Capitol Hill Blue Forums Hot Topics & Breaking News The RoundTable Round Table for Christmas Day, 2009

Christmas Day greetings and welcome to the Round Table for Friday, December 25, 2009.
Read all about the history of Christmas[/size]



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Grab a cup and relax

Events

* 800 – Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.
* 1000 – The foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
* 1066 – William the Conqueror is crowned as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
* 1100 – Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned as the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity.
* 1130 – Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned as the first King of Sicily.
* 1223 – St. Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene.
* 1261 – John IV Lascaris of the restored Eastern Roman Empire is deposed and blinded by orders of his co-ruler Michael VIII Palaeologus.
* 1553 – Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeats the Spanish conquistadors and executes the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia.
* 1599 – The city of Natal, Brazil is founded.
* 1643 – Christmas Island founded and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Ship Company vessel, the Royal Mary.
* 1776 – George Washington and his army cross the Delaware River to attack the Kingdom of Great Britain's Hessian mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey.
* 1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
* 1837 – Battle of Lake Okeechobee: United States forces defeat Seminole Native Americans.
* 1868 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers.
* 1914 – World War I: Known as the Christmas truce, German and British troops on the Western Front temporarily cease fire.
* 1926 – Emperor Taishō of Japan dies. His son, Prince Hirohito succeeds him as Emperor Shōwa.
* 1932 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills ~70,000 people.
* 1941 – Admiral Chester W Nimitz arrives at Pearl Harbor to assume command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet
* 1941 – World War II: Battle of Hong Kong ends, beginning the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong.
* 1947 – The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.
* 1950 – The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on April 11, 1951.
* 1963 – Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots are forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.
* 1965 – The Yemeni Nasserite Unionist People's Organisation is founded in Taiz
* 1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans Earth Injection (TEI) maneouver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
* 1968 – 42 Dalits are burned alive in Kilavenmani village, Tamil Nadu, India, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages by Dalit labourers.
* 1973 – The ARPANET crashes when a programming bug causes all ARPANET traffic to be routed through the server at Harvard University, causing the server to freeze.
* 1974 – Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Northern Territory Australia.
* 1974 – Marshall Fields drives a vehicle through the gates of the White House, resulting in a four-hour standoff.
* 1977 – Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat.
* 1989 – Nicolae Ceauşescu, former communist dictator of Romania and his wife Elena are condemned to death and executed under a wide range of charges.
* 1990 – The first successful trial run of the system which would become the World Wide Web.
* 1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.
* 2003 – The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express Spacecraft on December 19, disappears shortly before its scheduled landing.
* 2004 – Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.

Since there are more than enough places to find Christmas music today, here are some musical talents born this date:
# 1946 – Jimmy Buffett, American singer and songwriter

You didn't think I would pick THAT song did you?

# 1949 – Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira, Singer and icon of the Brazilian music


# 1954 – Annie Lennox, Scottish singer


# 1971 – Dido, English singer



And finally, in case you were getting sleepy:
# 1976 – Armin van Buuren, Dutch DJ & Producer




Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all that jazz

Thanks, Phil! Merry Christmas to all! Just enough snow outside to make it a white one! Best wishes to all!

Merry Christmas, y'all! Alastair Sim as Scrooge in A CHRISTMAS CAROL is on my DVD viewing list today.

Watched it last night...as I've done every year since its annual run on Million Dollar Movie back in the 1950's. Years ago my son gave me a VHS copy for Christmas. Guess it's getting near time to switch it out for a DVD, huh?

Christmas is also the day that one of the greatest people in the history of America died. James Brown, who was born in Barnsville, SC and grew up a few miles away in Augusta, Georgia.

I had the great fortune to grow up in Georgia listening at night to WAKE and every James Brown cut that ever existed. We all knew damn near every thing James Brown recorded in the late 50s and in the 60s.

Brown was truly a master of his craft and as such he changed to world. I remember when I saw James Brown's jet parked on the ramp in Augusta. It was the first celebrity jet I had ever seen.

Here's a cut from "Live at the Apollo" an album Brown produced himself because his record company said no one wanted to hear live hit music on a record. It is, in my opinion, the finest record Brown ever recorded.

Jame Brown died today, 25 December 2006, of heart failure, at Emory hospital in Decatur, Georgia, where I grew up.

I Lost Someone

1261 – John IV Lascaris of the restored Eastern Roman Empire is deposed and blinded by orders of his co-ruler Michael VIII Palaeologus.

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day).

COINCIDENCE? I think NOT!

"I'm very, very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing ... any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that."
--Sarah Palin, after an official investigation found Palin had broken ethics law and abused her power in the Troopergate scandal

A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?
-- Albert Einstein

agnostic's diary :: ::
FROM THE CHURCH OF INEFFABLE STUPIDITY:

a) Sarah Palin - the Gift that Keeps on Giving.

