Thinking about Christmas means listening to music - all genres - that transport us into fantasy worlds that depict winter wonderlands and merriment. So with this in mind..
At this moment, Cable TV channel MPT 22 is presenting Il Divo, the classical singing quartet! They are sublime, fantastic singers who deserve support from all classical and choral music lovers. Il Divo means "divine male performer" and you can find out more about them on their website, Il Divo. They're so easy on the eyes, you may decide to fall in love with one of them ;>
Another *must hear* is Antioch, the group who has quickly emerged as one of the New York Metropolitan area's finest vocal ensembles. In recent seasons, critics have called Antioch "stellar," "flawless," and "an exceptional group." Their recent CD, Winter Songs, includes composer Morten Lauridsen's Mid-Winter Songs who has this to say about them: "Antioch is certainly in the top rank of a cappella choirs in the United States. Their CD entitled "Winter Songs" is a marvelous showcase of demanding 20th-Century repertoire, including my Mid-Winter Songs on Poems of Robert Graves and O Magnum Mysterium. Both works are elegantly performed as are the other works on the CD. I recommend this CD most highly, especially to choral aficionados".
These two groups should get you off and running into the Christmas season!
More on the North American Union by Libertarian candidate Stan Jones:
"He lays out the extent to which Clinton, through NAFTA, and Geo.WBush, through the expansion of NAFTA and the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), have sold out our country to world .governance."
Well, here we go. Stan Jones reveals the secret (no longer "secret", helloooo!) plan to the One World (commie) .Government is through this North American Union, and *guess what?* This Union will have one common currrency, the, TA DA - Amero! Wow! The sheer magnitude of imagination here, hunh? Ohh, yah, don't let me forget to mention their intent to build that superduperpooperscooper trooper-ridden highway running like a zipper up through the middle of our country hairshirt; the head being Canada and below-the-belt Mexico. What can one possibly say about that?!
Bless your heart, mimi, for gracing your site, Mimi's World, with a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, on Thanksgiving Day. As you know, it prompted me to finish the item you quoted from, in your Comments section. I was going to quote a longer portion of it, then thought better of it, thinking it would be more appropriate for me to finish it here on PopUpCommontater. I haven't picked up my Emerson, The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edited, and with a biographical introduction by Brooks Atkinson, in years, in case anyone thought I finished the quoted material (at mimi's) by heart, by memorization, that is ;) So, I have mimi to thank for taking the Emerson off the shelf, blowing dust of its cover, and setting it within reach to once again peruse its pages. Ahhhhh, it's like sipping a Chateau Petrus Pomerol 1998 ;)
Without further ado, just a little more on the sanctity of friends a la Emerson.
"I confess to an extreme tenderness of nature on this point. It is almost dangerous to me to "crush the sweet poison of misused wine" of the affections. A new person is to me a great event and hinders me from sleep. I have often had fine fancies about persons which have given me delicious hours; but the joy ends in the day; it yields no fruit. Thought is not born of it; my action is very little modified. I must feel pride in my firend's accomplishments as if they were mine, and a property of his virtues. I feel as warmly when he is praised, as the lover when he hears applause of his engaged maiden. We over-estimate the conscience of our friend. His goodness seems better than our goodness, his nature finer, his temptations less. Every thing that is his - his name, his form, his dress, books and instruments - fancy enhances. Our own thought sounds new and larger from his mouth."
Rascal in the Dog House. (RV he's nice enough to share with us :) Taken this year; he has a weird look on his face like he can't believe we would dare to sit on *his* couch }:| (Aside to Rascal: No big deal, dude. Have it all. It's too small for us long-legged human beans - and that's why we sit in the big, comfy, oversized reclining chairs 8} . And all this time you thought you had something special, eh? LOL)
Rascal at the Relieving Station, heh heh.
This regal poise above of Rascal and the one below are 2 of my favorites.
