Musical Interlude & Happy Valentine's Day

(For politics, please scroll down.  A new political post will be available on February 15)

We are approaching Valentine's Day. So, for this "Musical Interlude," here is a song for lovers. 

Dedicated to my beloved Warren.

Enjoy Alison Krauss singing "When You Say Nothing at All" (1995):

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Canceling The Word "The"!

Theatre of the Absurd: 

...The plays focus largely on ideas of existentialism and express what happens when human existence lacks meaning or purpose and communication breaks down. The structure of the plays is typically a round shape, with the finishing point the same as the starting point. Logical construction and argument give way to irrational and illogical speech and to the ultimate conclusion—silence....

We recommend avoiding general and often dehumanizing “the” labels such as the poor, the mentally ill, the disabled, the college-educated. Instead, use wording such as people with mental illnesses. And use these descriptions only when clearly relevant.

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 27, 2023

Please enjoy the satiric video below:

Related reading: Associated Press no longer includes ‘the French’ as example of banned phrase after internet backlash. 

If space aliens are watching us from above, they must be laughing themselves silly at the Third Planet's "Wokeness."

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

Virtuoso pianist Jeffrey Siegel has performed with the world's great orchestras as a solo artist.  He also tours as a music appreciation teacher; these programs are called Keyboard Conversations.

A sample of one of the past offerings of pianist Jeffrey Siegel's Keyboard Conversations, on tour now and always appropriate for both new listeners and seasoned music lovers:

 

I have attended more than one of the Keyboard Conversations.  Wonderful!  Each time, I came home and found, and started practicing) the music for at least one of the pieces he presented.

Bonus video (excerpts from Leonard Bernstein's musical West Side Story):

What magnificent tone control!

Stories You Might Have Missed

(hat tip to Bunkerville, whose excellent site is on my blog rounds)

Worth a few moments of your time: 

Weekend Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

I've always loved the sound of the lute!  For me, it conjures up images from Shakespeare and the royal court of England around the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.  

From Google Search:

In the Renaissance era, the lute was the most popular instrument in the Western world. It became the symbol of the magic and power of music. The lute was the instrument of kings and queens, playing the sublime music of great composers. The lute was heard in the theatre in the incidental music of Shakespeare's plays. 

 Please enjoy J. S. Bach's Lute Suite in E Major BWV 1006a, performed by Evangelina Mascardi, playing the Baroque Lute:

Index for the above suite:

0:00 I. Prelude 4:38 II. Loure 8:53 III. Gavotte en Rondeau 12:25 IV. Menuet I/II 16:39 V. Bouree 18:38 VI. Gigue

[about Evangelina Mascardi, one of the most famous lutenists in the world today]

[about the lute, from The Lute Society of America] 

Has Dystopia Arrived?

(Note: off-topic comments will be deleted as soon as a blog administrator becomes aware of such comments. Please do not respond to off-topic comments)

POWERFUL TRUTH ! “What the people didn’t see …”💥👇💥 pic.twitter.com/XekfzdvVCE

— VeBee🇺🇸✝️ (@VeBo1991) January 16, 2023

Weekend Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

A choral arrangement of Henry Mancini's Grammy-winning 1961 song "Moon River," lyrics by Johnny Mercer:***** *****

The Latest Chatter

Here ya go: 

Related reading: The big question is not where the classified documents were stowed but what’s contained in the troves of discovered documents.

Dateline: [Islamic?] Terrorist Attack On Las Vegas Solar Plant

Photo credit

This attack happened on January 4, 2023, and was quite significant. It disabled the MGM Mega Solar Array facility, the solar plant activated in June 2021. 

Significant details about the January 4th attack and its effects HERE.

The FBI has officially joined the investigation.

Related video (about our power grid):

Additional information HERE as to the vulnerabilities of our power grid.

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down) 

This weekend, I have chosen two serene selections so that we can rest our hearts and minds.

