I live in the socialist Northeast where any slightly critical remark that could be remotely interpreted as possibly applying to a specific culture or race is totally and extremely offensive — unless, of course, you’re poking fun at rednecks/Southerners (which to ignorant Northeasters are the same people), or Christians. Oh yes… up in the Northeast you can rip any folks with a Southern twang, and any Christians who actually believe what they say they believe, up one side and down the other… and it’s okay!?

Specifically, there are these so-called redneck jokes. These little gems get passed around in email just as much by fellow rednecks (getting a chuckle laughing at themselves) as by ignorant urban bigots sipping their pansy lattes. I think it says a lot about a race or culture when they can laugh at themselves, and I guess that means it says a lot about a race or culture that CANNOT laugh at themselves [you know who you are].

Anyways… in the vein of the proto-typical “You might be a redneck if…” I actually just received an email that put a new spin on this format. I’m repeating it here with my own personal touches and a few sharper barbs. Here goes…

You might be a redneck if…

• it never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase “one nation, under God”… or by seeing the 10 Commandments posted in public places… or by hearing “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Winter Holiday”
• you bow your head when someone prays, and you don’t feel uncomfortable or ashamed when you they get to the “In Jesus’ name… Amen” part
• your music talks about hard work, being honest, and fighting for your country… more than it talks about selling drugs, hitting women, and committing murder
• you stand up straight (if able), remove your hat, and place your hand over your heart when you hear the National Anthem
• you treat our armed forces veterans with great respect, and always have
• you’ve never burned an American flag, never picketed a military recruiting center, and never shouted into the face of a policeman
• you know what you believe and you aren’t afraid to say so, no matter how many leftist censors are listening
• you raised your kids to respect their elders, say please and thank you, and own up to their own mistakes
• you’d give your last dollar to a friend… or drive your pickup over to help a neighbor… or deliver a veterans’ widow some dry firewood on a cold winter day… or fight a raging fire inside a stranger’s home

The truth of the matter is that if the United States had twice the rednecks it does… it’d be ten times the country it is.

Which reminds me of another redneck joke I received that I feel paints an accurate picture of that culture:

The Pentagon announced TODAY the formation of a new 500-man elite fighting unit called the United States Redneck Special Forces (USRSF).

[insert picture of rednecks holding ridiculously sized rifles]

These boys will be dropped off in Iraq and given only the following info on terrorists:

1. The season opened today
2. There is no limit
3. They taste just like chicken
4. They don’t like beer, pickups, country music or Jesus
5. They are directly responsible for the death of Dale Earnhardt

Of course, I shall not forget what this day really means (and I care not whether this is the EXACT day of Christ’s birth… for those who dwell on such things miss the whole point – and are a little slow of mind if I might add). I shall not forget how safe and sound I am on this day of epicurean materialism… thanks to the great freedoms that have become commonplace to the point of contempt. And let’s not forget the men and women in military uniform who sacrifice more in a week than most Westerners do in an entire decade, and who maintain our freedom.

So eat your eats, down your ‘nog, exchange your retail commodities, frolic with the family, slap any grinches (j/k… sorta), and have a very merry Christmas!

As always, the show was a mind-blowing hard-rockin’ Christmas spectacular. Alex Skolnick and Chris Caffery were monsters on their guitars. Vocals, strings, keys, lights, lasers, smoke, fog, fire, flame… everything was as good as any other year I’ve seen these guys.

One amusing note – the previous two years Chris Caffery plugged TSO’s “upcoming” non-Christmas CD release called Night Castle. But the CD still hasn’t been released (much the chagrin of hungry TSO fans like myself). This year, Chris both plugged and joked about the Night Castle release in what would be the quote of the evening:

Albany, let me ask you a question. What will be more likely to see in our lifetimes: a McDonalds on Mars, or the release of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Night Castle album?

They put on a great show. I was glad to go for the fifth year in a row. Next year I will go again. In a few months I’ll start looking forward to it.

I regularly read Worship Leader Magazine (WLM) and have always been a bit disappointed at the lack of articles on the importance of skill in worship music (an aspect that my worship hero Paul Baloche emphasizes in every one of his instructional videos). Not only importance… but if you read your Bible right – necessity.

