Massacre at Wounded Knee

On the morning of December 29, 1890, the Sioux chief Big Foot and some 350 of his followers camped on the banks of Wounded Knee creek. Surrounding their camp was a force of U.S. troops charged with the responsibility of arresting Big Foot and disarming his warriors. The scene was tense. Trouble had been brewing for months.

The hope of the Ghost Dance

The once proud Sioux found their free-roaming life destroyed, the buffalo gone, themselves confined to reservations dependent on Indian Agents for their existence. In a desperate attempt to return to the days of their glory, many sought salvation in a new mysticism preached by a Paiute shaman called Wovoka. Emissaries from the Sioux in South Dakota traveled to Nevada to hear his words. Wovoka called himself the Messiah and prophesied that the dead would soon join the living in a world in which the Indians could live in the old way surrounded by plentiful game. A tidal wave of new soil would cover the earth, bury the whites, and restore the prairie. To hasten the event, the Indians were to dance the Ghost Dance. Many dancers wore brightly colored shirts emblazoned with images of eagles and buffaloes. These "Ghost Shirts" they believed would protect them from the bluecoats' bullets. During the fall of 1890, the Ghost Dance spread through the Sioux villages of the Dakota reservations, revitalizing the Indians and bringing fear to the whites. A desperate Indian Agent at Pine Ridge wired his superiors in Washington, "Indians are dancing in the snow and are wild and crazy....We need protection and we need it now. The leaders should be arrested and confined at some military post until the matter is quieted, and this should be done now." The order went out to arrest Chief Sitting Bull at the Standing Rock Reservation. Sitting Bull was killed in the attempt on December 15. Chief Big Foot was next on the list.
When he heard of Sitting Bull's death, Big Foot led his people south to seek protection at the Pine Ridge Reservation. The army intercepted the band on December 28 and brought them to the edge of the Wounded Knee to camp. The next morning the chief, racked with pneumonia and dying, sat among his warriors and powwowed with the army officers. Suddenly the sound of a shot pierced the early morning gloom. Within seconds the charged atmosphere erupted as Indian braves scurried to retrieve their discarded rifles and troopers fired volley after volley into the Sioux camp. From the heights above, the army's Hotchkiss guns raked the Indian teepees with grapeshot. Clouds of gun smoke filled the air as men, women and children scrambled for their lives. Many ran for a ravine next to the camp only to be cut down in a withering cross fire.
When the smoke cleared and the shooting stopped, approximately 300 Sioux were dead, Big Foot among them. Twenty-five soldiers lost their lives. As the remaining troopers began the grim task of removing the dead, a blizzard swept in from the North. A few days later they returned to complete the job. Scattered fighting continued, but the massacre at Wounded Knee effectively squelched the Ghost Dance movement and ended the Indian Wars.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/knee.htm

How to Change Guitar Strings: Nylon and Steel

The Hardest Gift to Give

When purchasing Christmas gifts this year save the Who Hoovers, Gar Ginkers, Zing Tinglers and Zu Zitter Carzay for the Grinch on your list. Or better yet – save yourself the money… no one needs them.

What if, instead, you got an idea – a wonderful, yet awful idea? What if you gave something wonderfully exquisite, something never to be forgotten, timeless and treasured, but in contrast, so terrifying to offer that the thought of it seems incredibly awful and virtually impossible to give?

There will, no doubt, be people on your Christmas list who you love and adore and for whom you will gladly hustle, bustle and scramble to find the perfect present. At Christmas, we want more than anything to offer a tangible expression to convey our gratitude, devotion and allegiance for the individuals who have enriched our life and walked in when everyone else was walking out.

Although there will be obligatory, love-driven, gag, pay back and sympathy gifts handed out by millions this year, there is one of a different sort that will be in short supply because it is the most difficult to turn loose. Although it doesn’t come in a box covered by sleigh red wrapping, it is the greatest, most significant present a person could ever offer… it is forgiveness.

One of the ironies about this gift is that it is has dual benefits, the kind that ends up being a present to both the giver and the taker. It also carries the rare quality of being an everlasting gift; its shelf life is without expiration.

Forgiveness is usually dispensed only to people we think deserve it, have shown remorse, accepted responsibility and verbally apologized. The problem with these requirements is that while we wait for the offender to take action we poison ourselves with bitterness and anger. The pulse of true forgiveness is giving grace to those who least deserve it and without regard to their performance. Few things could be more meaningful during the holiday season than the mending of fractured relationships.

Self-forgiveness is also virtuous. Personal failures and shortcomings as a mother, father, son, daughter or spouse can plague and cripple one with regret. Wishing we could have a do over, go back in time or change past actions doesn’t remedy history or bring healing to the loved ones we injured… or ourselves. Self-condemnation and self-bullying is what many turn to as an antidote. However, it’s only a mirage: a cloud without rain, a tree without shade, and counterfeit currency whose promise offers no real comfort or healing payment. Make peace with God, self and those you offended then move on with the determination to learn from mistakes.

I am close to someone who gave me this most incredible gift. I betrayed, denied, lied, cheated, rejected and abused his every attempt to reach out, befriend and rescue me. If anybody ever had the right to hate and withhold forgiveness toward me, it was he. He did just the opposite and became a friend closer than the brother I never had and bestowed on me this most extraordinary gift. It came without ribbons… it came without tags… it came without packages, boxes or bags. His second chance ways became the catalyst to a life change that brought me restoration and hope.

And what happened, then? Well in Whoville, they might say that my heart grew several sizes that day, and the true meaning of Christmas came through. The good news is if you will give and take forgiveness, the same can come to you.

Jay Lowder is a full-time evangelist and founder of Jay Lowder Harvest Ministries and author of “Midnight in Aisle 7: Sometimes God Introduces Himself Outside the Church Walls.” Follow him on Twitter at @jaylowder or @jlhministries.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/12/25/hardest-gift-to-give-at-christmas.html?intcmp=hphz01

Silent Night - The story of this Christmas Carol

There have been many stories of the origins of the Christmas carol “Silent Night, Holy Night.” In fact, the carol goes back further than when Christmas cards began. One of the most popularly told one is as follows:

In the winter of 1818 at St. Nicholas’ Church at Obendorf, a village near Salzburg, Austria, Joseph Mohr, the assistant to the priest, faced a dilemma. It was just days before Christmas, and the church organ which was so important to providing music for the Christmas services was broken. Since the organ repairman was not a local of the village it would actually be months before the repair could be made, and Christmas would be long past.

His solution to the problem of the broken organ resulted in one of the most popular Christmas carols of all time. In 1816 Mohr had written a simple poem that the villagers could understand expressing the wonder of the birth of Jesus. He asked his friend Franz Gruber who was the organist at St. Nicholas to write music to accompany his poem so that they could sing it together using a guitar to accompany their singing.

They first performed their newly composed Christmas carol at the Christmas Eve midnight service on December 24, 1818. It did not instantly receive the worldwide recognition it has come to know, however. It was not until years later in 1825 when Carl Mauracher was rebuilding the organ at St. Nicholas that a handwritten copy of the words and music was found in the organ loft.

Mauracher was from an area in the mountains of Tyrol which had many traveling folk choirs who performed throughout Europe. He carried the carol back home, and it became a popular song with the choirs as they traveled and spread its popularity wherever they went.

