Day: December 6, 2006

*ISG=Idiotic Silliness Gone (over the top) (pdf file)

Read it yourself. A group of “Run away! Run away!” Dems and “Neville Chamberlain” Reps have redefined “success” in Iraq as “The U.S. needs to be just like us: runaways and appeaseniks able to play well together.”

Huh?!?

Well, that’s what their report really boils down to.

But what can ya expect of a bunch like that? Not one of them has any more expertise on the dynamics–the hisotry, the culture, the social-geographical landscape of the region than I do. And from the text of their report (warning: PDF file), it appears they have less understanding of the region than I.

And I’ve never even set foot there.

Of course, their actual experience on the ground there is less useful than my non-physical visits, since they actually just touched base there in the very briefest of manners, just to add it to their puffed up creds (and to pad the expenses) for their report. Kind of a “touch and go” landing… And they didn’t even do a “touch and go” in the areas controlled by the Kurds, where they might have gotten a hint (if their ossified brains could grasp it) of what is going wrong in the two provinces of Iraq that are troublesome.

Nope. They apparently, from the evidence of the report, went into this with the idea of avoiding such “buzz words” as “victory” because… Well, I can’t figure any positive reason why they’d avoid looking for a road to victory, can you? And their idea of success is really just a way of defining success down to a level that is meaningless.

The only things I can find that they got even close to right are the delineations of mistakes made in the prosecution of the peace. And even there, I strongly disagree with their priority and even some of the list itself–nortably absences from the list and the failure to out the disasterous Bremmer. But their silliest remarks were reserved for analysis of the various “options” that they presented. For example, partitioning garnered this fatuous comment:

Continue reading “ISG* Speaks (Now, if they’d just shaddup already)”

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”