2016 Is Here

Worth remembering and resolving to do — even as we, willingly or unwillingly, become more and more immersed in election-year politics:

From Arteide

More of Artists Gives Old Books a Second Life @ this Facebook page.

Remember When?

(For politics, please scroll down)

New Year's Eve in days gone by:

But now...

Cackling Hillary

Caveat: this blog post is not an endorsement of Donald Trump for President.


Hillary is unlikable on so many levels. Nevertheless, every single Democrat in the land will probably cast the ballot for her. Go figure!

Disneyland-Bound Muslim "Family": The Rest Of The Story

See UK Muslim Family Who Blamed Islamophobia and Trump for Disney Travel Ban Linked to Taliban and Al Qaeda.

According to this YouTube link:

Video...ATLANTIC JIHAD: The Untold Story of White Slavery

One of Abraham Lincoln's three favorite books was Sufferings in Africa: The Astonishing Account Of A New England Sea Captain Enslaved By North African Arabs by Captain James Riley. It was long a bestseller and published in 1817.

Something rarely discussed in today's history books, but back when I was in school, we covered much of this information in our World History classes (Apologies for the video's length, but the video is worth your time.  Please watch):

Video: Dog's Best Day - Caitlyn

(For today's political post, see my post today at Infidel Bloggers Alliance: The Islamic State — 21st Century Burke And Hare)

Enjoy this different kind of heartwarming Christmas story (hat tip to MFS-Viral Vids):

Merry Christmas!

Jon McNaughton's The Nativity

The music of "Silent Night" was written in 1818 by the church organist Franz Xaver Gruber of St Nicholas Church in the village of Oberndorf bei Salzburg for the poem "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht," written in 1816 by Father Joseph Mohr.  The piece was first performed for the Christmas Eve mass in 1818. The song was sung simultaneously in English and German by troops

During the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914 — an unofficial truce rebuffed by the officers but effected by the soldiers themselves — this beloved Christmas carol was sung simultaneously in English and German as it was the one carol that soldiers on both sides of the battle lines knew.

The version below was filmed on location at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City:


From the YouTube blurb:

Meaning / Story behind the song:

Silent Night, Holy Night. All is calm, all is bright!

Sometimes it seems there is little in this world today that is silent, holy, calm, or bright. However noisy, unholy, frenetic, or dark it may appear to be, music such as the immortal hymn, “Silent Night,” carries with it a feeling that can remind us there is still an abundance of virtue all around us. There is hope and beauty. And there is light.

To properly paint this feeling we collaborated with none other than the tenor legend, Plácido Domingo, whose sublime vocal gift is rivaled by his kindness and sincerity. It was a joy to work with him. He is an artist whose illustrious, exalted career has not snuffed out his sweet disposition or his genuine love for the art of music. Joining us are the children from the Cathedral School Choristers, whose pure faith proclaim the profound message of this hymn. We filmed this during an East coast tour in the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, one of the largest cathedrals in the world, a colossal monument to the greatest gift ever given, the Son of God.

May your Christmas this year be filled with serenity, spirituality, peace, and felicity.

Merry Christmas from The Piano Guys!

Another version...the Vienna Choir Boys performing "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht":


Artist's explanation for the painting at the top of this blog post:

Relaxation Time

You can following this excellent advice if you are ready for Christmas 2016:

Cameo And The Christmas Tree

(Re-post and a Christmas tradition here at Always On Watch)

With thanks to Stogie, who made the graphic for this post in 2011! Click directly on the picture to enlarge it:


I wrote the story below the fold in 2005. Because Cameo, born in July of 2001, is now a senior cat of 14.5 years, she has mellowed. Somewhat, anyway. But the memories of those bygone days of Cameo's terrorizing the Christmas tree still bring a smile to our faces. I hope that the anecdote will bring a smile to your face, too.

Christmas Memories

One of my Facebook finds:

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

For this fourth Sunday of Advent 2015, a lively version of one of the most beautiful choruses ever written (from George F. Handel's 1742 oratorio Messiah):


All the words of Messiah are taken directly from the King James Version of the Bible.  This chorus uses the words of Isaiah 9:6.

