Ring Christmas Bells. (Or, A Hopeful Tune.)

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

--John Longfellow

A hopeful thought to help you along this holiday weekend. Even when your faith fails, there is music, and a stronger faith to help you through.

Happy holidays to you and yours.

(PS: Sorry bout missing NLT--still working to get the holiday music done. Next week, we'll have the 'between holidays' version. And JQP and his lovely bride can hoist a glass on the Grand Strand, and think of us....and vice versa.)

Help For Holiday Shopping. (They Have Everything Here.)

Time and money is tight....hard to buy for people make us want to pull our hair out....traffic is snarled, even without snowy roadways making it difficult to get around....No wonder the holidays are so stressful. Wouldn't it be nice if you could go online and find one catalog that had everything you needed, all in one place?

I've found such a catalog. It comes from a company we all know....one that has delivered trusted products for three generations. Anything you need, you can order from this long-standing corporation...and it will be delivered to your home quickly and efficiently.

You may have seen this company on TV. Rest assured it is not some fly-by-night operation. It is known and respected the world over.

CLICK HERE to be taken to the ultimate catalog for shopping....and again, Happy Holidays.

Sometimes A Fantasy. (Or, The Liberal Media Lies To Us Once Again.)

From the Newseum. Happy Holidays.

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"VIRGINIA O'HANLON."115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measure by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest man that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank GOD! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

A Sad Note. (RIP Alejandra Gutierrez.)

John Q. Public has covered this story better (and with more emotion) than I could ever hope to improve upon.

Sad indeed.

Buckling Under The Holiday Pressure.

A group of forty people dressed in Santa outfits, many of them drunk, went on a rampage through Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, robbing stores, assaulting security guards and urinating from highway overpasses, police said Sunday. The rampage, dubbed Santarchy by local newspapers, began early Saturday afternoon when the men, wearing ill-fitting Santa costumes, threw beer bottles and urinated on cars from an overpass, said Auckland Central Police spokesman Noreen Hegarty.

Hey...you try listening to screaming kids for eight hours a day, then getting in your car and fighting mall traffic....Anyone would snap.

Bad News For Hemisphere Dancer Fans.

From CNN.
A seaplane carrying 20 people crashed into the water within sight of Miami's high-rises Monday, killing 19 people, authorities said. The other person has not been found. Witnesses said the plane exploded in the air.Nineteen bodies were recovered after the Chalk's Ocean Airways propeller plane crashed around 2:30 p.m. after takeoff en route to Bimini in the Bahamas, Coast Guard officials said. Two crew were aboard along with 18 passengers, including three infants. Amateur video obtained by CNN showed the main part of the aircraft slamming into the water followed by a flaming object that was trailing thick black smoke.Sandy Rodriguez, 14, said he saw the plane flying low with white smoke trailing from it and flames coming from the bottom. The right wing then fell off as the plane went down, he said.

Fans of Jimmy Buffett will be somewhat familiar with Chalk's Ocean Airways as the inspiration for Billy Cruiser's airline in Jimmy's fiction pieces (Billy is based loosely on the founder of the airline, "Pappy' Chalk, who started flying seaplanes from Miami in 1919.) Lone Palm Airport is based on Chalk's. The seaplanes, and Chalk's airline also are mentioned several times in his non-fiction work, as Jimmy owned a Grumann Albatross (a smaller version of the Mallard that crashed.) Chalk's was also the owner of the seaplane that used to land in the water at the beginning of "Miami Vice".

My sympathy to the families of the deceased.

Why I-Pods Are So Popular. (Or, Oh! The Humanity!.)

A human rights group is alleging the United States operated a secret prison near Afghanistan's capital as recently as last year.The group claims that music from Eminem and Dr. Dre was used as instruments of torture. New York-based Human Rights Watch has issued a report saying the United States operated a secret prison in Afghanistan and tortured detainees. The report quoted an Ethiopian-born detainee as saying he was kept in a pitch-black prison and forced to listen to Eminem and Dr. Dre’s rap music for 20 days before the music was replaced by "horrible ghost laughter and Halloween sounds."The report said detainees at the facility -- known as "Dark Prison" -- were deprived of sleep, chained to walls and forced to listen to loud music in total darkness for days.

Funny...I would have figured Celine Dion and Mariah Carey tunes would be more disturbing. Oh well....

A Thought For The Day. (Or, Don't Point A Fucking Gun At The Cops If You Want To Live.)

From WPTA-TV.

The family of a Fort Wayne man killed in a police action shooting last summer is suing the Fort Wayne Police Department.

The family of Rudy Escobedo says his constitutional rights were violated by two officers who shot and killed Escobedo in his apartment on West Berry Street at the end of a standoff last July.

The Allen County prosecutor has said the officers killed Escobedo in self-defense when he pointed a gun at them.

Ok....I didn't comment (here) when the original incident happened. And I didn't comment (here) recently when the guy got gunned down at the airport. But this drove me over the edge. So here goes the rant......

YOU HAVE NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO GET COKED UP AND WAVE A GUN AT POLICE OFFICERS. You have no right to ignore your medication, get on a plane, mutter about having a bomb, ignore police orders to get on the ground, and reach for what you have purported to be a potentially explosive device.

IF YOU DO THESE THINGS, THE OFFICERS--BEING DULY SWORN TO PROTECT AND TO SERVE--WILL QUITE POSSIBLY BLOW YOUR STUPID ASS INTO THE NEXT LIFE.

Fuck the guy on the plane. Bi-polar or not....immigrant or not....if an officer points a gun at you and tells you to get the fuck down, DO IT. No sympathy.

As far as the asshole (the poor, hurting Rudy Escobedo) that got coked up, barricaded himself in his apartment, hid in a closet, affected a police standoff, and waved a gun at the officers? FUCK HIM. He deserved to get splattered across the wall. His "constiutional rights" ended when he started the event in motion. I have a constitutional right to go to the mall unimpeded. I have a constitutional right to carry a firearm. What I do NOT have a right to is to go into the mall and start shooting. He chose to act irresponsibly...and suffered the consequences. Too fucking bad. No sympathy...and certainly no support for a lawsuit.

There. Happy holidays, in case I haven't seen you to tell you in person.