Old man geezer neighbored 'hi' green teeth sugar smile on mutant head, made me round up puppy dog in shed that housed his dusty clunker, made me think doggie a prize to keep, if I would place the tie around his neck "and just keep calm, he's a stray but he'll make a fine pet" said this farmhand, my young mom's friend - he knew about the wren I tamed, and my bunnies from under the porch nest, mom told him about my way with the wilds so I knew why he picked me child that I was - it took awhile for that stray to gain my trust "you're a good child, now hold him still" I never saw it coming! but I can still hear it reverberating off thin tin siding and, oh my God! strange Elmer's crazyface *flash* smokinghand! frozen in time, this memory, this heart, and the way its body went thump thump on the gravel behind his truck to the dump.
Compel me to brag about my kids! The 'fur' kind, that is. It started with mimi and her "Stump Shredder" post which almost made me pass out while reading it. It's both gory and extremely sad - a very tragic accident involving Man and Man's Best Friend. I ask that you go read about it over at Mimi's World, a thoroughly engaging tblog, so I don't have to do double trauma here. Of course, I projected my own little furkids into the aforementioned tragic scenario, which made matters worse 8{ . Then, this evening I trotted over to The Ink Blotter where Inkspector was inviting readers to share the names of their furkids, along with certain details. I invited Inkspector to come here to see my 2 beautiful furkids - "Little Rascal of Hidden Valley" - Rascal for short, and little Contessa ChiChi whom is called Tess for short.
Rascal is known as "the bomb." He's my 6 year old, 18 lb. purebreed Rat Terrier who's quite famous at the Leesburg Veterinary Hospital, Leesburg, VA. This wonderful group of professionals took Rascal under their wing after he was bitten by a copperhead three times on the face and possibly in his mouth when he was just under a year old. He was bit under the right eye, right cheek, on the neck and, like I said, possibly in the mouth, maybe tongue. He had a number of complications during his recovery which took almost a year. So, as you can imagine, he's a very special little guy.
Here's my boy the day after he was attacked by the copperhead. He almost died. I had to take him into the Vet every day, 60 miles round trip, to be hydrated and given meds by injection because we couldn't get his mouth open for pills. He slept right next to me at night in order to keep his anxiety level down, to keep him calm so he could recover. Needless to say, I think, but not wanting to leave a wrong impression, I should add that Rascal slept on top of the covers under his fleece blanket, next to me *tricksy titters* and not *in* bed with his head on a pillow next to me, or anything like that. I just needed to be close to him and murmur encouragement throughout the night for the first week. I took vacation time to care for him 24/7. I could write a book on the whole ordeal. But, hey, it's amazing what we'll do for our furkids, isn't it?! BTW, I have more photos of Rascal during the week after his attack and will post them here if anyone's interested in seeing them.
This is my little precious Tess, a Rat Terrier/Chihuahua mix, 3 years of age. She's quite tiny, weighing in at around 8-9 lbs., very shy and protective of me.
Drudge has been running a headline of a story on Marie Claire magazine’s interview with Elizabeth Vargas breast-feeding her little-bitty boy baby at her anchor desk. Come to find out - Marie Claire mag photoshopped Vargas’ head onto an already existing photo of an entirely different woman. Vargas is disappointed the magazine put aside basic journalistic standards to photoshop her head onto a fake photo. As she should be! Now get this - a spokesman from the magazine justifies the fotoshop fake by saying, “There isn’t a working mother who can’t relate to this image and immediately identify with the very real dilemma Elizabeth Vargas wrestled with. We do not believe anyone seriously thought she would nurse and report the news the same time!“ Dah, what?! Now let me get this right. Because we can relate to a photo by identifying ourselves with similarities between it and our own experience, this makes for an acceptable excuse for deceiving the readership of Marie Claire? And we shouldn’t take the photo seriously because we know an anchor wouldn’t do that on the air?! Give me a frickin’ break! Like there isn’t any unconventional behavior running rampant throughout the Main Stream Media (MSM), and we should discount what our own eyes see……in a photograph? Riiiiiight. I ought not be offended that my whole life’s experience recently is based on lies and fakery from entities I have been taught are trustworthy? This, coming from the horse’s ass mouth, already?!
