December 31st, 2006
Another great quote, from Hank Fox this time, on a different PZ Myers thread:
I think a lot of the right wing continues to misunderstand some of the left’s concerns with stuff like this [the mishandling of the the Saddam trial and execution], and the left always fails to explain it clearly enough. So here’s my take:
In a few words:
A very large number of us in America are more angry about fellow Americans breaking our HIGH code of ethics than we are about some greasy turd of a dictator breaking his LOW or nonexistent code of ethics.
This is why some of us have seemed more concerned with the flaws in our own actions than we are/were with the flaws in Saddam’s.
In a lot of words:
1) Saddam was a cheap, nasty, vile, dictatorial piece of shit. But hey, you EXPECT people like that to murder innocents, to drag men out of their homes and torture them, to set children on fire so their parents will confess, to throw people alive and screaming into wood chippers, to bomb or gas crowds of civilians. Because cheap, nasty, vile dictatorial pieces of shit have no ethics, no morals, no least speck of caring.
2) Americans, by a contrast light-years in distance, are good people. We’re decent, trusting, generous, friendly, and caring, and we’re that way because we know it’s the right way to be. We’re not only good, we WANT to be good. We have high ethical standards because we want to be BETTER … not just better than little pissant killers like Saddam, but better - more moral and compassionate - than ANYBODY.
And we always expect ourselves, and our neighbors, and our leaders, to live up to our high American standards … in the hopes that our society will always be at least this good, and maybe, as time passes, even better.
[. . .]
Yes, we wanted Saddam stopped. That’s a given. But at the same time, we didn’t want that goal to cause us to abandon our own ethical standards. Our own behavior is critically important to us. It must NEVER be long out of our sight.
Because Americans didn’t get to be good people by caring only when it was convenient or easy.
We got here by caring even when we were broke and hungry. We got here by caring even when we were lost and new and didn’t speak the language. We got here by caring even when others thought we were in the wrong and it was a waste of time. We got here by caring even when we were staggered by the horrors of war, even when things looked dark and hopeless.
WE NEVER STOP CARING.
Never.
Because we’re Americans, and because that’s just the way we are.
…
And just FYI: The people who do stop caring? The people who say “Shut up with all the carping! We’re still better than THAT murderous bastard!” ?
Those people are NOT GOOD AMERICANS. Those people slight America by pretending we should measure ourselves only against tyrants and murderers, and not against our own best ethical standards.
Naturally, the same goes for all other questions of moral principle and due process: civil rights for all persons, no matter how despised by the majority; due process of law for all accused before the law; fair trials for all indicted on charges; fair and humane sentencing and treatment of prisoners; restraint in warfare; humane treatment of belligerents; the renunciation of torture and the death penalty, and on and on.
Liberals care about these things because they matter - they always matter, and our behavior in respect of these things always matters. It is the central moral issue we face - to conform our behavior to standards of morality no matter what anyone else does, because we are unavoidably responsible for our own behavior and our own behavior is all that we have complete control over. It is utterly irrelevant to the question what decisions have we made and what behavior have we exhibited to point to anyone else’s behavior. That is not the behavior we are responsible for, nor the behavior we have control over.
The morally weak and morally complacent are happy to see bad behavior in others, because it appears to lower the standard to which they think they are being held in their own behavior. They resent liberals so much, in part, for reminding them that they are held to a higher standard than that of the worst person, no matter what. They hate to have their excuses invalidated.
Nonetheless, we have no excuses for our own decisions about our own behavior. That “enemy combatants” have done this or that (or, in many cases, nothing) to someone else does not waive our accountability for what we do to them. That some person has been accused of a crime is not a reason to treat them as guilty before they have been convicted. That someone has been convicted is not an invitation to evade our own humanity in treating them thereafter. That Saddam had been accused of many things was not reason to stage a kangaroo trial; that that trial convicted him was not reason to kill him; that he had been sentenced to execution was not reason to conduct it in a tawdry and abusive way. We fail (what should be, and for the decent among us still are) our own standards in pretending that others’ transgressions allow us to evade or vacate those standards.When we accept others’ bad behavior as permission for our own, we literally lower our moral standards to their level. In fact, when we accept the invitation to waive our principles, we fail the central moral imperative - to act at all times as if morality mattered - which is worse than what most of our enemies have done.