Personal note:

"For unto Us a Child Is Born" was the first chorus I ever sang when, by audition, I was chosen at the age of 13 to be an alto member of the Choral Arts Society of Washington, under the baton of Maestro Norman Scribner (full biography HERE).  God bless Norman for taking a chance on an ignorant kid like me to give me the opportunity to join a premiere choral group and open up for me a world of music I'd never have known otherwise!

Political Reality

HERE is the reality about our political Parties in 2015 (by Epaminondas at Infidel Bloggers Alliance):

Dear Paul Ryan, I voted for you in 2012, and …

so I feel I have some kind of investment in what you do.

My vote for Mr. Romney and you was in no small part because of your reasoning on budgeting, debt, and the future of the Republic.

However right now, all I see is that the maximum effort,, if that is what it is, is merely to make things worse somewhat more slowly.

Now, if what we are doing is unsustainable (as I believe it is, and as many of you with the appellation “R” have explained), and you have no taste for sticking your flag in the ground, or don’t want to, please explain to me WHY I should not vote for Bernie, or HRC, and thereby vote myself the most free stuff possible, since we’re all going to hell anyway?

Please don’t tell me things would be different with a republican president. First, we may not have one, and second, that president has to operate on the principle that we can’t go on like this, or there will be nothing for anyone.

You have convinced me, NOW, that there may be no point in my vote for an R since I see no R who will act out of conviction for CHANGE. REAL OBJECTIVE CHANGE in the way the republic has been going.

We’re all watching very carefully out here, and I know I am not the only one thinking this way.

The budget you created and the time to review it you set CYNICALLY, at 3 days, for 2009 pages requires a congressman to read 2/3 of the Lord of the RIngs Trilogy every day and COMPREHEND IT.

Sounds a lot like, ‘you have to pass it to find out what’s in it’ without the quote.

I don’t dislike bipartisan action, but suppose bipartisan action will not save the republic.

That you did not include additional provisions over entrance to the USA of those of ANY nation, or other entity which harbors ill intentions towards our civilians is ASTONISHING, and recalls govts like those of Stanley Baldwin.

SO WHAT if Obama vetoes it? It is JUST THAT kind of issue for you to PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON DEFENSE which causes us to wonder if we should vote ourselves the treasury and just put another turkey breast, and brisket in the smoker the morning of the game.

After all, YOU DON’T CARE. Not enough to RAISE HELL.

You can’t IMAGINE how carefully you and the others are being scrutinized every day.

Don’t count on my vote.

Additional reading: GOP Sells America Down the River.

Photo credit

Back In The Day

(For politics, please scroll down. Active thread below)

With a hat tip to I Love Dino Martin for this joyful video (The Dean Martin Show, 12/21/1967):

Depravity!

Please read the two articles below:

1. ISIS Issues Fatwa Calling For Mass Killing Of American Dogs And Puppies.

2. ISIS judges order children with Down Syndrome and other disabilities to be killed in chilling echo of the Nazis.

Open Thread

So, what's on your mind?

A link to get this thread started: Man Sues NYC’s Metropolitan Museum Over “Racist” Depiction Of Jesus With White Skin.

Please opine on the topic of your choice according to the parameters below:

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

Enjoy some easy-listening Christmas music, arranged and conducted by American composer and conductor Henry Mancini (1924-1994), winner of four Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, and twenty Grammy Awards, as well as a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995:



An original Christmas piece composed by Henry Mancini (released in 1996):


[Henry Mancini Web Site]

A Brokered GOP Convention?

The GOP — ever able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Apparently, Donald Trump, with his soaring popularity in spite of his many controversial statements, has the GOP establishment running scared.

Kitty Christmas Joy

(For politics, please scroll down)

The story of these kitties:

Hug-Me Muslim Arrested For Bomb Threat

Another convert to Islam — this jihadist wannabe in the UK:

From Mail Online:

A Convert To Islam? (Updated)

UPDATE: Gun supplier in California attack connected to shooters’ family by marriage.