Further details have emerged about the banning of undesirable reporters from the Sarah Palin book tour event in Palin's hometown of Wasilla, after Alaska-based photojournalist and videographer Dennis Zaki found himself on the list.

We reported that Zaki was turned away from Palin's homecoming event in Alaska on Tuesday. Zaki checked in at the media window with a blogger friend, and they were told they had to leave. "They were anxious to get us out the door quickly," blogger Jesse Griffin told TPMmuckraker. The two men didn't fight the decision. . . .

"Just spoke to James Hastings, the manager who booted me from the Wasilla Center. The 'banned list' is just four names he wrote in a notebook after getting the names from Todd Palin. Yes Todd Palin. The shadow governor. The photos he had to identify us were from the internet that he (Hastings) found himself to identify us."

Shadow quitter

One problem with being a media whore is becoming increasingly obvious to Wassilly Sarah. People actually keep track of her words. In 2008, she complained about global climate change. Today, it no longer exists, at least in what passes for her mind.

Some months ago, Palin borrowed the Teabagger lie about death panels. Now, she not only repeats the lie, she denies the plain (palin?) meaning of her original words.

What is really sweet is how teabaggers and the most demented segment of America's population responds to her. She has become the default leader of today's GOP.

They deserve each other.

- - -
b) Parker Griffith - DINO, Turncoat, Thief.

A US House representative from Alabama took voter registration information from Democratic Party offices before defecting to the GOP, the Alabama branch of the Democratic Party says.

Rep. Parker Griffith announced his switch to the Republican Party on Tuesday, telling the press he can "no longer align [him]self with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy, and drives us further and further into debt." . . .

The Alabama Democratic Party issued a statement Wednesday accusing Griffith's political consultancy, Main Street Strategies, of downloading "sensitive voter identification data that was the property of the Alabama Democratic Party."
Even though the "sensitive" voter data helped elect Griffith in 2008, "in the wee hours before he became a Republican, Parker Griffith’s political operatives, with full knowledge of what was occurring, went online and downloaded our confidential records,” Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham said

A thief & a turncoat

What makes this story as sweet as christmas cookies (the ones that the morbidly obese, red suited, commie, serial animal abuser left next to your chimney) is that the GOP doesn't trust him either. (except for Wassilly Sarah, who is tweeting with joy)

Let's see. We have thieves, adulterers, liars, cheats, pedophiles, bathroom stalkers, and a quittah from Wasilla who claims that "the sleeping giant will awaken." That almost reads like Dune. Which is where this dismally failing political party belongs. On the Fiction shelf.

- - -
c) Merry Christmas

A man who walked into a Michigan diner with a 5-inch knife stuck in his chest ordered a coffee and complained only about the cold weather.

The 52-year-old man, who has not been identified, called a 911 operator in Warren on Sunday night to ask that an ambulance be sent to Bray's, an eatery in neighboring Hazel Park.

He said he had been stabbed during an attempted robbery half a mile away, then walked to the restaurant and called 911 from a pay phone.

Hey! Where'd my knife go?

Not exactly a cutting edge story, but his christmas is quite merry, with his good recovery and all.

- - -
d) William J. Kelly, proud member of the Lunatic Right.

A conservative candidate for Illinois comptroller was ordered out of the state Capitol for trying to remove a sign placed by an atheist group, officials said.

William J. Kelly calls the sign, placed by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, "hate speech," saying it mocks the views of believers, CBS2Chicago.com reported. He announced Tuesday he was going to try to remove it and made his attempt Wednesday, only to be detained by police.

"I don't think the State of Illinois has any business denigrating or mocking any religion, and I think that's what the verbiage on the sign was doing," Kelly said. . . .

The group's message reads: "At the time of the winter solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is just myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

A happy and successful Winter Solstice to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, one of Pastor Ag's most favorite charities. And to Candidope Kelly, why not get on your knees, and pray for a heavenly windstorm to blow the sign away? We'd be glad to watch and see how well that works.

If you wish to add to Pastor Ag's donations, please go to:
http://ffrf.org/...

Where you will find this little gem:

“When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?' ”
-- Quentin Crisp

- - -
e) The true meaning of christmas

“Human language is local and changeable, it is therefore incapable of being used as the means of unchangeable and universal information.”

- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
Let's see if I got this straight. Some 2000+ years and nine months ago, a young woman (according to the Dead Sea Scrolls) was magically impregnated by An All Powerful Three Part Being. (It was the ghost, dad. I swear!) She and her male companion arrive in a horse barn during the biggest winter celebration, where she gives virginal birth to Part III of the All Powerful Being. He starts off as a carpenter, but finds magic tricks far more to his liking. He walks on water, feeds a massive horde with two fish and loaf of bread, gathers a group of whores to party with him and his dudes, and during dinner, he tells his gang to eat his flesh and drink his blood.

