmas music through early January. Yes, I admit it: My name is Michael Rosen, and I love Christmas music.
Let me be clear: I am deeply proud of my faith, which I practice rigorously. While I genuinely respect the tenets of other creeds, I abhor religious syncretism of all sorts, and I have no desire to observe Christian holidays; the 20-plus yearly holidays on the Jewish calendar are plenty, thank you very much. And I profoundly loathe aggressive proselytizers of all stripes, especially those, like Jews for Jesus, that train their fire on me and my people.
I’ve also enjoyed the recent boomlet in neo-Chanukah music, including the amusing (Adam Sandler’s iconic “Hanukkah Song” and its sequels, and Tom Lehrer’s hilarious “Hanukkah in Santa Monica”), the catchy (the sweet-natured, harmonious “Eight Days of Hanukkah” by the unlikely interfaith duo of Sen. Orrin Hatch and Jeffrey Goldberg), and the viral (“Candlelight” by the Maccabeats of Yeshiva University).
Yet Christmas music exerts a strong emotional and intellectual influence over me every December, for three distinct reasons, in increasing order of importance: its musical beauty; its deep-seated American-ness; and, most importantly, its powerful message of religious tolerance.
The first reason is more or less purely aesthetic. Christmas tunes are almost uniformly melodious and tend to evoke intense emotions ranging from joy to nostalgia. Some songs are frivolous, some serious, others uplifting, but they universally make for agreeable listening.
They also span many different genres and artists. Every superstar American musician — from Sinatra to Crosby to Fitzgerald to Elvis to George Michael to Beyoncé to (shudder) Kenny G — has performed a memorable version of at least one Christmas song, if not an entire album of such songs. Whether it’s Perry Como crooning “Do You Hear What I Hear?” or Nat King Cole scratching out “The Christmas Song,” or even Green Day screeching “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” the musical category enjoys an esteemed pedigree.
The second, more important reason I delight in Christmas music derives from its distinctly American character. Here, it’s important to distinguish the strictly religious Christmas songs, such as “The First Noël,” “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” and “Come All Ye Faithful,” from the generic “winter season” tunes, such as “Sleigh Ride,” “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” These latter songs are as American as apple pie, expressing a seasonal commonality felt by all Americans, regardless of creed. Wintry themes such as snow, love, gifts, fires, and family offer something for everyone and remind us that Americans of varied faiths, ethnicities, and generations share much more than we think.
There’s no reason American Jews — even observant ones — can’t relate to these tunes. Indeed, as Marc Tracy and David Lehman have documented, many of the most famous of these wintry songs were written by Jewish composers, including Irving Berlin (“White Christmas”), Joan Ellen Javits and Phillip Springer (“Santa Baby”), Mel Tormé (“The Christmas Song”), and Sammy Cahn (“Let It Snow”).
And as Lehman ably explains in A Fine Romance (Nextbook, 222 pp.), his perceptive history of the influence of Jewish songwriters on the American musical catalog, “the Jewish element in American popular song is a property not only of the notes and chords but of the words as well, or, more exactly, the union between words and music.” Jewish songwriters absorbed and displayed a discerning understanding of American culture. (This unexpected truth provoked a splenetic tirade last year from Garrison Keillor, who railed against “lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys” and un-Christianly explained that “Christmas is a Christian holiday — if you’re not in the club, then buzz off.”)
But the third and most significant reason I relish the Christmas canon pertains to the strongly religious nature of the spiritual songs. While I obviously don’t share the theology they express, the religious melodies provide a stark, visceral reminder of the Christian origins of the United States, and especially of the astoundingly warm welcome the early Americans extended to Jews because of, not in spite of, their Christian faith.
The pilgrims, of course, arrived on our continent while fleeing religious persecution and thus were highly sensitive to faith-based oppression. They also evinced a fierce devotion to the customs and history of the Hebrew people; one instance of this was the establishment, at Harvard and Yale, of Hebrew as a mandatory language. This love and tolerance deeply informed the First Amendment, guaranteeing Jews — among others — the right to freely exercise their religion in the absence of an established state faith.
