St. Bartholemew's Day

The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (Massacre de la Saint-Barthélemy in French) in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants), during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine de' Medici, the mother of King Charles IX, the massacre took place six days after the wedding of the king's sister Margaret to the Protestant Henry III of Navarre (the future Henry IV of France). This marriage was an occasion for which many of the most wealthy and prominent Huguenots had gathered in largely Catholic Paris.

The massacre began two days after the attempted assassination of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the military and political leader of the Huguenots. Starting on 23 August 1572 (the eve of the feast of Bartholomew the Apostle) with murders on orders of the king of a group of Huguenot leaders including Coligny, the massacres spread throughout Paris. Lasting several weeks, the massacre extended to other urban centres and the countryside. Modern estimates for the number of dead vary widely between 5,000 and 30,000 in total.

The massacre also marked a turning point in the French Wars of Religion. The Huguenot political movement was crippled by the loss of many of its prominent aristocratic leaders, as well as many re-conversions by the rank and file, and those who remained were increasingly radicalized. Though by no means unique, it "was the worst of the century's religious massacres." ^[2] Throughout Europe, it "printed on Protestant minds the indelible conviction that Catholicism was a bloody and treacherous religion".^[3]

To Pray Unceasingly…

To Pray Unceasingly…

The ravages of time.

Arkansas banshees

I run my Klipschorns (seen above tucked unobtrusively in the corners of the room) with a McIntosh MA 6100 integrated amplifier (center). After almost 40 years of faithful service, the McIntosh needed some attention, so I took it in for a full restoration. When I got it back last month, the new volume pot from Mac was kinda wonky, so I took it back to be replaced (McIntosh admits that a high percentage of the new not-quite-OEM pots are faulty).

In the interim, a friend loaned me his McIntosh C26 pre-amp, which I used with my old Harman/Kardon Citation 12 amplifier. Neither has been restored, and were used only occasionally over the last few years.

The time came to make the 500 mile round trip to pick up the 6100. As my tech friend and I were talking, I noticed he was running a Citation 12 amp just like mine. He told me a horror story about how it went into complete fail, dumping enough DC into his speakers to fry the voice coils. I hate those kind of stories.

Got home in time for dinner. Too tired to hook up the 6100. Dinner was hamburger steak cooked inside.

We (wife and aged in-laws) were listening to the Ks through my friend's C26 and the Citation 12 at low volume as we prepared to sit down for dinner, when what sounded like the LOUDEST MILITARY/INDUSTRIAL smoke alarm I've ever heard went off. My wife got her parents outside while I ran around looking for something that might have set it off. Screaming so loud I can barely think. I can FEEL the sound in my chest as I move upstairs, where the sound lessens. No smoke. No smell of smoke. Check the attic. No smoke. Run back downstairs and into the garage. No smoke. I start hitting the circuit breaker looking for the alarm (thinking the dinner smoke must have set it off). The last breaker kills the smoke alarm. TWO MINUTES? FIVE MINUTES? I don't know how long it went on, but it seemed like an eternity.

I get everyone back in, check on the condition of the elders, and they're OK. Go over to the amp to make sure there's no smoke smell there. None. But I turn it off anyway, even though it's killed on the same switched-off circuit that the alarm is on (or so I think). Again I check every room. No smoke smells, no fires, no signs of trouble.

After dinner, I have everyone cover their ears and I turn the alarm breaker back on (I think... it's not marked on the panel... the switch that killed the "alarm" says kitchen vent). All quiet. I come back in and try to relax. Decide some jazz will help.

I turn on the amp (the Citation is controlled from the C26).

EAR-SPLITTING, CHEST-PUNCHING NOISE FROM THE K-HORNS!!!! ARKANSAS BANSHEES FROM HELL!!!! Quickly, I turn off the amp. Arrrggghhhhh!

It never was the smoke alarm. It was the Klipschorns screaming for their lives!