Lang Lang's masterful rendition of Impressionist composer Claude Debussy's The Girl with the Flaxen Hair:

 

Husband and wife duo, Lang Lang and piano virtuoso Gina Alice Redlinger, playing Frédéric Chopin's Nocturne Op.9 No.1 In B Flat Minor (December 29, 2020):

Under The Radar: Brunson V. Adams

Read about Brunson v. Adams HERE. 

Excerpt (the first few paragraphs, emphases mine):

While there has been much public attention on the U.S. Supreme Court’s present consideration of the “independent state legislature” theory in Moore v. Harper involving North Carolina’s redistricting, that case would not immediately upend the 2020 presidential election.

In contrast, a little-known case that appeared recently on the Court docket could do just that. The case of Brunson v. Adams, not even reported in the mainstream media, was filed pro se by ordinary American citizens – four brothers from Utah — seeking the removal of President Biden and Vice President Harris, along with 291 U.S. representatives and 94 U.S. senators who voted to certify the electors to the Electoral College on Jan. 6, 2021 without first investigating serious allegations of election fraud in half a dozen states and foreign election interference and breach of national security in the 2020 presidential election. The outcome of such relief would presumably be to restore Donald Trump to the presidency.

The important national security interests implicated in this case allowed the Brunsons to bypass an appeal that was frozen at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit and get the case to the Supreme Court which has now scheduled a hearing for January 6, 2023. The Brunson Petition for a Writ of Certiorari would require the votes of only four justices to move the case forward.

It seems astounding that the Court would wade into such waters two years to the day after the Congressional vote to install Joe Biden as president. But these are not normal times. Democrats may well push legislation in this month’s lame duck session of Congress to impose term limits and a mandatory retirement age for justices, and thereby open the door to packing the Court.

The final paragraph reads as follows:

The fact that the Brunson case has made it to the Court’s docket suggests profound concerns about a lawless Jan. 6 congressional committee, politicized federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies and major constitutional violations intended to overthrow an elected government by manipulating the outcome of the presidential election.

Read the entire essay HERE.

Your thoughts?  

For my part, I'm wondering if Brunson v. Adams is now dead at the SCOTUS level.  Is it?  Help me out here.  It looks to me that the case was denied in SCOTUS conference.  But that the case ever made it to the SCOTUS level speaks volumes!

Related: Supreme Court Dockets Brunson v. Adams Case That Challenges the Failure of Congress to Investigate Disputed Electoral College Votes.

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

This weekend, let's take a stroll down memory lane to a better time, over a half century ago with Henry Mancini's incomparable Baby Elephant Walk (1961):

About mRNA Vaccines

Specifically, about the trial data:

A few comments made to the above video:

@salimnaufal1779 

Thank you Dr. Campbell for sharing that information. The terrifying part is the fact that you have to choose carefully your words to convey a real threat to people's health in order not to be blocked by YouTube. There is no doubt in my mind that there are huge conflicts of interests of people in charge of our health and big pharma. Really sad!

@joeswinny7686 

I suspect a large % of adverse events have never been evaluated. My own being one of them. We live in dangerous times and not because of Pandemics.

Who is John Campbell, the man speaking in the video posted above? See this short video.  And HERE is his YouTube channel.

As one who has reacted to my first-and-only COVID "vaccine" (It appears to have triggered my childhood asthma to the point that my primary care physician will not now recommend even the annual flu vaccine!), I find myself doing research on the COVID "vaccines" and apparent reactions thereto.  The picture emerging is disturbing. To say the least!

Music For New Year's Eve 2022 And The New Year 2023

Instead of "Auld Lang Syne" (the typical musical fare for this time of year), a round-up of events in 2022, or a list of New Year's resolutions, enjoy this selection:

 
Happy New Year! May 2023 be kind to us all.

Pay Attention!

Photo credit

Please investigate for yourself by following all links below.

Excerpt (teaser):

The FBI paid Twitter $3.5 million to censor conservatives.

The FBI pressured Twitter to give them information that would legally require warrants, though they did not have warrants.

Leading up to the 2020 election, the FBI would eventually hold weekly meetings with Twitter and tell them whose tweets to squelch and which accounts they wanted to be suspended. Almost all were those of conservatives.

