Month: November 2005

A few pings from some interesting reads the last coupla days. Check out:

Due to blogger error (mine, I think, not Blogger’s :-), somehow a trackpack ping to Committees of Correspondence was “etherized”. DO READ: it’s a big deal. In “When I was Ten Years Old” he links to a story you really ought to hear.

Pajamas Media / Stuck On Stupid Blog The True Meaning Of Thanksgiving, “Christmas Season starts this week beginning with Thanksgiving. While I was looking for something to post this Thursday I ran across this article and decided now is a good time to share it. From The Branson Courier: Thanksgiving is all about to whom the thanks is given…”

[On target]

T F Stern’s Rantings brings Having an Attitude of Gratitude to the Thanksgiving table. “I’ve heard some demean this truly American holiday by calling it ‘turkey day’, which may well be the reason I decided to write my thoughts about having an attitude of gratitude.”

[I’ll not refer to Thanksgiving Day as “turkey day” either, thanks. 🙂 ]

Small Town Veteran’s collection of Holiday Quick Hits is a concise list of good reads, and I say that not just because he linked my “An ACLU Thanksgiving”— “Some things I’d excerpt and link to individually if not for the holiday: An ACLU Thanksgiving Wilsongate: Motive, Means, and Opportunity More Mistakes by the Washington Post on the Foreign Fighters Debate General calls Iraq pullout ‘destabilizing’ M.. ”.

[Some good reads. Not a turkey in the bunch]

Another history lessn, this one from Peakah’s Provocations— Thanksgiving 2005 “Our Founding Father, George Washington, Proclaimed Thanksgiving Day an Official American Holiday… click on picture to read his words…”

[The text of Washington’s 1789 proclamation. Worth reading in its entirety. More than once a year. Out loud. With a bullhorn. In front of an ACLU office.]

History lesson #3 from California Conservative: The History & Meaning of Thanksgiving “Why and to whom are we giving thanks? There’s more to Thanksgiving than family, feasting and football. All too often the significance of our cherished holidays is forgotten, and replaced by a rewriting of new intentions. As we celebrate this special American holiday, may we also remember the history and be reminded of the true meaning behind it.”

[Another perspective—with depth and a link to a History Channel video]

Freedom Folks  could repost this for a guard the Borders blogburst: The Toll of Illegal Immigration  â€œMJ shares a horrifying account of the hidden costs and dangers of illegal immigration…”

More as I see ‘em.

Nah, it’s not because the FEC or some other government weenie bureaucraps might dump on ya. It’s not even because NZ Bear might decide every link to Instapundit is worth 10 links to anyone else (heh–just kidding Bear). No, It’s because this guy is covering every single topic he touches better than anyone else.

Yep. Anyone.

In fact, linking to him in such a way as to open the link in a new window is probably an exercise in futility. You’ll click the link, read posts like this one and never come back.

Oh. Wah.

Not that I’d feel the pain, cos if you did click on over there and get lost in the wealth of good blog and never come back here for my mediocre stuff, I’d feel that I’d served you well and be pleased.

Seriously: that’s one fine blog. I’d love for you to come back, but if I lose your readership to someone like this, I’ll feel that the service I’ve done you was well worth it.

Just noticed. Concurrent with Blogwriter starting to delete portions of posts when uploading or saving locally, posts originally posted via Blogwriter (as of today’s latest bug session) apparetnly canNOT ne edited to apply to the variable-width center column any more…

So, Opera, naturally, sees things correctly, and no other browser I’ve tried does.

I’ll explore this carnage wrought by my used of a beta blogging product as I have time. Meanwhile, it looks like hash is all I have to offer nonOpera users. Either that, or go back to raw html editing in Editpad.

*sigh*

[UPDATE: See The Real Ugly American’s take on Open Trackbacks. Good post. Meat on those bones, bubba. AND due to blogger error (mine, I think, not Blogger’s :-), somehow a trackpack ping to Committees of Correspondence was “etherized”. DO READ: it’s a big deal. In “When I was Ten Years Old” he links to a story you really ought to hear.]

My Wonder Woman’s a children’s librarian, so for our anniversary, we caught “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.” I had to wait until the end of the flick for something besides the typical “Harry Heroics” and boffo special effects. That was when Dumbledore spoke to Harry of a time approaching when everyone they knew would be called upon to choose between doing what’s right… or what’s easy.

And then, following the tracks of one linkfest to another to another late last night,—just kinda casually cruisin’ n perusin’—until I lost track of the links in the chain, and I ended up at Alexandra von Maltzan’s All Things Beautiful. There, I found a post to end my evening with: “Loyalty To The Truth on Thanksgiving.” She refers to Hugh Hewitt’s article on how to have a political argument with family (just read it) and then builds a powerful “tribute” to genuine bloggers she knows. From her leadoff:

“The loyalty and integrity we should have as bloggers is to the Truth and liberation of that Truth, and not to the Truth we assign to the political denominations we belong to. And above all to the good old fashioned family values of integrity and loyalty to that Truth which we celebrate at Thanksgiving. Respect for each other as bloggers no matter what we believe in is paramount, and no amount of self gratifying echo chamber rhetoric should come in the way of a good upbringing, and manners, above all being grateful today that we have a voice.”