The damn Citation had died, just like the one my tech/friend and I had talked about that very day. The Big Ks seemed to have survived (somehow). Un-frigging-believable. That was the loudest thing I have ever heard (sustained). How the K's (and Bob Crites' CT-125s with his revised XO) survived that, I can't imagine. But I am thankful.

As a test, and for ease and safety, I hooked up my $25 T-amp (5 WPC) through the C26. Everything seems OK. All drivers work and sound good. My ears are still ringing, though (in addition to my normal tinnitus).

The MA 6100 is back in-system today. Sounds great. The Citation will be carted off for new outputs (although my first thought was to throw the damn thing into the lake).

"The belief that there are other life forms in the universe is a matter of faith. There is not a single shred of evidence for any other life forms, and in forty years of searching, none has been discovered. There is absolutely no evidentiary reason to maintain this belief."

-- Michael Crichton, Caltech Michelin Lecture, January 17, 2003

Knock, knock.

"Here, then, is the crucial question which we have been leading up to. Have we ever opened our door to Christ? Have we ever invited him in? This was exactly the question which I needed to have put to me. For, intellectually speaking, I had believed in Jesus all my life, on the other side of the door. I had regularly struggled to say my prayers through the key-hole. I had even pushed pennies under the door in a vain attempt to pacify him. I had been baptized, yes and confirmed as well. I went to church, read my Bible, had high ideals, and tried to be good and do good. But all the time, often without realising it, I was holding Christ at arm's length, and keeping him outside. I knew that to open the door might have momentous consequences. I am profoundly grateful to him for enabling me to open the door. Looking back now over more than fifty years, I realise that that simple step has changed the entire direction, course and quality of my life."

-- John Stott, quoted in Timothy Dudley-Smith, John Stott: The Making of a Leader (Inter-Varsity Press: Leicester, 1999), p. 95

John R.W. Stott, 27 April 1921 – 27 July 2011

"The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of
derelict, half-built towers -- the ruins of those who began
to build and were unable to finish.  For thousands of
people still ignore Christ's warning and undertake to
follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of
doing so.  The result is the great scandal of Christendom
today, so-called 'nominal Christianity'."

--John R.W. Stott, from "Basic Christianity" (rev. edn. London: IVP, 1971),
p. 108.

I miss working at City Hall.

Let us prey.

"...O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle-- be Thou near them! With them-- in spirit-- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of their guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief... for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."

-- Mark Twain, from The War Prayer

The Harrow & The Harvest - Making of the Album Cover

An eye for the truth.

 
Gabriel, comte de Montgomery, seigneur de Lorges (5 May 1530 – 26 June 1574), a French nobleman, was a captain in Henry II's Scots Guards. He is remembered for mortally injuring Henry in a jousting accident and subsequently converting to Protestantism, the faith that the Scottish Guard sought to suppress.

On either 30 June or 1 July 1559, during a jousting match to celebrate the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis between Henry II and his longtime Habsburg enemies, a splinter of wood from Montgomery's shattered lance pierced Henry's eye and entered his brain, mortally injuring him.

From his deathbed Henry absolved Montgomery of any blame, but, finding himself disgraced, Montgomery retreated to his estates in Normandy. There he studied theology and converted to Protestantism, making him an enemy of the state.

Piece of My Heart: The Story of Janis Joplin

Piece of My Heart: The Story of Janis Joplin

Ruination Day

"The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of
derelict, half-built towers -- the ruins of those who began
to build and were unable to finish.  For thousands of
people still ignore Christ's warning and undertake to
follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of
doing so.  The result is the great scandal of Christendom
today, so-called 'nominal Christianity'."

--John R.W. Stott, from "Basic Christianity" (rev. edn. London: IVP, 1971),
p. 108.

Evolutionary tendencies.

"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-
driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness,
prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.
We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift
toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward
superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of
lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward
prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have
escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince
ourselves we have been liberated."

– D.A. Carson

Cribbed from CQOD.

So shall I love my God because He first loved me...

