Sadly, in the case of many leftists, they do not practice what they preach. Al Gore has made tens of millions of dollars while pushing his climate change narrative. And while he preaches the evils of carbon-based energies, he thinks nothing of flying here and there on a routine basis, buying up multiple estates and engaging in all of the other evils of opulence. With Gore, it is listen to what I say, do not bother with what I do. Obama isn't much better. He flies with a veritable armada of air ships halfway around the world for his annual vacation in Hawaii, denying a huge staff of military and secret service folk the opportunity of spending Christmas with their families. And the costs of these junkets has continued to skyrocket.
Google reports this about the costs to Americans of Obama in Hawaii: "The Secret Service provided documents for Obama's Christmas 2012 trip to Honolulu. The grand total is $654,599.40 including $409,225.78 in hotels. Flight expenses for the Obamas' 2013 Christmas vacations to Hawaii cost taxpayers $7,781,361.30. The Christmas 2014 flight cost $3,672,798.60."
Remember, what you are reading for each of the annual estimates are only partial costs. The 2012 cost is mostly for hotels, and no estimate is made for salaries etc. The costs for 2013 and 2014 are only for the actual armada of jets that made the trip. The total costs would made anyone blush. How totally removed Obama and family must be to think that taking this trip every year is a good idea. Real income during his regime has continued to decline and the number of unemployed - despite his ridiculously skewed unemployment figures - is obscene. Yet off he goes. And while the mainstream media will at last provide costs, you have to be a detective to find them. Were an outrageous cost like this to be plastered across front pages for several days during these trips, it is hard to believe he wouldn't back off. Well, on second thought, maybe he wouldn't. He is, afterall, so very important and elite.
You Want Corruption Exposed, Go To Judicial Watch's "Corruption Chrinicles"
When anyone who cares about These United States, even a little bit, peruses Judicial Watch's "Corruption Chronicles," you get the joint urge to cheer and cry. You want to cheer because Judicial Watch - by no means a conservative or Republican Operation, is the one organization that takes the time and makes the effort to expose the ridiculous and really awful things that go on in the administration of Barack H. Obama. You want to cry because, one, this stuff is really happening with the support and succor of Obama, and two, because the mainstream media avoids digging into and reporting on the corruption like it was the bane of its collective existance. Well, maybe it is.
When I turned there just now, these are the headlines:
1. One "year after freeing tens of thousands of illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is distorting annual deportation figures by falsely claiming the number of criminal aliens removed from the U.S. keeps increasing when in fact it’s shrinking drastically."
2. "With the region—and the entire nation—still reeling from the San Bernardino terrorist attacks, a federal appellate court is considering whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should be punished for surveilling Muslims in a nearby southern California county."
3. "The Secretary of Homeland Security is the second high-ranking Obama administration official with a relative investigated for Communism by the U.S. government, Judicial Watch has confirmed. This is relevant because, although Islamic terrorists keep attacking America, the cabinet official responsible for the nation’s safety has vowed to protect Muslims from…"
4. "A Middle Eastern woman was caught surveilling a U.S. port of entry on the Mexican border holding a sketchbook with Arabic writing and drawings of the facility and its security system, federal law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch. The woman has been identified as 23-year-old Leila Abdelrazaq, according to a…"
5. "In the aftermath of President Obama’s mass release of federal inmates, the administration is spending huge amounts of taxpayer funds to help the prematurely discharged convicts reintegrate into society, most lately $20 million to assist them in finding jobs. It’s all part of the commander-in-chief’s broader effort to reform the…"
6. "It appears that Islamic extremists are infiltrating the United States in growing numbers yet government figures show that foreigners are hardly ever removed from the country on terrorism grounds. This is not surprising considering the Obama administration regularly shields criminal illegal immigrants with extensive rap sheets from deportation. Why not…"
7. "Individuals with ties to terrorist groups in Syria have tried to infiltrate the United States through the Obama refugee program that will admit at least 10,000 Syrians, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has confirmed. The disturbing admission comes amid robust assurances by the administration that the…"
8. "It’s been well documented that government wastes enormous amounts of money on all sorts of outrageous things and now some of the enraging details are available in a lengthy report that reveals how the cash is being spent, like studying bugs’ reactions to artificial light, a weight-loss program for truck…"
This is only from Page 1 of the "Corruption Chronicles," and each and every one of these leads is followed by an in-depth account of the corrupt practice or deed together with an explanation of its impact and other contextual details. Don't waste your time getting the news exclusively from the New York Times or Washington Post because you won't really know what is going on in the world. Instead, stop at Judicial Watch and their Corruption Chronicles first. Use the leftist-leaning media to round things out. At least that's how I see it.
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Today we present Part 5 of Credible and Incisive's Real Christmas Story. If you have read any of the first four parts, you know that the Real Christmas Story is, in fact, just that, a verbatim account of the Birth of Christ taken directly from the Gospels of St. Luke and St. Matthew. Part 4 included the conclusion of the account provided in St. Matthew. Today we continue with more of St. Luke's account.
From the Gospel of Saint Luke, Chapter 2, beginning with Verse 4: And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, Verse 5: to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. Verse 6: And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. Verse 7: And she gave birth to her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, for there was no room for him in the inn.