Categories: Culture, General, Legal Issues, Politics, Terrorism, Torture |
2 Comments
December 31st, 2006
I’m with the redoubtable PZ Myers:
[H]ere’s what I’d dream of seeing in the next year.
- Every penny spent on this pointless war ought to be immediately redirected out of Halliburton’s hands and straight to social services. Universal healthcare, first thing. Everything else gets poured into education—we need more and better schools at every level, and more teachers, and the teachers need to be paid what they’re worth. Every child born ought to be able to expect to get the same medical care as any other, and every child ought to be able to get the level of education he desires and can handle, not just what her family can afford. If our government can suck up tons of cash and shovel it at a disgraceful foreign expedition, they ought to be able to do the same with something that really matters. And we can pay for it by taxing the bloated and grossly over-pampered rich.
- Let religion expire. I want to see a world where religion is a quirk, the hobby of eccentrics, rather than a prerequisite for high office. Creationism should be the punchline to a joke instead of the focus of serious debate. Let all the churches and synagogues and mosques close, and then reopen, repurposed as centers for secular charities or the arts. Televangelists should be bankrupt (we’ll keep them off the streets with our expanded social services, though), and the more honest preachers should be looking for legitimate work—something other than trading a false authority for handouts from the deluded and fearful. Maybe they can go back to school and learn something useful.
- Let’s get specific: GW Bush, Dick Cheney, and the whole corrupt lot should be impeached, convicted of gross negligence tantamount to treason, and sent to prison for the rest of their lives. The entire Republican party should wither away in shame and disappear. The Democrats should reorganize and stand up for real principles: return to their roots as the party of labor and the working class, for civil rights and equality. Because we do need competing ideas, the other party with some power should be the Greens, who fight for the environment and sustainability. It would be such a joy to be able to go to the polling place and instead of choosing between Evil Greedy Grandpa and Bland Dithering Bureaucrat, I could actually face the pleasant dilemma of having to weigh agendas that matter in a positive way.
- In a development for the long term, lets pull people back into developed enclaves and allow large swathes of the country revert to wilderness; I want plains with herds of bison, I want old growth forests standing pristine and unthreatened, I want sections of coastline where the marine life is allowed to teem untouched. We should treat life as something worth preserving, not to be sacrificed for mere human convenience.
- Those human enclaves? Let them be fed with sustainable agricultural practices and fueled with renewable energy. Tie them together with efficient mass transit and free, open communications technologies.
Sounds right to me. (As a New Yorker, developed enclaves surrounded by wilderness is a concept I’m familiar with. We just call the wilderness “New Jersey”.) I could add a few more wishes, I think, but that’s a good start.
Happy New Year, everyone.
(And yes, I’m posting a few hours before midnight on New Year’s Eve, because I’m lame and my life is sad.)
Categories: Culture, Economics, Education, Environment, General, Health, News & Current Events, Politics, Religion |
2 Comments
December 30th, 2006
- Good riddance
- What Josh said:
This whole endeavor, from the very start, has been about taking tawdry, cheap acts and dressing them up in a papier-mache grandeur — phony victory celebrations, ersatz democratization, reconstruction headed up by toadies, con artists and grifters. And this is no different. Hanging Saddam is easy. It’s a job, for once, that these folks can actually see through to completion. So this execution, ironically and pathetically, becomes a stand-in for the failures, incompetence and general betrayal of country on every other front that President Bush has brought us.
Try to dress this up as an Iraqi trial and it doesn’t come close to cutting it — the Iraqis only take possession of him for the final act, sort of like the Church always left execution itself to the ’secular arm’. Try pretending it’s a war crimes trial but it’s just more of the pretend mumbojumbo that makes this out to be World War IX or whatever number it is they’re up to now.
The Iraq War has been many things, but for its prime promoters and cheerleaders and now-dwindling body of defenders, the war and all its ideological and literary trappings have always been an exercise in moral-historical dress-up for a crew of folks whose times aren’t grand enough to live up to their own self-regard and whose imaginations are great enough to make up the difference. This is just more play-acting.