BD's BD

Flying "Stand By"

EU Homeland Security Threat levels

ALERTS TO THREATS IN 2011 EUROPE:

1. The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.
2. The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Libya and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
3. The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years. 
4. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides." 
5. The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose." 
6. Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels. 
7. The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy. 
8. Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is canceled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

-- John Cleese - British writer, actor and tall person


A tip of the bowler to my brother and sister-in-law for the sharing this.

Quick read.

Best. Gift. Ever.

It's empty!?

Hooray!

Dead man speaking.

According to the New Testament, on the day between Jesus' death on Friday afternoon and his resurrection on Sunday morning, he descended to the dead in Hades. Why? Well, he was dead. But he didn't stay dead. Nor did he just play dead. He preached.

1Peter 3:19–20 says that Jesus "went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah…"

1Peter 4:6 says that the gospel (the good news) was "proclaimed even to the dead…"

In the Orthodox traditions, this is an important part of Pascha (the original name for the celebration of Christ's defeat of death, the name "easter" is actually of pagan origins) called Harrowing Saturday. The Roman Church, and the Protestant churches that came out of it, don't say much about this, even though the three creeds of Christianity (Apostles, Athanasian, and Nicene) all make it a primary tenet of the Faith.

Hades, being outside of time and space, is not a chronological place. It is reasonable to believe (if you can believe in reasonableness) that Jesus preached to all the dead of all time, and released from prison those who would follow. I know this to be true.

Why? Because he preached to me when I was yet a dead man... and he will yet preach to everyone. His sheep will then recognize their master's voice.

TGIF

    Those who think God did this almost incredible thing call it Good Friday because only an extremely good God could do a thing like that. All religions attempt to bridge the gulf between the terrific purity of God and the sinfulness of man, but Christianity believes that God built that bridge Himself. This particular Friday commemorates His deliberate action in allowing Himself to be caught up in the sin-suffering-death mechanism which haunts mankind.
    He didn't let it end there, for He went on, right through death. But the men who believe in Him can't forget the kind of Person such an act reveals. That's why they call it Good Friday.

    ... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982)
 CQOD 

Annoying host/presentation, great barbecue.

Watch the full episode. See more The Daytripper.

Don't!

Quotation: 

Every time the disciples started establishing rules—no children near Jesus; don’t let the crowd touch Jesus; don’t talk to Samaritan women; don’t let people waste expensive perfumes—Jesus told them to knock it off, and his rebuke was usually followed by a lecture that said, “You still don’t get it! We’re not substituting religious rules with our rules. We are substituting religious rules with Me!” Jesus kept saying “Follow Me,” not “follow My rules.” So most of us have spent our Christian lives learning what we can’t do instead of celebrating what we can do in Jesus. 

... Mike Yaconelli (1942-2003), Dangerous Wonder, Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1998, p. 53 (see the book)

Source: CQOD

Who's on first?

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

“I see no God up here”, Yuri Gagarin - 50 Years... this isn't happiness.™

Speaking as a Communist Party icon, of course.

Please wait.

Like...

"I have become like a vulture in the wilderness, like an owl among the ruins."

- Psalm 102:6

Nonconformity in exurbia.

I live in an exurban new-urbanist "planned community", where all the houses conform to a century old design language called "American Craftsman" with a muted and narrow color pallet of dusty pastel earth tones, and all the houses have front porches and white (vinyl) picket fences. The HOA is very restrictive. Regimented nostalgia-tinged order.

I'm a rebellious sort. To differentiate myself from my neighbors, I subscribe to a daily newspaper. I appear to be the only one on my block. I expect the HOA to send notice.

iBest

Best photo I've ever taken with my iPhone 3GS. The pits at Smitty's Market in Lockhart, Texas.

Good shot.