I always thought WLM “intentionally” skimped on the “skill” thing merely because it was intuitively obvious… because it was considered a given in any serious worship circles. But recently, they did indeed include an article on skill in worship – amply titled “Play Skillfully” – which just might have revealed an alternate motive for their sparse coverage of skill in music… political correctness. You see, the author Mark Roberts openly admits in the article that pointing out the Bible’s call to skillful performance of worship may upset a lot of people. What? Why? It shouldn’t. Really, it shouldn’t.

When you are putting someone in a position (like in front of a church leading them in the worship of an all-powerful deity) you really should be using appropriate people. For leading worship music – appropriate people probably are those who have three things: some threshold of talent, the right attitude about the responsibility of leading others in worship, and spiritually a right heart. [for the non-churchy folk I apologize for not explaining the "right heart" thing here]

However, common sense applies always. Common sense tells us that kids in a church Christmas program (short of Joseph fist-fighting with the wise men) are afforded much leeway and may not have any of the three things listed above, and that’s okay. Common sense tells us that smaller churches need to play the cards they’re dealt, even if it’s just Queen high. And I’m sure everyone can think of real-life, sincere, and appropriate exemptions to my skill manifesto. But I do know that even the most modestly-skilled musicians and singers can work on their craft to pursue excellence. Indeed, the pursuit of excellence is sometimes more telling to me about worship music ministry than the act of already being excellent.

Anyways, to show my support of pro-skill articles I wrote a letter to the WLM editor voicing my approval, and as “always” my letter was delicate in a chiropractic sort of way.

Thank you for Dr. Mark Roberts’ article titled “Play Skillfully”. I found it quite refreshing to have some emphasis placed on this vital, yet seemingly ignored aspect of an excellent worship ministry. I’ve long felt that even enlightened worship resources like Worship Leader Magazine softball this issue too often.

Today’s churches, despite the modern infusion of quality worship music, seemingly regard “a servant’s heart” and “a humble walk” as the only true prerequisites for music ministry. This is simply wrong, un-Biblical, and could even be sinful if practiced negligently (whether intentionally or not). For the same reason that musical ability alone – without a desire for a Christ-likeness – would be insufficient for ministry, a lack of pursuit of musical excellence in a team member or worship leader, and an apathetic stance by church leadership, is a dereliction of our duty to worship the Lord as if he REALLY IS the creator of all things.

Now of course we have to use some common sense in application. Not all churches have the same selection of talent within their congregations – and in any team environment there are times when the “second-stringers” need to be put in the game to gain the skill and experience they need. But nothing changes the fact that pursuit of excellence in music ministry – or in any aspect of our worship – is part of the local church’s pursuit of Christ.

We wouldn’t settle for merely “a great prayer life” as qualification for a brain surgeon. We wouldn’t settle for just “a solid spiritual walk” as sufficient training for an electrician. So why compromise in our worship music ministry?

I am utterly tired of hearing about so-called man-made global warming. Why? Not because I’m in the middle of a snowstorm. Not because of any weather pattern I’ve seen in my own lifetime. More than anything… I am sick of hearing about it because I firmly believe it is exaggerated to the extreme… and when I research into the politics and money-trail of it the smell intensifies.

The hoax of the doctrine of man-made global warming that is being foisted upon the world by decree, and the junk science that is manipulated to support it, represents a creeping fascism whose agenda to stifle open debate betrays the fact that climate change hysteria is a farce intended to crush freedoms and further centralize global power.
~ Paul Joseph Watson from a post at PropagandaMatrix.com

You see, there are mountains of evidence showing our climate to be driven by very, VERY large forces outside our control as a society. The sun’s complex cycles control our climate more than anything else combined times several orders of magnitude. The research exists… but it is boring, you see, because the reality of not having control of the climate renders politicians, militant environmentalists, and grant-hungry researchers powerless and cashless. Like anything else, simply follow the money.