ABC News photo purported to be an actual photo of Enrique Marquez, Jr.:

The guy who is apparently being questioned about helping the San Bernardino jihadists to obtain guns

Just the other day, I told a friend that I thought that Enrique Marquez, Jr., could be a convert to Islam. My intuition may be proven correct. Time will tell.

Personal Update

(For politics, please scroll down)

On Monday, December 7, 2015, Tammy, Mr. AOW, and I ventured into D.C. to visit the National Museum of American History. The first exhibit we visited was The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag That Inspired the National Anthem. Mr. AOW and I have visited that exhibit before, but Tammy had not. Interesting that there were no Muslimas in hijab at that museum!

Michael Raymond Wetzel: Father Of Six

Filmed on Sunday, November 29, 2015 (the first Sunday of Advent 2015):

Wetzel Family Advent Candle Lighting_Hope from Church of the Woods on Vimeo.
Mike Wetzel, a Christian believer, was slaughtered in the name of Allah on December 2, 2015, at a Christmas party at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California.

Obituary HERE.

The 14 victims of the San Bernardino jihad massacre:

Which religion is the religion of peace: Christianity or Islam?

Which group is the greater threat today? Christians or Muslims?

Related reading: Story asserts there were only 13 innocent victims. Guess #14 deserved it?

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

For the second Sunday of Advent 2015, the twelve voices of Chanticleer:




About Chanticleer, which debuted on June 27, 1978.

The group's home page is HERE.

On November 28, 2015, I had the the opportunity to attend A Chanticleer Christmas. What a delight! A feast for the ears!

Open Thread

So, what's on your mind?

Please opine on the topic of your choice according to the parameters below:

Fearing Islamophobia

Political correctness — perhaps compounded by see-something, say-something-get sued — has resulted in the slaughter of 14 people in San Bernardino, California.

Devout Muslim who traveled this year to Saudi Arabia and returned with a Muslima wife.

American born, Farook was a county employee who worked for the health department.

Explosive devices were also found at the scene (Inland Regional Center).

Political correctness in a nutshell:

Intermittent Comment Moderation

(Please scroll down for recent blog postings. Active threads)

Commenters who frequent this blog: "AOW, why are you using comment moderation so much?"

The West's Destruction

There is a self-hatred in the West that can be considered only as something pathological. The West attempts in a praiseworthy manner to open itself completely to the comprehension of external values, but it no longer loves itself; it now only sees what is despicable and destructive in its own history, while it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure there. — Pope Benedict XVI

Important reading...M-Day: The Invasion of the West.

Then, there's this, ongoing in institutions of "education" throughout the West: Shakespeare is evil because was white and Eurocentric.


Is the waning of the West inevitable — and deserved?  The West does seem to be filled with self-loathing.

Muslim Reaction To Obama's Designating Climate Change As The World's Greatest Threat

This is priceless:

Is he insane?...He's on drugs? It doesn't make sense. What did you expect from an affirmative action President? This guy has never served in the military[,] never worked a day in his life.

Much more in the May 2015 video below (SPEW ALERT! Set down your beverage before watching!):


The clip of Obama speaking was filmed at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy's commencement in May 2015.

Obama The Traitor: His Plan To Defeat ISIS All Smoke And Mirrors

Obama is living up to his Islamic middle name: Hussein.

The entire November 27 article in the Telegraph (emphases mine):

US President Barack Obama  Photo: EPA

Barack Obama plan to defeat Isil dismissed by US intelligence experts: Former and serving diplomats and intelligence officials tell the Telegraph that President Obama's hopes of defeating Islamic State are based on "smoke and mirrors"

By Ruth Sherlock, Washington and Richard Spencer, Middle East Editor
7:00AM GMT 27 Nov 2015

President Barack Obama's attempts to destroy Isil have been derided by Western diplomats and his own former intelligence officials.

Mr Obama has insisted that the United States will not change the strategy that he said was already “containing” Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and would work eventually to “degrade and destroy” it.

