Christmas Gospel Readings: Luke 2

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Christmas Gospel Readings: Luke

The Magnificat

And Mary said,

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers,to Abraham and to his offspring forever."

Christmas Gospel Readings: Matthew


Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

All Things Ill Considered.

Julian Sanchez at Reason - Hit and Run has a nice little piece on conservative window dressing at NPR. The comments that follow the essay hit the nail squarely on the head about the standard fare on NPR's news programs All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

The Cycle of News Topics on ME and ATC (many courtesy of the thoughtful commentators on Sanchez's essay):

• The unfairness of the capitalist system
• The danger to the environment posed by the capitalist system
• The danger to children posed by the capitalist system
• Continuing racism in the US
• Continuing sexism in the US
• The plight of illegal aliens in the US
• Scandals in the (Catholic) Church, mostly about sex
• The latest threat posed by fundamentalist Christians
• Scandals of Republican politicians
• Too little funding for public education
• Inadequate healthcare
• "Progressive" art (almost always the last piece in the morning)
• Israeli persecution of Palestinians
• Crisis in the US Military (scandal, fraud, abuse, some-ism)

Write each of these on a 3x5 card, arrange them in any order you want, and voila! An instant Morning Edition program!

The Labyrinth of Justice.

The fate of "Tookie" Williams draws nigh. The Mainstream Meatpackers have provided an incessant drumbeat of reasons to grant Williams clemency from death. It's also important to recall Williams' brutal deeds. Here is a passage detailing the court record of the first killing by Williams, a convience store clerk named Albert Owens:

When [Williams' accomplices] Darryl and Sims entered the 7-Eleven, Owens put the broom and dust pan down and followed them into the store. Williams and [Williams' accomplice] Coward followed Owens into the store. (TT 2146-2152). As Darryl and Sims walked to the counter area to take money from the register, Williams walked behind Owens and told him "shut up and keep walking." (TT 2154).
While pointing a shotgun at Owens' back, Williams directed him to a back storage room. (TT 2154).

Once inside the storage room, Williams, at gunpoint, ordered Owens to "lay down, mother f*****." Williams then chambered a round into the shotgun. Williams then fired the round into the security monitor. Williams then chambered a second round and fired the round into Owens' back as he lay face down on the floor of the storage room. Williams then fired again into Owens' back. (TT 2162).

...Both of the shotgun wounds were fatal. (TT 2086). The pathologist
who conducted the autopsy on Owens testified that the end of the barrel was "very close" to Owens' body when he was shot. One of the two wounds was described as ". . . a near contact wound." (TT 2078).

After Williams murdered Owens, he, Darryl, Coward and Sims fled in the two cars and returned home to Los Angeles. The robbery netted them approximately $120.00. (TT 2280).

Once back in Los Angeles, Williams asked if anyone wanted to get
something to eat. When Sims asked Williams why he shot Owens, Williams said he "didn't want to leave any witnesses." Williams also said he killed Owens "because he was white and he was killing all white people." (TT 2189, 2193). Later that same day, Williams bragged to his brother Wayne about killing Owens. Williams said, "you should have heard the way he sounded when I shot him." Williams then made gurgling or growling noises and laughed hysterically about Owens' death. (TT 2195-2197)...

The record of the Williams killing of the three members of the Yang family can be found here.

The point here is not to advocate death for Williams. In fact, we at Dead Drifts oppose the death penalty because it represents the ultimate power over an individual the State can acquire and ultimately abuse. But it is the law in California, and the monstrous - and racist - nature of Williams' crimes cannot be dismissed frivolously. If it is the intent of capital punishment to express the outrage of society and the State toward heinous acts, then such an expression can be justified in the Williams case.

Repudiating Intelligent Design.

The real issue behind Intelligent Design is not the clash between science and religion. It is the promotion of a pseudoscientific "theory" in order to advocate for "required" explicit evidence for divine intervention in creation of the universe. The Vatican Observatory's Father George Coyne remarks that the thinking faithful need not subscribe to this notion:

In a June article in the British Catholic magazine The Tablet, Father Coyne reaffirmed God's role in creation, but said science explains the history of the universe. "If they respect the results of modern science, and indeed the best of modern biblical research, religious believers must move away from the notion of a dictator God or a designer God, a Newtonian God who made the universe as a watch that ticks along regularly."