There is something quite horrible about the complete failure of America’s journalists to even acknowledge there might be something terribly wrong about the theory of Global Warming. So far the published science that purports to support the theory has been severely challenged and even disproved to the point of having deliberately falsified data.
~ Alan Caruba from an article in the Canada Free Press

Now I know that climatologists can reasonably discern that over the short-term temperatures give indications of a slight increase in overall global temperatures… but they also know that temperatures follow many complex cycles that include “mini”-ice-ages and “mini”-meltdowns and such. We also know that the ice caps regulate some of this activity much the same way a buffer moderates a chemical solution. And while it is evident that people have an effect on the environment it is rather alarmist to assert that the current warming trend (which appears to be solar-related) is man-made.

Yet alarmism seems to rule the day, and hysteria drives big lies. The big problem with hysteria is that it is lucrative. Lobby groups and politicians use it to gain political capital. Environmentalist wackos use it to push a social agenda. Researchers use it to scare up big grants. The mainstream media uses it to drive big advertising revenue. Plainly… hysteria sells. In fact, it sells so well that anybody daring to disagree is immediately attacked by hysteria’s cunning benefactors. I’ve too often heard the term “denier” thrown about lately with regard to man-made global warming. I hold a viewpoint highly suspect whose supporters so venomously and irrationally attack the dissenting opinions.

All this was inspired by the principle – which is quite true in itself – that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes.
~ Adolf Hitler as written in Mein Kampf

A great rule of thumb to follow is to not immediately believe anything you read or hear from people who benefit from your belief in what they are printing or saying. Did you get that, because that was a biggie. Ok, I’ll repeat it louder. A great rule of thumb to follow is to not immediately believe anything you read or hear from people who benefit from your belief in what they are printing or saying. Do your homework and use extra common sense, especially when something is being touted as “potentially catastrophic”… after all, how many pieces of mail do you receive that say “extremely urgent – open immediately” only to find out that it’s junk mail? Man-made global warming… yeah, that’s probably junk mail, too.

Two New Books Confirm Global Warming is Natural; Not Caused By Human Activity
Tue Jan 30 2007 10:02:32 ET

Two powerful new books say today’s global warming is due not to human activity but primarily to a long, moderate solar-linked cycle. Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years, by physicist Fred Singer and economist Dennis Avery was released just before Christmas. The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change, by Danish physicist Henrik Svensmark and former BBC science writer Nigel Calder (Icon Books), is due out in March.

Singer and Avery note that most of the earth’s recent warming occurred before 1940, and thus before much human-emitted CO2. Moreover, physical evidence shows 600 moderate warmings in the earth’s last million years. The evidence ranges from ancient Nile flood records, Chinese court documents and Roman wine grapes to modern spectral analysis of polar ice cores, deep seabed sediments, and layered cave stalagmites.

Unstoppable Global Warming shows the earth’s temperatures following variations in solar intensity through centuries of sunspot records, and finds cycles of sun-linked isotopes in ice and tree rings. The book cites the work of Svensmark, who says cosmic rays vary the earth’s temperatures by creating more or fewer of the low, wet clouds that cool the earth. It notes that global climate models can’t accurately register cloud effects.

The Chilling Stars relates how Svensmark’s team mimicked the chemistry of earth’s atmosphere, by putting realistic mixtures of atmospheric gases into a large reaction chamber, with ultraviolet light as a stand-in for the sun. When they turned on the UV, microscopic droplets—cloud seeds—started floating through the chamber.

“We were amazed by the speed and efficiency with which the electrons [generated by cosmic rays] do their work of creating the building blocks for the cloud condensation nuclei,” says Svensmark.

The Chilling Stars documents how cosmic rays amplify small changes in the sun’s irradiance fourfold, creating 1-2 degree C cycles in earth’s temperatures: Cosmic rays continually slam into the earth’s atmosphere from outer space, creating ion clusters that become seeds for small droplets of water and sulfuric acid. The droplets then form the low, wet clouds that reflect solar energy back into space. When the sun is more active, it shields the earth from some of the rays, clouds wane, and the planet warms.

Unstoppable Global Warming documents the reality of a moderate, natural, 1500-year climate cycle on the earth. The Chilling Stars explains the why and how.

~ Matt Drudge

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Dear Children,

It has come to my attention that many of you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you’ve forgotten that I wasn’t actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a time of pagan festival. Although, I don’t mind… I appreciate being remembered anytime.

How I personally feel about this celebration can probably be most easily understood by those of you who have been blessed with children of your own. I don’t care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth feel free to do so at any time by showing love to others as I have shown Love to you.

