"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
I caught a very strange sound, in passing as it were, from a made-for-TV “Xmas movie” that jarred me into stopping and paying attention for a moment. Yes, indeed some idiot had elected to have a “caroling choir” sing “Greensleeves” as a processional for a “Cmas wedding.” No, not the Xmas carol lyrics to “What Child is This?” but to the actual lyrics of Greensleeves.” As a supposed wedding processional.
Yes, as the “bride” made her way down the aisle, the “caroling choir” sang,
“Alas my love you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously. . . “
*head-desk*
My brief attention turned immediately to mocking. Someone should give a dopeslap (using a brick bat) to every moron involved in that production.
. . .but since it’s Mit Hjerte Alltid Vanker, we’ll let that go, eh? 😉
Sing along and restart the mp3 file enough times to get through, if you wish.
Mit Hjerte Alltid Vanker
1. Mit Hjerte altid vanker
I JEsu Føderum,
Did samles mine Tanker
I deres Hovedsum:
Der er min Længsel hjemme,
Der har min Troe sin Skat —
Jeg kan dig aldrig glemme,
Du søde Julenat!
2. Du, mørke Stald, skal være
Mit Hjertes Fryde-Slot;
Der kan jeg daglig lære
At glemme Verdens Spot;
Der kan jeg bedst befinde,
Hvori min Roes bestaaer;
Naar JEsu Krybbes Minde
Mig ret til Hjerte gaaer.
3. Men ak! hvad skal jeg sige,
Naar jeg vil tænke paa,
At Gud af Himmerige
I Stalden ligge maa:
At Himlens Fryd og Ære,
Guds væsentlige Ord,
Skal saa foragtet være
Paa denne slemme Jord!
4. En Perle, der forgjettes,
Saa nøie ledes op;
Den blanke Demant sættes
I gylden Krones Top;
Man kaster ei en Drue
Blandt tørre Grene ned:
Skal jeg min Gud da sske
I saadan Usselhed?
5. Hvi skulde Herresale
Ei for dig pyntet staae? —
Du havde at befale,
I hvor du pegte paa —
Hvi lod du dig ei svøbe
I Lyset som et Baand,
Og Jordens Konger løbe,
At kysse paa din Haand?
6. Hvi lod du ei udspende
En Himmel til dit Telt,
Og Stjerne-Fakler brænde?
O store Himmel-Helt!
Hvi lod sig ei tilsyne
En mægtig Englevagt,
Som dig i Silkedyne
Saa prægtig burde lagt?
7. Nei! JEsus faaer sit Leie
I denne gode Juul,
Hvor Betlere de pleie
At lægge sig i Skjul;
Det var end ei hans eget
Det Høe, hvori han laae —
Han havde ei saa meget.
Han kunde ligge paa.
8. Den Sag kan ei begribes.
At JEsus, Gud og Mand,
Saa meget hart indknibes
I Verdens Jammerstand:
Han, som med Guddoms Vælde
Al Verden dømme vil,
Ei har det, han kan hælde
Sit arme Hoved til.
9. En Spurre har sit Rede
Og sikkre Hvile-Boe;
En Svale ei tør lede
Om Nattelys og Roe;
En Løve veed sin Hule,
Hvor han sin Roe kan faae:
Skal da min Gud sig skjule
I Andres Stald og Straae?
10. Ak, kom! jeg vil oplukke
Mit Hjerte, Sjel og Sind
Med tusind Længsels Sukke,
Kom, JEsu, dog herind! —
Det er ei fremmed Bolig,
Du har det selv jo kjøbt —
Saa skal du blive trolig
Udi mit Hjerte svøbt.
11. Jeg vil med Palmegrene
Dit Hvilested bestrøe:
Min Brudgom, dig alene
Jeg leve vil og døe.
Kom! lad min Sjel erlange
Sin rette Qvæge-Stund
At kysse tusind Gange
Din søde Rosenmund.