In his famous 1790 letter to the Jews of Newport, R.I., George Washington expressed this fervent hope: “May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.” Washington’s encomium reflects God’s solemn promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 that “those who bless you, I shall bless, and those who curse you, I shall curse.” In other words, Washington’s devotion to his faith sparked his ardent desire to protect “the Stock of Abraham” in the new United States.
This sentiment reaches its full expression in my personal favorite of the religious songs: “O Holy Night.” (I especially enjoy the version performed by Josh Groban, whose father was born Jewish but converted to Episcopalianism.) The music, naturally, is exquisite, but the lyrics nicely illustrate the philosemitic tendencies of the Christmas canon. Composed and written by two 19th-century Frenchmen, the song, while distinctly Christian, is a paean to religious tolerance:
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
The song forthrightly acknowledges the religious obligation borne by all Christians to love the stranger, unchain the enslaved, and liberate the oppressed. It’s difficult to overstate the intellectual and emotional impact of such an approach on American Jews, whom the U.S. has welcomed with open, Christian arms. Thus, whenever I hear Christmas songs sung in English, I cannot help but swell with thankfulness that I’m allowed to freely practice my faith in such an extraordinary country, where, notwithstanding the caterwauling of extreme activists, (almost) all oppression has ceased.
Would that this tolerance were the norm around the world. Nowadays, where Christianity flourishes, Judaism thrives. But where secularism reigns, and where Islamism prevails, Jews find themselves under assault. Europe, home to the world’s largest Jewish population for centuries, has rapidly become the least hospitable place for Jewish communities to take root, as secular values and assertive Muslim populations have advanced. Tragically, oppression is on the march on the very continent that midwifed “O Holy Night.” Even here in the U.S., residents of San Francisco, the most secular of American big cities, now seek to ban circumcision.
So I take nothing for granted when it comes to religious tolerance, and I’m grateful for the musical reinforcement I receive every December. Do I get strange looks from passersby on the streets of (mostly WASPy) La Jolla when, wearing my yarmulke, I’m whistling “O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord”? Absolutely. But such are the wages of being Jewish in America in the modern era. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
— Michael M. Rosen is an attorney and writer in San Diego. Reach him at michaelmrosen@yahoo.com.
(from National Review Online)
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Billy Graham- "What would you do differently?"
Yesterday Greta Van Susteran of Fox News interviewed 92-year old Billy Graham. It was the first interview he has done in many years. The best part of the interview was when she asked about his life and call, and what he would do differently if he could do things over again.
Greta: If you were to do things over again, would you do it differently?
BG: Yes. I would study more. I would pray more, travel less, take less speaking engagements. I took too many of them, in too many places around the world. If I had it to do over again, I'd spend more time in meditation and prayer, and just telling the Lord how much I love 'im, and adore him. And I'm looking forward to the time we're going to spend together for eternity.
Greta: Why would you speak less when you had such an enormous audience and people listening? Why would you want to speak less?
BG: I didn't that I would speak less in all these great stadiums. I meant that I would speak less at all kinds of conferences and things that I was invited to throughout the world, especially in Great Britain and the United States. Because I'd get up and travel to these places, and I didn't have time to think and study and pray, and I needed time for that. And if I had it to do over again, i would try to organize it much better.
Greta: At what age did you realize that you wanted to be a preacher?
BG: I guess I was about eighteen or nineteen. I was in Florida. I was a student in a small Bible school near Tampa. And it used to be a country club where we had the school and I used to walk the streets in this area that had completely disintegrated because of the Depression at that time. And I would pray and I would ask God for a direction for my life and for the genuine purpose of my life. What am I here for? And one night I was out on the eighteenth green lying there beside the green in the moonlight and the palm trees. And the Lord seemed to call me and said that I was to preach the gospel. And from that time on I began to prepare. By preparation I mean I began to read books that would contribute to what I would say in the years to come. And then I began to realize that my job was to try win other people to Christ, which I did privately and publicly, which became eventually my sermons that we call evangelism.