Now, having said that let Me go on. If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn’t allow a scene depicting My birth, then just get rid of a couple of Santas and snowmen and put in a small Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn’t be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be many of them all around town.

Stop worrying about the fact that people are calling the tree a holiday tree, instead of a Christmas tree. It was I who made all trees. You can remember Me anytime you see any tree. Decorate a grape vine if you wish: I actually spoke of that one in a teaching, explaining who I am in relation to you and what each of our tasks were. If you have forgotten that one, look up John 15:1-8.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

1. Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home. They are terribly afraid and lonely this time of year. I know, they tell Me all the time.

2. Visit someone in a nursing home. You don’t have to know them personally. They just need to know that someone cares about them.

3. Instead of writing George complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don’t you write and tell him that you’ll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up. It will be nice hearing from you again.

4. Instead of giving your children a lot of gifts you can’t afford and they don’t need, spend time with them. Tell them the Story of My birth, and why I came to live with you down here. Hold them in your arms and remind them that I love them.

5. Pick someone that has hurt you in the past and forgive him or her.

6. Did you know that someone in your town will attempt to take their own life this season because they feel so alone and hopeless? Since you don’t know who that person is, try giving everyone you meet a warm smile it could make the difference.

7. Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren’t allowed to wish you a “Merry Christmas” that doesn’t keep you from wishing them one.

8. If you really want to make a difference, support a missionary, especially one who takes My love and Good News to those who have never heard My name.

9. Here’s a good one. There are individuals and whole families in your town who not only will have no “Christmas” tree, but neither will they have any presents to give or receive. If you don’t know them, buy some food and a few gifts and give them to the Salvation Army or some other charity which believes in Me and they will make the delivery for you.

10. Finally, if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Don’t do things in secret that you wouldn’t do in My presence Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.

Don’t forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do. I’ll take care of all the rest. Check out the list above and get to work; time is short. I’ll help you, but the ball is now in your court. And do have a most blessed Christmas with all those whom you love.

I LOVE YOU,
JESUS

Because an 18-yr-old mother can return to her homeless shelter after a night of binge-drinking, pass out on the bed, and then let her 4-month-old daughter fall into and drown in a bucket of the mother’s vomit, and the defense attorney will still state that the mother “would never hurt her baby”.
[Article here] For crying out loud, the story states the mother returned after a night of cigarettes and gin drinking. Ummm… how does a young girl at a homeless shelter have money to buy cigarettes and enough gin to start filling a bucket with vomit? Oh yeah… taxpayers. It’s nice that the shelter will watch your illegitimate crack-baby while you recklessly carouse at my expense. And then I get to pay for a public defender to tell me she meant no harm? Is that like when a teenager wrecks the car speeding on a hairpin turn and then says “I would never let the car get damaged.”

Because the CDC wants to periodically test everyone in the US between 13 and 64 years of age for AIDS.
[Article here] The kicker here is that they are afraid there are around 250,000 people with AIDS who aren’t collecting taxpayer-funded health benefits to treat their disease. And of course since healthcare costs are so low (not) and our hospitals have such excess money (not) then this is a great idea. This reminds me of the commercials on the radio advertising welfare benefits… (yes, you heard me)… some of which are even commercials spoken in Spanish. I know I should be compassionate… but I have some common sense, too… and as long as AIDS is mostly spread by purposeful preventable behavior (drugs and careless sex) I will humbly suggest that the money should go to other pursuits. Much the same way I would put out a building fire before trying to repair the damage.

Because Barbra Streisand’s boobs scare the matza crackers out of me.
[Article here] I am well aware that I will be old, too, some day. I, however, promise to never show my drooping genitals in public… my geriatric beachware will not be see-thru (even when wet) and I (unlike the geezers at my gym) will shut the shower curtain when I take a shower. Oy vey! I might go easy on Babs if she didn’t spout such crazy political claptrap. And I can’t trust a non-Messianic Jew who puts out a Christmas album… any more than I could take seriously a Tiger Woods story that starts out “One time, back in ‘da hood…”