But in a series of candid interviews with the Telegraph, Western diplomats and intelligence officials - current and former - have angrily dismissed the approach as a “smoke and mirrors” public relations exercise founded on little substantive or effective action.

“It’s smoke and mirrors and that is the dirty little secret,” said Derek Harvey, one of Mr Obama’s senior former intelligence officials, a Middle East specialist, who said he resigned from his job in frustration at the administration's handling of the conflict.

Many members of both the American and the European intelligence and diplomatic apparatus say the chaos in Iraq and Syria is caused by Mr Obama’s determination to press on with an “exit strategy” from the region, signalled by the withdrawal from Iraq.

The intelligence official said this had created a sense of apathy, with departments feeling they were being judged by how much they were focused on “detaching” from the Middle East, rather than on the success of the policies they were actually implementing there.

Experts in the region had also been withdrawn in case they concentrated on achieving results.

“Who is in charge?” Mr Harvey said. “Where is the intelligence community? It is totally broken on this.”

Two active intelligence sources told the Telegraph that there was a sense of disarray inside the various intelligence agencies.

Official policy is to defend the strategy of gradual disengagement and limited military action against Isil, saying that more direct options might have a “satisfying” immediate visible effect, but would prove damaging in the long run.

That policy depends on American “containing” Isil, as Mr Obama claimed shortly before the attacks in Paris, co-ordinated by Isil, which claimed 130 lives.

“Isil have expanded geographically to eight other countries, taking advantage of civil wars in Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan and so on,” the intelligence source, who served in Baghdad at the height of the post-invasion period, said. “They are taking advantage in places where there is lack of effective governance and highly tribalised societies.

“We have not done anything to really hurt them. Even in the areas they have been formerly pushed out of, they continue to operate covertly and they mostly control the largest Sunni Muslim cities outside of Baghdad.”

Diplomats privately agree that a campaign of relatively sporadic air strikes alone cannot be the road to success.

“Isil is not the homogenous block they want us to believe it is,” one very senior Western diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous, said. “If you look at military tactics it’s clear that it’s not just one entity, so you cannot have one answer.”

Another diplomat said Mr Obama had allowed the idea to become prevalent that taking on Isil was a separate issue from countering the Assad regime, which could be left till later - even though that was not American or European policy.

The diplomat said it was not possible to rationally separate Isil from the Syrian regime. He said they were two mutually dependent evils.

Diplomats and analysts have been arguing for years now that the survival of the regime and its bombing of civilian areas drive support from the less successful Western-backed rebel groups to jihadists like al-Qaeda’s branch, Jabhat al-Nusra, and Isil.

Meanwhile, Damascus has itself remained a key funding source for Isil as it buys up black-market oil produced in wells under the extremists’ control.

A key problem remains that the current rules of engagement limit the US in what it can legally do militarily. Under the current authorities, it “takes months” to close down bank accounts belonging to Isil jihadists when they are discovered.

It also limits the US ability to fight against the jihadists’ powerful propaganda: “Why is the hacking group Anonymous able to take down 5,000 Isil Twitter accounts and the government not? It’s an authority issue," Mr Harvey, the former official, said.

The Obama administration’s legal authorisation for the use of military force against Isil derives from measures passed by congress in 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

White House officials sought a new authorisation from Congress earlier this year that would allow it to better tailor rules of engagement and strategy to combat Isil, on and off the battlefield, but it was blocked by Republicans.

Whether any strategy that is envisaged by any side will do more than send an ever-increasing number of bombs on to an enemy that has shown itself capable of “sucking up” long-range attacks with relative ease so far is another question.

Think about the progression over the course of less than two weeks.

On November 12, Barack Hussein Obama tells George Stephanopoulos that ISIS is definitely "contained" and, in essence, not an existential threat because the Moslem savages are not gaining strength.

Then on November 13 come the Paris jihad slaughters.

Next, on November 21, Brussels, the headquarters of NATO and the seat of the European Union, goes on lockdown for several days.