The door is ajar.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

- John Updike, "Seven Stanzas at Easter"

Empty Religion

We need to listen again to the biblical criticism of religion.  No book, not even by Marx and his followers, is more scathing of empty religion than the Bible.  The prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries BC were outspoken in their denunciation of the formalism and hypocrisy of Israelite worship.  Jesus then applied their critique to the Pharisees of his day: 'These people ... honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me' (Is. 29:13; Mk. 7:6).  And this indictment of religion by the Old Testament prophets and by Jesus is uncomfortably applicable to us and our churches today.  Too much of our worship is ritual without reality, form without power, fun without fear, religion without God.

--From "The Contemporary Christian" (Leicester and Downers Grove: IVP, 1992), p. 228.

- John R. W. Stott

The Man Without a Country

The Man Without a Country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and...

The real Philip Nolan.

Confession is good for the soul.

I am a Centrist Christian Democrat (ick, for two parts of the indentifier).

Why? Because while I believe in mankind's innate freedom (Free Will), I also believe in mankind's innate freedom (Free Will).

Left to our own resources, we (mankind) will rape and pillage.  Any attempt at correction will ultimately fail. But try we must (to prevent rape and pillage).

Have a nice day.

See what big letters I am using?

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”

- Soren Kierkegaard

Martin at Matins.

For over 22 years, I have begun my morning on Tipperary Drive with a pre-dawn observance of the Daily Office, specifically Morning Prayer (Matins). Reading the Bible, prayer and making intercessions for those in need of prayer.

On most mornings, our 10 year old feline, Martin Luther Kitty, joins me (after his kibble breakfast).

This is the last day we will be doing this in this spot. A new routine begins to evolve starting tomorrow morning, in parts removed.

The Runaway Scrape, the Battle of Plum Creek.

Evangelism

Truth be told, Part 3

Truth be told, Part 2

"When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of putting it into practice."

- Otto von Bismarck

Seems simple enough.

1 John 4:20-21

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Seems simple enough.

1 John 4:20-21

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Then and soon.

6045 Bryan Parkway, Dallas Texas
A Craftsman-style home converted into a Cad Cod-style home (following a roof fire). This was my grandmother's house off of Swiss Avenue. I lived there, ca. 1950-1953, and again in 1968 (before heading off to college and worse).

1375 Fairway Drive, Kyle Texas
A Craftsman-style home built in 2004. There are similarities in my eyes.

This will be "home" effective end of the business day 12/31/2011. I wonder if the HOA will let me paint the door red?

How many fingers am I holding up?

Steak finger basket. Pure, wicked delight of my youth, with thick-cut fries and Texas Toast. The best I've had came from the old (pre-hipster) Scholz Garten next to the State Capitol in Austin.

Learn more below.
Steak fingers with jalapeno cream gravy | Homesick Texan

Not the prayer of Jabez.

Psalm 118:5-6

When hard pressed, I cried to the LORD;
  he brought me into a spacious place.
The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
  What can mere mortals do to me?

Snow-day chili

1886 Chili

2 lbs cubed beef (stew beef works well, or brisket), 1 inch cubes, not ground (won't stand up)
1.5 cups chopped red onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 oz chili powder (Pendery's is best, Bolner's Fiesta and Gebhardt’s are the best grocery store powders, or Adams, or your favorite bulk style… but no Durkee’s or other yankee powder.)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground Comino/Cumin
1 10oz can of RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies (Medium)
16 oz beer (Spaten Optimator is best. WARNING! The use of any Budwieser, Miller, or Coors product can result in severe abdominal cramps and/or diarrhea.)
1 tbsp Black Strap Molasses
1 tsp Masa Harina (corn meal will work)
1 dried Ancho pepper, crushed
1 smoked Jalapeño (large), chopped

Sear beef until grey. Drain off liquid. Add all ingredients to pot (or Crock Pot) EXCEPT Masa Harina.

Simmer 3 hours.
Skim grease.
Mix Masa Harina into a liquid paste and stir in.
Simmer for 1 hour, or until meat is tender.

Garnish with chopped white onions and grated cheddar cheese if desired.
Serve with saltine crackers.  East Coast Liberals may use oyster crackers without penalty.

Serves 4 to 6 people. Adjust ingredients accordingly.

