Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

This song has a weird origin.

As regular readers of this blog know I have a thing about parody songs, Over the years I’ve done Joe Biden (We don’t talk about Biden) on the attempts to kill Trump (You don’t kill Trump so easy) and his campaign (What has the Donald ever done for us? ) , on the election of 2020 (Joe Biden’s Magic Ballots) the MSM Trump song ( I’m the MSM I am ) and two original songs ( Suck it up ) and a replacement for Happy Birthday (Hooray you’re not dead!) and a few more that died in the great system crashes that I’m not inclined to spend a day on the wayback machine searching for or that I’ve forgotten.

As you might guess I think of all kinds of songs like that which never see past me singing them while I work.

What you might not guess, but should, is that like all Christians I have sins to deal with and try to get ahead of. When I accidently discovered the existence of St. Myron of Crete and read about him suddenly the words to a song based on the song Taken Care of Business, one of the catchiest tunes there is, popped into my head which became the post I put up on the feast of St. Myron of Crete. The refrain has been my goto move when I’m tempted to sin and so far has proved quite effective since it’s the type of song that tends to earwig you and a song that is a prayer that earwigs you keeps your mind on Christ.

As a rule that bad news to the enemy.

Well a few weeks ago I was at work and for the first time since I had thought of it (long before the post you saw) the St. Myron song refrain was not coming into my head at all. For some reason that was being replaced by the early Elton John Song Philadelphia Freedom which, while excellent, is not highly effective in combating sin. I perceived this as an attempt to distract me from what had been an effective prayer.

At that moment suddenly for no reason at all the thought of St. Augustine of Hippo instantly came to mind along and with Elton’s song in my head I quickly came up with the first verse to a song singing it on the fly as I worked. To my shock when I got to the refrain I found myself completely in tears (while still doing my work) as I said the words. It hits me, reflecting back on that day that the refrain is basically a declaration of faith and hope and love in Christ. As the day went on refrains for multiple saints came to my head. You will see them posted below in the song making it much longer than Elton’s actual song, but it hits me that you could literally had verse after verse of and saint after saint to this song without any loss of effectiveness. In fact anyone who has found Christ while in the darkness or has been led to Christ by Mary could likely come up with their own verse to describe their own life. You’ll note I altered the refrain for a pair of saints due to their particular situation and there is no reason why you couldn’t do the same

So I post the song as is today, I reserve the right to add verses over the years as they come to me. Feel free to grab and and make a verse about yourself if Christ or his mother or a particular saint who has aided you.

[Verse 1] St. Augustine
Augustine was a rollin’ stone, ya know
He’d go out all night
Be drinkin, and find a lady to squeeze him tight


His mother Monica used to pray to the Lord
For his bad ways to change
Augustine answered saying: ‘Make me chaste, but not today’

[Chorus]
He lived that scene till, Jesus offered him freedom
From before he was born, He loved him all that time
Jesus offed freedom from all the sins before him
Gave him peace of mind his life never had

[Post-Chorus]
Jesus offered him freedom, shined on him, he loved him
Shined his light and his sins were soon left behind
Shined his light, He shined his light
He saw the light and he joined the fight!
Jesus he gave him freedom, He loved him
And you too

[Turnaround]

[Verse 2] St Dismas
Dismas was a man who choose to thieve (lived a life of crime)
Operated there within city lines (he choose the city)
He robbed people right in their home
(in the family home)
Broke in late at night (real easy)
‘Til Romans caught him, passed sentence
Sent to be crucified

[Chorus]
But on the cross there he encountered sweet Jesus
He confessed his sins and for his mercy cried
Jesus gave him freedom from all his earthly worries
Said “Today you will be with me in paradise”

[Post-Chorus]
Jesus he gave him freedom, shined on him, He loved him
Shined his light, even as there as he suffered beside
Shined his light, he shined his light
He saw the light, and he joined the fight!
Jesus he gave him freedom, He loved him
And you too

[Turnaround]