On November 25, Barack Hussein Obama addresses the American people to tell us "the combined resources of our military, our intelligence, and our homeland security agencies are on the case" and "be vigilant."

Our intelligence agencies are "on the case"?  Really?  Remember this from the linked article?

“Where is the intelligence community? It is totally broken on this.”

Musical Interlude

(Please scroll down for politics)

For this first Sunday of Advent 2015, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, performed by The Choir of Queens' College Cambridge:


Latin lyrics:

From The Mouth Of The Enemy

Thousands of migrants emerge from the hold of a ferry onto the streets of Greece's capital, Athens 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3220341/We-t-cope-tide-Europe-s-despairing-leaders-bring-border-controls-free-movement-zone-brink-collapse.html#ixzz3klI0bdj6
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

The jihadists have exploited and will continue to exploit the Schengen Agreement — the death knell of Europe.

From Reuters (November 27, 2015):

Holiday Humor

I prefer eggnog "with" when I celebrate this auspicious moment:

Since turning 60, with each passing year, I decorate less and less. But I'm not quite as minimalist as the above graphic. Yet, that is.

PSA: "Microcoft Calling" Scam

We interrupt Thanksgiving to bring you this message: Indian "Tech Support" Scam Catches My Wife. Read it. Now. Don't fall for this scam!

I've gotten this call, and so has former blogger The Merry Widow.

Thanksgiving Break

(Please scroll down for other material)

In spite of the grim political situation confronting us both worldwide and on our home soil, we do have much for which to give thanks:

American Socialism

True or false?

Open Thread

So, what's on your mind?

Please opine on the topic of your choice according to the parameters below:

Bill Maher On Bad Ideas

Bill Maher makes the obvious point that the phrase "shared values" doesn't apply to certain Muslims. Watch the female moonbat object to what Maher is saying:

Humor Break

IF ONLY!

Fires everywhere!

Andrew Neil's Rant

Andrew Ferguson Neil lets fly and calls the Islamic State "Islamist Scumbags":

Flashback: Iraqi Refugees In 2011

Likely, Obama will unilaterally open the floodgates to the Syrian "refugees" — never mind that in 2011 he significantly curtailed the flow of Iraqi refugees because of national security concerns.

From the Navy Times back then:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has dramatically slowed the resettlement of Iraqi refugees — including former U.S. military translators and embassy workers — in the midst of growing concerns about al-Qaida's potential ties with some asylum seekers, an administration official says.

More information at the Federalist.

So why is Obama so determined to bring in the Syrian refugees even after the recent jihad attack on Paris?  So detemined that he Tweeted this on November 18:

Slamming the door in the face of refugees would betray our deepest values. That's not who we are. And it's not what we're going to do.

An executive order even if Congress passes a refugee bill over Obama's veto?

If so, checkmate.

John Kerry's "Rationale"

From CBS News, November 17, 2015:

Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday suggested that the "rationale" for the terrorist attack against the satirical French publication Charlie Hebdo, which left 12 people dead in January, is more understandable than any rationale for last week's attacks in Paris.

"There's something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, and I think everybody would feel that," he said in remarks at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. "There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of - not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, 'Okay, they're really angry because of this and that.'..."

The full text of Kerry's statement is HERE at the U.S. Department of State's web site.

This creature is the U.S. Secretary of State?

The Refusal Map

Click directly on the image to enlarge it:

The list of 24:

Steps To The Caliphate

"Arabs, rise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you.” — Hajj Amin al Husseini on German Nazi radio on March 1, 1944.

Seven steps to the caliphate, from this 2005 article based on material from Jordanian journalist Fouad Hussein, back when Al-Qaida was the primary Islamic threat (hat tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance):

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

Claude Debussy's La cathédrale engloutie:

[about La cathédrale engloutie]

Jihad In Paris (Timeline Added)

The unfolding of a new model for jihad: striking multiple and proximate soft targets simultaneously.

Islamic terrorism in the City of Lights.

Multiple sites attacked.

Hostages held and being murdered one by one in Bataclan, the concert hall.