And you know, the truth she’s talking about applies whether it’s bloggers who are devoted to so-called “important” issues or to personal journaling—or even to food and recipes (“Do YOU credit the sources of your recipes every time, David? Well, do you?”) It’s a post I believe well worth reading in its entirety. In fact, I archived the text just in case her permalink should ever prove less than permanent, so I can return to that one statement from time to time.

The quote the other day from Jo’s Cafe? It’s worth repeating in this context:

“What is most important is who you are and does your blog reflect you… ”

There are the hard choices… and the easy ones. When we’re blogging, the hard choices sometimes demand introspection… just to know they really are there. “Where is my bias? What do I believe and why?” If we ever allow our biases or our egos to persuade us to shade the truth, to twist it or even to outright lie, then we become the little people who populate the boob tube opinion programs calling themselves “news”.

Just a thought. Read the two posts linked above for better presentations.

In a strangely related post dealing metaphorically with blog ethics, The Crazy Rants of Samatha Burns reports, Source Code Stolen From NZ Bear.

heh

Indeed.

Consider this my Friday “Open all weekend” Open Post with The Open Trackback Alliance

Link to this URL:

http://thirdworldcounty.blogspot.com/2005/11/riffing-off-dumbledore.html

Trackback to this URI:

http://www.haloscan.com/tb/mnmus/113293642547681487/

See Ferdy’s Open Trackbacks Pingposters List here.

I’ll try to do a frontpage post rounding up interesting pings posted here, later.

PingLinked at: NIF, Is It Just Me?, The Blue State Conservatives(apparently not: MT seems to be having trouble accepting trackback pings–but go to BSC and read up, anyway, ‘K?), Conservative Cat, Don Surber After Hours, Right Wing Nation, Stray Dog, Blogin Outloud, TMH’s Bacon Bits

Thanksgiving Day meal finished, food put away. lazing until my Wonder Woman and I leave to take in a flick.

Just opened another “stash” blog for low-stress, not-too-techie stuff about software/hardware. Any further comments about browsers or other software stuff will be stored there and the only real mention of the contents will be a short comment/link here.

Anyone wants to treat this as an open post, feel free. SPAM trackbacks or comments will of course be deleted and their domains banned. Some things just aren’t worth wasting time on. Spammers, for one class, will never “get” the idea that what they are doing is unethical, any more than other sociopaths can understand their own inhumanity.

Have fun folks. Outa here until tomorrow, most likely. When tomorrow rolls around, I’ll bring interesting trackbacks/links onto the front page in an “around and about” post. (And then, Real World stuff, again. 🙂

[NOTE: I am posting this “Thanksgiving” post in advance of Thanksgiving Day in hopes that it might help even just one person redirect their thinking as we approach a day set apart especially for giving thanks. Update: Bumped to Thanksgiving Day.]

The biblical story of Job is a story of faith in the face of extreme adversity.

You probably know the story well. Satan makes his appearance in the court of The Most High and suggests that he can turn even the most faithful of men, Job, away from faith in God. God gives Job over to Satan to afflict reserving only Job’s life for Himself.

In the trials that ensue, Job loses his wealth, [almost all of] his family and his health. His friends counsel him to forsake his faith, and in one of the most famous lines of the Old Testament, his wife tells him to “Curse God and die.”

Pretty darned bad, eh?

But, you may say, Job’s just a myth, right?

How about an historical example, well-known and verified?

It was the worst of times; it was the worst of times. (Not so Dickensian, but oh, so true.) War ravaged the land for 30 years. During that time, Martin had served as one of the pastors of a once-prosperous town that had suffered greatly in the war. Sacked three times. Saved from sacking once only by courageous negotiations with a conquering general/king by one simple pastor… but still ruined again economically at the end of the negotiations.

This simple pastor had also seen his family, friends, colleagues and thousands of townspeople and refugees killed by plague and hunger, and during the war years, when he was the sole remaining pastor of the town, he was called upon not only to conduct the funerals of his own wife and children, but also to conduct as many as 40-50 funerals a day for families of friends and neighbors-the townspeople he served so long and knew so well-and of those from the crowded masses of refugees from the war-torn countryside. All-in-all, he performed nearly 5,000 funerals during these years.

The war was the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). The town was Eilenburg, in Saxony. The man was Martin Rinkart. In response to all those years of affliction, he penned these words:

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, Whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Be thankful for your blessings? Yes. But even when you cannot see any “blessings” be thankful still.

Crossposted at Whistling in the Light and Cathouse Chat.

Linked at The Uncooperative Blogger, Don Surber, Peakah’s Productions, Stop the ACLU, Soldier’s Angel, Common Sense Runs Wild, MVRWC, Outside the Beltway, MacStansbury, Right Wing Nation, TMH’s Bacon Bits, NIF, Basil’s Sunday Brunch, and Mensa Barbie.

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With apologies to J.R.R. Tolkien and the members of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Continental Congress, 1777.

Time: December 17, 1777

Place: Valley Forge, PA; tent of General Washington; the commons, before the Standard

Dramatis Personae: General George Washington, commander of the Continental Army; James McHenry, General Washington’s secretary; Grimma Wormtongue, attorney for the ACLU

General Washington [writing]: Tomorrow being the day set apart by the honorable Congress for Public Thanksgiving and praise, and duty calling us devoutly to express our grateful acknowledgments to God for the manifold blessings he has granted us, the general directs … that the chaplains perform divine service…

[a knock interrupts, General Washington’s secretary enters]

McHenry: General, a Mr. Wormtongue insists on seeing you immediately.

Washington: What does he want?

McHenry: He says he has a letter from the Pennsylvania delegates to the Continental Congress declaring that any proclamation of thanksgiving cannot make reference to God.

Washington: [stunned silence, then] Show him in.

Wormtongue: General Washington. Thank you for seeing me. I have here a letter enjoining you—

Washington: Give it to me, sir. [Washington reads] I also have these men’s signatures on a proclamation to be read from the Continental Congress giving thanks to God for our victories and asking The Almighty to intercede on our just behalf. How do you then give me this?

Wormtongue: I met with the gentlemen privately and convinced them it would impose an undue coercion upon those who do not hold your—or their—Judeo-Christian religious beliefs, and persuaded them to urge you to issue a non-religious statement of gratitude.

Washington: Who then would you have us express gratitude to, if not to the Providential Hand of the Most High God? I have my authorization and your plea has no virtue. Mr. McHenry? See this man from the camp.

[December 18, in the commons before the Standard, the army assembled. We laggards come in late…]

Washington: …for solemn thanksgiving and praise. That with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor;… and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them (their manifold sins) out of remembrance… ”

[fade]

As a start. Then we could work on the rest of the year.

CLICK HERE for more.

And be sure to catch Jay’s Thanksgiving post at Stop the ACLU, as well as “Happy Thanksgiving, ACLU” at TMH’s Bacon Bits.

Crossposted at Stop the ACLU

Linked at Diane’s Stuff, TMH’s BAcon Bits, Don Surber’s After Hours’ “Anonymous Open Post” (heh), Pajamas Media/Stuck on Stupid, Robinik.net, Basil’s Thanks Giving” and Cao’s Blog

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at Jay@stoptheaclu.com or Gribbit at GribbitR@gmail.com. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 130 blogs already onboard.

THE Quote of the Day is from Jo’s Cafe referring to the flap about N.Z. Bear’s arcane and idiosyncratic ranking system, “spam” filtration, etc. Jo hits the nail on the head and then clenches it tight with:

Amen. Preach on sister!

Some posts I’ve *cough* “noticed” today…

Committees of Correspondence says “I support the Fiscal Watch Team Offset Package [well, I would too, except I’m also waging a small guerilla war against a certain ursine… ] Help curb all the unnecessary spending in Congress.”

The Real Ugly American posts, “From France: What Fires? What Riots? It is a matter of riots in certain neighborhoods around urban centers, those infamous ghettos which one finds in American Cities too. Elsewhere life goes on as usual.”

[The peasants are revolting. Now, if they’d simply bathe more often and eschew their goat-loving, woman-stoning, head-chopping ways… ]

Those Bastards! posts: Man, that’s really not holding your liquor. From MSNBC.com: A 32-year-old Norwegian bartender was sentenced to six months in prison Wednesday for serving a customer so much tequila that he fell into a coma and died..

[Yep. But I’d call this as much a case of Darwinian micro-evolution as anything else.]

Once more, from Committees of Correspondence, an observation about the benefits of violence: “One Tin Soldier-The Rest of the Story. One Tin Soldier also known as The Ballad of Billy Joe had a certain vogue once as a Peace Anti-War Song, whose message is, “Violence is Never the Answer”. I never understood that… Today we have those who genuinely believe that “Violence is Never the Answer”. To the Evil in the World they are like Dodos.” 

[Duh, of course. “But the meek shall inherit the earth!” Yep. About 6’x6’x2′ worth… ]

Those Bastards! proclaims, “Man, that’s really not holding your liquor” and notes the story: “A 32-year-old Norwegian bartender was sentenced to six months in prison Wednesday for serving a customer so much tequila that he fell into a coma and died… “

[A case of Darwinian micro-evolution at work, friends. Charge the bartender with being a practicing Neodarwinist and move it right along...]

[And…]

“Strategic Victory Achieved in the Ongoing War Against Israel …The Rafah Border Crossing Deal… How committed are the Palestinians themselves to preventing weapons from being smuggled from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, or from the Gaza Strip…

[And…]

“Evidence the “Paris Riots” Are Actually the “French Intifada” This entry will be updated regularly, because it may be the only comprehensive documentation of the Intifada-like elements of the French rioting.

[Yeh, and since the French don’t have a Charlemagne—oops! Charles Martel… Chalemagne was the grandson— this time, maybe the Mussie’s desire for a “do-over” of The Battle of Tours will go differently for them this time…]

More as I notice ’em… (and do notice that this includes more actual content from me than any number of comparable citations/link doobies at Instapundit and his groupies.)

Linked at bRight and Early and Basil’s Picnic Lunch