Kingdom Quotes: Oswald Chambers on Faith
Faith that is sure of itself is not faith;
faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Pat Conroy's My Reading Life
I have had a book on hold for months, and it finally became available: Pat Conroy's My Reading Life. But, true to Pat Conroy, it is about so much more than what he has read. The first part of his book is devoted to his mother, who read to him daily when he was a young child, Gone With The Wind being her all time favorite. The next part of the book is devoted to the memory of Gene Norris, Pat's high school English teacher. What a fabulous man Norris must have been, inspiring hundreds of students to live life to the fullest.
Speaking of living life, Conroy talks about his near-suicide during and after writing Beach Music. It was Mr. Norris, along with a skilled therapist, who walked Pat out of taking that disastrous action. Norris saved Pat's life in so many ways, Pat having had an incredibly abusive father, then encountering this teacher who believed in him so mightily.
This is as far as I have gotten in the book, but I am sure I'll have more to say later.
Speaking of living life, Conroy talks about his near-suicide during and after writing Beach Music. It was Mr. Norris, along with a skilled therapist, who walked Pat out of taking that disastrous action. Norris saved Pat's life in so many ways, Pat having had an incredibly abusive father, then encountering this teacher who believed in him so mightily.
This is as far as I have gotten in the book, but I am sure I'll have more to say later.
Rare Full Lunar Eclipse on the Winter Solstice - Tonight!
Those of you who live in the North America* will be treated to a total lunar eclipse tomorrow night (Monday night/Tuesday morning)! The whole thing unfolds over about 3.5 hours, starting at 1:30 a.m. Eastern time.
Lunar eclipses are cool, but slow. They’re not like solar eclipses which last a few minutes at most; the shadow of the Earth is quite large, and it takes the Moon a while to move through it (also unlike a solar eclipse, lunar eclipses are perfectly safe to watch with your eyes, with binoculars, or through a telescope without protection). Not only that, there are two parts to the shadow: the outer penumbra, which is very difficult to see when it falls on the Moon, and the much darker umbra, which is what really casts the Moon into the dark. In other words, things really gets started when the Moon moves into the umbra.
Sky and Telescope’s website has an excellent description of the timeline. The Earth’s dark shadow takes its first bite starting around 1:32 a.m. Eastern time (all times will be Eastern from here on out). Over the next 45 minutes or so, the Moon will plunge deeper into shadow, and the entire disk will be covered starting at 2:41 a.m. It’ll stay this way for over an hour, and then at 3:53 a.m. will begin to leave the shadow. An hour or so later, at 5:00 a.m., it’s all over, and the Moon will be restored to being full. Note that the farther west you are, the earlier this happens in the evening. For me, in Mountain time, it starts at the much more palatable 11:32 p.m. Monday night.To someone viewing from the United States, you’ll see the eclipse start on the lower left part of the Moon. It really will look like a bite is taken out, and that dark bite will grow left to right. When the Moon begins to leave the shadow you’ll see the upper left part of the Moon becoming bright, with the illumination growing from left to right.
It’s hard to predict what you’ll see during that hour of totality. As weird as it is to believe, sometimes the Moon gets so faint it’s hard to see at all. I remember when I was in high school there was a lunar eclipse so deep I had to search the sky to find the Moon! It was that hard to spot, and really odd. But sometimes, atmospheric conditions on Earth will cast an eerie, blood-red shadow on the Moon. You can see that in the eclipse sequence picture above; during a 2007 eclipse Greek amateur astronomer Anthony Ayiomamitiscaptured the orange-red color of the Moon during totality. I’ve seen this many times myself, and it’s really quite stunning, and worth staying up (or getting up early) to see. Also, the Moon does not pass directly through the center of the Earth’s umbral shadow, so the top and bottom halves of the Moon may be dramatically different in appearance and color. There’s no way to predict this, so you’ll just have to go out and see for yourself.