National borders closed.

France in a state of national emergency.

Fox News is reporting that a suspect arrested has told the police, "I am from ISIS." He has also said that he is from Syria and is on a mission for ISIS. This is the only arrest so far reported.

More coverage at France 24 and BBC News.

ADDENDUM

Paris terror attacks timeline: What happened where and when on night of terror and confusion in French capital.

Bring 'Em Home!

The video below is a must-watch! Yes, the video is a bit long but worth every minute.  Set down your beverage first, though; otherwise, you will have to buy a new keyboard. Keely Mullen attends Northeastern University.

Collegiate Tantrums

Have special little snowflakes, ever fretful about microaggressions, taken over the Ivy Leagues.

Halloween 2015 at Yale University

Student C: It is not about creating an intellectual space! It is not! Do you understand that? It’s about creating a home here! You are not doing that. You’re going against that.

Please watch the following brief video (1 minute, 20 seconds):


Full transcript HERE.

Back story from the YouTube link (hot links added):

On November 5, 2015, students at Yale University gathered on campus to protest an email sent by Associate Master of Silliman College Erika Christakis on October 30. Christakis’ email responded to a separate email from the school’s Intercultural Affairs Council that asked students to be thoughtful about the cultural implications of their Halloween costumes.

Christakis [advocating freedom of expression with regard to Halloween costumes] argued that the council’s email [emphasizing sensitivities with regard to Halloween costumes] was infantilizing and threatened free expression on campus. There was also a concern that because the email was long, detailed, had 13 signatories, and links to acceptable and unacceptable costumes, it would not be interpreted as a suggestion. But rather it had the “color of law” implicit within it.

FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff was on Yale’s campus during the protests on November 5 and captured this footage on his cell phone of Christakis’ husband, Nicholas, meeting with the protestors. By the time Lukianoff arrived on the scene, Nicholas had been speaking with the protesters for about an hour.

The Washington Post reports that students have begun to organize formal demands for the resignation of Christakis and her husband.

Additional reading (worth your time):

(1) The Coddling of the American Mind: In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for education—and mental health (from the Atlantic)

(2) Mizzou And Yale Show Why It’s Time To Burn Universities To The Ground (from the Federalist).

Veterans Day 2015

(Discussion thread for the GOP Debate of November 10, 2015, is HERE)

The Fourth GOP Debate

Parse the Fox Business Network event — live or later — in the comments section of this blog post.

Pre-debate comments are also welcome.

Please adhere to the following parameters:

Not Worthy Of Trust

Hillary's record speaks for itself:

From ABC News:

Former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, have sent $28,000 worth of household goods back to Washington after questions arose over whether the items were intended as personal gifts or donations to the White House.

“We have been informed that it is being shipped back, and the National Park Service is ready to receive it, take possession of it and take custody of it,” Jim McDaniel, the National Park Service’s liaison to the White House, said Wednesday.

“The property is being returned to government custody until such time that the issues can be resolved. It may well turn out that that property is rightly the personal property of the Clintons.”

Giving Back

After they were criticized for taking $190,000 worth of china, flatware, rugs, televisions, sofas and other gifts with them when they left, the Clintons announced last week that they would pay for $86,000 worth of gifts, or nearly half the amount.

Their latest decision to send back $28,000 in gifts brings to $114,000 the value of items the Clintons have either decided to pay for or return.....

Read the rest HERE.

Once a thief always a thief.

Nevertheless, many of the electorate want the Clintons to move back into the White House and will support Hillary for President — no matter what.

Recent video filmed in Alexandria, Virginia:

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny) by Johannes Brahms:


From Musical Musings:

Tit For Tat

Excellent response to this sneering speech by Obama (hat tip to Woodsterman for the graphic below):

Your Interpretation, Please

Photo from police-car dash cam

From the Dallas Morning News:

Dorothy Bland: I was caught ‘walking while black.’

Police chief: No, officers were doing their jobs.

Please read this link and watch the video.


The Washington Post calls the video a racial ‘Rorschach test’.

