The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest, as people make merry when dividing spoils. For the yoke that burdened them, the pole on their shoulder, and the rod of their taskmaster you have smashed, as on the day of Midian. For every boot that tramped in battle, every cloak rolled in blood, will be burned as fuel for flames.
For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, from David’s throne, and over his kingdom, which he confirms and sustains by judgment and justice, both now and forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this!
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
This is a Christmas post. Absolutely no tolerance will be given to any off topic comments. Please respect the intent and nature of this post, keeping it open for Christmas greetings and comments.
Posted originally on the CTH on December 24, 2022 | Sundance
Neil Oliver’s Christmas message is timely and brilliant. Using the heroic story of incredible selflessness exhibited within the historic Penlee lifeboat rescue effort, Oliver reminds the audience the true heroes in life are the people around you right now.
As we gather to celebrate the birth Christ, the greatest gift ever provided by a loving God, we reflect on what it means to give. We are surrounded by valiant givers; they are just not in the spotlights created by lesser men – but they are present in our family, in our lives and in our communities. WATCH:
[Transcript] – Last week saw the anniversary of the loss of the Penlee lifeboat, with all hands. She was the Solomon Browne, a 47-foot Watson class vessel paid for, like all RNLI lifeboats, by donations from the public.
On the evening of the 19th of December 1981, The Union Star, a brand new 1,400-ton coaster on her maiden voyage and making for Arklow, in Ireland, was in trouble around 8 miles off the Wolf’s Rock lighthouse, in SW Cornwall. Her engine had failed and could not be restarted. Aboard were her skipper Henry Morton, his wife, two teenage daughters and a crew of four – eight people in all.
Morton’s call for help was heard first by the crew of a nearby tug, also struggling through the English Channel that night in the teeth of a dreadful storm. They offered to put a line aboard and take the Union Star in tow. But Morton knew that that would have made the ship salvage. Fatefully he said thanks, but no thanks, and instead radioed for help from the rescue services.
The situation quickly worsened even more. Dead in the water they were being driven inexorably towards the rocks of the Cornish coast. A Sea King helicopter was scrambled from the base at Culdrose, and a call was sent out to raise the men of the Penlee lifeboat at Mousehole.
Coxswain William Trevelyan Richards received the alert. He stepped out of the home he shared with his mother, into the teeth of what was by then a full-blown hurricane. It was the last Saturday night before Christmas, and he made his way to the village’s Ship Inn where he knew many would have gathered for celebrations. He asked for quiet, told them the score and asked for seven volunteers. A dozen men raised their hands.
By the time they got to the boathouse there were more men waiting – all having received the call out at their homes. In the end, that night of nights, the Solomon Browne was crewed by Richards, James Stephen Madron, Nigel Brockman, John Blewit, Charlie Greenhaugh, Barrie Torrie, Kevin Smith and Gary Wallis.
The Sea King helicopter, piloted by Lt Cmdr Russell Smith, a US Navy pilot on exchange with the Royal Navy, was first to reach the Union Star. He lowered his winchman into the hellish soup of rain and hurricane force winds, in hopes of plucking some souls from the rolling deck of the ship below, but the conditions were so bad, they had to pull back and only watch what happened next.
The Solomon Browne lifeboat, utterly dwarfed by the coaster, hove into view and immediately sought to come alongside, trying again and again to get into position so as to be able to take her people off.
Lt Commander Smith later described how the Solomon Browne was picked up by mountainous waves – not once, but several times – and tossed onto the deck of Union Star like a landed fish, before washing back off into the sea once more.
Finally, Trevelyan Richards was able to keep her alongside the coaster just long enough. Lt Cmdr Smith watched as four shadows leapt from the deck of Union Star, down into the arms of the lifeboatmen waiting so very far below. Having saved four, Trevelyan Richards steered the Solomon Browne back to try and get the rest.
The helicopter crew watched, the operators at Falmouth Coastguard listened. What came next was everlasting silence. No one knows for sure what happened. It seems likely the lifeboat and the coaster had been pushed so close to land that finally they hit rocks in shallow water. Union Star may have rolled over on top of the lifeboat when she capsized. In any event, all were lost – the 8 from Union Star and the 8 lifeboatmen. Only eight bodies were ever found, four from each vessel. It’s the last time the RNLI lost an entire crew. May that sad record stand for evermore. William Trevelyan Richards, the coxswain, was buried on Christmas Eve. There were more funerals to come.