In some versions of the story it is told that mice had eaten the bellows of the organ. Others say that Gruber himself had broken the organ. It is believed that there was frequent flooding of the area that caused rust and mildew to affect the condition of the church organ often making it unplayable. It is actually not known however if the organ was truly broken at Christmastime of 1818. Some say that Mohr simply wanted a new carol for the service and was fond of the guitar as an instrument. Some stories tell that both the poem and the music were hastily written that Christmas Eve. A manuscript for “Silent Night” in Mohr’s hand was discovered in 1995 which is dated 1816. In the manuscript Mohr credits the melody used for the carol to Franz Gruber.

Whatever the details of the circumstances, Joseph Mohr’s and Franz Gruber’s contribution of Christmas music for their village’s Christmas Eve midnight mass gave us all the beautiful “Silent Night, Holy Night."

From: http://www.noelnoelnoel.com/trad/silent.html

PI-Interview von Mr. Merkava mit Caroline Glick (JP)

The Islam Terror Truthers

Each and every act of Muslim terrorism is followed by a wave of denial.  The politicians who have done the most to cause the latest disaster are the eagerest to blame it on something, anything else.

The San Bernardino Muslim massacre was blamed on postpartum depression at CNN. Bill Nye blamed the latest Paris attacks on Global Warming. According to Hillary Clinton, Benghazi was a movie review with artillery. Islamic terrorism was blamed by the State Department on a lack of jobs, but Syed Farook had a good government job and his wife was the daughter of a wealthy family.

After rummaging through their big brass chest of excuses, Obama and his media allies have settled on gun control as their latest weapon of mass distraction.

California has the toughest gun laws in the nation. Unlike Ted Kennedy, the terrorists weren’t on the no-fly list that has become the latest desperate meme of mass distraction. And, despite Obama’s claim in Paris that mass shootings don’t happen in other countries because of gun control magic, they most certainly do. European gun control didn’t stop a Muslim mass shooting in Paris that killed 130 people.

Syed Farook and Tasheen Malik had built pipe bombs. The latest attack in the UK involved a knife. So did quite a few in Jerusalem. The Boston Marathon massacre used fireworks and a pressure cooker.

The Muslim mass murder of 3,000 people on 9/11 was carried out with box cutters.

If only we had some way to ban terrorists from buying pressure cookers, knives and box cutters.

Gun control is a distraction. A way to make something other than Islam into the problem that needs solving. If we banned guns, then the problem would be foreign policy. If we spent all our time working to aid Islamist political takeovers, then it would the weather. Obama has tried to aid Islamists and lower sea levels, so he has been reduced to blaming the inanimate objects of the latest terror attack.

Gun control, foreign policy and global warming are denialist gimmicks that reframe the problem.

Read more:
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-islam-terror-truthers.html

Communion Every Sunday: Surprise, Surprise

The reasons for Communion every Sunday are surprising. The reasons Lutheran churches fell away from this practice also are surprising.

Pr Klemet Preus, the author of the article republished below, was surprised about the reasons for and against. After visiting a congregation that had written into its constitution that Communion would be given at each Sunday service and hearing its pastor, John T. Pless, speaking definitely in favor of it, he was prompted to study.



He found reasons for frequent Communion in the:

•  Gospel
•  Bible
•  early Church
•  Church before the Reformation
•  Lutheran Reformation

But suddenly, in the 19th Century, things changed. Many Lutheran churches offered Communion only monthly, and some only four times a year. Why? What happened? Oh, of course ….
More recently, every Sunday Communion has been making a comeback, and that is a good thing. Still, there are some practical concerns.

All of this and more are revealed in the following article, “Communion Every Sunday, Why?” written by Pr Klemet Preus, Epiphany, 2001:

http://steadfastlutherans.org/2015/01/communion-every-sunday-surprise-surprise/

NDSU rolls to fifth straight FCS title game

(STATS) - North Dakota State's "Drive for Five" took the cruising lane on the Road to Frisco.

The four-time defending FCS champion Bison are headed back to another national title game after crushing Richmond 33-7 in Friday night's semifinal at the Fargodome.

The third-seeded Bison (12-2), who have won 19 straight postseason games while building their dynasty, will face No. 1 seed Jacksonville State (13-1) - which rolled over Sam Houston State 62-10 in Saturday's other semifinal - in the championship game Jan. 9 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

Already the only program to win four consecutive FCS titles, the Missouri Valley Football Conference power is now the first to appear in five straight championship games, surpassing the Eastern Kentucky squads of 1979-82 (titles in '79 and '82) and Youngstown State squads of 1991-94 (titles in '91, '93 and '94).

"That's the best team I've seen in some time, maybe in my 10 years of coaching FCS football," Richmond coach Danny Rocco said.

North Dakota State's eighth straight win came easily against seventh-seeded Richmond (10-4) from CAA Football. Redshirt freshman quarterback Easton Stick threw for two touchdowns and redshirt junior running back King Frazier rushed for 121 yards and two touchdowns in the first meeting between the programs.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/north-dakota-state-rolls-back-fcs-title-game-041041456--ncaaf.htm

Vesti la Giubba - Enrico Caruso

Caruso was the first gramophone star to sell more than a million copies with his 1907 recording of 'Vesti la giubba' from the opera 'Pagliacci' by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

Here are Caruso's recordings from 30th of November 1902, 1st of February 1904 and 17th of March 1907.

Vesti la giubba is regarded as one of the most moving arias in the operatic repertoire. The pain of Canio (Caruso) is portrayed in the aria and exemplifies the entire notion of the 'tragic clown': smiling on the outside but crying on the inside. This is still displayed today as the clown motif often features the painted on tear running down the cheek of the performer.

The opera recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband.

More Caruso info on my non-profit website http://www.enricocaruso.dk (English).

Text of the aria in Italian:

Recitar! Mentre preso dal delirio!
Non so più quel che dico
e quel che faccio!
Eppur è d'uopo sforzati!
Bah! Sei tu forse un uom?
Tu sei Pagliaccio!

Vesti la giubba
Ela faccia infarina.
La gente paga e rider vuole qua.
E se Arlecchin t'invola Colombina,
ridi, Pagliaccio, e ognun applaudirà!
Tramuta in lazzi
lo spasmo ed il pianto;
in una smorfia il singhiozzo
e'l dolor! Ah!
Ridi, Pagliaccio,
sul tuo amore infranto.
Ridi del duol che t'avvelena il cor.

English translation:

To act, with my heart saddened with sorrow.
I know not what I'm saying or what I'm doing.
Yet I must face it.
Courage, my heart!
You are not a man;
you're but a jester!

On with the motley,
the paint and the powder.
The people pay you and want their laugh,
you know.
If Harlequin your Columbine has stolen,
laugh, Punchinello! The world will cry 'Bravo!'
Go hide with laughter
your tears and your sorrow,
sing and be merry, playing your part.
Laugh, Punchinello,
for the love that is ended.
Laugh for the sorrow
that is eating your heart.