If it’s cloudy where you are, or you’re on the wrong side of the planet, never fear: you can still get a look because NASA is hosting a live chat and video feed of the eclipse! JPL has set up a Flickr page for people to post their pictures of the eclipse, too.
If you Americans miss this eclipse, you’ll have to wait over three years before the next one, which occurs on April 14, 2014. Europe, Africa and Asia get the next lunar eclipse on June 15, 2011. Also, Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia are treated to a partial solar eclipse on January 5, 2011, in just two weeks! See Fred Espenak’s eclipse website for details.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
The need for a strong America
Thomas Friedman writes a good post here. He chastises China for their absurd behavior regarding democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prize. He further chastises these countries, persuaded by China to boycott the ceremonies: "Serbia, Morocco, Pakistan, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Colombia, Ukraine, Algeria, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Vietnam and the Philippines. A pathetic bunch."
But Friedman doesn't stop there. In addition to "pathetic" countries, he cites pathetic inividuals, such as "superempowered" individuals like the Wikileaks crew.
He finishes by pointing out that the best answer to these problems is a strong America, committed to its core values,"powerful enough to project them and successful enough that others want to follow our lead — voluntarily."
But Friedman doesn't stop there. In addition to "pathetic" countries, he cites pathetic inividuals, such as "superempowered" individuals like the Wikileaks crew.
He finishes by pointing out that the best answer to these problems is a strong America, committed to its core values,"powerful enough to project them and successful enough that others want to follow our lead — voluntarily."
Time on his hands
What do you do when you are on Christmas break from school? Well, Jon's idea is to make a tank. It actually fires weapons, in this case a scrunched up aluminum foil ball that you see lying on the table. I asked Jon to list the ingredients, and here is the list: duct tape, bailing wire, paper towel roll, aluminum foil, scotch tape, cans and lids, cardboard, hair tie cut in half, nails, screws, and a metal lamp cover.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
The Ghost of Christmas Last...
(With sincere apologies to the real poets out there)
Once upon a wintry night,
In a land not far away,
'Twas the eve of Christmas time
and all the bells had ceased to play
But with ever such an effort
The Democrats did win
Without as much a tiny bit of GOP support
The conniving Ms. Pelosi did grin
For while all the people slept and dreamed
The ones they swore to serve
Her power hungry avaricious smile
Had turned upward into an evil curve
She made them stay up into the night
To force America to do the right thing
Though there were not votes from the right
She deemed it passed and so began her spending fling
She said "They'll love me when they understand
The great thing that I have done"
Though the bill she deemed and schemed and planned
Actually did in fact weigh a ton.
The year was long and arduous
We heard much from Queen Nancy
But the voters came in by truckload and bus
It was a real Tea Party!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Be hip! See America as evil!
As I was scrunching up old newspapers to build a fire (fifteen degrees tonight), I came across this gem written by Shelby Steele in the Wall Street Journal on October 28. I had not read it, although I try to read Shelby Steele any time I see his work, because he is so often spot-on with his analysis. This article, entitled A Referendum on the Redeemer, is provocative, original, and, I believe, spot-on.
Steele points out that one of the results of the acknowledgement of America's most "flagrant hypocrisies" that took place in the sixties led to "the presumption that evil was America's natural default position." This became the "perfect formula for political and governmental power" (using the government to intervene against the evil tendencies of American life.) Thus, "Obama and the Democrats have put themselves in the position of forever redeeming a fallen nation, rather than leading a great nation." "They bet on America's characterological evil and not on her sense of fairness, generosity or ingenuity." And who is the child of the sixties that swallowed whole this bad faith in America? Barack H. Obama. As they say, read the whole thing!
Steele points out that one of the results of the acknowledgement of America's most "flagrant hypocrisies" that took place in the sixties led to "the presumption that evil was America's natural default position." This became the "perfect formula for political and governmental power" (using the government to intervene against the evil tendencies of American life.) Thus, "Obama and the Democrats have put themselves in the position of forever redeeming a fallen nation, rather than leading a great nation." "They bet on America's characterological evil and not on her sense of fairness, generosity or ingenuity." And who is the child of the sixties that swallowed whole this bad faith in America? Barack H. Obama. As they say, read the whole thing!