You know, there was a time when we could count on things; count on our .government leaders to exhibit model behavior, count on professional people to be just that, count on the medical field to be trustworthy, and news and its accompanying photography to be actual, factual, and indeed, real.
Now, we have a .government run by professional crooks and liars, spinning, white-washing, and hanging us all out to dry in a polluted world. Now, we have Enron and its copycats; greedy companies fleecing their own loyal, unsuspecting employees of health benefits and retirement funds through fraudulent means. Now, we have GYN doctors who rape, fondle and molest their patients in the doctor‘s office. Now, we have the fourth estate which makes up news and uses fake photoshopped images, instead of being watchdogs to catch and reign in crime and corruption done by “our betters” - oh, the irony of it all.
You know all this points to a very serious problem gaining ground in our society. I believe it’s up to each of us to examine our own hearts to see where we stand in all this; take inventory of the consequences if we don’t do something about the prevalence of lying and deception throughout our society.
NOTE: I think the reason this article caught my eye in the first place is because Marie Claire is one of the most sophisticated women's magazines on the market. I'm often drawn to it in the supermarket check-out line. I'm disappointed to know they'd resort to deception to make a point in a magazine article.
You'd stand there arms crossed in front, gathering your waist, with floured hands, a pause from oven to table, your silhouette perfectly framed in stained glass, staring out over potted pansies, eyes following the sagging line, a clothesline too close to ground, bird bath rimmed in chickadees, dry bones and brittle branches, skin cracked and peeling - old birch out back reminds you, your own sore dusted marrow.
You'd bend to tender roses hand picked for you and he, now Grandpa's Place, a place which claims my roots, in the yard out back among Queen Anne's lace. Thinking back now - to earlier days of gathering; lilies-of-the-valley, Becky, little bells & cockleshells, kindling, and purple violets placed within your favorite vase upon the kitchen window shelf, with little purpose hands, where your tender gaze would rest oh Grandma how I miss you, and all of Braham's nest.
looking at your photo on your belly, rifle drawn in jungle fatigues is terrifying, hon..
Far cry from your get-up in Mid-Summer Night's Dream - hi-lar-i-ous! Thought I'd scrrreeeam when you lunged at me - your tights drawn and sword up!
Twelfth Night was even better - prancing around in those damn leotards! Amazing fence-faking back-breaking gyrations - awkward at first like love-making, and like love-making - quickly finessed.
You Errol Flynned me with your fencing skills - epee poised and ready to prick some dastardly bastard! but nooooo! had to lunge! twist! thrust! and plunge! skewering my couch pillow as I grimaced - not for my heirloom - it was fresh-kill face made me shudder.
Your face has that same look as I study your eyes in this photo - no sign of twisted tights or eat-sh*t grin, no hint of prance or ballroom dance, dear, this is a last-time face, darling..
not the love-soaked Nureyev eyes I knew - before your first kill.
love missile received aimed straight for my heart - and I want you to know I lie here in bed most nights - sculpting your face into view, a habit I've learned to replace you, your letters stopped coming too soon.
Watching the news is unbearable, when all I think of is losing you. Your tenderness fades during news briefs like poking my eye in your sleep, but baby - your poking elbow I miss, and all your bad habits as well.
Hey those azaleas bloomed! hot pink splashed on fuchsia - your favorite colours on me said so yourself! lickin' lipstickedy luscious you purred.
Caught in a stare - colours freeze an image - another memory of us out on the veranda smokin' chicken a la "I'll take the potata in the back, Jack, don't like 'em burrrrrrned, b-a-b-y!"
and babe,
I feel burned and crisp, and raw, without the blanket of your love wrapped around me tight like roses clenched in my fist, while our wedding guests danced round and round and round us, drunk on love and laughter!
and, baby,
that's what I miss the most. If I could "can" that stuff I'd send a case or two "for emergency only" -
Many poignant tblog posts were had yesterday in memory of those men & women who served us and who lost their lives in order to keep our own going well and strong. Many died that we might live. What a legacy. I’ve always recognized the spirit of generosity and selflessness of those in our Armed Services. Truly - there is no greater gift than a man lay his own life down for another, but more especially so, for a stranger, I think. Such a strange dichotomy; that a man of divine nature goes off to kill another so others can live. I hope I’m not the only one who marvels at this concept; even as I’m horrified by the perceived necessity for killing other human beings in the course of doing war. I bring this up only to illustrate how terribly difficult it must be for the average man and woman to rationalize killing for peace. Because of this, we should give more of ourselves to them through understanding the needs of those returning from the battle field. How do we give them back what they’ve lost of self during their participation in war?