These jokers are being dragged kicking and screaming to the realization that the whole thing’s a mess and that they’re going to be remembered for it — defined by it — for decades and centuries. But before we go, we can hang Saddam. Quite a bit of this was about the president’s issues with his dad and the hang-ups he had about finishing Saddam off — so before we go, we can hang the guy as some big cosmic ‘So There!’
Marx might say that this was not tragedy but farce. But I think we need to get way beyond options one and two even to get close to this one — claptrap justice meted out to the former dictator in some puffed-up act of self-justification as the country itself collapses in the hands of the occupying army.
Marty Peretz, with some sort of projection, calls any attempt to rain on this parade “prissy and finicky.” Myself, I just find it embarrassing. This is what we’re reduced to, what the president has reduced us to. This is the best we can do. Hang Saddam Hussein because there’s nothing else this president can get right.
- What Jim said:
And it’s also true that the US and its Iraqi allies chose to try Saddam on one of his relatively minor crimes because if they did so they could get him safely hung before they had to try him for the major ones, the gas attacks and massacres that happened during The Years of Playing Footsie with the United States. The Dujail reprisals were a war crime, no doubt about it, a bigger sham of justice than Saddam’s own trial, by two orders of magnitude. They were also the sort of war crime that people like Ralph Peters and a hundred other pundits and parapundits think the United States should be committing. Every time you read a complaint about “politically correct rules of engagement” you are reading someone who would applaud a Dujail-level slaughter if only we were to perpetrate it. Those are the people who are happiest of all about tonight’s execution.
Categories: General |
7 Comments
December 28th, 2006
Language warning: The easily offended should not proceed.
(more…)
Categories: Holiday, Humor |
4 Comments
December 27th, 2006
Someone has been less than honest with Todd A:
I’ve heard from, you know, “real hockey fans” that Nashville fans don’t act right, don’t know the game, don’t cheer where they should, etc.
I have been to a Predators game, and plan on going back, and I don’t know what real hockey fan would think Nashville was a bad hockey night. Tgirsch and I went last year to see the Predators play the Blackhawks. It was a Saturday night, but the place was still sold out, even to see an awful team like last year’s Hawks. The fans were friendly, despite my obvious rooting for the Hawks, and pretty knowledgeable. No, they weren’t the fans in Chicago, but they knew the rules, generally knew what to look for, and generally knew what was a good decision and what was a bad decision on the ice. The atmosphere was fun, even if it did occasionally veer into the slightly hokey. There was, though, way too much country music, but I guess that is to be expected.
Nashville fans act just fine, as does the organization and the venue management. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend going to anyone who enjoys hockey, and I am planning on going again in February. Next time a “real hockey fan” gives Nashville fans grief, blow ‘em off. They are probably just a Thrashers or a Panthers fan anyway ….
Via Brittney.
Categories: NHL, Sports |
6 Comments
December 26th, 2006
It was a pretty good year. Christmas, to me, is much more about giving than receiving. But it’s more fun to talk about the things you’ve received. The most notable things I got:
- A reciprocating saw
- A remote control Zamboni (the Canucks are my second team, and my wife couldn’t find the Maple Leafs)
- A bag of lead-free ammo (if you’re going to shoot someone, no sense wrecking the environment while you do it…)
- Several pieces of All-Clad Stainless cookware (the good stuff, for those of us too lazy to clean copper)
- An Amazon.com gift card from a co-blogger who’s more on the ball than I am with this whole holiday shopping thing.
All-in-all, a very good year.
Categories: Holiday |
No Comments
December 26th, 2006
I got a proven pitcher. I guess I need to rescind my anti-Brewers grievance.
Categories: Holiday, MLB/MiLB, Sports |
3 Comments
December 26th, 2006
On Sunday, I prepared an elk roast that my father-in-law had from a hunting trip. It was a big hit, so I figured I’d share the technique (much of it plagiarized shamelessly from Good Eats).
It’s not exactly difficult, but it does require some work, and there are quite a few steps. I’d suggest reading all the way through before trying it, just so you have a feel for what needs to be done. It’s going to sound like a lot more work than it actually is. I’d still rather do this than, say, make a pie from scratch.
You need:
- A roast (which can be any red meat, including elk, but also beef, venison, etc.).