Verse 8: And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. Verse 9: And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were filled with fear. Verse 10: And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; Verse 11: for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Verse 12: And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." Verse 13: And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Verse 14: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!" (some ancient authorities quote the heavenly host as saying, "peace, good will among men...")
Verse 15: When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." Verse 16: And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. Verse 17: And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning the child; Verse 18: and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. Verse 19: But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. Verse 20: And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Part 6 of the Real Christmas Story will be printed tomorrow, December 24, 2015, God Willing, in Credible and Incisive. It will be the Biblical Account, found in the second chapter of St. Luke, of Christ's circumscision and of the trip to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem that was taken by Mary and Joseph, with Jesus Christ, to offer a sacrifice to God in accord with the Law of Moses.
Christmas Poetry Continued: Continuing now with a selection of poetry that centers on Christmas. So far, Credible and Incisive - with a large shout out to the web site "Poem Hunter," has printed poems by Longfellow, Tennyson, Coleridge and Frost. Two of them are English and two of them are American. Today, we present poems authored by Wordsworth, and Englishman, and Stevenson, a Scot. Many of you know that Wordsworth teamed with Coleridge in 1798 to jointly publish a work entitled "Lyrical Ballads," that is credited with launching the Romantic Age of English Literature. Stevenson was a contemporary of both Wordsworth and Coleridge, but he is best remembered for his novels "Treasure Island," "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," and "Kidnapped."
Minstrels
by William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850)
The minstrels played their Christmas tune
To-night beneath my cottage-eaves;
While, smitten by a lofty moon,
The encircling laurels, thick with leaves,
Gave back a rich and dazzling sheen,
That overpowered their natural green.
Through hill and valley every breeze
Had sunk to rest with folded wings:
Keen was the air, but could not freeze,
Nor check, the music of the strings;
So stout and hardy were the band
That scraped the chords with strenuous hand.
And who but listened?-till was paid
Respect to every inmate's claim,
The greeting given, the music played
In honour of each household name,
Duly pronounced with lusty call,
And 'Merry Christmas' wished to all.
Christmas at Sea
by Robert Louis Stevenson (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850)
The sheets were frozen hard, and they cut the naked hand;
The decks were like a slide, where a seaman scarce could stand;
The wind was a nor'wester, blowing squally off the sea;
And cliffs and spouting breakers were the only things a-lee.
They heard the surf a-roaring before the break of day;
But 'twas only with the peep of light we saw how ill we lay.
We tumbled every hand on deck instanter, with a shout,
And we gave her the maintops'l, and stood by to go about.
All day we tacked and tacked between the South Head and the North;
All day we hauled the frozen sheets, and got no further forth;
All day as cold as charity, in bitter pain and dread,
For very life and nature we tacked from head to head.
We gave the South a wider berth, for there the tide race roared;
But every tack we made we brought the North Head close aboard:
So's we saw the cliffs and houses, and the breakers running high,
And the coastguard in his garden, with his glass against his eye.
The frost was on the village roofs as white as ocean foam;
The good red fires were burning bright in every 'long-shore home;
The windows sparkled clear, and the chimneys volleyed out;
And I vow we sniffed the victuals as the vessel went about.
The bells upon the church were rung with a mighty jovial cheer;
For it's just that I should tell you how (of all days in the year)
This day of our adversity was blessed Christmas morn,
And the house above the coastguard's was the house where I was born.
O well I saw the pleasant room, the pleasant faces there,
My mother's silver spectacles, my father's silver hair;
And well I saw the firelight, like a flight of homely elves,
Go dancing round the china plates that stand upon the shelves.
And well I knew the talk they had, the talk that was of me,
Of the shadow on the household and the son that went to sea;
And O the wicked fool I seemed, in every kind of way,
To be here and hauling frozen ropes on blessed Christmas Day.
They lit the high sea-light, and the dark began to fall.
'All hands to loose top gallant sails,' I heard the captain call.
'By the Lord, she'll never stand it,' our first mate, Jackson, cried.
. . . 'It's the one way or the other, Mr. Jackson,' he replied.
She staggered to her bearings, but the sails were new and good,
And the ship smelt up to windward just as though she understood.
As the winter's day was ending, in the entry of the night,
'We cleared the weary headland, and passed below the light.
And they heaved a mighty breath, every soul on board but me,
As they saw her nose again pointing handsome out to sea;
But all that I could think of, in the darkness and the cold,
Was just that I was leaving home and my folks were growing old.
Christmas Carols Continued: Readers here have been able to read the lyrics of two great Christmas Carols in our last two posts. We started with "O Holy Night," and continued, yesterday, with "Silent Night," or "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht," as it is known in German. Silent Night was composed in Austria in the German Language, and we included the German lyrics as well as the English. Today we continue with the beautifully humble, poignant and wonderful "In the Bleak Midwinter." The work originated as a poem by the English woman Christina Rossetti. According to Wikipedia, Rossetti authored the work prior to 1872, but it wasn't published until after her death, when her "Poetic Works" were released in 1904. The poem became a hymm and Christmas Carol when it was included in the English Hymnal published in 1906. The brilliant composer Gustav Holst had written the music.
In the Bleak Midwinter
by Christina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894)
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.
Enough for Him, Whom cherubim, worship night and day,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, Whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.
Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.
What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.
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