Siciliana O Lola - Cavalleria Rusticana - Enrico Caruso

RUSTIC CHIVALRY Melodrama in one act Libretto Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci after the play by Giovanni Verga Premiere 17 May 1890, Rome (Teatro Costanzi) Cast SANTUZZA (Soprano or Mezzo soprano) LOLA (Mezzo soprano) MAMMA LUCIA (Contralto) TURIDDU (Tenor) ALFIO (Baritone) CHORUS villagers Place a village in Sicily Time late 19th century, Easter Sunday PRELUDE Siciliana TURIDDU behind the curtainO Lola, white and red as the cherry In your nightdress white as milk, When you appear at the window you smile; Happy he who gave you your first kiss! The mark of blood is over your door, But I care not if I am killed; If through you I die and go to Paradise, It will not be Paradise for me unless you are there. Ah! ONE AND ONLY ACT A square in the village. In the background right, a church with a door. On the left, the inn and Mother Lucia's house. At first the stage is empty. Dawn is breaking. Introductory ChorusChorus CHORUS from withinAh! WOMEN from withinThe orange trees in the green groves Scent the air, The larks sing Through the flowering myrtles; Now is the time For everyone to murmur The tender song Which quickens the heart. The women enter. MEN from withinAcross the fields Amid the golden corn The sound of your shuttles Reaches us In our fatigue, Lightening our labour. We think of you, Sweet rays of sunshine. We hasten to you As a bird flies To his mate's call. The men enter. WOMEN Now cease Your rustic tasks; The blessed Virgin is gladdened By the Saviour; Now is the time For everyone to murmur The tender song Which quickens the heart. MEN Across the fields, etc. WOMEN The orange trees in the green groves, etc. The chorus crosses the stage and goes out. SceneSantuzza and Lucia SANTUZZA enteringTell me, mother Lucia. LUCIA surprisedYou? What do you want? SANTUZZA Where is Turiddu? LUCIA Have you come here To look for my son? SANTUZZA I beg you to forgive me. I only want to know where I can find him. LUCIA I do not know, Don't bother me! SANTUZZA Mother Lucia, in tears I implore you, Be merciful as Our Lord was to Magdalene And tell me where Turiddu is … LUCIA He went to Francofonte For the wine. SANTUZZA No! He was seen In the village late last night. LUCIA What are you saying? He's not returned home! turning towards the door of her houseCome in! SANTUZZA desperatelyI cannot enter your house! I have been damned! LUCIA What then do you know Of my son? SANTUZZA What a thorn I have in my heart! Scene with Alfio and ChorusAlfio, Chorus and the above ALFIO The horses' hooves thunder, The harness bells jingle, The whip cracks. Get along! Let the wind blow cold, Rain or snow fall, What care I? CHORUS O a carter's life Is a fine life, Going from place to place! ALFIO The whip cracks! At home, awaiting me, Is Lola, who loves me and comforts me And is ever true. The horses' hooves thunder, The harness bells jingle, It's Easter, and here I am! CHORUS O a carter's life, etc. ALFIO Get along! The whip cracks! Here I am! O a carter's life, etc.It's Easter, and here I am! Scene and Prayer LUCIA You are lucky, friend Alfio, To be always so gay! ALFIO Mother Lucia, Do you still have some Of that vintage wine? LUCIA I know I haven't: Turiddu has gone To get some. ALFIO But he's still here! I saw him this morning Near my house. LUCIA surprisedWhat? SANTUZZA quickly to LuciaHush! From the church is heard the Alleluja. ALFIO I'm going; You women go to church. exit CHORUS inside the churchRegina coeli laetare. Alleluja! Quia quem meruisti portare. Alleluja! Resurrexit sicut dixit. Alleluja! SANTUZZA, LUCIA and CHORUS in the squareLet us rejoice That Our Lord is not dead, And in glory Has opened the tomb! Let us rejoice That Our Lord is risen again And today is gone up Into the glory of Heaven! CHORUS inside the churchAlleluja! All enter the church except Santuzza and Lucia. Romance and SceneLucia and Santuzza LUCIA Why did you signal me To be silent? SANTUZZA O mother, you know That before he went for a soldier Turiddu had sworn Eternal faith to Lola. On his return, he found her married, And sought with a new love To quell the flame Which burned in his heart: He loved me, I loved him. But she, envious of my only delight And forgetful of her husband, Burned with jealousy ... She stole him from me ... And I am left disgraced; Lola and Turiddu are lovers, And I am left to weep. LUCIA Lord have mercy! What is this you've come to tell me On this holy day? SANTUZZA I am condemned! O mother, go And pray to God And pray for me too! When Turiddu comes, I will plead with him Once again. LUCIA going towards the churchHoly Mary, Have mercy upon her! exit SceneSantuzza and Turiddu TURIDDU enteringYou here, Santuzza? SANTUZZA I was waiting here for you. TURIDDU It is Easter; Aren't you going to church? SANTUZZA I cannot. I must speak to you ... TURIDDU I was looking for my mother. SANTUZZA I must speak to you … TURIDDU Not here! not here! SANTUZZA Where have you been? TURIDDU What do you mean? At Francofonte! SANTUZZA No, it's not true! TURIDDU Santuzza, believe me ... SANTUZZA No, do not lie; I saw you returning Down the road ... And this morning at dawn You were seen Near Lola's door. TURIDDU Ha! You were spying on me! SANTUZZA No, I swear it. Alfio, her husband, Was telling us Just now. TURIDDU Is this the way you return The love I bear you? Do you want me killed? SANTUZZA Oh, do not say such things … TURIDDU Leave me then, leave me; In vain you try, With your pleas for pity, To lessen my scorn. SANTUZZA Then you love her? TURIDDU No. SANTUZZA Lola is Far more lovely. TURIDDU Be quiet, I do not love her. SANTUZZA You do love her ... A curse upon her! TURIDDU Santuzza! SANTUZZA That wicked woman Stole you from me! TURIDDU Take care, Santuzza, I am not the slave Of this mad Jealousy of yours! SANTUZZA Beat me, insult me, I love you and forgive you; But my anguish Is too much to bear. Lola's RefrainLola and the above LOLA off‑stageO flower of the iris, The angels in their beauty Stand a thousandfold in Heaven, But only one there is As handsome as he. Ah! enteringO flower of the iris … Oh! Turiddu … has Alfio been here? TURIDDU I've just come into the square. I do not know … LOLA Perhaps he was kept At the blacksmith's, But he can't be long. ironicallyAnd you ... are you listening To the service from the square? TURIDDU Santuzza was telling me ... SANTUZZA darklyI was saying that today is Easter, And the Lord sees everything! LOLA Aren't you coming to Mass? SANTUZZA Not I: only they can go Who know they are free from sin. LOLA I thank the Lord And kiss the ground. SANTUZZA ironicallyOh, you're so good, Lola! TURIDDU to LolaCome, let us leave her! Why do we stay here? LOLA ironicallyDo stay here! SANTUZZA to TuridduYes, stay, oh stay, I've more to tell you! LOLA The Lord be with you: I'm going. goes into the church DuetSantuzza and Turiddu TURIDDU angrilyAh, you see? What have you said ... ? SANTUZZA You wished it: then so be it. TURIDDU rushing forwardAh! by Heaven! SANTUZZA Tear me to pieces! TURIDDU turning awayNo! SANTUZZA holding him backTuriddu, listen! TURIDDU Go away! SANTUZZA No, no, Turiddu, Stay with me awhile. Why do you seek To fly from me? TURIDDU Why do you follow me And spy on me Without respite To the very doors of the church? SANTUZZA Your own Santuzza Weeps and pleads with you; How could you Drive her away like this? TURIDDU Go, I say, Do not plague me; Vain is your repentance After what you have done. SANTUZZA threateninglyTake care! TURIDDU I do not heed your anger. He throws her to the ground and flees into the church. SANTUZZA in a furyMay your Easter be cursed, you traitor! She falls, overcome with anguish.Alfio, entering, encounters Santuzza. DuetSantuzza and AIfio SANTUZZA Oh! The Lord has sent you, Good Alfio. ALFIO How far on is the Mass? SANTUZZA It's nearly over … but listen! Lola has gone with Turiddu! ALFIO in surpriseWhat are you saying? SANTUZZA That while you go driving In rain and wind To earn your living, Lola is adorning your head In an ugly way! ALFIO What! In Heaven's name, Santa, what are you saying? SANTUZZA The truth. Turiddu Stole my honour, And your wife Has stolen him from me! ALFIO If you're lying, I'll tear your heart out! SANTUZZA My lips are not in the habit Of uttering lies! It was the bitter truth I told you, alas, In my shame And my sorrow. ALFIO Santuzza, Then I am grateful to you. SANTUZZA I am vile To have told you this. ALFIO It is they who are vile: I will not forgive them; I will have vengeance Before the sun goes down. I will have blood, My rage shall know no bounds, And all my love Shall end in hate. exeunt Symphonic IntermezzoThe people come out of church. Lucia crosses the stage and goes into her house. Scene, Chorus and ToastsLola, Turiddu and Chorus MEN Let us go homewards, Friends, to where Our womenfolk await us! Let us hasten Without delay Now that gladness Has soothed our hearts. WOMEN Let us go homewards, Friends, to where Our husbands await us! Let us hasten Without delay Now that gladness Has soothed our hearts. The chorus goes off. TURIDDU to Lola as she goesMistress Lola, Are you going Without a word of greeting? LOLA I must go home: I have not seen Alfio! TURIDDU Don't give it a thought; He'll be coming to the square. to the chorusMeanwhile, friends, Come, let's drink together! All come to the inn table and take wine‑cups.Hurrah for the sparkling wine Bubbling in the glass, Bringing happiness Like a lover's smile! Hurrah for friendly wine That livens every thought And banishes melancholy In cheerful drinking! CHORUS Hurrah! TURIDDU to LolaTo your love! He drinks. LOLA to TuridduTo your good fortune! She drinks. TURIDDU Drink up! CHORUS, TURIDDU and LOLA Hurrah! Drink up! Continue the tournament! CHORUS Hurrah for the sparkling wine, etc. enter Alfio FinaleAlfio and the above ALFIO Greetings to you all! CHORUS Greetings, friend Alfio! TURIDDU Welcome! You must drink with us: fills a glassHere, I've filled you a glass. ALFIO rejecting itThank you, but I cannot Accept your wine. It would turn to poison Inside me. TURIDDU throwing the wine awayAs you please! LOLA Alas! how will this end? SOME WOMEN to LolaMistress Lola, This is no place for us. All the women go out, taking Lola with them. TURIDDU Have you anything else to say to me? ALFIO I? Nothing! TURIDDU Then I'm at your service. ALFIO Right away? TURIDDU Right away! Alfio and Turiddu embrace: Turiddu bites Alfio's right ear in challenge. ALFIO Friend Turiddu, You bit my ear. meaninglyI am sure We understand each other! TURIDDU Friend Alfio, I know that I have wronged you; And I swear to you By Heaven above That I would cut my throat Like a dog Save that …if I do not live, Poor Santa Will be left deserted … She who gave herself to me … violentlyBut I can plant my knife In your heart! ALFIO coldlyMy friend, Do as you please; I'll wait for you outside, Behind the orchard. exit Lucia and Turiddu TURIDDU Mother, That wine is strong, And in truth I've drunk Too much of it today ... I must go out into the fields. But give me first Your blessing, As you did that day When I went off as a soldier ... And then ... mother … listen ... If I should not return ... You must be a mother To Santuzza, Whom I promised To lead to the altar. LUCIA My son, what is this you're saying? TURIDDU Oh, nothing! It is the wine within me speaking. Pray to Heaven for me! One kiss, mother ... One more kiss ... farewell! He embraces her and rushes out. Lucia, Santuzza and Chorus LUCIA desperately, hurrying after himTuriddu! What do you mean? Turiddu! Turiddu! Ah! enter SantuzzaSantuzza! SANTUZZA throwing her arms round Lucia's neckOh mother! The scene fills with people. A confused noise is heard from the distance. A WOMAN Turiddu has been killed! They all scream.

