I’m sorry, I just can’t force myself to repeat any of the dismal and unedifying news that’s out there today. Lotsa people gettin’ killed… while the Big Schlemozzle goes out and plays golf.
So instead here are some cats and kittens who could stand to learn better manners… but then they wouldn’t be as funny. Note the tiny kittens growling threateningly at the enormous human beings.
I never had one of these little guys. All my lizards were daytime lizards, so they fell asleep at night. This gecko is probably up past his bedtime.
I once was present when a leopard gecko hatched out of his egg… and greeted the world with a surprisingly loud and indignant “peep-peep-paa!”
None of my lizards ever did that.
Isaac Watts composed the words for this in 1719, and Georg F. Handel the music in 1836–so Joy to the World has been proclaiming the joy of Christmas for a good long time, and will continue for a good long time to come.
Requested by Laura–and I wish I could’ve discovered the name of the choir performing this, so I could give them credit.
Hi, King Wenceslas here, filling in for Lee on his blog. Okay, I wasn’t really a king, I was a duke of Bohemia over a thousand years ago and was promoted to king posthumously. I was also promoted to saint. Well, I hardly know what to say about that. I did my best, just like the rest of you: and if a lot of people liked it, and My Lord was pleased, then I’m gratified.
Anyway, I’m here to invite you to send in your hymn requests so we can post them here–especially if you haven’t done it before. I agree with the Leester: this deepens our fellowship. We can’t sing together in cyberspace, but we can all listen together. And that’s a good thing–not just for Christmas-time, but for all the year round.
So I’ve said my piece, and have but to add that I’ve enjoyed the way the Irish Rovers have sung this song about me–even if it is just a little embarrassing to hear a song about oneself. But it’s really about Christmas, and the Christmas spirit, so that makes it worth hearing.
It’s been over 70 years since Germans lived under a dictator; but they don’t seem to have lost their knack for it.
See, it’s just not possible that the German people might be just a tad disenchanted with Kaiser Angela Merkel’s totally insane policy of flooding the country with Muslim “asylum seekers” who then proceed to raise cain everywhere. Nope, they can’t possibly not like that. No, says Angie: it’s just “the public being manipulated by fake news and propaganda.” ( http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/german-lawmakers-want-ban-fake-news-1596488 )
And you know, you just know, a certain lame-duck president is banging his head against the wall for not thinking of doing up an executive order banning “fake news”–six months before the election, say.
What is “fake news”? It’s whatever The Government says it is. Angie’s CDU Party is pushing legislation right now to outlaw “fake news” on the social media. She has an election coming soon, and she doesn’t want the voters to read unflattering things about her.
So far all the fuhrer–er, furor!–has been about “fake news on the social media.” Like you never see fake news on the big fat “mainstream” nooze media? What, never? Twelve-minute break for belly laughs.
And what if a conscientious journalist–hey, stop laughing!–in spite of his best efforts, gets a story wrong? Is it fake news? And if exactly the same story is published by Alex Jones on Infowars, and on the front page of The New York Times, why is it fake on Infowars and legit on the Times?
The beauty of authoritarian government is, you just don’t have to bother with a lot of pesky questions. You just go ahead and do it, whatever it is. You want to bring in a million more Muslims, all of them lawless men of military age, just just do it. And if it kills your country, so what? You’re much more interested in a one-world government, anyhow.
But first you have to control the flow of information.
If you can control what people know, you can control what people think.
From the land of Good King Wenceslas–who wasn’t actually a king, but certainly a saint–comes this traditional Czech carol, Come, All Ye Shepherds. Performed by the Canto Deo Festival Choir. Suggested by Erlene.
Why do I ask you to request hymns? Folks, it’s not because I can’t think of any. No–I like you to request hymns because I think it deepens our fellowship. We can’t sing together, but we can certainly listen together. Besides, this way, each of us gets to hear a lot of wonderful hymns we haven’t heard before–or lovingly revisit old favorites.
So, come on! In a few more days it’ll be Christmas. Let’s rally ’round it!
One of the joys of staying home from school sick–well, not really all that sick–on a cold, rainy winter’s day was my very own Gilbert Erector Set, complete with electric motor. That’s the blue thing with the black band around it, directly over the little metal pump-house. At least I always thought of it as a pump-house, without exactly knowing what a pump-house was.
Ah! Take this into bed, open the metal box, and get busy building things! All kinds of things: whatever you could imagine. But this was an old-fashioned set, so you had a lot of screws and nuts and had to use a screwdriver and a wrench. And the pieces, instead of being shaped for you, were metal plates and girders in assorted sizes–plus wheels and gears, as needed. The motor was for making things turn, which it did quite handily. The pump-house had no obvious purpose, but no way would I have ever parted with it.
And it was amazing how the time went by, as you put together towers and improbable flying machines, enclosures for your plastic dinosaurs, and more. Before you knew it, it was suppertime.
Of course, you had to have an imagination, to do this. True, the set came with an instruction book for making this or that; but it was more fun to invent things that weren’t in the book. The best part was this: until you actually finished putting something together, it never looked like anything. Just a bunch of girders, big and little wheels, and screws and nuts. It all came out of your imagination, by way of your hands.
Erector sets still exist, for those who want them. You can still get old sets like mine on eBay, if you want them. I comfort myself with the thought that they wouldn’t be selling them unless someone were buying them.
Maybe cats have been around humans too long. They seem to have picked up some bad habits–stealing money, for instance. Out of your pocketbook, your jeans, your penny jar, your desk drawer: no place is safe!
Happily, they have not yet figured out that these capers are most successful when they are done off-camera.
Another carol I’d never heard before, All Glory Be to God on High–arranged by Neal Ramsay, using authentic musical instruments from the Middle Ages (you know I have a soft spot for medieval music).
Suggested by Erlene, and I hope this is the one she had in mind. I do like the spirit of this piece!
Allow me to share with you a selection from one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, I Corinthians 1.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?…
But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence.. (verses 18-29)
God looked down on this world, the tyrants and their mighty armies, the cruelty, the slavery, the sin that lurks within the heart of every human being–and He sent a baby in a manger to deal with it.
Who knows less, and is more foolish, than a newborn baby? Who is weaker than a baby? Who less likely to overcome the Roman Empire? Who less likely to fulfill thousands of years’ worth of prophecies?
Satan bet everything he had: empires, armies, cruel tyrants, the wise men of the world, the cleverest lawyers, the infinite amount of money, false beliefs, delusions, lies, and the whole bright show of power. Bet it all. And God said, “I’ll see all that, and raise you a baby in a manger.” And Satan laughed at first, laughed himself crazy.
But he isn’t laughing now.
And Satan is busted, broke, defeated, done for. He just hasn’t admitted it yet.