The FBI knew the Hunter Biden laptop story was real, they knew it was coming out — weeks before the 2020 election — and they told Big Tech to expect a “Russian disinformation” drop and squelch the story. That means the FBI corrupted the election to help Joe “totally showered with his daughter, Ashley” Biden.

There are so many former FBI employees at Twitter that they have their own Slack channel.  

And... 

...Twitter wasn’t the only Big Tech firm hip-deep in spooks.  The feds had their fingers in Verizon, Reddit, Facebook, Microsoft, and, for some reason, Pinterest....

The rest is here at Why You Need to Start Paying Attention to the "Twitter Files."  Please read all embedded hot links before commenting!

Government corruption galore!

Related reading: Trans-admiral Rachel Levine wants MORE Big Tech censorship to guard against gender-related ‘misinfo'.

Musical Interlude For Christmas Day — And Beyond

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

If you love excellent choral music, cue up the video below and play this 1991 recording as you enjoy Christmas Day and the remainder of this Holy Season. If you have a Smart TV with a sound bar, as Warren and I do, even better!

The Choral Arts Society of Washington has been a choir of the top order, both nationally and internationally, since 1965.  Members of the choir are not paid!  If approved by a grueling audition (fewer than one in four pass the test), these "amateur" musicians sing because they so love music.

(Personal note: I had the privilege of being in the alto section of the Choral Arts Society of Washington from its founding under the baton of Maestro Norman Scribner, until the spring of 1968, when I resigned so that I could prepare to go to college.  I'll be ever grateful to Maestro Scribner on taking a chance on a child of thirteen to be join a choir of adult singers.  Oh, the training I received!)

00:00 JOY TO THE WORLD for brass 00:57 OF THE FATHER'S LOVE BEGOTTEN 04:11 JAUCHZET, FROHLOCKET! | Bach 12:20 TOMORROW SHALL BE MY DANCING DAY | Rutter 15:23 I SAW THREE SHIPS | Vaughn Williams 16:54 THE HOLLY AND THE IVY | Rutter 19:48 FANTASIA ON ‘GREENSLEEVES’ | Vaughn Williams 24:32 IN DULCI JUBILO for organ | Bach 25:46 NOEL NOUVELET 29:12 BOGORODITSE DEVO, RADUYSA | Rachmaninoff 32:14 WELCOME, ALL WONDERS | Dirksen 39:13 VOLTE | Praetorius 39:58 INTONATION for organ | Gabrieli/IN DULCI JUBILO | Scheidt 44:41 O COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL | Willcocks 48:11 DECK THE HALLS | Shaw-Parker 49:21 MARY HAD A BABY | Dawson 52:35 CANDLELIGHT CAROL | Rutter 56:51 STILLE NACHT | Gruber 59:44 ZITHER CAROL | Sargent 1:01:32 BRING A TORCH | Shaw-Parker 1:03:01 WILLIE, TAKE YOUR LITTLE DRUM | Hall 1:04:37 CANTIQUE DE NOEL | Adams 1:08:55 SHEDRYK 1:10:06 A MERRY CHRISTMAS | Warrell 1:11:30 HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING | Willocks

Warren's A Christmas Visitor: A Christmas Tradition Here At This Blog

Posted by Warren

(Originally posted on "Longrange" for Christmas 2004)

4:00 am 12/24/04

There was a knock on my front door which startled me awake. My dogs were barking which required my dire threats to quieten them as I answered the door.

Maybe you have heard of our weather and the unusually cold temperatures and large amount of snow that has fallen in the last 24 hours. I live just south of Interstate 64 in Southern Indiana and you may have seen the news about the closed Interstate and stranded motorists on the national news.

A man in his early fifties, about my own age, stood at the door. He was wearing tennis shoes, jeans, a field jacket and sock hat. His glasses were frosted and his pale white hands and reddened knuckles gave witness that he wore no gloves.

He told me he was lost and asked for directions to a certain address. I told him that he missed his mark by a mile and a half and asked him where his car was. He said he was walking.

