Maggie's Farm

Power, unlike money, is a zero-sum game.

The Barrister

While Jimmy Carter has written himself out of history, his book was an opportunity for Oren to review the long history of American Protestant support for a Jewish nation. One quote:

Generations of Christians in this country, representing a variety of dominations, laymen and clergy alike, have embraced the concept of renewed Jewish sovereignty in Palestine. The passion was already evident in 1620, when William Bradford alighted on Plymouth Rock and exclaimed, "Come, let us declare the word of God in Zion." Bradford was a leader of the Puritans, dissenting Protestants who, in their search for an unsullied religion and the strength to resist state oppression, turned to the Old Testament. There, they found a God who spoke directly to his people, who promised to deliver them from bondage and return them to their ancestral homeland. Appropriating this narrative, the Puritans fashioned themselves as the New Jews and America as their New Promised Land. They gave their children Hebrew names--David, Benjamin, Sarah, Rebecca--and called over 1,000 of their towns after Biblical places, including Bethlehem, Bethel and, of course, New Canaan.

Whole piece at Opinion Journal.

Pastor quoted somebody on Christmas Eve - I forget who - but the gist of it was that many people first experience God by His absence in their lives.

Assistant Village Idiot wrote a suberb, short piece on the Christmas of nostalgia. What does it feel like to base your festivities on your past; to be on the outside, looking in?

It's not the usual kind of "Keep Christ in Christmas" piece. One quote:

We are so aware of how many things pull us away from Christ at Christmas that we have forgotten how dangerous it is for those outside to look in. They sense, as we should know but have forgotten, that to step inside might mean never coming back. If emotional distance does not bring warmth, it at least brings memories of warmth, with no danger of burning.

Read the whole thing.

When you read something like this piece at Driscoll, you have to wonder why Americans - and people from all over the world - are not lining up to emigrate to Cuba.

After all, it's the fun place to live, where everyone is happy, almost nobody has to go to work, and there are no problems.

Oh - I almost forgot. Free medical care and free education too! Nobody needs money!

And no-one needs religious superstitions, because you are already in paradise. So you can sleep in on Sunday morning! That is true freedom!

Fidelito does did it all for you, because of his great love for his people!

After our mention of Burgoo last week, the Bluegrass-born prof at Right Wing Nation was kind enough to furnish us with a recipe. Sounds good, but a bit civilized. I thought that you needed to use whatever you shot in the woods, plus whatever road-kill you found - or nailed with your truck bumper - on the way home.

Well, the Prof reminds me that he did include "varmint," such as the cute critter in photo. I think my ideal Burgoo would include possum, coon, and squirrel, with a pork base. Most of 'em can be shot from one's back porch without hardly gettin' up out of the chair.

Like Bill Quick's blog, I wonder whether the Prof is slowly turning his into a foodie blog. Indeed, there is only so much politics that one can take before you begin to gag on it. After a while, the sheer stupidity of it all just pisses you off. However, as citizens of a free republic, it is a duty to care, even if we would prefer not to.

In the nanny/totalitarian state, anything not forbidden will be mandatory.

Anon.

It's sad to hear of the death of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, at 73.

It was interesting, but not surprising, to see that he has been on tour.

Rough, raw, and a complete showman, it's hard to imagine anyone putting more more of his spirit into a performance.

Definitely not white bread. Everytime I listen to James Brown I feel a little bit like the college guys in Animal House who wandered into the wrong bar.

He recorded "Please, Please, Please" in 1956. Most of my generation knew him first from "Live at the Apollo" - but he did his best stuff later with his funk bands.

Rude, crude, and socially unacceptable? For sure. "Music" that could make a corpse move their body.

Here's Sex Machine at YouTube.

h/t, Flopping Aces

We must begin with Dylan doing our theme song, Maggie's Farm, from the Rolling Thunder Review

Go Tell it on the Mountain by some Gospel choir

Allman Brothers, Blue Sky. How sweet is that?

Bing Crosby, White Christmas

Grateful Dead, Pretty Peggy-O

Emmylou Harris with the Nash Ramblers at the Ryman, Roses in the Snow (with their Nash Rambler intro - remember that one?)

Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited

Keb Mo, Sweet Home Chicago, with Corey Harris.

Another Keb Mo - Angelina. Love this guy. Like him? Here's Every Mornin'

Bob Dylan, Restless Farewell, at the Sinatra Tribute. Wow. Hypnotic.

John Fogerty, Lodi

Dylan, I Threw it all Away, on the Johnny Cash Show, 1969 

Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho, Mahalia Jackson

Dylan, Highlands

Sinatra, My Way

Luke 2:15

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

I urge you to take a few minutes to read Gagdad Bob's latest, which concerns education and religion. A few quotes, to tempt you:

Anyway, like me, Professor Taylor is worried. However, we are worried about opposite things. While I am worried about his influence on students, he is worried that “more American college students seem to be practicing traditional forms of religion today than at any time in my 30 years of teaching,” which he calls “religious correctness” -- thereby confusing the disease with its cure.