On the morning after the tragedy, many volunteers stepped forward from the community of Mousehole, ready to take the places of the lost men.
At the subsequent enquiry, a letter from Lt Cmdr Smith was read out to the court:
“Throughout the entire rescue the Penlee crew never appeared to hesitate. After each time they were washed or blown away from the Union Star, the Penlee crew immediately commenced another run in.
“Their spirit and dedication were amazing. They were truly the greatest eight men I have ever seen.”
Truly they were … truly they were.
Nearly an hour after the last transmission from Solomon Browne, a lookout on the cliffs swore blind he saw her lights, making her way home.
“Dusk is drowned forever until tomorrow,” wrote Dylan Thomas. “It is all at once night now. The windy town is full of windows, and from the larupped waves, the lights of the lamps in the windows call back the day and the dead that have run away to sea.”
Ever since, it has been the tradition to switch off the Mousehole Christmas lights at 8 o’clock on the 19th of December as a gesture of remembrance.
I think about the Penlee lifeboatmen every year at this time. They say Greater love hath no man than this, but that he lay down his life for his friends. I say there is a greater love, and that it was revealed in the willingness of those eight Mousehole men who were ready to lay down their lives for people they had never met and would never know.
I often remind myself of the Penlee lifeboatmen, in fact, throughout the year – and I think about selfless acts of courage that declare in the strongest possible terms what it truly means to be human and alive. I think about what people are capable of, how much they have to give … and how much some of them WILL give. The Penlee lifeboatmen gave everything they had.
At Christmas we think about the birth of a child – Jesus Christ. He is God’s gift to the world. Every child is a gift precious beyond description. It is also an act of immeasurable bravery by every woman who bears a child – because every child is, she knows, at the mercy of the world and every mother must understand, without needing to think about it, that her child is ultimately surrendered to life itself.
Mary gave birth to Jesus – the son of God – and even she would not be spared the ultimate loss. All our lives are forfeit – a debt that must be repaid, willingly or unwillingly.
Christmas is the time to think about all this – to think about what it means to give – and to acknowledge the meaning of the gift of the child … of every child.
The selfless courage of the Penlee lifeboatmen and the message of the Christmas story can be the antidote to much of the madness that is all around us now. It is a time to remember what we have, to value our loved ones and be thankful they are with us.
Rather than our hollow, spineless leaders, it is the courage and sacrifice of our fellow citizens that should capture and hold our attention, and not just now but all through the year.
It often feels like we are supposed to be focus all our attention on those who are not worthy. Those whose faces we see every day, the politicians in parliament, the leaders around the world, their preferred experts … whose names we hear over and over – they have nothing to give that is of any use to us now, that much as been made painfully obvious in recent years. I have long since stopped paying them any attention at all. Instead, I look for heroes elsewhere.
We are supposed to believe our leaders mean to rescue us – from whatever Covid was, from the warmongers, from climate change, from the cost of lockdown crisis – but they had, and have, no such intentions as far as I can see. If they have plans to make anything better, it is certainly not our lives, or the lives of our children.
There is no cavalry coming to rescue us. If we are to be saved – and we surely will be – then we must look to one another for the necessary effort. We are more than capable of the task. We must save ourselves and each other by setting aside old broken ways and finding new.
We should turn away from those who have failed us, lied to us, deceived us and left us to our fates and see that it is time to take the initiative, to shape and build something new, something untouched by those who have betrayed us and let us down.
Just because the help and leadership we need is not yet clearly in view … the seeds of it are there among us already, nonetheless. We must come to our own rescue in the year and years ahead because there’s no one else.
The Christmas story tells us that 2000 and more years ago, a baby boy was born into poverty and into obscurity. During the 33 years of the life of the man he became, he was recognized for what he really was, his true value, by relatively few. He died as he had lived, in obscurity. He was executed for standing up to, and challenging, the establishment, but by his actions the world was changed forever, for the better.
Sometimes the most obvious people change the world. At other times, it’s the people the world does not notice, that the world thinks nothing of and so ignores, who end up making all the difference.
I hope and also trust that this is one of those times. I have no faith in the obvious, loud people with their hands on the levers of power. We will be saved by our own actions in defiance of those who care for us not a jot and who prioritize only those they serve – which is to say the already rich and the already powerful, the banks, the markets and the global corporations. I say we should ignore the whole lot of them.
Here’s the thing: together, right now, we already have everything we will ever need, which is to say each other. We can share food and warmth and light.