How to Speak Italian - Dom Irrera

Man in Black - Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash sings "Man In Black" for the first time (with intro)

The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash

God's Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash

Soulshine - Warren Haynes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvbV0gB-81c
29JUN11 at Lexus Center in Escondido, CA. Presented by KPRI-FM. Shot by Steve Laub with synced audio from Charlie Miller.

I Need Your Love So Bad - Allman Brothers Band

The Allman Brothers Band - Need Your Love So Bad - 12/16/1981 - Capitol Theatre

Ethical Warfare - Were the Crusades holy wars?

https://www.knightstemplarinternational.com/video-ethical-warfare-the-truth-about-the-crusades/

A New World Religion Is Consecrated – In Paris

 Mark this day in your calendars. A new religion has been formally consecrated with an Oval Office ball-spiking by the President, “this historic agreement is a tribute to American leadership,”. The best part, for all the West’s socialist leaders who signed on to this sanctification, is that the agreement will not require approval from America’s Senate. The religion’s high priests (politicians and bureaucrats) are now consuming every loose bottle of Champagne in Paris, washing down mountains of Almas or Petrossian caviar in celebration.

In self-righteousness, the 40,000 proselytizers who convened their Paris assembly, will soon disperse to preach to their new parishioners, flying conformably aloft in full hypocrisy aboard private or chartered jets.

On their return home the most senior of the priests will land on their own egos, squirming for approval from the fawning media, outdoing one another as to the imposition of vacuous ideas to be proclaimed to the faithful. From Hollande, to Gore, to Obama, they will be contenders battling for the new religion’s most sacred office, its ‘seigneurie’, or ‘overlordship’, or whatever title the self-appointed cardinals decide to assign on their elected leader. Once upon a time, like 7 years ago, Obama probably considered himself a shoe-in for the post. These past 7 years, however, have unraveled, frayed and darkened his corona.

Still, Obama is campaigning hard with brilliance such as this, on the heals of an Islamic terrorist slaughter on his watch, “Denying it or refusing to deal with it endangers our national security”. He is accusing Americans who deny, or question ‘climate change’ as being threats to America. If you question the dogma that carbon dioxide produced by your consumption is accelerating the Earth’s temperatures toward levels calamitous for the human race, you are to be condemned. Common sense has become anathema to the Climate Change religion.

We can now expect an increase in the inquisition that will degrade, accuse and charge ‘climate change’ sectarians. In silence, we will witness an attempt at eradicating heretics from society. The term ‘skeptic’ and the term ‘denier’ will become triggers which will ostracize from society anyone so accused. Already we have seen universities demanding that Obama use RICO laws to prosecute ‘skeptics’. It may sound insane, but then our universities have long been vacated by common sense and freedom of speech.