Because scientists say the oceans have cooled over the last three years even though they have been heating up for 40 years, except they don’t know why they’re cooling… maybe volcanoes, but there haven’t been any more than usual… and the water level rose over the last three years, too, even though the water level only rises when the oceans heat up, not cool down… but we still know what we’re talking about.
[Article here] What do the scientists know? Today we have unprecedented sensationalism born from 24-hr news networks and the need to continually say the same thing in new ways with varied and random mutations. As in microevolution certain mutations will be inclined to “take root”, and with sufficient reproduction will soon be considered “truth”. The idea of “recent, sudden, man-made” global warming is such an idea. I’m not sure what is the greater fiction… the idea of it itself… or the idea that from a few decades of careful measurement we can accurately know the full historical context of the Earth with all it’s intertwining cycles and phases. Kind of like if someone noticed, for the very first time, the sun setting and predicted the end was at hand. I do remember the first time you leave a puppy at home alone and because it thinks you are leaving forever it gets alarmed and piddles all over.

Because teenagers (and some parents, as unbelievable as that is) think it’s merely a generational hiccup that school officials and parents frown on the practice of boys dry-humping girls from behind during school dances.
[Article here] Freak dancing. Grinding. I don’t care what you call it. I call it doggy-style. Some kids call it dancing, and if you have kids going to school dances you can bet they’ve at least seen it. Literally, if the kids were naked there’d be penetration. One girl whined, “We were raised to dance like that.” What?! Who raised you… Madonna? Is this school Slut Central High? Another future burger-flipper opined, “We go to a dance to have fun, and you telling us how to dance is not fun.” What brute intellect… noticed how he cleverly leverages his Constitutional right to “have fun”? Yet another snot pouted, “Students are losing respect for the system that’s supposed to protect them.” This kid thinks that being denied the right to grind your daughter’s tight low-riders (the ones with the thong sticking up that you hate to see but are too cowardly and pathetic a parent to say something about) is a lack of protection? I suppose a condom was more the kind of protection he had in mind… probably just wanting to practice what he learned that day in his special AIDS Awareness assembly that replaced the always expendable Math class.

Beam me up, Scotty.

To the Editor,

I must take exception to the December 19th piece by Kate Gurnett on the so-called Christmas Controversy, which I found to be slanted and deceptive. In lieu of the exhaustive exposition required to address all of the piece’s faulty assertions I’ll try to keep this down to a low, pithy roar.

Having some (just a little) knowledge of the events surrounding the controversy over singing Christmas Carols in Colonie Center Mall, I found myself reading Ms. Gurnett’s piece with some dismay. It was probably less suited for its front page splash than it was suited for the editorial page, the more appropriate haven for opinion and general subjectivity. While reading the piece I found it describing the leadership of Loudonville Community Church as bullying, stubborn, overbearing men trying to push around a poor, helpless female mall official. Ms. Gurnett eloquently painted the mall official as a brave heroine standing strong in the face of heckling church-goers incited by their un-budging leadership who would seek to extend their evil grip onto the entire universe. I almost shed a tear at the end when our heroine deftly tamed the beastly pastors into acquiescing to her firm, yet fair conditions of Yuletide performance.

Now, Ms. Gurnett and I both know she didn’t use any of those specific words above. We also both know that smart journalists inject their opinion (under the guise of reporting) using concealed morsels of charged language in order to connote their actual message. The church leadership’s actions were described with verbs like “refused” and “claimed”, connoting stubbornness and contentiousness. It was said Pastor Stan Key sent a “missive”, connoting intentional indignation. It was also very bluntly implied that the entire church was completely mistaken in its concern over the allowance to sing Christmas Carols… perhaps even deliberately misled on that perception. And Ms. Gurnett very cleverly paralleled the church members’ honest concerns about Christmas with the efforts of a nationally known and controversial religious figure, perhaps intending to impugn their motives or validity.

Let me clear up something. Telling a church choir that they can sing traditional Christmas Carols but they can’t sing anything with overt religious content is a bit like telling an embedded journalist in Iraq that they can report on the war but they can’t mention anything about the fighting or the effect the conflict is having on anybody over there. While we’re at it let’s recite the Gettysburg Address under the paltry restriction of not quoting anything Abraham Lincoln ever said. And I always wanted to see the Grand Canyon with the mild stipulation that I wouldn’t be allowed to look at any rock formations or the sky.