During the first Desert Storm, ‘90-‘91, I decided to take advantage of the Department of Defense’s arrangement to send letters overseas to random people, unknown to me, serving in our Armed Services. You probably remember the organization that provided the APO addresses to which one could send letters overseas to those serving our country who weren’t getting letters “from home” and needed our support, even more so. Well, I sent 10 letters out to “Any Serviceman(woman)”, with the thought in mind that whoever returned my letters, I would pray them home - alive and unharmed. Yeah, I realize that was some Tall Order :>, however, not one for me to fulfill, but rather, I figured it was up to me to pray for them unceasingly, all the while knowing only the Almighty One could make good on them. I received 5 letters in due time and wrote steadily to each of them; their lives unfolded before me and I was enriched by the brief time we exchanged the gamut of emotions, one to the other. And, I’d like to thank them all personally, as well as, all past, present and future Americans who serve in our Armed Services. Thank you for putting your life on the line to insure my safety and freedom from foreign aggression and invasion. You’ve given me the greatest gift a man can give another. I’ll always be grateful for your courage and sacrifices made to keep me alive and well. And now, to the following 5 gentlemen who will be identified only by their last names; let me once again say how much you mean to me and the time we shared writing to each other and for your bravery and courage in the face of death. I have not forgotten y’all, and how could I? We wrote each other from the heart, hearts woven together by unceasing prayer for your return home to your loved ones - alive and unharmed. Hello again, my dear brothers:
Brother Kash Brother Dowd Brother Forte Brother Hartfield Brother Hykes
Thankfully, we can give thanks to the Almighty who made good on my unceasing prayers for each of you. G_d continue to bless you and yours with everything you need in this lifetime. See you in heaven, Bros. Prayers answered.
During this time, many thoughts of war and its ramifications flooded my mind, and I was reminded of the Vietnam war, how the political climate was so different, and how we treated those who returned from war. It was not a pretty picture. One that shamed me. It really doesn't matter whether we are for or against war, what matters is how we treat those who fight them on our behalf because they're doing what they signed up for, and the Armed Serviceman/woman can't be selective in what war they will or will not fight.
Anyway, a number of poems were teased out of me, by speed writing, that lent themselves to the feelings I experienced while ruminating about the Vietnam war, and I’d like to share with you a set.
Egads! I wish I could say the scintillating scatomas and vertigo are result of post-election giddiness and too much celebration but - alas - t'is duly a doozy of a migraine. My mind is in a swirl over possible ramifications of the Dems taking over Congress. On further examination, I'm convinced the message from We the People is not the total embracing of Dem principles, but more like a total rejection of the Neo-con agenda. I've spent the last several days surfin' 'net pals and gathering snippets of their analysis and wisdom which I plan on sharing here in the days ahead. However..