He is obviously upset, because these religiously correct students seem immune to the charms of his academically correct vacuities. “Indeed,” he writes, “it seems the more religious students become, the less willing they are to engage in critical reflection about faith.” Translated, this means that these dangerous students are less willing to confuse a prideful ability to doubt anything with the discernment of truth.

and

Taylor then says that “In the most egregious cases, defenders of the faith insist that only true believers are qualified to teach their religious tradition.” To which one can only reply, “well duh.” Any religion, in order to be understood, must be understood “from the inside,” because that is precisely the sort of knowledge embodied in religion: interior knowledge. Religions are not about the horizontal, objective, or quantitative world, and to treat them as such is to misunderstand them, precisely. They are specifically roadmaps of the cosmic interior, and only someone who knows the territory on a first hand basis is qualified to teach about it.

It is absolutely no different with, say, psychoanalysis, which cannot be understood objectively, but only subjectively. Its truths must be experienced, or they are no truth at all, just empty “k.” It is no coincidence that the most egregious misunderstandings and misapplications of psychoanalysis have always come from academia, because intellectuals naturally believe it is something that can be greedily understood just like any other merely intellectual system.

The purpose of an elite university education is no longer to become educated -- to acquire a well-furnished mind and familiarize oneself with the best things that have been thought and said -- but to become stupid by elevating a means to an end. Thus, upon contact with his luckless students, Professor Taylor tells them “that if they are not more confused and uncertain at the end of the course than they were at the beginning, I will have failed.” In short, the goal of education is to make students as lost and confused as Professor Taylor, through the deification of man’s capacity to doubt anything.

Enough? Bob always leaves me thinking. Read the whole thing. America's first colleges: King's College (Columbia now), Harvard, Yale, the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) - were all begun as places to mainly educate clergy, and/or religiously-interested lay people. Have they simply been co-opted by a new religion? Are colleges still doctrinal seminaries, with new doctrines?

Three things heard on the radio today, about money:

1. "Today, a 'millionaire' is someone who makes a million dollars a year."

2. "Pay off all of your holiday bills with a Quicken home loan!" Great idea, Quicken. Hey, honey: those nice folks at Quicken want to pay our bills! Gee, thanks for the generous offer!

3. "People who say Christmas is all about the baby Jesus are just trying to rationalize being cheapskates." Hmmmm. Ummmm. Nevermind.

Readers will be happy to know that my venison mince-meat has now been properly aged and is ready to go into the pie and tart shells. What a fine smell. Lots of cranberries, and brandy this time. One pie for the pal who bowed the doe in his back yard. (We have no limit on does.)

Santa. Coke claims that they essentially invented our image of the jolly old elf. Snopes begs to differ. (thanks, reader Chuck.)

Burgoo. Ever had it? Good stuff. Right Wing Nation needs to offer a recipe. I've had it a few times. Possum, squirrel, coon, snake, whatever. And vegetables. But road-kill menu items are disappearing. Maybe the Kentucky State Troopers are picking up all the good stuff.

Godwin's Law, and illegal immigration. Ace

Al Quaida: Kill a Christian on Christmas. Jawa. The religion of peace and tolerance.

If you can understand Columbia's Lee Bollinger, you are smarter than me. What a mealy-mouthed, double-talking schmuck. Power Line. Where do universities find such lame sitzpinklers? I guess the boards want limp guys they can control.

NYC is in its prime, but these stats are not cheering. This is your future, America. From Moonbattery:

According to New York City's latest release of vital statistics, there were 88,891 reported abortions in the city in 2005. When babies were allowed to live, Medicaid paid for 52% of the births. An appalling 44% of women giving birth weren't married.

Rape charges dropped. Now she's a "28 year-old student at North Carolina Central University." Funny, I thought she was a 28 year-old prostitute and stripper. How does a newspaper decide what to call people? By the way, I am a 37 year-old lion tamer.

Best hunting photo ever. Here

Europe's largest dinosaur found in Spain.

It's Global Orgasm Day. Do it for Gaia. Marg. Rev. Let's all make Love and Peace global: Together, we can do it! (Or alone, as the case may be.) "Hey there, cutie. Let's do Global Orgasm Day for peace together....ouch, hey - that really hurt. Hey - that wasn't peaceful at all!"

An Honest Confession of an American Coward. Pat Conroy. From his new book. A good read. Truth is good stuff. Rare.

Further thoughts about big govt. conservatism, at Ankle Biting

Give 'em an inch...Getting tougher at Gitmo. Big Lizards

Christians unwelcome in Bethlehem.

From the Hagerstown Herald-Mail:

During the 2005-06 school year, 28 kindergarten students in Maryland were suspended for sex offenses, including sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexual activity, according to state data. Fifteen of those suspensions were for sexual harassment.

The precocity of these Maryland kids is remarkable, is it not? Or would it be better understood as a mass outbreak of a pedophilia epidemic, requiring governmental intervention? (h/t, The Moderate Voice)

This is a stupid time-waster. Get Santa drunk.

You must use your arrow keys - and don't let Santa touch the train tracks. Turn on the sound for best effect.