I invited him in and sat a chair for him by the warm air from the furnace vent. He was shivering uncontrollably and a faint whiff of alcohol was on his breath. I asked if I could fix him something to eat but he refused and accepted a hot cup of coffee.

My wife talked to him as he warmed himself and I could hear him speaking as I prepared his fresh coffee.

My son heard his voice and came into the living room to sit and listen, and to watch, just in case.

His story unfolded.

He was homeless veteran, he had been sleeping in a box, under a bridge over the Ohio river, several miles to the West. He had decided that it was too cold and he might freeze to death if he didn't find safe shelter with more than a cardboard box to keep him warm. About midnight, he had left his meager possessions and headed for his sisters home, a mile or so from my own home. He had walked past in the blowing snow and the dark but continued walking. He was lost, confused and probably somewhat drunk. Hypothermia can add confusion to even the sober mind.

As he spoke, I realized that he had mental problems as do many of the homeless.

There are places that provide refuge for the indigent, I'm sure he knew, but they don't accept anyone who is intoxicated, which I'm also sure he knew.

He drank his coffee then asked me if I would drive him to his sisters home. He then offered me two dollars. Of course I refused the money but offered to take him where he wanted to go.

I intended to take measures to see after him and he seemed anxious to leave.

As I drove, he told me that his sister was out of town but he had permission to use her house in an emergency. I was worried that he was just lying for reasons of his own but I was determined to see the thing through, even if I had to call the police to ensure his well-being through this cold weather.

As we drove up to the house, there was a porch light on and smoke coming from the chimney vent. Even so, it was apparent that there was no one home, the snow around the house was undisturbed.

I asked him if he was sure he could get in, he said, "Yes, she (his sister) told me where the key is." He reached out his hand, as if for a hand shake, and when I offered mine, pulled my hand to his lips and kissed it saying, "God bless you".

I was profoundly embarrassed but stayed long enough to see him dig around in the snow and find a key, unlock the door and wave goodbye.

I drove home, my thoughts disturbed, by the events that had taken place.

My wife was relieved as I returned and I started preparing food (very early,) for Christmas Eve. As I cut up fruit for salad and prepared the turkey for baking, my son came up behind me, hugged me and kissing my head, said, "Dad, you did a good thing."

Again, I was embarrassed, not by my son's hug and kiss but by his praise.

It was the right thing to do.

My son told me that he tries to help the homeless ones that hang around his place of employment. We spoke of how little we can actually do for them and I was proud of my son for being a good man and doing the right thing.

As I continued to prepare food for Christmas Eve, my thoughts drifted to a couple seeking shelter in Bethlehem and the birth of the Lamb of the New Covenant, and I felt God's Peace.

May God's Peace and blessings be with you all!
Merry Christmas.

Warren

Post Note:

First, please watch "Mary, Did You Know?" as performed by the Pentatonix, an a capella group. I hope that you love it as much as I do:

====

Eighteen years ago, I first posted this true story -yes it actually happened- and I am always asked to brush the cobwebs off and re-post it for Christmas. The post note is changed to reflect my feelings and events.

"Mary, Did You Know?" by the Pentatonix, is my favorite Christmas Carol. If you haven't heard this version before or if you would like to hear it again, I urge you to put on your headphones or good speakers and have a listen. 

Maybe below you could tell me your favorite Carol.
This year, I'm spending Christmas with my new bride, AOW, in our new home. It has been a year of many happy changes.

Christmas Eve, we shall celebrate with one of my brothers and my son and daughter-in-law.

Once again, and to all my friends -and you know who you are!-
Merry Christmas!
Warren

Merry Christmas to all who stop by this site. Be blest!

Spot-On Satire

Senator Rand Paul's Christmas 2022 satire:

🎄 I wrote and performed my own scary version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas 🎄 Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/IHI0uNyW0N

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 20, 2022

Weep for our republic, which is being driven into the ground by the federal-government big spenders ("public servants"). Both parties are guilty of political malpractice!

Christmas Music Interlude

One of my personal favorites, this version arranged for female voices, harp, and cello: 

More selections from Kinga Elżbieta Vnuk HERE.

On Hiatus

COMMENTS ARE CLOSED.