For one thing, I don't believe for a moment that all our problems will go away now that we have a sea change in policymaking. No, I believe the INs are just as capable of being seduced by greed and power as the pending OUTs. What needs to change in WashDC is the underlying culture that breeds corruption. The In-coming need to take a good look at those around them who DGI. Those who *do* get it, know it's a matter of TRUST. We the People don't trust the .government anymore. How can we? We've known for years that we're being lied to on a regular basis, policy-making is being done behind closed doors and out of the purview of oversight or insight, and globalists and internationalists have too much influence on our national leaders. IMHO, globalization is the spreading of capitalism with a side of french fries. JUST KIDDING! I mean to say, capitalism by siphon. Our .gov goes in, set up business, and then suck the economy and resources right out of countries and leave them high and dry when they have nothing more to offer in the way of money to corporate hogs. Corporations are neither Reps or Dems, they're politically neutral, and don't care where they stick their siphon as long as it yields results. We need to take our corporate heads to task and help them rein in their greed and limitless power. (An aside - if I told my grandparents 50 years ago that in 2006 some CEO's would be making $400M/year, they would have me committed :) $400M a year, my friends, is avarice in the first degree.) Yes, we need to hold our globalist corporate heads accouintable for ripping off Americans of their money and their jobs. And it's our Congress that is responsible for doing so, for cleaning up their act, their morals, their values and begin reviewing anti-trust laws and the ways and means that lead to crime and corruption. I wonder, are they up to the task?
Will they begin to see that the answer to crime is not to build more prisons but to interject some responsibility, respect and dignity into the human equation and have expectations of civil behavior towards one another? I mean, where the h*ll is all the love generated in the 60's by the ever-present flowerchild, where's all that love that was so free and lovely?! That free love which spawned respect and reverence for all living things? Compassion? Tolerance for everyone and everything. Yeah. Whatever happened to those trance-like days where everyone walked around with an insipid, sh*t-eating grin on their face, picking up trash and lending clothes and "pads" to the downtrodden, let virtual strangers borrow your car to drive half-way across the country and back because they didn't have one and had an emergency or death in the family? Yeah. When did the greed start to creep in and take over... our minds..........and hearts? When did real, loving tolerance turn into demanding it - or else! Gee, what an incentive that is.
You see, I'm a believer in trickle-down Benevolence, Tolerance, Love and Compassion. I believe it starts at the top (in the family), revered (in church) and modeled (in .government) in order for it to self-perpetuate. I believe we do turn to our leaders as examples of virtue, honesty, and humanitarianism. I really believe in order for our society to become the best we can be - we need to have virtuous leaders to look up to and emulate.
I see alot of people who want to be part of the renewal of American values, parents who take great pride in their children and know their responsibilities towards them, work hard at raising them to be productive, loving, compassionate, humanitarian, diplomats of peace - and organizations and people who do really good works - but I see them swimming upstream against the tide of oppressive, power-hungry, indecent, amoral individuals, the numbers of which are growing mightily. This is why we need leaders in .government who put our welfare above and beyond their own self-intrests in order to be examples of good stewards for the good of the many.
And finally - when was the last time you heard a kid say he wants to grow up to be President?
Today's quest for my usual laughter is the best medicine remedy brought me to Brett Leake's homepage. It's the last video clip on the page, "Working Toward the Four Percent Brain," that's had me laughing my head off for the past half hour. Been playing it over and over just to get my daily fix.
Leake has some very interesting things to say about humor's role in overcoming adversity; and how he's used it to help him deal with Muscular Dystrophy. He's a great motivational speaker and has been hired by some of the world's largest corporations to give speeches about how he uses humor to handle life's unknowns.
Hope you enjoy his sense of humor as much as I do. Enjoy!
One of this evening's Law & Order: Criminal Intent episodes included, Stress Position, story line about a prison that took on "unofficial prisoners" ('terrorist suspects', i.e. Middle Easterners) into custody for interrogation. These "un-named prisoners" were subsequently abused/tortured by prison guards on power trips, believing there were no consequences to their actions because the suspected terrorists were off the books and invisible to any kind of audit or oversight.
Synopsis, by a reviewer, taken from L&O:CI's website:
"A corrections officer about to switch careers to fire fighting is found with a puncture wound to his throat, and his pants pulled down around his ankles - a crime Bobby immediately suspects has been staged. The investigation takes Goren, Eames, and Logan
...to a secret Gitmo policed by goon squad guards whose operations are sanctioned by the Patriot Act.
The dead guard's killing was set up to look like a revenge killing and a recently paroled compulsive confessor named "Chocolate Jimmy" (only Goren would ask why he was so named) eager to take the rap. But the bag Jimmy had packed, his ambiguous answers, and his history of false confessions make the detectives soon understand the murder was something more than a prison vendetta.