It's been particularly frustrating during the ID brouhaha to hear little from "scientists of faith" who concur with Coyne. The ID controversy is a very old arguement that has been revisted many times in the last few centuries. This problem is partly the fault of ignorant bullhorns, a cliche'-addicted press, and thoughful believers who left the public square on many issues years ago.

Is Civilized Behavior Now In?

Kids at Ann Arbor's Huron High School, repudiating the examples of the shagging-maned, Birkenstocked-footed, parasite-infested, tie-dye moo-moo bedecked neo-hippies and the black-garbed, impaled and tatooed foul-mouthed anarchists that now represent the apex of free expression, have formed a social club to promote civilized behavior, courtesy, and mutual respect.

Red China Ain't a Green China.

In case you don't remember Soviet-style environmentalism, The WaPo reminds us: Chinese Officials Sought to Hide Toxic Spill.

Can you just imagine these jokers with a fully industrialized society? And remember, they're exempt from Kyoto, jes' like that old evil Earth enemy the US of A...

The Entitled Slob.

Dead Drifts has in earlier entries lamented the "slobifying" of culture and manners. George Will has a summary of our complaint.

I'll Say Anything if You'll Say You Love Me.

The Jackass-in-Chief of the Jackass Party, William J. "Love Me, Please" Clinton, pandered to a Dubai crowd by asserting the United States made a "big mistake" when it invaded Iraq. He then bathed in the adulation of his audience, which, sadly for this man, are what his actions always seem to be about.

I think that an Iraqi citizen who lost a loved one to Saddam's terror during Slick's eight years in office may direct blame in a different direction.

W in Wonderland.

President Bush finally responds to the incessant pounding by the Left and Mainstream Meatpackers on Iraq - and is now accused of (recklessly) escalating the "war of words". What? He's been called liar, Cheney-Rove-Haliburton puppet, Hitler, Dumb as a Stump - and his words are escalating?

Oh, If We Could Tax Stupidity!

Today congresscritters will express their outrage at Big Oil's criminal profitteering from this summer's oil squeeze. You know Big Oil - you've got lots of their stock in your 401(K), and their profits will help pay your bills in your retirement. They're also the big corporations that took it on the chin when crude fell to $15 a barrel in the early '90s oil glut.

You'll see plenty of pyrotechnics today on Capitol Hill, but little substance. It's not Big Oil's fault that Ford, GM and the UAW have been caught completely flat-footed in hybrid vehicle development. Then again, if you remove 3% inflation for twenty years from the price of a gallon of gas you get a price that is less than what we paid in the early '80s. Unlike, for example, college tuition. Again, today's congressional hearing is not about substance, rather it is about theatrics and pandering.

Happy TR's Birthday!

27 October 1858. Have a Bully weekend!

A Man's Triumph.

Men have circumnavigated the globe, explored the seas, air, and space, built magnificent structures reaching to the heavens, and conquered diseases. Yet these triumphs pale to that of an ordinary man surveying his newly cleaned and ordered garage. Time for a victory cigar!

Good Night, and Good Luck.

George Clooney has created a masterpiece, a visually beautiful film, with a superb screenplay. The smoky jazz score wings one back to the 1950s. David Strathairn is magnificent as Murrow, and Frank Langela is a powerful co-star as Bill Paley. Ah - all those lovely cigarettes! Can we be anywhere but in the glorious '50s?

"Good Night and Good Luck" has relevance to our present condition well beyond cliche' Patriot Act allusions. As I was watching the film, I thought of the Dan Rather, Eason Jordan, and Jason Blair affairs, Bill Bennett and the march of PC across college campuses. The "Report it Now" dovetail blog is, sadly, skewed itself: "responsibile" journalism appears to be ...left-leaning "social justice" journalism, and certainly not found in the conservative strata of the blogosphere.

Was McCarthy wrong? There were some communists and communist sympathizers within government. But McCarthy was a juggernaut who exploited the legitmate concern over communism, and as William F. Buckley has observed (the same Buckley that the film's screenplay recalls defending McCarthy) "..McCarthy did more damage to his cause than benefit."

Great movie - find some good friends of a variety of political stripes, go see the movie, then find a damn good coffee shop and argue 'till dawn. Of course, your communist friends will be remorseful that come the Revolution all of the rest of you will need to rounded up, shot or perhaps "reeducated" for the good of the people.

It's That Special Season.