Telegraph Days
I finished my first book by Larry McMurty, author of Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove, and many other fine novels. This one was Telegraph Days. The central character is Nellie Courtright. Yes, another book read by Bob, in which the central character is a woman. Nellie was brave, beautiful, bold, blunt, and above all, organized! It was that last character trait that she believed led her to become chosen by Bill Cody as the manager of Buffalo Bill's far flung enterprises.
She gets her start as a young businesswoman running a telegraph service for the town of Rita Blanca in no-man's land, not yet part of any state, but later to become part of Oklahoma. She becomes a writer, her first big story being about a gunfight in Rita Blanca, in which her younger brother, soon after becoming a Sheriff's Deputy, shoots and kills all the members of a notorious outlaw gang. She has run-ins with Wyatt Earp in Dodge City, Kansas and in Tombstone, Arizona, where, as a new reporter for the Tombstone newspaper, she gets right in the middle of the Gunfight at O.K. Corral. We also meet Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holiday, and Billy the Kid. She finishes her career in Malibu, California, where in the early twentieth century, she meets all the biggest movie stars and moguls.
I shed a few tears at the end, when Bill Cody makes one last request of Nellie, while on his deathbed in Denver.
She gets her start as a young businesswoman running a telegraph service for the town of Rita Blanca in no-man's land, not yet part of any state, but later to become part of Oklahoma. She becomes a writer, her first big story being about a gunfight in Rita Blanca, in which her younger brother, soon after becoming a Sheriff's Deputy, shoots and kills all the members of a notorious outlaw gang. She has run-ins with Wyatt Earp in Dodge City, Kansas and in Tombstone, Arizona, where, as a new reporter for the Tombstone newspaper, she gets right in the middle of the Gunfight at O.K. Corral. We also meet Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok, Doc Holiday, and Billy the Kid. She finishes her career in Malibu, California, where in the early twentieth century, she meets all the biggest movie stars and moguls.
I shed a few tears at the end, when Bill Cody makes one last request of Nellie, while on his deathbed in Denver.
Sounds of the Season: Blue X-mas(to whom it may concern)
Blue Xmas
Merry Christmas
I hope you have a white one, but for me it's blue
Blue Christmas, that's the way you see it when you're feeling blue
Blue Xmas, when you're blue at Christmastime
you see right through,
All the waste, all the sham, all the haste
and plain old bad taste
Sidewalk Santy Clauses are much, much, much too thin
They're wearing fancy rented costumes, false beards and big fat phony grins
And nearly everybody's standing round holding out their empty hand or tin cup
Gimme gimme gimme gimme, gimme gimme gimme
Fill my stocking up
All the way up
It's a time when the greedy give a dime to the needy
Blue Christmas, all the paper, tinsel and the fal-de-ral
Blue Xmas, people trading gifts that matter not at all
What I call
Fal-de-ral
Bitter gall.......Fal-de-ral
Lots of hungry, homeless children in your own backyards
While you're very, very busy addressing
Twenty zillion Christmas cards
Now, Yuletide is the season to receive and oh, to give and ahh, to share
But all you December do-gooders rush around and rant and rave and loudly blare
Merry Christmas
I hope yours is a bright one, but for me it's blue...
Merry Christmas
I hope you have a white one, but for me it's blue
Blue Christmas, that's the way you see it when you're feeling blue
Blue Xmas, when you're blue at Christmastime
you see right through,
All the waste, all the sham, all the haste
and plain old bad taste
Sidewalk Santy Clauses are much, much, much too thin
They're wearing fancy rented costumes, false beards and big fat phony grins
And nearly everybody's standing round holding out their empty hand or tin cup
Gimme gimme gimme gimme, gimme gimme gimme
Fill my stocking up
All the way up
It's a time when the greedy give a dime to the needy
Blue Christmas, all the paper, tinsel and the fal-de-ral
Blue Xmas, people trading gifts that matter not at all
What I call
Fal-de-ral
Bitter gall.......Fal-de-ral
Lots of hungry, homeless children in your own backyards
While you're very, very busy addressing
Twenty zillion Christmas cards
Now, Yuletide is the season to receive and oh, to give and ahh, to share
But all you December do-gooders rush around and rant and rave and loudly blare
Merry Christmas
I hope yours is a bright one, but for me it's blue...
Thursday, December 16, 2010
How to stop the Tea Party people from partying: Arson
Here is a statement from the Chicago Tea Party people about how an arsonist disrupted their Christmas party at a pub in Chicago.
Via Moonbattery
Via Moonbattery
Sarah Palin hunting with her dad.
Via Primordial Slack, which is pushing a Palin/Nugent ticket for 2012, just to cause the GOP elites to "howl in pain."
A "Gentle Giant"
You've probably heard about this man who walked into a school board meeting (gun free zone) and shot at school board members (but did not hit any of them). How about the courage of the woman with the purse?
Prior to this action, he linked on Facebook to many "progressive" websites, including Media Matters and theprogressivemind.info. His wife had recently been fired by the school board. She referred to him in a t.v. interview as a "gentle giant." After he was shot by security officers, he killed himself.
Via Moonbattery
Prior to this action, he linked on Facebook to many "progressive" websites, including Media Matters and theprogressivemind.info. His wife had recently been fired by the school board. She referred to him in a t.v. interview as a "gentle giant." After he was shot by security officers, he killed himself.
Via Moonbattery
Euro-US Dollar Comments
Over the last several months there has been a raging debate about the future of the Euro as a currency. With several countries in the Eurozone in big financial trouble, and a trillion euro bailout, and people fleeing to the US dollar for "safety", what do you think it costs an American to buy one Euro?
It would cost you $1.3208 US dollars to buy 1 Euro!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To those whose IQ is greater than 100, what does this tell you about the state of the US dollar when a European empire on the verge of absolute collapse has a currency 32% stronger than the US dollar?
It would cost you $1.3208 US dollars to buy 1 Euro!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To those whose IQ is greater than 100, what does this tell you about the state of the US dollar when a European empire on the verge of absolute collapse has a currency 32% stronger than the US dollar?
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Ahead of the curve
I just read this incredible post at Moonbattery. Proctor and Gamble has quit putting phosphates in its dishwasher detergents. Seventeen states have banned the phosphates because they are believed to create algae. Unfortunately, they also clean food from dishes in the dishwasher. Now, people are going to have to wash and rinse their dishes before putting them in the dishwasher!
At our house we feel we are way ahead of this curve. Our dishwasher died a couple of years ago. We hand wash all our dishes, then put them into the dishwasher to dry (we do not turn on the dishwasher; they just get dry in there)!
Setback for Iran's Nuclear Program?
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that Iran's nuclear program has been set back two years by the "Stuxnet" virus infecting their computers. Meanwhile, there is this Fox News commentary that one of Iran's nuclear scientists has been killed by a bomb, and another injured. So far I have not seen anything else on these stories, which should be huge news.
"We can't just leave it up to parents!"
President Obama signed the $4.5 billion dollar bill that will subsidize with money our government does not have, and regulate what children eat before school, at lunch, after school, and during summer at any school receiving federal funds.
Via Moonbattery
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Hugh Hewitt interviews President George W. Bush
Hugh Hewitt recently interviewed George W. Bush on Hugh's radio program. A transcript has been posted here. I was interested in reading about Mr. Bush's Christian faith. Here is one excerpt.
GWB: "You know, it’s interesting, and Tim Keller helped me understand this, that if you allow power to become your god, then it is corrupting. If you allow fame to become your god, it is corrupting. If you allow money to become your god, it is corrupting. And what religion helped me was to understand that that was those truths. And so power can be used effectively to help people, or it can be intoxicating, in which case it is difficult to have a proper relationship, if you’re a Christian, with Christ."
