Day: December 21, 2006

As in past years, I’m once again “sharing” with (inflicting on) folks the following… sounds. WARNING: unless you have a very strong stomach or ears ruined by listening to contemporary popular crap, you may feel that the sounds (I refuse to call it singing or music) linked to below are cruel and unusual punishment torture.

What they are, really, is the kind of thing inflicted on Christmas program attendees around this country who are often either too polite to comment to the “singer” or too numb-eared from (see above) to even know what they’ve had dumped on them.

REPEAT: Drowning cats would be more musical. And though such an act would be barbarous and cruel, I doubt it could be as cruel as inflicting the following on you. But that’s me: mean to the bone.

Here ’tis: No Holy Night. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

(BTW, this last Sunday, I heard someone “sing” one of my fav Christmas songs with not quite the same degree of musicality. *sigh* Earplugs.)

Noted at the Christmas Alliance HQ and trackposted to Wake Up America, Renaissance Blogger, The Uncooperative Blogger ®, Conservative Cat, Jo’s Cafe, basil’s blog, and bRight & Early, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

From STACLU

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There is no doubt that a certain amount of transparency is essential for a modern democracy to function honestly. However, taken to the extreme, complete transparency would effectively make our National Security impotent and threaten the ability of the democracy to secure its very existence. There is a line that must be carefully walked. We must maintain common sense, especially in times that enemies threaten our very existence. We can not be so transparent that our enemies can see through us, and know our techniques and plans to fight them and protect ourselves against them. We should never cede our security to exist over to a utopian ideological dream of a completely transparent government. It is also important to have government watchdogs keeping an eye on government from abusing and overclassifying information that the public has a right to know. The danger lies in allowing too much liberty, especially to absolutist organizations like the ACLU, in that decision making process.

The Investor’s Business Daily brings up some very good points in reference to the recent backing down of the government in trying to obtain a classified document from the ACLU.

“The government blinked,” gloated ACLU executive director Anthony Romero.

Judge Rakoff is notoriously liberal, having declared the death penalty unconstitutional in 2002 (a ruling quickly overturned), and earlier this year forcing the Pentagon to make public thousands of pages of information on suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay. So it’s understandable for prosecutors to not want to fight an unwinnable battle.

Are we nearing the day, however, when the ACLU has our legal system so wrapped around its finger that government secrets can no longer be kept from terrorists? Consider these points:

• The ACLU’s Romero called the subpoena battle “a fight not over a document but over the principle that the government cannot and should not be allowed to intimidate and impede the work of human rights advocates like the ACLU who seek to expose government wrongdoing.”

But if leftist activist groups or journalists, rather than the freely-elected U.S. government, decide what is legitimately secret and what is “intimidation,” there’s little that will remain secret.

Continue reading “Stop the ACLU: Extreme transparency=flaccid security?”

Just 13 Christmas Carols (and Advent Hymns) I like, not favs–that’d be a much longer list–but just some I like. Notice there are no secular songs in the list. That’s because, while I feel I can stretch the list to include Advent songs, secular songs are in no way, shape, fashion or form carols. Yes, I know common parlance has pejorated the term ‘carol” to mean, well just about anything a speaker wants it to mean, but I’m not going to enter the sign-symbol-semantics-pejoration thicket today. Just sayin’–ain’t no secular songs that are Christmas carols, not really.

In no particular order:

The First Noel. You probably know the words. Click the link to sing along with an instrumental accompaniment suitable for voices to sing with.

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (Linked to lyrics and a sample of the tune.)

Away in a Manger (lyrics linked) NOT sung to the crappy, urm, poor tune by James R. Murray that darned near everyone and his dog seems to think fits it well. (OK, the tune’s not crappy, just pedestrian and boring–besides being unsuitable to a wide array of voices including most children’s voices.) Here’s an excerpt of a better tune:

OK, so the tempo it’s played is too fast for singing the song properly, but the tune’s beautiful and works much better with the lyrics when sung at a proper tempo~100bpm.

Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming Powerful text, beautiful tune. Click the link for both the text and an mp3 of Kathleen Battle (!!) singing the song.

The Seven Joys of Mary. The link’s to the lyrics and a really fun performance by The Great Big Sea. (The web page at the link includes a disconcerting misuse of an apostrophe in the title, but I can forgive that for the rollicking recording of this song :-))

Of the Alfred Burt Carols, one is probably the most-sung: Some Children See Him. Follow the link to discover why, if you don’t already know. 🙂

OK, it’s not strictly a Christmas carol, nor is it limited to Christmas alone in its scope (unless one contemplates the Christmas story, as do many, as the story of God’s Gift to mankind), but Lord Of The Dance, although relatively new and neither carol nor even hymn, is a song to gather the thread of Christmas together into a beautiful and full tapestry. (And a suitable use/adaptation of the tune associated with “Simple Gifts” too. :-))

Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendor. See the lyrics at the link, but listen to the mp3 here (the audio player I was testing on that post is a lil cranky. :-))

O Little Town of Bethlehem. The link’s to a clip from a performance by Neal Davis.

It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. (You’re gonna love that link! Repeated below so you CAN’T miss it! :-)) I’m no fan of the Arthur Sullivan tune mated to the carol text, and I’ve already posted a clip to an arrangement of the tune I do like (in a style I find appropriate for a Christmas Eve service or the like), but here’s areally fun swing band arrangement (and yeh, there’s a sales pitch for the chart at the end of the piece. Oh. Well. :-)). I particularly like the totally inappropriate treatment of the “peace on the earth” segment. Cool. *heh*

Ding Dong Merrily on High The link’s to an interesting and sometimes quite good instrumental arrangement, for those of y’all who like reading along with instrumental scores (you may have to download and install Sibelius Music’s Scorch music player). Here are the lyrics.

Go, Tell It On the Mountain I can’t seem to lay my hands on the arrangement/recording I’m partial to right now, so the link’s to a pdf of a decent arrangement.

Rise Up Shepherd and Follow The link’s to a clip of a credible piano performance. Others by the same performer found here. Lyrics here.

And a bonus, number 14 (even though I could keep on going :-)):

Silent Night I prefer the German lyrics:

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Alles schl�ft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute heilige Paar.
Holder Knab im lockigen Haar,
Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlafe in himmlischer Ruh!

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Gottes Sohn! O wie lacht
Lieb� aus deinem g�ttlichen Mund,
Da schl�gt uns die rettende Stund,
Christ in deiner Geburt!
Christ in deiner Geburt!

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Die der Welt Heil gebracht,
Aus des Himmels goldenen H�hn
Uns der Gnaden F�lle l��t seh�n
Jesum in Menschengestalt,
Jesum in Menschengestalt

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Wo sich heut alle Macht
V�terlicher Liebe ergo�
Und als Bruder huldvoll umschlo�
Jesus die V�lker der Welt,
Jesus die V�lker der Welt.

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Lange schon uns bedacht,
Als der Herr vom Grimme befreit,
In der V�ter urgrauer Zeit
Aller Welt Schonung verhie�,
Aller Welt Schonung verhie�.

Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!
Hirten erst kundgemacht
Durch der Engel Alleluja.
T�nt es laut aus Fern und Nah:
Christ, der Retter ist da!
Christ, der Retter ist da!

Linked at the Thursday Thirteen Hub and at the Christmas Alliance HQ and submitted to the Carnival of Christmas.

And trackposted to Pirate’s Cove, Rightwing Guy, Stuck On Stupid, The Random Yak, , and Pursuing Holiness, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Due to scheduling issues on the distal end of twc’s “lightning Xmas trip” to visit family, I’m at loose ends for a few hours today. Maybe some mechanicking and housework, since the rest of my schedule’s clear. 🙂

[WARNING: rambling semi-rant follows. For “Christmas spirit” see another post at twc today, like the sticky post at the top of the page. 🙂 ]

Continue reading “A Short “Reprieve””