- Aromatic Vegetables (at least celery, onions, and carrots, but I also use green onions, garlic, and shallots)
- Bay leaves (optional)
- Salt (preferably kosher), pepper, and garlic powder
- Flour (for slurry)
- Red wine (1/2 cup to 1 cup)
- Beef stock (2 cups to 1 qt) — the stuff that comes in a cardboard box works great
- Canola or vegetable oil
- A skillet or saute pan large enough for the roast
- A roasting pan large enough for the roast
- A probe thermometer (optional, but exceptionally helpful)
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Categories: Food & Cooking |
1 Comment
December 25th, 2006
I know I’m not the first to observe this, but Christmas isn’t really one holiday. It’s more like two. There’s the religious holiday, which celebrates the purported birth of the savior of mankind, thus enabling the eventual sacrifice to nullify human sin. And then there’s the secular holiday, much of it born of pagan traditions, that involves the winter solstice, trees, lights, the exchange of gifts, and most importantly, gathering with one’s family, friends, and loved ones. Almost from the beginning, these two holidays have been intertwined, with the early Christian church borrowing the date from pagan solstice tradition, and maintaining trappings inherited from Mithraism.
While I have no quarrel with the religious holiday, it should come as no surprise that I strongly prefer the secular one. Because Christmas has become so secularized that I don’t have a problem with the government making it an official holiday (despite my otherwise extremely strict church/state policy). And I argue that it is precisely because it is so secularized that Christmas has become as popular as it is today. It’s by far the most popular holiday, despite the fact that it isn’t even the most important Christian holiday (a distinction which belongs to Easter).
For all my griping about family, the friends and family are by far the most important part of the holiday. I very enjoyed the chance to relax and catch up with family. With people moving around the country, it’s about the only chance I get to do so. It’s worth taking a moment to think about those who, for whatever reason, cannot do so, and offer whatever support you can.
But no matter why you celebrate Christmas, and even for those of you who don’t, I hope the holiday season has been good to you, and that you’ve had an opportunity to reconnect and recharge. And for those who can’t be with family, I hope that reunion can happen soon.
Categories: Holiday |
10 Comments
December 25th, 2006
Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Solstice, Happy Hanukkah and Happy anything else you celebrate that I may have missed. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, whatever you may celebrate.
Categories: Holiday, Xmas Lyric of the Day |
2 Comments
December 24th, 2006
OK - I’ve got one, too.
My favorite Christmas carol is this:
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus
Underneath the mistletoe last night
She didn’t see me creep
Down the stairs to have a peep
She thought that I was tucked up in my bedroom fast asleep
And I saw Mommy tickle Santa Claus
Underneath his beard so snowy white
What a laugh it would have been
If Daddy had only seen
Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night!
This is a great Christmas carol for several reasons. For one, it carries with it the poignant imminence of the kid’s realization that there is no Santa Claus. The singer doesn’t quite get it yet, but you know they’ll figure it out soon enough, and the hook to the song is that the audience clearly realizes what the kid doesn’t yet know. I can’t stress enough the importance to a good Christmas carol of a firm denial of belief in mythical beings with supernatural powers. The added fact that Santa is a quasi-religious character (deriving from “Saint Nicholas”, an historical Catholic figure) embodying certain Christ-like traits makes this one of the rare, and therefore precious, pro-atheist Christmas carols.
On a similar note, it carries with it the distant implication of the kid’s eventual sexual awakening, which is the second-most important element of a good Christmas carol. When the singer finally realizes what was really going on with Mommy and Santa Claus, Christmas is going to take on a whole new meaning.
And finally, there is the true nature of that under-mistletoe action, discernible only to the adult mind. I mean, figure it: if the kid actually saw “Santa Claus” with a “beard so snowy white”, that means that Daddy must have been dressed up as Santa to put presents under the tree while the kid was supposed to be asleep, which means that Daddy wears a Santa costume for reasons that have nothing to do with entertaning children, and further, we surmise from the kid’s description of Mommy’s reaction, that turns Mommy on. Here we have the true meaning of the song, and the essence of its Christmas-carol magnificence: Mommy and Daddy are into Santa Claus dress-up kink! Now that’s the spirit of Christmas!
So, I give you the world’s greatest Christmas carol: free-thinking, realist, kinda sexy, and perverted! Everything I want Christmas to be!