The hysterical dictum, “Global Warming”, was briskly converted to “Climate Change” in the past year. The architects of the new religious order succumbed to the reality that the axiom at the foundation of their doctrine was false. “Change” was so much easier to sell.

read more http://www.floppingaces.net/2015/12/12/a-new-world-religion-is-consecrated-in-paris/

How to Tie an Ascots and Cravats

1.The Traditional Way

One, this is how you tie the Ascot the traditional way, it doesn’t matter if you wear the pleats up or down. The only thing that’s of importance is that the pleats overlap the knot so the knot stays tighter and you will look great all day.

First, the right end needs to be about three to four inches longer than the left one.

Second, the right end, the longer end, goes over the left end. What’s important here is that the pleated part is part of the knot, and you want to keep this rather tight.

So now, the longer end goes back around as you can see, around, up through the back and down. This is how the traditional ascot looks, you may want to open another button on your shirt, and then you close it.

Once you have it tucked in, you simply adjust it to your liking, and you’re done.

There are two ways, once, you can have everything popping out so you see it, or you can have everything tucked in like so. Personally, I liked it tucked in, I like a tight knot and depending on the shirt I’m wearing, I open one or two buttons from the top. This way you see more of the Ascot, and so it’s more closed.

 

 

2.The Simple Knot

Number 2, the simple knot. The simple knot is actually really simple because it’s just one knot. Both ends are the same length and then you just create one knot like so, and you tuck both ends in.

For this knot, you really have to adjust it, and the problem is it’s a very loose knot so over the course of the day it will become loose. It can be a problem with the traditional knot, but it can with the simple knit, it’s even more so.

Personally, I don’t really like the look of it, and I recommend this look.

3. My Favorite Way To Tie An Ascot

The third way to tie an Ascot, the modified four in hand knot.

Again, you want it around your neck, and thus time you want the right end to be about 2 inches longer.

Now, what you do is you tie a regular four in hand tie knot. You can also watch this video where I show you how to do it but with an ascot; it’s more difficult because it is unlined.

Basically, you take the longer end, get over and around. You can come over again, go through the back and now you go through the knot you created and push it through.This has the advantage that you can really adjust it and have it really tight around your neck just like with the regular tie knot.

Unlike a tie, the front end will be shorter than the back end. That’s exactly what you want because now, with the back end, you come from your neck side and basically, bring it through from the back, so it comes over. You simply adjust it, so you get some nice pleats and then you put them in your shirt, adjust it until you like the look, and you’re basically done. The great thing about this knot is that even if it comes loose which is very unlikely, you can easily tighten it, it will stay like this all day, it gives you more volume in the knot so it kind of pops up and flows down nicely, and that’s the reason this is my favorite knot.

How to Untie The Ascot

For the Modified ascot knot, it’s important to untie it the same way you tied it, you bring the long end back, and then you pull it up, just like a regular tie knot, you can always loosen it the other way but you always risk that seams rip because of the strain it puts on it.

 

http://www.gentlemansgazette.com/how-to-tie-ascot-cravat/

Victor Davis Hanson: California’s War on the Working Class

In an interview on Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Daily, historian Victor Davis Hanson spoke about the decline of his native California and the increasing distance between the Democrat and Republican elites and average, middle-class Americans.

Hanson is a columnist, former classics professor, scholar of ancient warfare, and the author of numerous books on history and politics, including his newest The Decline and Fall of California: From Decadence to Destruction.

Host and Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon asked Hanson about the decline of California and how the political elites have sold out the state, while they immunized themselves from the devastation.

“They love high-speed rail but they just don’t want to build it,” Hanson said of California’s elite. “They love open borders, but they put their kids in prep schools so they’re not impacted by non-English speakers. They love letting all of our precious irrigation water go out to the ocean, taking it away from farmers, but they don’t dare touch the Hetch Hetchy water that comes to the Bay Area.”

Hanson further elaborated on the change that has taken place in California, especially in the Democratic Party—which is completely dominant in the population centers of coastal Bay Area and Los Angeles.

“The Democratic Party is no longer the party of Harry Truman and the working class. Once they had equality of opportunity enshrined; they went for equality of result and that caused them problems,” Hanson said.

Bannon spoke about how Hanson was able to reach some of the Hispanic and working class students in his classes about the classics—such as Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War. Bannon said, “Many of these kids were from Hispanic backgrounds or working-class backgrounds, but it’s not that they couldn’t understand the classics, they could if you reach out to them.”

Hanson explained that if there was one group in California and American politics that could reach out to people of Hispanic and working class backgrounds, “it’s more likely to come from the grassroots of the Republican Party, the Tea Party. The Republican establishment shares the same values, personal values, cultural values as the Democratic elite.”

Though the Democrat elites romanticize the poor, they have little to no connection with them and do not understand their lives, according to Hanson. Grassroots conservatives have an easier time relating to Hispanics and the working class because they work with them and talk to them on a daily basis.

“The Republican Party, at least the Tea Party, they work shoulder to shoulder with people, and that’s the big key,” Hanson said. “If you’re a minority kid in the inner city you really don’t like some guy like Rahm Emmanuel or Hillary Clinton who flies in and patronizes you. You like the local guy at the 7-11 who will actually deal with you. And people want to be dealt with on an individual, personal basis.”

Hanson said:
Who is the guy that Obama hates the most? It’s the upper middle-class, middle-class guy who’s got a Winnebago and he’s trying to save up for an SUV. All those things don’t fit the cultural elite’s idea of taste. In their way of thinking they’ve romanticized the poor because they’re distant, and they have enough money to satisfy their own cultural benchmarks, but they hate the middle class because the middle class doesn’t have the romance of the poor and doesn’t have the money to go to the Ivy League or go to Malibu.

Read more: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/08/victor-davis-hanson-democrats-lost-working-class-values-waging-war-people-middle/

Carly Fiorina: Bring Back ‘Warrior Class’ Generals Petraeus, Flynn, Keane and Mattis

 

GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina says if she’s elected President of the United States, she would bring back “the warrior class” of generals, such as General Petraeus, General Flynn, General Keane and General Mattis.

“They’re pretty smart guys. I’d like to bring them back, by the way,” Fiorina told Breitbart News Daily host Stephen K. Bannon. “These are generals that understand what is going down on the ground.”

“The warrior class…who understand these enemies,” she stated. “They’ve all been sidelined because they gave Obama messages he didn’t want to hear.”

During her interview with Bannon, Fiorina took a swing at President Obama on his address from the Oval Office Sunday night, as well as Democrat frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Fiorina says Clinton wants to run on “anything but her track record” as Secretary of State. Fiorina also criticized Donald Trump, disagreeing with his idea to let Russia take out the Islamic State (ISIS).

“Vintage Obama. No strategy, no leadership,” Fiorina said of Obama’s speech. “It also had no sense of reality to it.”

Read more: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/07/carly-fiorina-bring-back-warrior-class-generals-petraeus-flynn-keane-mattis/

Days of Infamy: FDR Unites the Nation After Pearl Harbor, Obama Leaves it Listless After Terror

Today marks the 74th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—one of the most stunning American military catastrophes in this country’s history and a moment that signaled a new era for the republic. The casualties were stunning—2,042 Americans were killed and 1,247 wounded, and most of the Pacific Fleet has taken heavy damage—the nation was in a state of shock.

According to historian Max Hastings, in seeing the wreckage of Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the attack, one sailor said:

We were flabbergasted by the devastation… The water was covered with oil, fires were burning still, ships were resting on the bottom mud, superstructures had broken off and fallen. Great gaps loomed where magazines had exploded, and smoke was roiling up everywhere. For sailors who had considered these massive ships invincible, it was a sight to be seen but not comprehended… We seemed to be mourners at a spectacular funeral.