ACTUALLY TASTES BEST THE NEXT DAY AFTER SETTING IN FRIDGE OVERNIGHT.
WARNING! The use of any legumes in this recipe can result in intestinal gas, severe abdominal cramps and/or diarrhea.

For the love of McIntosh.

 

Before there was Macintosh (brilliantly engineered Apple computers from Cupertino, CA), there was McIntosh Laboratories (brilliantly engineered high-fidelity electronics from Binghamton, NY). Apple Computers voluntarily paid a licensing fee to McIntosh to use the Macintosh name, even though there was no infringement (Steve Jobs was a big McIntosh fan at the time). Mac love was big at Apple.

Whiners usually have the same gripes about both products. Whine on.

McIntosh Laboratories has now released a free app for iPhones and iPads that emulates the look of a classic McIntosh amplifier as a music player (big blue power meter, green on black type). It's free, and it's fun. Get it at the iTunes App Store.

Shaped charge.

Time's up.

As played at my friend Jim Neumann's memorial on December 29th, 2010.

Quartet for the End of Time
Fifth Movement
Olivier Messiaen

Ellen Rose, viola
Pam Swendig, piano

Here comes...

Watch, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.  

Mark 13:35, 36


Merry Christmas!

to you and yours from

Michael (P.M.) and Linden (Lura) Summer

"The way I keep in touch with the world … is very gingerly … because the world touches too hard."

Don Van Vliet, January 15, 1941 – December 17, 2010. R.I.P.

And yet another.

"We must be willing to accept the bitter truth that, in the end, we may have to become a burden to those who love us. But it is necessary that we face this also. The full acceptance of our abjection and uselessness is the virtue that can make us and others rich in the grace of God. It takes heroic charity and humility to let others sustain us when we are absolutely incapable of sustaining ourselves. 

We cannot suffer well unless we see Christ everywhere—both in suffering and in the charity of those who come to the aid of our affliction."

-- Thomas Merton (1915-1968), No Man is an Island, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1955; reprint, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, p. 93-94 (see the book)

Today's crib from CQOD

"For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is—limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it was well worthwhile."

--Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957)
Christian Letters to a Post-Christian World, Eerdmans, 1969, p. 14

Late Thanksgiving.

Stool samples.

Rise and shine.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."


Acts of the Apostles 1:8
New International Version (©1984)



On November 28, 1984, reality intruded upon my superstition.

Bouncing around.

"Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom."

"Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good."

"In addition to my other numerous acquaintances, I have one more intimate confidant. My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known -- no wonder, then, that I return the love."

"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."

"Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it."

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."

-- Soren Kierkegaard

Continuous prayer.

"If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough."

-- Meister Eckhart

Truth be told (dealing with realtors and such).

The Gardener

"I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves."

-- Ludwig Wittgenstein

Wake of the flood.

"A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them."

-- P. J. O'Rourke

The Birthday Boys: Day 2

The Birthday Boys: Day 1

Texas Rangers Co. “D” Uvalde

YEEEEEEEHIIIIYAAAAAYYYYHAAAAWWWWWWWWWW!!!

Historian T. R. Fehrenbach (IIRC) says the "rebel yell" originated with the first Texas Rangers, the loose conglomeration of lawmen who defended early Texas pioneers from the Apache and Comanche warriors, combining still remembered ancestral Celtic war cries with Native American war whoops. Terry's Texas Rangers (CSA 8th Texas Cavalry, whose core consisted of men from the Rangers) introduced the cry to the Confederate Army.

It's a yell earlier Texas Rangers used to great effect against earlier Yankees. The Rangers were also known as giant-killers, who wore out many a filly.

Say it with me, with gusto: "YEEEEEEEHIIIIYAAAAAYYYYYHAAAAWWWWWWWWWW!!!"

Shine on.

Buffalo Shuffle

My wife brought me a pack of Clark's Teaberry gum from The Cracker Barrel (the official place grandparents take their grandkids for a meal).