We are free people. It’s Christmas and the Christmas message is that hope is here. Light in the dark.
Posted originally on the CTH on December 24, 2022 | Sundance
Mrs Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, aged 45, was not doing anything except standing inside an area under what local officials call a “Public Spaces Protection Order.” [Birmingham, UK, News Link] Within these designated areas protest is not permitted. Prayer is considered an act of protesting.
Mrs. Vaughan-Spruce was standing alone, in silence. However, she was thinking prayerful thoughts without speaking. As a consequence, her cognitive state -thinking about prayer- was in violation of the protection order.
A police officer arrived and questioned Mrs. Vaughan-Spruce about her thoughts. Mrs. Vaughan-Spruce told the police officer the truth, she was thinking about prayers. The police officer arrested Mrs. Vaughan-Spruce for violating the Public Spaces Protection Order with her thoughts.
Mrs. Vaughan-Spruce appeared on the Tucker Carlson show to explain what happened. {Direct Rumble link} – WATCH:
Posted originally on the CTH on December 24, 2022 | Sundance
If you visit a local library, you may discover there was a time when the focus of electricity companies was to generate and provide the most dependable, efficient, lowest cost and critical power to customers who need electricity to live. Alas, those were in the olden days, when service providers were generally focused on improving the quality of life of their customers.
In the modern era, the horrible carbon emitters, aka customers, have become the parasite to manage. People are now a problematic encumbrance blocking the high-minded climate and financial aspirations of the energy corporations.
Heating, cooling and comfort? Get a grip Boomers and GenXer’s, those insufferably selfish indulgences were the priorities of yesteryear.
Yes Alice, as we try to peer through the looking glass, we discover it’s a mirror now. The reflection is the opposite of normal, the reflection is the world of pretending. Say hello to the modern Christmastime when you pray for coal in your stocking.
From Pennsylvania and New Jersey, westward to Illinois and Ohio and all the way south into South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and beyond, power companies are turning off the electricity to preserve and equally distribute the minimal amount of energy they are able to generate.
This my friends, is the “equitable distribution of misery.” How weird does it feel to see that generational prediction turning into reality?
TENNESSEE – […] The TVA began instructing local power companies to reduce power usage on Friday night, and some have instituted rolling blackouts in some cities such as Nashville, Tennessee. Some local power companies have also started using rolling blackouts after the TVA asked them to reduce power usage.
PJM Interconnection, based in Pennsylvania, also asked companies within its system to conserve energy. The company asked residents to turn off non-essential lights, set their thermostats lower than usual, and not use major appliances like dishwashers and laundry machines, the AP reported.
PJM covers areas in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C, according to the AP. (read more)
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.
When John the Baptist heard in prison of the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples to Jesus with this question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” Jesus said to them in reply, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you. Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
QUESTION: I see how you were surprised by your dog in discovering how she studies your patterns and predicts where you are going. My dog does the same. I didn’t pay attention to those traits until you wrote about them. The very trait of how to think is fascinating. Have you incorporated that into Socrates?
LC
ANSWER: Yes. I had a friend who was a psychologist and he explained to me many years ago that there were two fundamental types of thinking in humans – linear v dynamic. There is a good book written by Richard E. Nisbett entitled “The Geography of Thought, How Asians and Westerners Think Differently … and Why.” He attributed his work to a Chinese student who said: “You know, the difference between you and me is that I think the world is a circle, and you think it’s a line.” He goes on to quote him:
The Chinese believe in constant change, but with things always moving back to some prior state. They pay attention to a wide range of events; they search for relationships between things; and they think you can’t understand the part without understanding the whole. Westerners live in a simpler, more deterministic world; they focus on salient objects or people instead of the larger picture; and they think they can control events because they know the rules that govern the behavior of objects.
I can say I never had to explain cycle theory in Asia to anyone. In the West, we were taught to think linearly. What stunned me about my dog was noticing that she thought dynamically. I had no idea any animal possess such a thinking process. There are dogs who even has done simple math. Understanding how the thinking process works was absolutely essential to be able to create any AI program that was functional. Of yes, there were those trying to create a neural net, dump all the data in, shake it up, and somehow it would unexplainable to come forth with the answer. IBM tried that and it failed.
There was just a lot more to how we thought that necessitated investigation. Anyone who thinks they cannot learn by observing even how a dog thinks is so biased that they will never discover anything.
John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. John wore clothing made of camel’s hair and had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. At that time Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins.
When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I am baptizing you with water, for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
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