Categories: Culture, General, Holiday, Religion, Xmas Lyric of the Day |
52 Comments
December 24th, 2006
Today’s song is Father Christmas, by the Kinks. It is a nice little class anthem and a good reminder about what is supposed to be important on Christmas. The stanza before the last chorus is one of the most poignant in any Christmas song. And it has a kind of angry energy to it that I really like.
When I was small I believed in Santa Clause
Though I knew it was my dad
And I would hang up my stocking at Christmas
Open my presents and I’d be glad
But the last time I played Father Christmas
I stood outside a department store
A gang of kids came over and mugged me
And knocked my reindeer to the floor
They said:
“Father Christmas, give us some money
Don’t mess around with those silly toys.
We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
We want your bread so don’t make us annoyed
Give all the toys to the little rich boys
“Don’t give my brother a real trashy outfit
Don’t give my sister a cuddly toy
We don’t want a jigsaw or monopoly money
We only want the real McCoy
“Father Christmas, give us some money
We’ll beat you up if you make us annoyed
Father Christmas, give us some money
Don’t mess around with those silly toys
“But give my daddy a job ’cause he needs one
He’s got lots of mouths to feed
But if you’ve got one, I’ll have a machine gun
So I can scare all the kids down the street
“Father Christmas, give us some money
We got no time for your silly toys
We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
Give all the toys to the little rich boys
Have yourself a merry merry Christmas
Have yourself a good time
But remember the kids who got nothin’
While you’re drinkin’ down your wine
“Father Christmas, give us some money
We got no time for your silly toys
We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
We want your bread, so don’t make us annoyed
“Father Christmas, give us some money
We got no time for your silly toys
We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
Give all the toys to the little rich boy
Categories: Holiday, Xmas Lyric of the Day |
3 Comments
December 23rd, 2006
A few more:
- The Pickpocket: For obvious reasons. But the gift card you bought will be useless to you, because the store you bought it from voided it. And smile, because they’ve got you on camera.
- Chicago Toilets: I’m all about conservation and everything, but I doubt it helps to conserve water if people have to flush three or four friggin times before the “job” is done.
- Chicago Transit: Your transit system is weird. It seems like everything (except the bus system) is designed to get people into or out of downtown, but not to get you around within downtown. And why do none of the El trains or subways take you to Union Station or the United Center? (Actually, I think I found a subway that gets within two blocks of Union Station, but it would have been two transfers.) Compared to other major cities like Boston, Toronto, or DC, your train system kind of sucks.
- The Magnificent Mile: When you’ve got a shopping district that’s so loaded with tourists, you’d think more stores would offer to have your purchases either shipped to your home or sent to your hotel. Instead, most of them make you carry huge armfuls of stuff around. (Noteworthy exception: The Walking Company, which shipped our purchases free of charge.)
- The Wirtz Family: You’ve got some great hockey fans in that city. They deserve better than the treatment you give them.
Mind you, I don’t want to sound down on Chicago. I like Chicago. I just had to air these grievances, given the time of year and all…
Categories: Holiday, Humor |
1 Comment
December 23rd, 2006
Home on Christmas Day is a sad, sweet song about wanting to be with the people you love during th holidays. The war on Christmas nonsense has obscured the fact that, in addition to the religious significance of the holiday, Christmas in this country is also a secular celebration of home and peace and family and fellowship. This song, by Cindi Lauper oddly enough, captures that spirit very nicely. I hope everyone reading this gets to be with the ones they love this holiday.
Sitting in some hotel room
Some place far away
Saw a shop light screaming Christmas
Bought your present there today
Pre-Chorus:]
I’ll be home on Christmas day
I am just a thought away
And every Christmas tree
Reminds me where I’d rather be
The drunken Santa on the corner
Looks a little blue
But the twinkle in his eye dear
Looks a little like you
[Chorus:]
I’ll be home on Christmas day
I am just a thought away
And every Christmas tree
Reminds me where I’d rather be
Home on Christmas day
I am just a thought away
But anywhere I’ll be
You will always be Christmas to me
Something about this season
Makes me feel a little queer
Everybody’s so dam jolly
I wish you were here
[Chorus:]
I’ll be home on Christmas day
I am just a thought away
And every Christmas tree
Reminds me where I’d rather be
Home on Christmas day
I am just a thought away
But anywhere I’ll be
You will always be Christmas to me
Categories: Holiday, Xmas Lyric of the Day |
No Comments
December 23rd, 2006
After my earlier incident, we moved on and went to the Leafs/Blackhawks game. A few thoughts:
- Even though the Leafs lost, it was an entertaining game. They lost, but at least they didn’t get their asses kicked. And I was in attendance for Bondra’s 500th. So that’s a consolation prize.