I’d be more inclined to believe that, after several sincere phone calls from legitimately concerned citizens who patronize Colonie Center Mall, the aforementioned official (who I honestly believe, in all fairness, was caught in a personalized situation she didn’t invite onto herself) decided to embrace a broad, new interpretation of “overt religious content” that included such covert lyrical verse as: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let Earth receive her King”, “Come to Bethlehem and see Him whose birth the angels sing. Come, adore on bended knee, Christ, the Lord, the new-born King”, “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate Deity, pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel”. Perhaps “Gloria in excelsis Deo” could be considered as “not overt”, but that’s Latin for ya’.

If we want to talk about this so-called Christmas Controversy, let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about “overt religious content”. Is there anything wrong with it? I hear a lot of frightful pleas against exclusive endorsements of organized religion. I hear a lot of “Happy Holidays”, which seems the de facto standard of socially correct and inclusive greetings. Can we really say “Happy Holidays”, though? What about groups that prefer not to celebrate holidays, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Isn’t “Happy Holidays” offensive and non-inclusive towards them? And doesn’t “Happy New Year” offend people who don’t believe in time?

The comedian Brad Stine asks which part of Christmas is so offensive anyway? Is it the “Peace on Earth” or the “Goodwill towards Men” rhetoric? And what reasonable soul standing on US soil would see a holiday greeting that applies to the peaceful celebration of 80% of the country’s population and want to have it silenced? What perceived “tyranny of the majority” does “Merry Christmas” hold? How many does it take to be offended or uncomfortable with something before it must be expunged to preserve some imaginary national harmony? Must every aspect of every facet of American life fit the unanimous whim of the country’s entire citizenship? Since when are the whims of US citizens in complete agreement? By the very act of doing you are in real danger of offending someone. Even doing nothing is still doing something, and will probably offend even more people than before. That’s life, which is one of our inalienable rights. Freedom from being offended is not one of those rights.

And when it’s all said and done, I hold nothing against Ms. Gurnett or the so-called Christmas Controversy, because in the end there’s a bigger meaning to it all. So let’s not forget the reason that the brave and speech-challenged little trooper from the famed and treasured secular holiday classic wanted his front incisors. It was to wish you Merry Christmas.

Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.

Above is a link to the song that I did with the great Michelle Williams this morning for a special music piece at Loudonville Community Church. It’s an arrangement of O Holy Night that Point of Grace did on their first Christmas CD… well, I might as well post a link to the whole album here (see right).

In all honesty… and I know this will totally floor a bunch of you… despite TSO, Mannheim Steamroller, the Merry Axemas’s and Gary Hoey… this one here by POG is my favorite Christmas album (there… I said it).

Ok, time to get self-critical. Quite frankly, my guitar tone was a little harsher than I would have liked… and if I had known how much the recording was going to pick-up (which means that everyone heard what the recording now reveals to me) I would have done more delicate embellishments and been gentler with my volume pedal, for instance at times my sound cuts out for what sounds like no reason, but the reason is that to my ears up on stage I thought my sound was sufficiently faded at times to inaudible levels… so I would cut it with my pedal. Unfortunately, it was only inaudible to me (the guy with the amp pointed at his head), but not for everyone else. Don’t you love it when you as an instrumentalist hear yourself worse than your audience? The violin of course sounded great. It blended so well with the backing track that you’d think it was part of the track, too. We had a few “moments” but only we really know about them. Michelle is super-talented and I’d play with her again in a second.

Here’s an article all about the display:

ChannelCincinnati.com
Christmas Light Display Draws Attention On Web
Lights In Sync With Music

POSTED: 12:59 pm EST December 5, 2005

DEERFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Some people at Christmas time are content to deck their homes with evergreen wreaths and holly, and maybe a few strings of lights made to look like glimmering icicles.

Not Carson Williams.

He spends nearly two months hooking up 25,000 lights, then programs them to dance to Christmas music.

Hundreds of cars drive by his house every night to see the display, which also is posted on several Internet sites.

Click here to watch Carson’s display

“So far, everyone’s been really courteous,” Williams said on NBC’s “Today” show Monday. “I told the neighbors, I told the sheriff, if they get any complaints, I’ll shut it down, because the neighbors are more important to me than the Christmas lights. I do the Christmas lights for myself.”