Fall is the trees on fire, crisp air, cider, hunting, football, and...public radio begathons. This morning, Ira Glass, host of NPR's This American Life?, declared that the average American spends over $200 a year supporting the production of TV and radio programs, "many [programs] that you despise". So, Ira suggested, why not give some money to support NPR? But, dear Ira, what if the programming we despise includes much of the NPR programming?

But wait, there is a solution: do give to your local public radio station, but insist that your contribution go only towards local programming production. As we've discussed in Dead Drifts, NPR isn't really public radio, it's a corporation that takes public money (either by direct solicitiation or by legislative lobbying) and then decides for themselves what to fund for production. I don't remember ever getting a ballot from NPR to vote for a program, nor does the NPR website feature a "what kind of program would you like to hear?" form (correction - there is a suggestion box, buried deep in the site). I know what I want - let's rebroadcast the audio from the old Firing Line programs!

Hurricane Delphi.

Delphi Corporation has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This, coupled with the return of the Ford prodigal son Visteon, is very bad news for the Michigan economy. It may signal that the business model assumed by the huge network of automobile parts suppliers, that has provided wealth and prosperity to many of the working people of this state for generations, is now inoperative. The Detroit News documents Delphi's woes and where things may go.

Eyes on the Ground.

Book TV recently featured a panel discussion featuring Michael Goldfarb, Anthony Shadid, Kayla Williams, and Steve Mumford. All have written first-hand accounts of their experience in post-Saddam Iraq. Certainly none of them would be considered cheerleaders for the White House's post-war administration of Iraq. But in response to a question by a strawhatted antiwar protestor from the audience, who fished for a denounciation of the war and a call for an immediate withdrawl by American forces, they were resolutely committed to staying the course. Their replies had a common theme - a moral obligation to the people of Iraq to stay and finish the job and to give them a chance to reap the benefits of democratic civilization. Perhaps there has been progress in journalism since the their celebrated abandonment of Vietnam.

Regarding Bennett, III.

William Bennett appeared in Bakersfield, Californina, and addressed the controversy regarding his recent remarks on abortion. The Los New York Angeles Associated Presstimes article on the appearance gave the essential account by the Mainstream Meatpackers:

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) -- Former Education Secretary William Bennett on Saturday blamed the news media for distorting his remarks about aborting black babies, saying he had intended to make ''a bad argument in order to put it down.''...

...Dozens of residents marched in protest outside the convention center where Bennett spoke, many saying they wanted to make sure he did not feel welcome in their community. Before the speech, local black leaders met with Bennett for an hour.

''He heard our outrage and our hurt, but he didn't say he was sorry,''
said Irma Carson, a Bakersfield councilwoman. ''We didn't take (his comment) out of context, because there's no context in which those comments would fit.''

Many in the largely white crowd attending Saturday's conference said it was clear to them that Bennett was using an extreme example that did not represent his views to make a point.

Doretha Jones said it was ''obvious'' that Bennett's radio remarks were ''just a discussion of a possibility that could be espoused by human beings who don't have any feelings for babies or for blacks.''

Bennett was education secretary under President Reagan and director of drug control policy under President George H.W. Bush.

A fragment of a single sentence is actually quoted as to what Bennett said at this venue. There is more as to what was said by the angry mobs outside the convention center. A quick check of the web indicated that this was the only account of the appearance that was circulating. Given the stir that his original comments created, one would think that providing an extended quotation might be more enlightening than what the AP wants to say about it. And just to make sure you haven't forgotten, Bennett is a card-carrying member of the Reagan-Bush Cabal.

Regarding Bennett, II.

A good example of the specious reasoning that the Left has applied to Bill Bennett's recent remarks can be found in the Tapped online posting at the Amercian Prospect. For example, Garance Franke-Ruta claims to have read Bill Bennett's mind:

...Implicit in Bennett's statement is the assumption that African Americans contribute only criminality to America, and that if he could he wave his magic wand and bring African Americans' tenure in this nation to an end, that is all that would disappear. That's what's offensive about his statement.

Franke-Ruta also feels the need to tell us all in a pedogogic blather would the horrifying consquences would be for a city like Detroit if the Bennett/Rove/DeLay/Haliburton scheme were to come to pass.

By Franke-Ruta's remarks I realize that a Philosophy and Critical Reasoning distribution requirement must be reinstated at all colleges and universities. Perhaps we could add to the No Child Left Behind program?