- How many times did Tucker miss an empty net? Three? Four?
- I haven’t watched the game on TV yet, but the homer fans sure seemed to think that the officials were unfairly favoring the Leafs.
- The fans around us were good fans, for both teams. No beer spilled on me (despite the fact that I wore Leafs colors proudly), no nastiness. All good. The ribbing was good-natured.
- My Tie Domi sweater was remarkably well-received. Seems most Blackhawks fans (or, at least, the ones I encountered) were also closet Domi fans.
- Kevin’s constantly whining about how bad the Hawks’ power play is. After seeing it first-hand tonight, I can see why.
- I’ve noticed a big part of what’s wrong with the Leafs: when they get behind, they seem to just panic. All of a sudden, they’re disorganized, they’re sloppy with the puck, etc. Some of that has to be on the coach.
Following the game, we went to Rick Bayless’ Frontera Grill. Thoughts:
- Expensive for Mexican food, cheap for Chicago, if that makes any sense.
- Holy shit, that was good mole. I didn’t even think I liked mole until I tried that!
Categories: General |
2 Comments
December 22nd, 2006
…to be careful. More careful than we were. Here’s the timeline (all times Chicago):
- ~3:30PM: My wife’s wallet was stolen from a downtown restaurant. Whoever got it was pretty good. It had to have been removed from her purse while her purse was in her possession, or hanging on her chair(closed, and underneath her coat).
- ~4:00PM: I started filing the police report while my wife called to cancel credit cards and report them stolen.
- 4:16PM: Thieves make a small “test charge” on one of the cards at a downtown department store, about a mile from where the wallet was taken.
- 4:18PM: Thieves buy a $500 gift card from the same store.
- 4:20PM: While my wife is on the phone with the Visa card provider her, they inform her that the card has just been used at aforementioned department store, but they only have times and amounts; no locations. I’m still on the phone with the police, so I inform them that this is the case.
- 5:00PM: After reconfirming the exact times and amounts of charges, I start calling the nearest locations of the department store.
- 5:40PM: Second location confirms that the card was used at their location at that time, and they have the perpetrator on camera.
The fraudulent charges have been nullfied, fraud alerts have been filed with the credit agencies, and replacement cards are on their way. The biggest cost to us, other than a couple of hours of hassle this afternoon, is the roughly $200 in cash that was in the wallet. And since both of our driver’s licenses were in the wallet (I normally carry my own, but she needed mine to buy a beer for me, thanks to a one-beer-per-ID policy), the flight home ought to be interesting. She will have to attempt to brave the TSA with no photo identification, and I’ve got to get by with a TN concealed carry permit.
Consider this a cautionary tale. From theft of wallet to use of cards in 45 minutes. Be careful with your stuff, and keep an eye on it. It can happen to anybody, including us (obviously), and when it happens, it happens quickly.
If you have tales of theft, what happened afterward, and what hassles you’ve had to endure, feel free to share them here. Meanwhile, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go watch the Maple Leafs lose, just to top off my day… 
Categories: Holiday |
6 Comments
December 22nd, 2006
Hark, The Herald Angels Sing. This is another one of those over the top happy songs that you cannot help but like. And it focuses on the merciful, forgiving aspect of God, which is a nice counterpoint to the “do this or you are damned” rut modern American Christianity seems to have fallen into.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Refrain
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.
Refrain
Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Refrain
Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.
Refrain
Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.
Refrain
Categories: Holiday, Xmas Lyric of the Day |
4 Comments
December 21st, 2006
Digby is asking for contributions. If talent mattered, Digby would have a prime perch atop American punditry. Digby is smart, articulate, and never fails to look at an issue in an illuminating manner. He/she is the best writer in the political blogosphere, and one of the best political writers in the country. Its worth a few bucks once a year, if you can spare them, to keep her/him writing.