They are then led to a hygenist who has sent her inmate prison cell phones with minutes pre-paid, and suspect the guard was killed because of a contraband ring. It is not until Goren realizes that 'c block' has more prisoners than it should that the detectives realize the guard wasn't killed to protect an illegal criminal enterprise, but to keep him from speaking out about a 'legal one'.
The key information is revealed by a very scared prison nurse, who has been treating 'nameless' uncounted prisoners for malnutrition, exposure to cold, and torture. She happens to be Detective Logan's girfriend, and Logan bull rushes into Deakin's office to express his anger about Goren's questioning of her, and to get in on the case. Goren feels he could be helpful, and indeed he is..snooping thru his gal's things Mike finds a postcard an ex prisoner had wanted her to mail.
The detectives learn innocent prisoners of Middle Eastern extraction are being held and tortured for months without being charged. When they find the man who had given the nurse the card to mail, Goren realizes from his loosely hanging arm and demeanor that he has been tortured.
Logan, who has been buried on Staten Island for his former indiscretion, gets on board with Goren and Eames. Carver is willing to ask a judge for a writ of habeas corpus, ironically, for men already incarcerated. But when the ADA gets to the prison with his writ, a lock down keeps him out - and Goren and Logan are trapped inside with the nurse and some pretty scary guards.
The final scenes were terrific - seeing Goren and Logan in physical danger was a kick, and the ending showcased the very different natures and approaches of the two detectives. Goren, the profiler, talks three of the menacing guards down. Using info he has learned about all three - one a former student criminologist, one a church goer, and the last an ex-navy man, Goren eliminates one after another until there is only one incorrigible left - the brutal ringleader.
Logan is ready to go at the king of the torture ring even after the nurse and detectives are out of danger - and we believe him when he says "that guy would've been worth another ten years of Staten Island'. :) But it's clear Mike has learned something about the repercussions of anger from his ten year exile…..a little self-control."
I've often thought movie and TV industries tend to keep American viewers apprised of what they think we ought to know - through script and/or subject content. I think this L&O:CI episode served as a vehicle to inform the public of both the oppressive Patriot Act and the fact that anyone can now be taken and squirreled away somewhere with no recourse for judicial review. In other words, if someone you know "disappears," you'll never know if it was due to abduction or .gov intervention, and, if that "someone" is dead or alive - thus setting up an unbearable personal nightmare for their loved ones.
So, this scenario makes me think about how blase we tend to be to others around us; in our neighborhood, at work, and in school. I've thought about what recourse we have as citizens if someone we know "disappears" or a neighbor is seen being taken away in handcuffs and innocent bystanders are told "they're drug/gun dealers" or whatnot. Perhaps it would behoove us to do a little checking around to learn the truth of the matter. We shouldn't just assume our neighbor/co-worker/family member/friend is guilty and accept whatever "excuse" is handed our way, but instead - due to Today's atmosphere of secrecy and wrongdoing by those we pay to serve us - we ought to be more vigilant and more aware of the things going on around us. And - if we see something we think looks a little off or suspect- we grab our video cameras and mill around the suspect activity in order to record anything happening outside the rule of law. And let's not forget the powerful little camera-cell phones we all seem to carry around these days ;>
I suggest we begin to develop a sense of community again, watching each other's backs, and looking out for the other guy, like we did years ago - before discord and alienation were put into motion to divide and conquer this nation - by those who do not have our best interests in mind.
I think it's the only way we're going to be able to take our country back.
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) writes about the planned obsolescence of national sovereignty by a rogue element working on the North American Union, and Rep. Virgil Goode (I-VA) introduced a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the US should not be involved in this enterprise or the construction of the NAFTA super-ten-lane-highway up the center of the nation.
This Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was not created by a treaty between nations and was done outside the pervue of Congress. This rogue element consists of foreign consortiums and officials from other governments.
Some are all for this union - for whatever reason. I hope it doesn't escape anyone's attention that in order for this to be accomplished, they'll need to operate outside of the law.
