Category: Blogroll

This is a Christmas Alliance post.

One of the strongest songs of the Christmas season, worth considering in Advent, approaching Easter or at any other time of the year as well, is Frank Houghton’s “Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendour”–truly one of the most powerful lyric expressions of the birth, life and ministry of Christ sung at Christmas, and well-mated to the equally beautiful traditional French tune, usually named ODEUR (or FRAGRENCE) in hymnology texts, the song is “sweet-smelling” indeed to a heart burdened with quotidian cares.

Here’s the text of the first verse, only (Google the song for someone else’s listing–the thing’s still in copyright, so I’ll not feature more than excerpts that Fair use should allow) and a recording of that verse by an unknown (to me) church choir. Don’t let yourself be distracted by the archaic language; just hear the words.

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becamest poor.

[audio: http://thirdworldcounty.us//audio/Thou_Who_Wast_Rich_Beyond_All_Splendor_clip.mp3]

mp3 file

Chip Stam has this to say of this hymn:

Serving as Editorial Secretary for the China Inland Mission, Frank Houghton made a trip to China in 1934 to see first-hand the progress of the work. This hymn was written at a particularly difficult time in the history of the missions to China. Missionaries had been captured by the communist Red Army and released in poor health after over a year of suffering. Others had been captured never to be heard from again. In 1934 the young missionaries John and Betty Stam (my great aunt and uncle) were captured in Anhwei and beheaded . The news of these sorrows had reached the mission’s headquarters in Shanghai. Though this was a very dangerous time for both the Chinese Christians and the foreign missionaries, Frank Houghton decided he needed to begin a tour through the country to visit various missionary outposts. While traveling over the mountains of Szechwan, the powerful and comforting words of 2 Corinthians 8:9, “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,” were transformed into this beautiful Christmas hymn.

Continue reading “Christmas Alliance 1.9: Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond all Splendor”

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What Would It Mean to Pass the FairTax Plan?
by John DeJong of NotMeUSA.com

How would you like to keep one hundred percent of everything you earn? That is one hundred percent of your paycheck, your savings interest, your inheritance, your winnings and any money given to you from a benefactor. How much would you like never to have to worry about tax laws, deadlines, audits, penalties and punishments? Imagine a world where April 15 is just another day of the year… won’t that be wonderful?

It will soon come to pass. Some day in the not so distant future we will all benefit from the passage of the FairTax Plan (HR 25/S 25). Once this piece of legislation becomes law the United States will experience an economic escalation that is unprecedented in history. Imagine the cost of living actually moving downward! Envision fuel prices falling and the prices for everyday consumables lowering back down to sixties proportions. How about being able to have mortgage companies actually compete with low prices against each other?

With the FairTax in place we will see incredible job growth. There will be hundreds even thousands of jobs that foreign companies will be bringing back to America. It will be poetic justice when Asian companies start building “call centers” all over the USA. We’ll see Japanese, German, Chinese and even Mexican manufacturers moving into the USA to save huge sums of money while providing Americans with jobs-a-plenty.

Continue reading “Fair Tax/OTA”

To the third world county bloggers and readers, thank you for your support. I thought I’d cross post this here so you can see how the program is working.

I missed the news of the steam line on the USS FRANK CABLE (AS-40) rupturing and burning 8 sailors this past weekend, but I just received an email forwarded by Soldier’s Angels from LTC (Ret) Jim Riley:

From: Riley, James D CONT BAMC-Ft Sam Houston TX
Date: Dec 5, 2006 1:36 PM
Subject:
To: Soldiers Angels

Patti

I can’t get post or even read most of the BLOGS at work. I thought you might like to update BLACKFIVE on the sailors injured in the boiler explosion. Here is what I would like to say if you’d like to send it to them

Just wanted you to know Soldiers’ Angels is on the ground in San Antonio and in an protective overwatch position & I am personally looking out for the injured sailors and their families. We will support them in any way we can as their treatment progresses. The families have arrived and are being tended by the staff and chaplains.

Thanks to Blackfive and the other MIL Bloggers, Soldiers’ Angels will be providing a new laptop for each of these six heroes as soon as they get out of the ICUs and we hope they will be blogging their story themselves very soon. Our prayers are with them and
their families.

Jim (LTC, Med Svc Corps, ret), Director, Medical Spt Ops Soldier’s Angels

Bubblehead is on the story.

For all who chipped either effort or money or both at the fund drive for Valour-IT, this is the result of your dedication to supporting our troops and, in this case, the sailors in particular.

For anyone else late to the game, Valour-IT donations are accepted year round…. (hint, hint!)

UPDATE: This graphic and link will be at the top of every Christmas Alliance post for the rest of the season:

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Christmas at Rock-Away Rest

I recieved this in email, and had a hard time finding an already-scanned image of a Christmas song old enough (well, no, not really :-)) for the sender to feel right at home… 😛 (Thanks, Hugh).

‘Twas the night before Christmas at Rock-Away Rest…
Continue reading “Christmas at Rock-Away Rest/OTP”

Ever feel like you’ve seen a reflection of public school and wondered if you’ve fallen through the looking glass? A tenth grade class in a Denver Public School was asked to complete an exercise in “critical thinking”–this exercise:

“[W]rite down five things the U.S. government is currently doing that might be unconstitutional.”

A student who got a grade of 40% (for only writing down two things) submitted this:

“1. Bushe cold have help the Katrina people whin it hapin. 2. Bushe should’t be tipin in to people’s phone.”

Compiling a list of people who should be horsewhipped for that result would be an arduous task. First in line, of course, would be the teacher (or curriculum developer) for devising such a loaded exercise and labeling it as a “critical thinking” exercise. Then there would be the student and his parents. The student for being too lazy to bother learning how to read during the previous nine years (or more) of schooling; the parents for not MAKING the kid learn (although, probably the kid only had “parent” to supervise–and I use both terms losely).

Then there are all the lazy-assed and wrongheaded teachers, pubschool admins, eeducrats and “education” professors that wasted the previous nine years (or more) of this kid’s life indoctrinating him in becoming an untermensch.

Read the article. Weep. Then get angry and take it out on the next educrat/pubschool admin/useless idiot pubschool drone who crosses your path. No, don’t engage in violent behavior, but do excoriate them in a most vigorous manner. And encourage everyone you know to do the same. Again and again and again and…

Folks, in a country where idiots like this can vote, this is a serious national security issue. And running, crying to the feds about it will only make things worse! If we each do not do what we can at the local level to move against the educrats and politicians who exercise remote control over our schools, pressure our local boards to hire—and retain—teachers who can teach (instead of subliterate semi-morons recently churned out from “education” factories) and place gag bits in pubschool admins mouths (some, literally!), then we will have the country we deserve, and it won’t be the United States of America. Briefly, it may become Los Estados Unidos… before being overrun by jihadists establishing the Caliphate… on the way to dissolution, starvation and utter ruin.

A pretty picture. And one our educational establishment, with the complicity of parents and lazy-assed students, will bring to pass if folks don’t wake up and take back the schools.

Just a little Christmas cheer for ya!

h.t. Chaos Manor in Review

Today’s Blogburst is also available as a Podcast.

Illegals Deadlier Than War On Terror
by American Daughter

This past Thanksgiving evening, a United States Marine who was home from Iraq was driving with his date, when another car smashed into theirs and killed them both. The other driver, who was not even injured, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

On the early broadcast news in Washington, DC this morning (Thursday, November 30th), some stations carried the report of this incident, and described the drunk driver as an “illegal immigrant.” By the time the 7 AM news came on, that version of the story had been quashed.

The main-stream media versions of the story do not mention the illegal status of the accused driver:

Driver Accused Of DUI In Crash That Killed Marine Home For Thanksgiving

COLUMBIA, Md. – A local Marine was killed Thanksgiving night in a crash caused by an alleged drunk driver. Brian Matthews, 21, of Columbia, Md., was driving with a date, 24-year-old Jennifer Bower of Montgomery Village, in his car on Thanksgiving night.

A driver hit them in Columbia, killing them both.

Matthews had served in Iraq and was home for Thanksgiving.

Matthews’ mother says her son had just signed up to be an organ donor and his organs helped save six other people.

Eduardo Soriano, 25, the driver of the other vehicle, was charged with driving under the influence.

This additional information comes from a news channel in Baltimore:

Matthews had served in Ramadi, Iraq, as part of the Fox Company 2nd Battalion 5th Marine Regiment.

One of his family members said he was the kind of person who would do whatever he could to help others.

Matthews, who recently trained in the Pacific Ocean, had just celebrated Thanksgiving with his family when he and Bower went out on a date….

Police said the driver of the other car, 25-year-old Eduardo Soriano, failed to stop at a traffic signal and hit Matthews’ car.

Soriano wasn’t injured but was charged with driving under the influence. Court documents showed he had a blood-alcohol level of .32. The legal limit is .08.

Soriano is also charged with two counts of manslaughter while intoxicated and homicide by motor vehicle.

Matthews graduated from Howard High School in 2003. He was an Eagle Scout.

According to statistics compiled by US Congressman Steve King (R-5th CD Iowa),

• 13 Americans are killed each day by uninsured drunk driving illegals
• 12 U.S. citizens die a violent death at the hands of murderous illegal aliens each day in crimes

Do the math.

That’s more than nine thousand people killed every year in the United States by illegal aliens.

By contrast, consider the death toll for US servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan since the beginning of the war on terror, as reported last week by the Department of Defense:

• Total U.S. troop deaths in Iraq as of last week were reported at 2,863.
• Total U.S. troop deaths in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan during the five years of the Afghan campaign are currently at 289.