Anyway, he's arrested and convicted, then serves out his sentence hanging around until he dies. 3 days later he becomes a powerful rock moving zombie and heads back to daddy, after a few choice words to his gang and his hookers.

What a great story!

"But though, speaking for myself, I thus admit the possibility of revelation. I totally disbelieve that the almighty ever did communicate any thing to man by any mode of speech in any language . . . .

"The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties and the greatest miseries that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing call revelation or revealed religion. It has been the most dishonorable belief against the character of the divinity, the most destructive to morality and the peace and happiness of man, that ever was propagated since man began to exist.”

- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, Part II.
The pseudo-historian Papias (130 CE) was one of the earliest people to gather the words of actual witnesses (to Jesus and his gang), such as John the Evangelist, and put pen to paper. One of the reasons was he was one of the very few who learned how to read and write. He included some of his favorite, new and improved apocalyptical theories that called for a reign of peace a thousand years long after which the world as we knew it would end.

Right.

Some of his many critics suggest that he might have authored them as part of his own fraud.

Around 200 years later, Eusebius made a point of showing that Papias got it mostly wrong. (He also called him “a man of exceedingly small intelligence”, a serious insult, even in those days. I wonder if Sarah would understand what it means.)

By then, christians were well along with their “creative” gospel writing efforts. Because their god was considered to be a living being, some authors thought that they could change gospel language or add to it as they saw fit. Other gospels’ authors were against war, others were adamantly against priests and bishops, and still others were decidedly against all organized religious organizations. Obviously, we have a lot to learn from our elders.

By 600 CE, the christians leaders faced a serious problem. The drafters of all these new and improved gospels were gathering more attention and support than the ruling class. They had to be stopped at all costs, before the “in” cults lost all that access to money and power. Besides, the newly created, more popular cults had ideas which did not sit well with them.

Gnostics claimed that their members received “revelation” from above, based mainly on intuition. Their growing popularity was the biggest reason that the orthodox christian leaders refocused their attention on the apostles’ version of the gospels. This also led directly to the “canonization” (think of editing with a heavy hand) of the New Testament.

Another competitor to organized christian power was the Montanic cult, which first started up in the late second century. Their message on "spirituality" created yet another serious problem for the early christians. They responded with a redoubled effort to clean up their instruction manual, with the previously mentioned “canonization”. They also started murdering anyone promoting a competing cult. By the 8th Century, the Montanics were pretty much erased from this green earth.

At one time more than eighty competing Gospels existed. In many of them, Jesus didn’t even exist. The four gospels that first mention Jesus’ existence weren’t written, edited or concocted until around the 4th century. Even in those, they contained horrible historical errors. Despite what their “inerrant” book says, Nazareth did not even exist in Palestine at the alleged time of Jesus’ life.

The first time that this canonization effort was officially attempted was by the famous anti-Semite Marcion. He simply deleted any topics or phrases that sounded “too Jewish” or too Old Testament. Partly because of his work, and other factors, the christians decided on four gospels as authoritative (although their actual contents were subject to change for many centuries to come).

Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria was the first of many individuals who tried to make inter-cult peace between east and west christian leaders. He was also the first to decide that 27 books of the New Testament were “canonical”.

Even this approach ran into problems as newer (and much older) documents turned up in different parts off the Middle East. Although forgeries were common, many apparently authentic documents simply disagreed with the accepted Christian dogma of the day.

In the 7th century, the Syriac Church finally accepted those 27 books as accurate, in the spirit of their god. But since everyone but the Syriacs themselves ignored their decision, we’ve said enough about them.

During the next few centuries, many versions of the Vulgate were generally the most popular. During this time, many popular, but not favored gospel texts were searched out and destroyed as heretical.

Today's Vatican maintains some of the best collections of early (heretical) writings about christianity. Unfortunately, because most of those writings strongly contradict current beliefs and papal edicts, only a select few can ever examine this historical trove. If earlier christians knew anything, it was how to stomp out dissent and kill their opposition. (See generally, Knights Templar, Spanish Inquisition, Witch burning)

We won't even touch on the problems with translating Aramaic, Attic Greek, or many other languages involved in the creation of what we now know as the Bible.

So, to all of you, I say, Happy Winter Solstice, and may the next orbit of our wet little rock bring you good health, love from those closest to you, and a ready answer to any Teabaggers who fall in your path.

Ag:

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay, (especially for Rick and Phil)
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.

Twas checking out your site. Interesting. And I like the fact that its leader is an ex religious guy who saw the light--the days are getting longer ya know.

Ag~

God Bless you, have a Merry Christmas and I will pray for you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Yes, and on that solemn note, I offer the silent monks in magnificent concert perfomance. the silent monks