This is the third year Williams has assembled the display, which grows every year. He said he merely built on a suggestion from his wife, Sherry.

“She wanted some lights on the house, and I work with computers, so I said, ‘There’s got to be a way to control it with computers,”‘ Williams said.

He explored the Web and found examples of other synchronized displays. It takes him about an hour to program each minute of the display, which flashes to music by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

That doesn’t mean neighbors have to listen to the sound track repeat itself all night.

“The sound, we actually broadcast on a low FM transmitter, so there’s actually no sound in the neighborhood,” said Williams, an electrical engineer with Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions.

A sign tells passers-by where to tune to listen, and Williams often stays outside for hours at a time chatting with visitors and directing traffic.

“We’ve had no problems,” said Dave Hare, who lives across the street.

But the first year, it took some explaining.

“We called it the psycho house,” said Hare’s wife, Michelle. “It was just weird random flashes. Then, he told us about the radio station and it was great.”

The display runs until Jan. 1

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

As an aside, you learn the darnedest things when writing a blog entry. Denise Crosby from Star Trek:TNG is Bing Crosby’s grand-daughter?! And poor Burl Ives has a very amateur-ish website… maybe I should take it on?

No better way to get into the Christmas spirit than to listen to Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I’ve ripped the 3 CDs into MP3s and plan to listen to them in the background at my desk. I encourage anyone that hasn’t listened to them before to pick up any of their CDs. You will not be disappointed.

Well, today in church another blend of reasoning overtook me. The thoughts of Chardonnay and fat collided again in my mind… let me explain. (To my non-Christian readers this may be a bit foreign but you should read on.) There was chatter in my church regarding the drinking of alcohol by Christians and insinuations that temperance is holiness (a notion that a rational Christ-follower would easily dispel since Jesus himself drank alcohol… and, in fact, Jesus was readily accused of being a drunk by the 1st century version of some people in my church). Anyways, there was, in this chatter, the obligatory Bible references used to ask if drinking wine was beneficial and honoring and glorifying to God… of course the questions were asked in such a way that it’d be uncomfortable, even arrogant, for most people to definitively answer yes to any of those questions for anything except maybe for prayer and fasting. (A more honest and practical approach would be to ask if it dishonors God) I mean, really, could you really say that it glorifies God to eat dessert… dessert which is loaded with saturated fats and sugar… useless calories that do not benefit our “temple”… usually eaten for the vulgar epicurean delight of its devourer? (sounds sinful to me… get the fires goin’!) I say that obesity, the abuse of food, has far greater in-roads in the church-goers I know than alcoholism, the abuse of alcohol. However, abstinence of dessert sounds pretty ridiculous (especially to obese church-goers)… and it just doesn’t have the same resonance with the ole-timers as temperance-talk. Needless to say, the leanings of the chatter were as evident as the slant a peace-protester-turned-journalist would put on an “objective” news story from Iraq… the facts stated were correct, but the way they were delivered and the parts that were left off bias the story and reveal the chatterers agenda. (To be fair… I don’t believe the agenda today was intended to deceive anyone.)

So be certain that, on their own, I don’t think it is any more wrong to eat dessert than to drink alcohol. Be certain that there are those who think alcohol is wrong (for everyone) and who would sway you to come to their conclusions with them. A great comedian, Conservative and Christ-follower, Brad Stine, wrote a book touching on this very topic and this very comparison between alcohol and dessert. The book is called Being a Christian Without Being an Idiot, and while the literary editing is a bit rough, the content is funny, smart and extremely relevant. If you are one of my fellow Christ-followers (and hopefully better at it than I) this book is a must read… at the very least to be aware of some prevalent idiocy pitfalls. And while you’re at it it wouldn’t hurt to watch any of Brad’s multiple comedy DVDs. He’s also been a featured speaker the last 3 years at Promise Keepers and I suspect he’ll be there again this year.

As a show of goodwill toward men I have included a Christmas wallpaper here. If you don’t know what this is a picture of do not let your heart be troubled… just start in Matthew 2. If you enjoyed the wallpaper you found here please visit the creator’s website and pay homage.