Again, do the math.

So illegal aliens in the United States are more than fourteen times as lethal (14.48 actually) as a full scale armed conflict.

Quod erat demonstrando.

Our mainstream media outlets are strangely silent about this. Do we hear them constantly beating a drum about THIS civil war? No. Their selective reporting amounts to blatant prevarication.

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[Comment: actually, it’s not a “civil war” at all, of course. It’s an invasion actively sponsored by at least one foreign power—Mexico—and aided by complacency or even active treason by U.S. government officials, agencies and politicians…—ed. ]

This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our Blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to admin at guardtheborders dot com.

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[The info below is reproduced from a text file I’ve had laying around for the past 12 years or so. No, I didn’t cite the source when I originally obtained it, and yes, I’m too lazy to dig around and discover who claims to be its author. If you are the author, let me know, otherwise, just read it. Only the title is mine, cos, saved in the bad old days of DOS, the file name give little clue about the original title *heh*]

The Physics of Santa Claus (a short study for those still stuck on 34th Street)

Continue reading ““to the top of the roof, to the top of the wall… “/OTP”

Just watched a “made for TV movie” with my Wonder Woman. Turned to her as it ended and observed, “Well, if it had been better-written, better-directed and better-acted, it would have been pretty good.”

Well, at least I watched it in good company.

Hmmm… I wonder how Samantha Burns would handle this one… maybe not a “Crazy Rant” but a fashion show? *heh* (I really do wanna know, Sam :-))

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ubuntu, noun. Humanity or fellow feeling; kindness

I’ve been having some fun and frustration recently playing around with the latest “not quite ready for Aunt Tilly*” Linux GUI distros from Ubuntu. Yeh, I’ve waxed rather rhaphsodic about Puppy Linux for “Aunt Tilly” in the past, and I’m still high on that distro for the pure novice user, but it has a few more built in limitations than the Ubuntu distros that might constrict “Aunt Tilly” when she decides hse wants to do more.

But this post isn’t about Ubuntu Linux or computer use, except peripherally.

I was browsing around on an Ubuntu blog (titled, strangely enough, “The Ubuntu Blog” *heh*) and saw this post: Ubuntu Thong Spotted on BBC website – Oh, and Bill Clinton talks about Ubuntu.

So, naturally I had to read the referenced article.

What struck me about the article was that both the remarks quoting Bill Clinton–Rhodes Scholar, former President, etc.–and Desmond Tutu–Nobel Prize winner, and all that etc.–were rather vapid and showed a remarkable lack of historical perspective and cultural knowledge.

Here’s Bill on “ubuntu”–

“If we were the most beautiful, the most intelligent, the most wealthy, the most powerful person – and then found all of a sudden that we were alone on the planet, it wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans…”

Nice enough sentiment, I suppose. Of course, the royal “we” kinda ruins the down-home simplicity, but we’ll let that slide. *heh*

Then Desmond Tutu is cited to lend weight to this “unique” African concept, one which is presented as a desperate lack in Western Civilization… a concept which, well, let’s let Dezzie speak:

“Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language… It is to say, ‘My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours.'”

Yep. Remarkably difficult to render in a Western language. So foreign, so anti-Western… Or, as John Donne put it in the early 17th Century,

“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated…As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness….No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

I guess Donne wasn’t covered at Oxford or the University of South Africa, although I recall being required to memorize that passage, among others when I was 13.

“Ubuntu” is not some unique concept brought to us by our wiser, “noble savage” brethren from the Dark Continent. A Bantu word caught up by the Zulu (the Zulu are a branch of Bantu) expressing the brotherhood of mankind (noticed that? No PC futzing around with “man and womankind” crap).. Now there’s a picture… The history–such as it is–of the Zulu is one largely of savage atrocities toward their fellow man. Ubuntu, indeed, cousin Desmond.

But of course, our “noble savage” brethren have much to teach us Western brutes about humane treatment of others. Why! We’ve never heard the like before! Except… except the concept wasn’t exactly new when a Carpenter from Nazareth restated it a couple of thousand years ago:

“Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt 7:12)

Or again,

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. John 15:17

Will just two do?

All this hoohaw over a jonny-come-lately Bantu-Zulu word/concept that says nothing new and whose adoption is due solely to a couple of convergent trends: a desire to pump up the image of backward people groups and a severe cultural subliteracy in the West.

But I guess I can give Bill and Cousin Desmond a pass on this. Surely they just don’t know any better.

Oh, and the Ubuntu thong?

Continue reading “Another perspective on Ubuntu–NOT compgeeky”

For those of y’all who’ve wondered where America’s Third World Countyâ„¢ is located, geographically speaking, here’s another clue (I’ve posted a couple of others in the past). We are located exactly on the other side of the Earth from the point noted below:

Dig your own very deep hole here.

h.t. Chaos Manor