A bit underwhelmed at an “auto-update” notice telling me the WP version here has gone through w/o any action from me. Last time I got one, I ended up locked out of my WP Admin pages for a while. Apparently not this time, though.
Gun “banners” would prefer to have all guns “registered” and all gun owners “doxxed.” What an excellent idea, and one with such excellent precedent!
“I think this is a great idea. The enemies of the people and the state should not be allowed weapons. Only good comrades can carry weapons. And any good comrade should not need privacy, because they have nothing to hide from the state. Yes, a most beautiful idea.”
“Show me a man, and I will find you a crime.” – Lavrentiy Beria
How can one disagree with such an impeccable source?
After the last WP update I performed, which ended up locking me out of all admin functions, requiring some help from my hosting service (an install of an update beyond the one I had done, because not even FTP was working for me), getting a notice of another WP update available was. . . momentarily disconcerting, especially since my site’s still not 100% functional. Yet.
Still, performed a complete backup of the site and then bit the bullet.
Unlike Q/A fora that focus on one topic or are strictly information-seeking-and-sharing boards, Quora features just about any question anyone can come up with, which means it’s a site that has just about everything from serious questioners with folks making serious attempts to answer such questions to trolls baiting others and then “flinging monkey poo” at anyone who attempts a serious answer, to those like the dumbass who asked the following question:
“What’s one song that always gives you the feels?”
Anyone who uses the term “the feels” deserves no response other than raucous mocking. It’s a vague, stupid nonsense term that only self-made idiots would even contemplate (if contemplate they could) using. The Urban Dictionary (though that should be in “scare quotes” *heh*) tries to describe the term thusly:
“A word used to describe something that is intensely emotional on a level somewhere between you feeling empty and you on the floor in a ball weeping uncontrollably.”
In other words, it’s a term so broad and vague as to be meaningless, and yet this questioner wants to know,
“”What’s one song that always evokes vague, undefined, essentially meaningless emotions in you ranging from ennui to agony?”
#gagamaggot
OTOH, the stupidity of gargantuan proportions the question represents nevertheless did not prevent my mind from fleeing to a momentary wish that I could somehow know the tune Kipling had running through his head as he composed “The Last Chantey.”
I know, I know. . . it’s just me, but I had to mute the GHWB funeral when the truly awful choral music came on1. I mean, seriously, what director–fully knowing the choir will be performing in a setting that’s really not acoustically well suited to choral music–does not stress again and again that exceptionally clear, even exaggerated enunciation of the lyrics is a MUST? *sigh* Unmuted, and the serial eulogies weren’t all THAt bad, and scriptures, although poorly-read, were appropriate.
What was a wee tad amusing was the sprinkling of pretentious “Mid-Atlantic” pronunciations that a couple of speakers dropped willy-nilly into their Mid-American accents.
Apart from that, it was a good celebration of an American hero, so-so president2, and seemingly nice guy.
R.I.P., GHWB.
1Alan Simpson’s rendition of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” was better.
2Coulda done a much better job as president, IMO, but I was at least satisfied with his character (and profoundly dissatisfied with the character of those running against him).
Quite apart from the Darwin Awards, possible evidence of at least one of the mechanisms whereby natural selection seems to work can be observed as roadkill. Obviously, it seems, the less fit of any species is likely to be what we see/drive by (or create) as roadkill: animals that weren’t smart enough, observant enough, or quick enough to get out of the way of oncoming traffic. (Strikes on scavenger birds/animals making a meal of roadkill are particularly ironic.)
But there are other data that can be intriguing apart from the easily-observed negative data of roadkill. Yesterday, just at dusk, I was on a two-lane rural highway at the posted 55mph speed, when I spotted movement ahead of me on the far side of the verge of the oncoming lane. It was a doe, stopping, her head turned to look straight at me. Her gaze followed me as I passed, and, in my rear view mirror I saw her head swivel, apparently checking for traffic, before she bounded across the road.
Deer learning “Stop, Look, and Listen”? Survival of the smartest?