[Verse 3] St. Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was in a bad place.
She had been possessed
Abandoned, shunned by all the rest


Seven demons came made her their host
They dwelt inside, proclaiming:
“You’re ours until you die”

[Chorus]
She had no hope, then Jesus gave her her freedom
He called her name and declared “you are mine”
Jesus gave her freedom and the demons fled before him
Gave her peace of mind the darkness never had

[Post-Chorus]
Jesus gave to her freedom, shined on her, she loved him
Saw his light and she stayed by his cross as he died
Shined his light, He shined his light
So she was first of all to see him rise
Jesus gave to her freedom, He loved her
And you too

[Turnaround]

[Verse 4] St. Andrew Worthers
Andrew Worthers was a worthless priest
He abused his vows
Drank heavy and he slept around (had many kids out of wedlock)


He was suspended then the Sea Beggers came
They captured his town
Their leader sized all the priests around.

[Chorus]
He was to die but then they offered him freedom.
“We’ll spare your life, just deny St. Peter’s crown.”
Jesus gave him strength to remember his true vocation.
With the rope around his neck he turned them down.

[Post-Chorus]
Jesus gave him his freedom, shined on him, he loved him
Shined his light, even though his sins were so bright
Shined his light, He shined his light
He saw the light and choose eternal life!
Jesus he gave him freedom, He loved him
And you too

[Turnaround]

[Post-Chorus]
Jesus offers you freedom, shine on thee, He loves ya
Shines his light, and his mother will help in your plight (the demons fear her ooh)
Shine his light, he’ll shine the light
Shine his light, won’t you see the light?
Jesus will give you freedom, He loves you
Don’t you know his love, yeah?
Don’t you know he loves you?

[Outro]
Yes, he do! (Jesus grant me your freedom) I love you
(Yes, I do! Jesus grant me your freedom) You know that I love you
(Yes, I do! Jesus grant me your freedom) Don’t you know that I love you?
(Yes, I do! Jesus grant me your freedom) Don’t you know that I love you?
(Yes, I do! Jesus grant me your freedom) Don’t you know that I love you?
(Yes, I do! Jesus grant me your freedom) Don’t you know that I love you?
(Yes, I do…)

Ben Franklin: Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no other.

Many years ago my wife was a school nurse and once in a while I’d visit her at her school, usually when something had to be dropped off, a forgotten lunch or set of keys or occasionally flowers etc.

On the wall of her office were two charts. One was for alcohol and one was for pot. Each one had pointers to parts of the body that it’s use had a bad effect upon and stated those effects.

That chart stuck with me even as during the Obama years the best and brightest decided to push for legalization of pot all over the nation, pushing the myth that it is basically harmless and suggesting that it would be a cash cow for states. What was really amazing to me was the number of connected people who suddenly seemed to find themselves with licenses for the stuff.

What really interesting is that if you do any kind of web search there is no shortage of sites referencing government studies that confirm all of the problems that were still known 20 years ago before the woke crowd successful push on the subject. To quote a government site:

Marijuana use can have negative and long-term effects:

Brain iconBrain health: Marijuana can cause permanent IQ loss of as much as 8 points when people start using it at a young age. These IQ points do not come back, even after quitting marijuana.

Gears iconMental health: Studies link marijuana use to depression, anxiety, suicide planning, and psychotic episodes. It is not known, however, if marijuana use is the cause of these conditions.

Bicycle iconAthletic Performance: Research shows that marijuana affects timing, movement, and coordination, which can harm athletic performance.

Driving signDriving: People who drive under the influence of marijuana can experience dangerous effects: slower reactions, lane weaving, decreased coordination, and difficulty reacting to signals and sounds on the road.

Baby carriage iconBaby’s health and development: Marijuana use during pregnancy may cause fetal growth restriction, premature birth, stillbirth, and problems with brain development, resulting in hyperactivity and poor cognitive function. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other chemicals from marijuana can also be passed from a mother to her baby through breast milk, further impacting a child’s healthy development.