There is much more interesting stuff in the interview, including some background information about why he said he felt he could trust Putin. Another was his comment about people in the C.I.A. leaking to the New York Times in an effort to influence the 2004 election. I have put a hold on his book Decision Points at our library, and am anxious to read it.
GWB: "You know, it’s interesting, and Tim Keller helped me understand this, that if you allow power to become your god, then it is corrupting. If you allow fame to become your god, it is corrupting. If you allow money to become your god, it is corrupting. And what religion helped me was to understand that that was those truths. And so power can be used effectively to help people, or it can be intoxicating, in which case it is difficult to have a proper relationship, if you’re a Christian, with Christ."
There is much more interesting stuff in the interview, including some background information about why he said he felt he could trust Putin. Another was his comment about people in the C.I.A. leaking to the New York Times in an effort to influence the 2004 election. I have put a hold on his book Decision Points at our library, and am anxious to read it.
Monday, December 13, 2010
What's good for the goose...
What is the European Common Good? This brief blog post is well worth reading.
Two youths try to rob a police station
If you are going to rob somebody, your local police station is probably not the best place to do it. Just sayin.
Via Redneck Peril
Via Redneck Peril
Nighttime reading to the children
Along with Shel Siverstein's books, I am reading to Greg and Jon at night a book co-written by Dave Berry and Ridley Pearson entitled Peter and the Starcatchers. It is a hoot! It takes place at sea. Peter is one of five orphans forced to be on a boat that, shall we say, has few comforts. It, along with a pirate ship appropriately named the Sea Devil are chasing a fast ship called The Wasp. There are two trunks believed to be filled with wonderful treasures. We shall see. Jon fidgets a lot during the reading, but he remembers all the characters, and gets all the humor. Harry Potter is still his favorite read. I try to get him and Greg to guess what is going to happen next.
Tonight Sara and I read The Bog Baby, which is exquisitely illustrated by Gwen Millward. We also read The Little Red Hen, which I am sure many of my blog readers remember. The hen tries to enlist the other animals in helping her at various stages of wheatgrowing and breadmaking. No one wants to help until it is time to eat the bread, but by then it is too late. Sara got the message: "When I don't clean my room, I don't get to watch t.v., right, Dad?" "That's right, Sara."
Before it was bedtime, Sara wanted me to see how fast she can run. We went out to a far pasture to collect firewood, and she ran and ran and ran. She really loves to run, and is getting stronger and stronger. I tried to help her with her motion ("elbows in, and move your arms back and forth to help you go faster.") That translated into a weird stroke that looked like a flailing, drowning swimmer, so I said to her, "Just forget that advice, and run naturally, like you were before."
Tonight Sara and I read The Bog Baby, which is exquisitely illustrated by Gwen Millward. We also read The Little Red Hen, which I am sure many of my blog readers remember. The hen tries to enlist the other animals in helping her at various stages of wheatgrowing and breadmaking. No one wants to help until it is time to eat the bread, but by then it is too late. Sara got the message: "When I don't clean my room, I don't get to watch t.v., right, Dad?" "That's right, Sara."
Before it was bedtime, Sara wanted me to see how fast she can run. We went out to a far pasture to collect firewood, and she ran and ran and ran. She really loves to run, and is getting stronger and stronger. I tried to help her with her motion ("elbows in, and move your arms back and forth to help you go faster.") That translated into a weird stroke that looked like a flailing, drowning swimmer, so I said to her, "Just forget that advice, and run naturally, like you were before."
A weight loss plan that works!
Want to lose weight? I have done it, and I am now going to share my secret with you. For most of this year my weight has been around 215. Recently I had gotten it down closer to 200. Then came the infected tooth ten days ago. Now I am down to 178 this morning with shoes and clothes on!
I actually don't recommend you go out and get your tooth infected, especially the molar where you had a root canal many years back. I got an antibiotic from a dentist. He wants me either to get the infected tooth extracted for $200.00 (with Christmas coming up, the timing could not be worse) or see if an oral surgeon can save the tooth and extract many more hundreds of dollars from our bank account. My plan is to see if the antibiotics will kill the infection, brush and floss diligently forever and ever, and keep the tooth. The dentist says the tooth is infected, and the antibiotics will only kill the infection in the bones and areas around the tooth, not in the tooth itself. Why not? We'll see.
I actually don't recommend you go out and get your tooth infected, especially the molar where you had a root canal many years back. I got an antibiotic from a dentist. He wants me either to get the infected tooth extracted for $200.00 (with Christmas coming up, the timing could not be worse) or see if an oral surgeon can save the tooth and extract many more hundreds of dollars from our bank account. My plan is to see if the antibiotics will kill the infection, brush and floss diligently forever and ever, and keep the tooth. The dentist says the tooth is infected, and the antibiotics will only kill the infection in the bones and areas around the tooth, not in the tooth itself. Why not? We'll see.
December is all about China?
Wednesday afternoon should be interesting. That is when Sara is going to make a presentation at school about China. For some reason her class is focusing on China this month. Sara is supposed to talk about 3-5 facts about China. She asked for my help this evening. So far this is what we have come up with.
1. China's government is communist. What does that mean? It means that the Chinese people are not free to criticize their government. If they do, they will be put in jail.
2. China loans money to the United States government. What is a loan? It is where they give us one dollar, but we have to give them one dollar and one dime back.
3. China makes cheap stuff. They sell it to Wal-Mart. (There is a Wal-Mart right next to Sara's school).
4. At Christmas time American children open up their toys made in China that their parents buy at Wal-Mart. Colleen scolded me on this one, because many of these first-graders believe (or pretend to believe) their toys come from Santa Claus, not Wal-Mart.
I guarantee you that Sara is going to mix and mangle these concepts so they will not be recognizable on Wednesday. Maybe I can persuade the teacher to let me ask Sara questions and prompt Sara, then she will explain the concepts more clearly. Stay tuned!
1. China's government is communist. What does that mean? It means that the Chinese people are not free to criticize their government. If they do, they will be put in jail.
2. China loans money to the United States government. What is a loan? It is where they give us one dollar, but we have to give them one dollar and one dime back.
3. China makes cheap stuff. They sell it to Wal-Mart. (There is a Wal-Mart right next to Sara's school).
4. At Christmas time American children open up their toys made in China that their parents buy at Wal-Mart. Colleen scolded me on this one, because many of these first-graders believe (or pretend to believe) their toys come from Santa Claus, not Wal-Mart.
I guarantee you that Sara is going to mix and mangle these concepts so they will not be recognizable on Wednesday. Maybe I can persuade the teacher to let me ask Sara questions and prompt Sara, then she will explain the concepts more clearly. Stay tuned!
Strike One
A federal judge in Virginia today struck down the provision in Obamacare that requires individuals to purchase health care in order to pay for others' health care. Pajamas Media already has this video of Robert Gibbs today changing the language of the bill.
"Wait a second. What?"
Condi Rice cuts through Katie Couric's attempts to manipulate the facts about Saddam Hussein's threat to the world. I wish Sarah Palin would have been able to smack down Katie as well as Condi does here.
Via Moonbattery
Via Moonbattery
Parents who raise victimizers
On December 11, I wrote about Victimizing. Today I want to write about a similar topic, parents who raise victimizers. Do you allow one of your children to victimize other people? If the parent sees her child victimizing other people, and just looks the other way, that parent is guilty of gross neglect of duty. That parent is creating a monster that other people will be victimized by throughout that child's life, both as a child and then as an adult. There are many possible "reasons" why a parent fails to confront her child who is victimizing others. None of these "reasons" are valid or acceptable. They are all excuses for the parent's cowardice. The bottom llne is the parent time and again chooses the easy way out, thereby allowing that child to develop into a monster for the rest of society to deal with.
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