Many Americans were justifiably afraid as it was clear the country was being drawn into a worldwide conflict that had already devastated Europe and countries across the globe. But fear quickly turned to anger and Americans looked to their president for leadership as the United States entered World War II.

In the wake of this incredible blow to the American military, national pride and the sudden, unbelievable loss of life, President Franklin Roosevelt wasted no time and decided to immediately call for a declaration of war. Just a day later, he delivered his most famous “Day of Infamy” speech. Roosevelt began his six-minute speech with words that should be familiar to every American, “Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

FDR was unequivocal about the enemy the nation faced, assured in the injustice of the attack, and was utterly resolved to use all of his powers as commander-in-chief to bring justice to the Japanese enemy. He called on the American people to unite and prepare for a long and difficult fight against a powerful foe that threatened the American way of life. He called on the nation to weaponize the Arsenal of Democracy and fight until absolute victory was achieved.

“No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory,” Roosevelt said. “I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again. Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.”

Before officially calling for a declaration of war, the president expressed absolute conviction in the American people by saying, “With confidence in our armed forces—with the unbounding determination of our people—we will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God”

This is the speech of a leader demonstrating solidarity with his people and giving them a clear picture of what they have to do to defeat an enemy of the whole country.

Today, Americans are confronted with a new enemy. Not a nation with defined borders, diplomats, armies, and heads of state, but a creed that is pitted against civilization and aims to draw the world into a new dark age. On September 11, 2001 it was clear that this enemy threatened American civilization and that it was earnest in its aim to bring absolute devastation to the American people. In the long war between civilization and radical Islam, two terrorists butchered American citizens en masse in San Bernardino, California.

After initially dismissing the brutal killings as possibly “workplace-related” violence, President Obama finally addressed the nation in a televised speech from the Oval Office on Sunday night. Though the president said that the attacks were “an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people,” there were few calls to be resolute to destroy a common, merciless, evil foe, and no new measures were offered to defeat this enemy. Instead, President Obama called for Republicans to cut out the “tough talk,” and be “smart” in reaction to the horrific killings. He said the country must be wary of being drawn into a “long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria.”

Read more: http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/12/07/days-infamy-fdr-unites-nation-pearl-harbor-obama-leaves-listless-terror/

Cabins like Shipping Containers

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2015/11/25/airbus-has-patent-to-make-cabins-like-shipping-containers/

Funny Matrix

https://youtu.be/hKWmFWRVLlU

Happy Thanksgiving to those Deployed

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/11/25/turkeys-flown-from-coops-to-troops-stationed-overseas-for-thanksgiving/

Cocktail Attire For Men – Dress Code Guide For Weddings, Parties & Events

Cocktail Attire For Men – Dress Code Guide For Weddings, Parties & Events





Read more: http://www.gentlemansgazette.com/cocktail-attire-for-men/

Crymobs, Crybullying, and the Left's Whney War on Free Speech

The left is a victimhood cult. It feeds off pain and fetishizes suffering as a moral commodity to be sold and resold in exchange for political power.

The cult’s credo is that its solutions to human suffering take precedence over freedom or democracy. It exploits suffering when it can and creates it where it can’t. Its social media has ushered in the Warholian era of victimhood where everyone can be a famously oversharing victim for 15 trending minutes.

Forget about meritocracy. This is the victimocracy.

The victimocracy’s foot soldier is the crybully. The crybully is the abuser who pretends to be a victim. His arguments are his feelings. He comes armored in identity politics entitlement and is always yelling about social justice or crying social justice tears.

If you don’t fight back, the crybully bullies you. If you fight back, the crybully cries and demands a safe space because you made him feel unsafe.

Lions form a pride, crows gather into a murder and crybullies cringe into a crymob. The crymob demands a safe space because free speech and dissent makes its crybullies feel very unsafe.

Crymobs will “safebait” by yelling and pushing and then whining that the people they’re shoving make them feel unsafe. One crybully safebaiting tactic is to yell loudly, forcing anyone talking back to them to raise their voice. That’s when other crybullies begin shouting, “Don’t yell at her.”

Crybullies will push into you and cry that you’re making them feel unsafe. They will hit you and when you raise your hands in self-defense, they will scream that you’re putting your hands on them. (All these safebaiting tactics and more can be seen in the Missouri video.)

Crybullies don’t think this behavior is dishonest because their pain privilege entitles them to tone police you, but you can’t tone police them. Their sweet social justice tears give them the right to yell at you, shove you or hit you. Crying over social justice gives them a license to bully everyone else.

If crybullies can’t safebait you, they will manufacture threats by faking hate crimes against themselves or phoning in bomb threats to validate their need for a safe space in which no one is allowed to disagree with them. Surviving their own fake crimes turns crybullies into social justice heroes.

It’s impossible to have a rational conversation with a crybully because it doesn’t want to talk to you; it wants to loudly broadcast its feelings. As one Yale crybully wrote, “I don’t want to debate. I want to talk about my pain.” My pain. Me. Stop arguing with me and start paying attention to me right now.

A crybully’s pain isn’t caused by poverty, disease or an elephant stepping on its toes. Instead it’s caused by the existence of other people who don’t take its ridiculous claims of suffering seriously.

Read more: http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2015/11/crymobs-crybullying-and-lefts-whiny-war.html

The re-Christianization of Russia

 

While Christianity in the West is increasingly marginalized and even persecuted, the Christian revival in Russia spearheaded by Vladimir Putin goes from strength to strength.

Thousands of the churches destroyed by the Bolsheviks have been rebuilt, church-going is on the rise – especially among the young – and laws to protect family values and tradition have been passed.

Vladimir Putin's Christian Faith - in his own words

Published on May 18, 2012

-Putin first speaks about his Baptism / -Putin's Faith and Cross 02:00
-Believes in traditional family 04:03
-Putin at a Christmas night service at the Church of Holy Martyrs Aleksandr and Antonina of Rome in the outskirts of Kostroma in Central Russia.04:49
-Patriarch Kirill blesses President Vladimir Putin 06:32
-Over 65,000 Russians defend the Church 08:02
-Putin's biker friends support the Church 10:52
-Putin's Russian faith knows about Christian Martyrs who were killed by the Communists 11:45
-These martyrs had overcome the BEAST 13:24 / Christ is Risen! 13:50

https://www.knightstemplarinternational.com/video-the-re-christianisation-of-russia/

Political author Gearoid O Colmain discusses the Paris attacks

https://www.knightstemplarinternational.com/video-paris-attacks-very-accurate-analysis-on-rt-on-the-origins-of-terror/

Giant Momentum Street Bike 2016

Giant Momentum Street Bike 2016

For some, the bicycle is much more than a hobby or a tool of fitness. It’s a means of transportation, and integral part to day-to-day life. Whether it’s a grocery run or a commute to work, the Momentum Street offers a lightweight, comfortable, utilitarian bike that’s easy to maneuver and stable to ride. The Street sits you more upright and tall, offering heads-up visibility in busy areas. The classic city aesthetic is augmented by a kickstand, bell, rear rack, cup holder, and u-lock carrier. Unlike a car, the Momentum Street burns fat instead of fuel.

 

Features:

- Chainguard
- Kickstand
- Twist shifting
- Mounted cup holder
- Rack
- Bag Mounts
- Lock Carrier

Specifications:

Frame	ALUXX-grade aluminum with integrated rear carrier and cup holder, double diamond and mid-step options
Fork	High Tensile Chromoly Steel
Wheelset	Giant Alloy Double wall rims, Alloy 28h hubs, Stainless Steel 14g spokes
Tires	Kenda Kwick Roller, puncture protection, 700x32 (50 - 85 psi)
Brakes	Alloy, Direct Pull
Brake Levers	Alloy comfort
Shifters	Shimano Revo, Twist
Front Derailleur	N/A
Rear Derailleur	Shimano Tourney
Crankset	Alloy, 42T
Bottom Bracket	Sealed Cartridge
Cassette	Shimano TZ31 14x34, 7-speed
Chain	Z51KMC Z51, Nickel Plated
Pedals	Alloy/Anti-Slip Platform
Handlebar	Alloy, Mid-Rise
Stem	Alloy quill
Saddle	Riveted Retro-Classic Comfort, coil spring
Seatpost	Alloy, 30.9mm

Note: Components are subject to change without notice.

Geometry:

Size	Small	Regular	Large
Rider Height	5'1" ~ 5'5"	5'5" ~ 5'9"	5'9" ~ 6'1"
Top Tube Length	21.7"	22.4"	23.2"
Standover Height	Double Diamond: 28.0" Mid-Step: 25.9"	Double Diamond: 29.5" Mid-Step: 27.6"	Double Diamond: 29.8" Mid-Step: 28.6"
Head Tube Length	5.5"	5.9"	6.5"
Head Tube Angle	71°	71°	71°
Seat Tube Angle	73.5°	73.0°	72.0°
Wheelbase	40.7"	41.3"	42.2"
Chainstay Length	17.1"	17.1"	17.1"

Islamowars Brewing

From Wild Bill's America: Jihadis of the Middle East are swarming into Europe, burning and looting as they go. Is the war to overrun Europe about to begin?

Bobby Jindal: ‘Immigration Without Assimilation Is an Invasion’

Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a strong contender in Iowa who surpassed amnesty advocate Jeb Bush in support, tells Breitbart News Daily “immigration without assimilation is not immigration; it’s an invasion.”

Executive chairman and host Stephen K. Bannon asked Jindal why assimilation is so critically important for where we stand as a country. The U.S. must make sure what happening in Europe doesn’t happen in America, Jindal said.

“One of the things that America is so proud of is, and rightfully so, we have been this melting pot for so long. The Left doesn’t want that anymore. They want to call us a salad bowl. They think it is culturally arrogant, or xenophobic, to insist that people that want to come to America to assimilate, and that’s nonsense,” said Jindal. “The reality is, we don’t make anybody come here. Millions of people all over the world want to come here, and folks that don’t want to be Americans shouldn’t come. And the reality is, they shouldn’t come and use our freedoms to undermine freedoms for other people.”

“Let’s be really honest about this: Immigration without assimilation is not immigration; it’s an invasion,” he said. “When you look at what’s happening in Europe, you’ve got second and third generation immigrants that don’t consider themselves parts of those societies, those cultures, those values. We mustn’t let that happen here.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/04/bobby-jindal-immigration-without-assimilation-is-an-invasion/

Feds Rule to Force High School Girls to Undress Next to Naked Boys Who Think They’re Girls

On Monday, the federal government declared itself fit for the madhouse by mandating that a Chicago high school allow a full biological male into the girls’ locker room for all purposes, including nudity. This biological male, the feds determined, was different because he thinks he is a female.

The feds have ruled that the presence of a twig-and-berries in the girls’ locker room has been mandated by Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. Yes, ladies and gents and non-cisgenders: it turns out that the battle against sexism enshrined in the ill-written Title IX was actually intended to force underage young women to look at the penises and testicles of mentally ill boys.

Progress.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights spent almost two years checking out the Township High School District 211 because of the transgender “girl.” He filed a complaint with the feds in 2013 after the school refused “unrestricted access” to the girls’ locker room. The district eventually agreed to allow the boy into the girls’ room so long as he used a privacy curtain while disrobing.

That wasn’t good enough. The feds determined that this still constituted discrimination. Why? As John Knight, director of the alphabet-soup LGBT and AIDS Project at the ACLU, stated, this was “blatant discrimination.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/03/feds-rule-force-high-school-girls-undress-next-naked-boys-think-theyre-girls/

New study finds Antarctic Ice Growing

Snow that began piling up 10,000 years ago in Antarctica is adding enough ice to offset the increased losses due to thinning glaciers, according to a NASA study.

The latest findings appear to challenge other studies including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2013 report, which found that Antarctica is overall losing land ice.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/11/03/new-study-finds-antarctic-ice-growing-countering-earlier-studies.html?intcmp=hplnws

Law Makers Sound Alarm

Congressional lawmakers are raising alarm over the rapid collapse of several so-called ObamaCare "co-ops" -- government-backed alternative health plans -- that are failing, leaving tens of thousands of customers scrambling for coverage, and billions in taxpayer-funded startup loans at risk.

To date, nearly half of the 23 co-ops established under the Affordable Care Act have gone or are expected to go under by the end of the year. The latest to be barred from selling insurance on the official marketplace is in Arizona.

In a letter to the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., pressed the Obama administration for answers on what is being done to address the crisis -- and recoup some of the federal taxpayer loan money that has gone to the failing start-ups.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/11/03/lawmakers-sound-alarm-over-failing-obamacare-co-ops/?intcmp=hplnws

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori: An Heretical Piñata

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori: An Heretical Piñata

COMMENTARY

By David W. Virtue DD
www.virtueonline.org
October 28, 2015

Next week Katharine Jefferts Schori, the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, will be history.

For many it can't come too soon.

During her occupation as the titular head of the Episcopal Church for nine years, she uttered more heresies recorded by any sitting bishop, with the possible exception of John Shelby Spong and more recently Charles E. Bennison, Bishop of Pennsylvania, whose line that "Jesus was a sinner who forgave himself" might earn them both a place in the sixth circle (heresy) of Dante's nine circles of suffering located within the Earth.

But she did try hard and the Inferno might still be her reward.

Over the course of nine years, she variously denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus and the full deity of Christ, referred to Jesus as "mother Jesus" at one point, and said St. Paul should have listened to a demoniac girl for spiritual guidance.

She was the perfect ecclesiastical piñata.

Every time she uttered a heresy or two, I would whack her and the piñata would break open and more heresies would pour out of her. Her staff would patch her up again and on she would go.

One of her most memorable and public apostasies was the occasion at one general convention when she said that individual (personal) conversion (to Christ) was a western heresy and likened it to "work" rather than that of free grace. She has publicly said that Muslims do not need converting to Christ and that she would never tell them they do, and that Jews are saved under the first covenant. This got my attention, naturally, and I hit her hard. The piñata never stood a chance.

Her farewell speech this past week was a picture of subterfuge, lies and spin.

"I am deeply grateful for what God has been up to in the midst of our journey together."

That "journey" has cost the Episcopal Church a loss of nearly 200,000 ASA members and tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits for properties that the courts are now granting to those departing TEC. Her ultra-liberal, theologically-challenged credentials earned her the dubious title as the Church's first dictatorial female Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church who managed to alienate the entire Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church and most of its evangelicals. She is leaving a church in rapid decline with more than two-thirds of the church made up of women over 60. A third of TEC's rectors are women. None of the women priests and bishops have shown any ability to make the Church grow, preferring to sound off on the platitudes of social reform rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Her latest and last fiasco was to get yet another woman in a miter, which came to a crashing halt...literally. Heather Cook, the wannabee Suffragan Bishop of Maryland got seven years in jail this week for killing a cyclist while texting and for leaving the scene of an accident. Of course, the Church had to disown her, but it was further evidence that Jefferts Schori, who knew Cook had a drinking problem, did nothing to stop the consecration from going forward. Political correctness cost the life of a young man and crippled his family for life.

Freeeeedom (from Knuckledraggin.com)

http://knuckledraggin.com/2015/11/freeeeedom/

My Turn, Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency, Doug Henwood

Kindred ND Man Says ELCA Pushing Out Conservatives

We Can’t Say They Didn’t Warn Us

http://moonbattery.com/?p=64765

Fred Thompson, former US Senator, dead at 73

Fred Thomson, the former U.S. senator from Tennessee, Republican presidential candidate and “Law and Order” actor, died Sunday after a recurrence of lymphoma. He was 73.

Thompson’s family announced the news in a statement, which was published in The Tennessean.

“It is with a heavy heart and a deep sense of grief that we share the passing of our brother, husband, father, and grandfather who died peacefully in Nashville surrounded by his family,” the statement said.

It continued: "Fred once said that the experiences he had growing up in small-town Tennessee formed the prism through which he viewed the world and shaped the way he dealt with life. Fred stood on principle and common sense, and had a deep love for and connection with the people across Tennessee whom he had the privilege to serve in the United States Senate. He enjoyed a hearty laugh, a strong handshake, a good cigar, and a healthy dose of humility. Fred was the same man on the floor of the Senate, the movie studio, or the town square of Lawrenceburg, his home."

"Fred believed that the greatness of our nation was defined by the hard work, faith, and honesty of its people. He had an enduring belief in the exceptionalism of our country, and that America could provide the opportunity for any boy or girl, in any corner of our country, to succeed in life. "

Thompson, born in 1942, served in the senate from December 1994 to January 2003.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/11/01/fred-thompson-former-us-senator-dead-at-73/?intcmp=hpbt3

Lies To Support the ELCA's Agenda

 

 

The ELCA's Journal of Lutheran Ethics October 2015 issue was devoted to the topic of  "#BlackLivesMatter."

An article by Rozella Haydée White, the Program Director for Young Adult Ministry for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, perpetuates the falsehood that Michael Brown was murdered. She writes, “For many young people of color, the murder of Michael Brown[1] on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri tore the veil that covered the ugliest reality – lives of people of color, particularly young black people of color, are not seen as lives at all."  (see here)

The definition of murder is "The unlawful killing of another human being without
justification or excuse." (see here) Michael Brown was killed in self-defense by Officer Wilson. The justice system of the United States confirms this.

Saying that lives of people of color are "not seen as lives at all" is another outright lie.

Then the ELCA Program Director for Young Adult Ministry writes, “The church has also been complicit in the ongoing separation and oppression of people of color. From global mission that was undergirded by the concept of conversion…”

So helping people know the One True God is called "oppression?" Leading people to faith in Christ is what we are all called to do. The ELCA is turning this "calling" into an evil act.

 

http://www.exposingtheelca.com/exposed-blog/lies-to-support-the-elcas-agenda

Clinton's State Department cautioned about blaming Benghazi attack on video

Hillary Clinton and other State Department officials were apparently warned by overseas U.S. diplomats about blaming the 2012 Benghazi terror strikes on an “inflammatory” Internet video, according to an email released Saturday by House Republicans probing the fatal attacks.

The email was sent three days after the fatal Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, and two days before then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice went on TV to say the attacks were inspired by the anti-Islamic video.

The email -- released by the GOP-led House Select Committee on Benghazi -- was sent from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, to the State Department, which Clinton led from 2009 to 2013.

Halloween: How Do We Celebrate?

Russian warplanes buzz USS Ronald Reagan

Two Russian warplanes flew within one mile of the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, forcing the U.S. Navy to launch four fighter jets in response Tuesday, a Navy spokesman told Fox News.

The USS Reagan was sailing in international waters east of the Korean peninsula, Stars and Stripes reports. It adds that the U.S. is currently engaged in joint military exercises with South Korea.

The Russian "Bear Bombers" approached the aircraft carrier at an elevation of 500 feet Tuesday morning, according to Navy spokesman Commander William Marks. He said U.S. F/A-18 Super Hornets escorted the Russian planes as they transited out of the area.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/10/29/russian-warplanes-buzz-uss-ronald-reagan/?intcmp=hplnws

Altar-ed states: Greenpoint church re-brands as co-op

https://thingsthatmake4peace.wordpress.com/

Talk about community spirit!

A Greenpoint Lutheran church has re-branded itself as a co-op, offering membership to locals of any — or no — religious persuasion, and allowing them to add their own activities the house of worship’s services — including secular dance parties and exercise classes.

The makeover has ruffled a few feathers in the church’s small flock, but the pastor says the order came from the top.

“The vision for the co-op is to be able to serve our neighbors, which is a command that Jesus gave for the church,” said Amy Kienzle, who re-named the Lutheran Church of the Messiah on Russell Street as the Park Church Co-op in June.

The sanctuary still holds traditional worship sessions for its Lutheran congregation, but its secular members have also added services including Dancorcism — where parishioners and outsiders “dance out their demons” — and Sound Church — where people gather under the church’s reverberating high ceilings to make sounds like meditative “ohms,” chants, and songs.

A few members of Kienzle’s small congregation left the church over the change, but she says the remaining worshipers have welcomed the newcomers, and the new members say they already feel like they belong.

“A church was built with the intention of being this place where people can come and connect,” said Debbie Attias, who teaches both Dancorcism and Sound Church. “It’s a sacred space where you can come and connect with other people in the community.”

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/38/37/dtg-church-is-a-coop-2015-09-11-bk.html

and...

Since pastor Amy Kienzle took up the helm at Greenpoint’s Lutheran Church of the Messiah, the space has seen a flurry of diverse community activities – playing host to a farmer’s market, an interactive art exhibit, feminist dialogue, dance workshops, and providing temporary respite to the neighborhood’s homeless.

And with the positive response generated from those community events, Kienzle is now shepherding the Church through a transition into a Co-op.

Park Church Co-op, as it will now be known, was made possible through grant funding by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. While the Co-op will continue to operate like a church in the sense that it will continue to offer traditional services, it will also function as a hub for the community, regardless of religious persuasions. And the services too will get creative with Kienzle looking to incorporate sound healing and meditation into some of the offerings at the Church.

“The traditional model just isn’t working anymore, and now it will be more of a spiritual community center,” said Kienzle. “We want this to be a place where the needs of the people are met in new and creative ways and a place where everyone is welcome – whether it be dance groups, or yoga or feeding programs – different ways to bring the community together.”

With the number of groups using the Church, Kienzle thought a Co-op style structure would be the most effective, giving the groups greater involvement with the space and enabling them to create more programming for the community to get involved.

http://greenpointnews.com/2015/07/15/new-chapter-for-greenpoint-lutheran-park-church-co-op/