Arrow iconDaily life: Using marijuana can affect performance and how well people do in life. Research shows that people who use marijuana are more likely to have relationship problems, worse educational outcomes, lower career achievement, and reduced life satisfaction.

So when I saw this CNN/Yahoo story at Instapundit I almost laughed out loud:

Healthy people who regularly smoked marijuana or consumed THC-laced edibles showed signs of early cardiovascular disease similar to tobacco smokers, a new small study found.

“To my knowledge, it’s the first study looking at THC’s impact on vascular function in humans,” said senior study author Matthew Springer, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

“We’re looking at a window in the future, showing the early changes that may explain why smoking marijuana has been linked to later heart disease,” Springer said. “It appears the act of smoking and the THC itself both contribute to those changes in different ways.”

This has to be almost as big a shock to them as the news the Joe Biden wasn’t 100%!

Given that we had 12 of the previous 16 years with government by:

  • A corrupt Chicago leftist pol
  • An even more corrupt Washington pol
  • Whoever paid either one

I find the end results of all of this completely unsurprising and emphasizes why the culture war was worth fighting.

But the satisfaction of being right pales before the damage done to our country and the displeasure of being unable to drive through large parts of my city with the smell of Pot all around me.

I’d just as soon have been wrong and have things be OK.

A list of five bits of Good advice for Christians on Easter Sunday8

  1. Christ’s death and Resurrection paid for the sins of everyone who has ever lived and gave us all a shot at heaven. This includes loony leftists to torch Teslas, Palestinian terrorists who slaughter Jews, Men who think they’re women and the Annoying neighbor whose dog shits on your lawn. He didn’t play favorites, he redeemed everyone, even you.
  2. You have no idea when Christ will choose to touch people and when/if they will respond. There were a fair amount of Pharisees who became Christians and some of them likely were in favor of the Crucifixion before then. You would not have liked Matthew or Mary Magdalene the day before Christ touched them.
  3. In the end you can’t force someone across the finish line. You can warn and advise the foolish bridesmaids as much as you want, you can point them to the oil store and even loan them a few bucks to buy it but it’s their responsibility to be ready.
  4. If you spend all your time focusing on the sins of others you will likely miss your own redemption and be one of those who cried Lord Lord. Don’t be the guy who cries Lord Lord and doesn’t get into heaven.
  5. It’s ok to not understand or to even doubt some things. The disciples who saw Jesus walk on water, raise the dead repeatedly didn’t understand and doubted and they were there. Worry about walking before you run.

None of these are easy to keep in mind or to accept but all of them are Christianity 101

So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?

John 18:37-38a

If I had to explain the communist left why they can not be trusted from only one example, the one that instantly comes to mind is their actions from 1939 to 1941 concerning World War 2.

Being two sides of the same coin the Soviet Communists and the German Fascists’ hated each other with a passion having fought against each other by proxy in Spain during the Spanish Civil war. Their proxies in the west had plenty to say attaching the German Reich and their provocative moves right up until August 24 1939 when the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact or Hitler Stalin pact was signed at which point leftist all over America in editorials and in song urged America to stay out of World War Two and particularly not to aid Britain in her time of need…

…right up until June 22nd 1941 when the Nazi juggernaut poured into the USSR and the states that they had invaded after 1939. Suddenly all of these voices pivoted 180 degrees and demanded that the US get involved in World War Two to stop the Nazi Menace.

This is one of the reasons why once Japan attacked in December of 1941 you didn’t see the left complain about us going to war. Fighting Japan and Germany meant fighting to save Communist Russia as well so as far as the American left was concerned, they were all in!

Or to put it simply the atrocities and the danger from the Nazis didn’t matter all that mattered was advancing the desired narrative.

And that brings us to Gaza.

For years the Palestinians aided by the left pushed the idea of Gaza as an “open air prison.” that Israel kept oppressed with an iron fist, then Israel, after the attacks of October began their ground invasion of Gaza on October 27th twenty days after the October 7th attacks and demonstrated that this time they meant it and then the narrative slowly then all at once changed.

As Israel pulverized tunnels and destroyed terror infrastructure suddenly we saw Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular wax poetic about the beauty of Gaza that existed before the war. They talked about markets, malls, beautiful beaches and all the wonders and joys of Gaza that existed before the Israeli invasion. No talk of open air prisons, just talk about the paradise that Gaza was before the big bad Jews decided that for once Hamas had gone too far and they were going to root them out of their holes once and for all, no more hiding in schools, no more hiding in hospitals, no more hiding in tunnels. If you were Hamas you were going to be dead.

You see as long as Israel was not in Gaza it was important to the cause of Jew Haters to declare Gaza a prison and point fingers at Israel as the jailors, but once Israel actually came in and destroyed infrastructure used to support terror suddenly Gaza was an Arab paradise before October 2023 that Israel spoiled by their invasion. Reality didn’t matter, the narrative mattered.

And now we see the latest twist and turn of reality with the coming of the Biden (Trump?) cease fire.

For the last year everywhere you looked Israel was being attacked as perpetuating a genocide against the Palestinians of Gaza, in colleges, on news broadcast and in marches and rallies and especially in the UN & ICC the word of the day was Genocide.

The reality that if Israel wanted to slaughter the Arabs they could have done it at any time without putting any troops at risk didn’t matter, the fact that nations actually moved to change the legal defination of “genocide” to make it fit their cause didn’t matter, the fact that the Israel was allowing supplies in rather than letting their enemes starve and that Hamas was stealing the supplies and selling them didn’t matter either, what has happening in Gaza was genocide and that was that.

Until yesterday, when with the latest peace deal suddenly Hamas and their supporters declared victory.

Suddenly the last 15 months were transformed from “Genocide” to a grand victory that Palestinians in general and Hamas in particular could celebrate with pride.

The fact that large chunks of Gaza have been leveled and that Hamas while surviving has been castrated means nothing, victory must be declared because to not declare victory in public is to admit defeat.

This is what happens in a face society, a society that runs on reputation rather than reality can’t deal with seeing things in the light of truth. It’s why Egypt spent the first two days of the six day war vs Israel in 1967 declaring that they were at the gates of Tel Aviv when in fact their air force was gone and their armies were in retreat. Frankly if it wasn’t for the fact that Egypt prolongated this lie, Jordan would not have gone to war with Israel and would still hold the west bank and Jerusalem.

A society that lies to itself because the truth is too painful can not deal with things as they are and when you can’t deal with reality bad things happen.

The left in California can’t deal with the reality of what causes fires, so it burns.

The left in the Northwest can’t deal with the reality of socialism, thus it collapses

The left in NYC can’t deal with the reality of policing thus crime flourishes

The left in England (and the elite right for that matter) can’t deal with the reality of Islam and woman thus their children get raped and their people silenced for speaking out.

And most of all the Arabs can’t deal with the fact that will less that 16 million Jews in the entire world they have outpaced the entire Arab world in every single single measurable advancement of life and have repeatedly defeated their armies when they’ve tried to destroy them.

This is what the left and the Arabs have in common and why a group of people who are supposedly in love with Homosexuality, Transgenderism and gay marriage and destruction of the family unit can so embrace a culture that would slay people for all of these things. They share the unwillingness to alter their views to fit the facts rather than vice versa. Cue Tom Baker:

If Arab nations ignored Israel in general and the Jews as a nation in particular and concentrated on improving their own situation they would flourish. They have a large population, people who are devout (even if they in many cases see God incorrectly) and have so much potential. If they focused on these things they would be giants in the world of trade, science entertainment and the condition of their own people. That they have not is one of the tragedies of human history.

I still have high hopes that as a pious people the days will come (long after I’m gone) where they will discover Christ as he is rather than Christ as they paint him, there are already rumblings of such things taking place.

But until then they will declare a public truth that suits their fragile egos and ability to cope while privately seething in humiliation knowing that the only reason they are alive is that Israel doesn’t want to kill them.