Categories: General |
No Comments
December 20th, 2006
It’s everywhere:
A primary school has been accused of spoiling Christmas for pupils after a lesson telling them that Santa Claus does not exist.
Children as young as nine were told that only ’small children believe in Father Christmas’.
And yesterday their parents criticised teachers for taking the ‘magic’ out of the festive period.
Apparently there’s a rash of this all over England - 5th Formers (i.e., 9-year-olds) hearing chance remarks to the effect that Santa Clause isn’t real, and going home in tears.
A governor said: ‘It’s not just Father Christmas that’s the problem. We also have issues with things like the Tooth Fairy.
In response to which I ask: do British 9-year-olds really believe in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy? What wankers!
But, as usual, someone chimed in with a cogent criticism of teaching standards:
When did teachers stop being teachers and decide to be commentators on world subjects and Santa and Tooth Fairys. Maybe that explains why test scores are not as good as they should be. If they spent their time teaching the basic skills and left the rest to parents, and others, perhaps scores would improve. This over stepping the role of a teacher is very troubling.
Yes - this commenting on world subjects and making factual statements about the difference between fantasy and reality: that explains why students’ test scores are down. They know too much. Teachers overstepping their roles by telling students the truth . . . it’s very troubling. (God knows what goes on in the sex-ed classes!)
(Sadly, but not surprisingly, the comment above was from an American reader.)
Categories: Culture, Education, General, Holiday, News & Current Events |
4 Comments
December 20th, 2006
When I first discovered Carl Sagan’s work, I was just a boy. My Dad and I would sit and watch the new series Cosmos on PBS, and we were both enthralled. As a child, I was already fascinated with science and astronomy, and Cosmos only served to fuel that fire. In retrospect, it was highly unusual for us to be watching anything on PBS, so I’m not sure how my Dad found out about this, but I’m glad he did.
In the years that followed, I lost track of Dr. Sagan. My interests shifted toward the now-typical boyhood pursuits of computers and video games, and then toward girls as I got into middle and high school. I had fond memories of Cosmos, but beyond that, my only real knowledge of him was the charicature you’d often see of the way he pronounced “billions.”
I didn’t re-discover Dr. Sagan until 1996, when a good friend of mine recommended that I read The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. By this time, I had already moved from Catholicism to agnosticism to outright atheism, and I was intellectually and emotionally ready for this book. Its influence on my views cannot be overstated, and it remains one of my all-time favorites. To this day, I recommend it to all who will listen. If I were emperor for a day, two of its chapters would be required reading for all high school students: “The Dragon in My Garage,” and “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection.”
I bought the follow-up book, Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium (published posthumously in 1997), in hardcover the day it came out. But life again intruded, and it wasn’t until just barely over a year ago that I finally got around to reading it. As I said at the time, this book was nothing short of prophetic. In particular, his discussion of the topics of terrorism and the environment read as if they were written in 2002 rather than 1996. It makes one wonder how different the world would be if more people had paid attention.
In 2002, Cosmos was re-released on DVD with updated information and graphics. I remembered that my Dad had bought the series on VHS when it first came out, so I thought this would make a great gift idea. At my parents’ Christmas celeberation that year, I gave him the DVD set, and he thanked me, but there was no big reaction as I’d hoped. Perhaps Dr. Sagan’s influence on my Dad wasn’t as lasting as it was on me, I thought. But after our celebration wrapped up, I was preparing to leave, and went downstairs to say goodbye to my Dad. It was about 1:30 or 2:00 AM, and I expected he would be cleaning up after the party, as he usually would do. Instead, he was already starting the first DVD. That spoke volumes, not just about how much he enjoyed the gift, but also about how much he, too, had been influenced by Dr. Sagan.
Carl Sagan died 10 years ago today, on December 20, 1996, after a long battle with myelodysplasia. The world is worse off without him. His influence is sorely missed, in particular his efforts to bring science to the masses and to spark public interest in scientific issues. And while there are many who followed his work much more closely than I did, he still had a profound effect on me and my views, for which I am eternally grateful.
More Sagan rememberances can be found here
Categories: Science |
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