Your interpretation?

Obama's DOJ Invades The Girls' Shower

Perhaps most ironic of all is this statement from the Chicago Tribune article cited in full below the fold: The student...does not want to be identified for privacy reasons!

Apparently, this one student's privacy concerns trump the privacy concerns of all the other students.

It's now the law of the land — a civil right — that transgenders who have male genitalia must be given full access to the girls' showers and the girls' locker rooms in a public school.

From the Daily Caller:

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has ordered a taxpayer-funded school district in the suburbs of Chicago to allow a male transgender student who dresses like a girl and otherwise identifies as female to use the girls locker room and shower on school premises.

The feds delivered the edict against Township High School District 211 in Palatine, Ill. on Monday [November 2, 2015], the Chicago Tribune reports.

The Department of Education has given the school district one month to let the student use the girls locker room. If the district does not capitulate, it risks losing federal funding....

The complete Chicago Tribune article is below the fold. Emphases mine.

Russian Airbus A321

(Two posts today. Please scroll down)

Wreckage from Russian Airbus A321

Terrorism is no longer being ruled out — as first was the case.

According to Russian airline official rules out technical error as cause of crash, a Washington Post article dated November 2, 2015:

Ancient Wisdom

There is nothing new under the sun:

Partisans are a plague upon the land. They are incapable of considering evidence.

To discuss...Is there a remedy for this problem? If so, what is that remedy?

Related reading at Free Thinke's blog: FORMER CONGRESSMAN [TOM TANCREDO] "I’M QUITTING GOP."

Reminder For Today

Today marks the return to Standard Time for most time zones in the United States. Did you remember to set your clocks back an hour?

Another reminder:

Musical Interlude For Halloween Weekend

The Memento Mori Dance of Death (1493) by Michael Wolgemut, from the Liber chronicarum by Hartmann Schedel

Franz Liszt's Totentanz (Dance Of Death):

About the composer Franz Liszt and the symphonic poem Totentanz (from Musical Musings):

This Week On The Gathering Storm

(For other material, please scroll down)

If you have an interest in the migrant crisis in Europe, listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, hosted by WC and me at noon Pacific Time EST, on October 30, 2015, when our guest is UK author and blogger Mark Alexander of A New Dark Age Is Dawning. The show is also available later via podcast.

The RNC Clutches The Reins

Remember when, months ago, Donald Trump said something about the nomination process having to be fair, or he'd give the GOP a lot of grief? The process hasn't been fair for a long time, and we're fooling ourselves if we think otherwise.

From Time (August 8, 2014):

...RNC Chairman Reince Priebus announced a 13-member committee of Republican officials who will set rules for the GOP’s debates during the 2016 cycle, including selecting venues, debate partners, and even moderators. The committee will be led by Priebus ally Steve Duprey of New Hampshire, who was close to both Mitt Romney and John McCain. The committee is dominated by Priebus loyalists.

[...]

Any candidate who participates in a debate that is unsanctioned by the RNC’s committee will be barred from appearing in any of the authorized debates, according to the party’s rules.

The RNC debate committee has yet to determine the qualification standards for candidates to earn a spot on the stage.

Shall we take bets as to whether or not Reince Priebus and Karl Rove are best buddies? See Gestapo Cartel Of Karl Rove, Reince Priebus, and Establishment Republicans (September 10, 2015):

Tales From The Classroom

("Tales from the Classroom" is a feature posted occasionally here at this blog.  All tales are true and present matters about which I have personal knowledge.  The following tale helps to explain why I love working with classes of homeschoolers. The parental support I typically receive is the antithesis of the reactions my public school and private school colleagues often encounter in a similar situation.

The students in my high school Advanced Composition classes write timed essays once a month.  These timed essays are completed in class within 25-30 minutes and are handwritten drafts of approximately 300 words; I mark these essays and provide "suggestions" for improvement.  Five weeks later, the students must submit revisions which require expansion (450-600 words).

On the first day of class this 2015-2016, the students received this timed-essay prompt, used by College Board on January 2015 SAT: