Yes! Yes it is!
We are crazy. We are literally insane. Public policy just goes from bad to worse. […] If you are wondering, debt held by the public was 9.3 trillion yesterday. Exactly four years ago, it was 4.9 trillion.
Related (link fixed) – [The city of Pritchard] was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund ran dry.
Like national anthems, traditional Christmas carols are meant to be sung, and not interpreted; there are far too many cloying, over-wraught, over-interpreted vanity-project executions of traditional carols that are more about the singer than the song. As a seasonal palate cleanser of sorts, then, here are three straight-shooting renditions of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: first, under the under the direction of Edward Higginbottom, here is the Choir of New College Oxford’s performance; next, a vigorous, nicely-imperfect public-spirited singalong-type version from the Northern Baptist Association’s Big Sing held at Newcastle upon Tyne in England; and finally, from a 99-year-old recording, here is the Trinity Choir’s upright and respectful rendition. Pick your own favourite.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Before anyone north or south of the border (or to the northwest) knee-jerks, do read this, and the links. Can you respond substantively?
Key differences between Canada and the US
I cannot imagine any Canadian political leader saying this with reference to, say, Jim Balsillie…
The Canadian Forces is preparing an official apology for listing the Mohawk Warrior Society as a potentially violent insurgent group in a draft manual in 2006.
And in related news, the RCMP draft a statement of regret to the Hells Angels, the Canadian Cancer Society pays restitution to leukemia, and Raid® removes flies from its insect list.
And you’ll find somebody who needs a hug. (language advisory)
And all I said was this….
Wordle
Other plans to protect cyclists include putting airbags on the outside of cars to reduce the severity of collisions …
In tonight’s featured Christmas music, a young boy is beckoned to a manger to see the newborn King. He is a poor boy, and hasn’t any gifts fit for a king, so he offers instead his most humble expression of musical praise.
The origin of this timeless song remain in some dispute. Wellesley College grad Katherine K. Davis (class of ’14) is generally credited for having written it based loosely on the melody of an old Czech song titled “Carol of the Drum,” and, possibly, parts of a Spanish tune. Others, however, suggest that she merely translated the words of a traditional Czech song into English. Davis, for her part, said the song came to her while she was “trying to take a nap.”
In 1958 someone named Harry Simeone “arranged” Davis’ published song, and then, along with a friend of his, claimed co-authorship credits, even though sheet music from 1941 lists the song as being written by Ms. Davis. To further complicate matters, some insist that a guy named Jack Halloran had arranged the, er, arrangement a year before Simeone, and that Simeone’s later ‘co-writer’ promptly “took (Halloran’s) arrangement to Simeone, who hired the same singers, re-recorded it adding finger cymbals…and then put (it) out as a single…”
Whoever wrote it, it’s a lovely song. Simeone’s 1958 arrangement is, at this point, the the version we know and love, so without further ado, here’s The Harry Simeone Chorale (who seem to exist only as a name) performing Little Drummer Boy. (Lyrics here.)
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
“Collected via email”, 1999 – Dear Internet Subscriber: Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay online and continue using email: The last few months have revealed an alarming trend in the Government of the United States attempting to quietly push through legislation that will affect your use of the Internet.”
Wall Street Journal, 2010 – FCC Gives Government Power to Regulate Web Traffic
Update:
The net neutrality vision for government regulation of the Internet began with the work of Robert McChesney, a University of Illinois communications professor who founded the liberal lobby Free Press in 2002. Mr. McChesney’s agenda? “At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies,” he told the website SocialistProject in 2009. “But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.”
So there you have it – no need for concern.
EXPOSING ISRAELI APARTHEID AND THE VIOLATION OF PALESTINIAN RIGHTS … with “special guest” Antonia Zerbisias.
h/t
…with such good news, I wonder why NSIDC and others aren’t providing more information to the public on this interesting phenomenon. […] perhaps in their next press NSIDC release they will at least recognize the Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice for the simple fact that it has hit record highs?
“To get the check, you’ve got to medicate the child”.
A Globe investigation has found that this Supplemental Security Income program — created by Congress primarily to aid indigent children with severe physical disabilities such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and blindness — now largely serves children with relatively common mental, learning, and behavioral disorders such as ADHD. It has also created, for many needy parents, a financial motive to seek prescriptions for powerful drugs for their children
[…]
For many, the motivation to apply comes down to economics: SSI payments can be a lifeline in a bad economy, and they beat welfare checks in almost every way. For a Massachusetts parent with two children, welfare pays a maximum of about $600 a month. If one of those two children is approved for the SSI program, the total government benefit can be twice as much.
MISSOURI lawmakers will have at least one bill to consider next year that would repeal the Proposition B vote on dog breeding regulations.
Sen. Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, said the proposition that passed by a narrow margin statewide — it failed in rural areas, but won overwhelmingly in St. Louis and Kansas City — misled voters.
[…]
Shortly after the Nov. 2 election, dog breeders started receiving letters from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Breeders were told that the HSUS filed a Freedom of Information act request on Oct. 4, to get access to information on USDA licenses for use in a civil lawsuit.
“These are the people who said ‘trust us’ we’re only worried about the puppies,” said one Northeast Missouri breeder who requested anonymity. “Now they want private information on all of us.”
License forms include information such as the number of dogs purchased, the number sold, the gross revenue and income after expenses. […]
In the meantime, some pet shelters are concerned about being deluged with dogs as breeders either go out of business or have to reduced the number of dogs they own.
David Martosko, director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, has suggested that the HSUS provide money to Missouri shelters to be used for animal care.
“Last year the HSUS took in $100 million but made only six grants to Missouri pet shelters, totaling less than $43,000, according to its filings with the IRS,” Martasko said.
“If… only there were some natural mechanism for explaining the warming and cooling of the earth. It would have to be unreasonably large, however — on the scale of our own sun.” *
Meet Piers Corbyn.
Piers Corbyn works in an undistinguished office in Borough High Street. He has no telescope or supercomputer. Armed only with a laptop, huge quantities of publicly available data and a first-class degree in astrophysics, he gets it right again and again.
Back in November, when the Met Office was still doing its “mild winter” schtick, Corbyn said it would be the coldest for 100 years. Indeed, it was back in May that he first predicted a snowy December, and he put his own money on a white Christmas about a month before the Met Office made any such forecast. He said that the Met Office would be wrong about last year’s mythical “barbecue summer”, and he was vindicated. He was closer to the truth about last winter, too.
He seems to get it right about 85 per cent of the time and serious business people – notably in farming – are starting to invest in his forecasts. In the eyes of many punters, he puts the taxpayer-funded Met Office to shame. How on earth does he do it? He studies the Sun. […]
I have not a clue whether his methods are sound or not. But when so many of his forecasts seem to come true, and when he seems to be so consistently ahead of the Met Office, I feel I want to know more.
“We spent too much on everything… it’s over.”
Via Hot Air.
Related – The Europe of North America
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The planet has a shiver.
Others contend we are witnessing a mutation of the Gore Effect, and that it may now be capable of transferring from its gigantic environmentalist host pod to infect human carriers. “If you look at the areas suffering the worst outbreaks, they all feature individuals who have suffered prolonged exposure to Al Gore,” says Pandy. “Why, Jon Bon Jovi and Oprah were in Australia only last week. Now the place is freezing – almost as though Al Gore had been here in person.”
Yes, Australia.
Snow fell in Australia on Monday, as the usual hot and summery December weather was replaced in parts by icy gusts sweeping up from the Southern Ocean, giving the country a taste of a white Christmas.
Each Christmas Eve since 1928 the BBC has broadcast the A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, a service from the King’s College Chapel featuring King’s College Choir, a group of 16 choristers founded in 1441 by King Henry VI. Tonight, under the direction of Stephen Cleobury, CBE, the choir performs British composer John Rutter’s Nativity Carol.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Julian Assange “turns on everyone”.
He accused his media partners at The Guardian newspaper, which worked with him to make the embarrassing leaks public, of unfairly tarnishing him by revealing damaging details of the sex assault allegations he faces in Sweden. […] Speaking from the English mansion where he is confined on bail, the 39-year-old Australian said that the decision to publish incriminating police files about him was “disgusting”.
As usual, the Huffington Post is out ahead of the pack – “This all has Karl [Rove’s] signature…”
Yes it does, my pretties.
“Coyote In The Hole – the making of Canada’s Most Famous Christmas Card”