A Month Is Ending, and So Is My First Graduate Semester

It amazes me at how fast the year has really flown by!  We just celebrated Thanksgiving a week ago (and just finished up the leftovers of our turkey yesterday!) and it never fails - it seems like every year at around this time I catch a bug, which I am starting to recover from!  Although the year got off to a bumpy start, the good news is that it is ending much better than it started.

As you may have figured out by reading my earlier material, I started my Masters degree program in August, and at this juncture (November 29th) I am about to wrap up my first semester - one down, five to go!  It has taken some getting used to, as much has changed at the campus since I got my Bachelors there back in 1996, but I am finding my "groove" finally and the research projects are actually motivating me to do some much-needed study on things I have been wanting to do but never had the incentive.   I would surmise that as of the end of this semester, I have written probably a couple of hundred pages easily in research projects, critical reviews, and a couple of in-class presentations I was assigned, and as I write this I am finishing up my last two projects before the semester wraps up and I get a few weeks of much-needed rest to enjoy the holidays.   Next term should be much smoother now that I have my routine established.

One other aspect of this past few months has been the acquisition of a CD recorder, and I have been able to finally get a lot of my LP's onto CD, some of which have no prospect of reissue professionally.  I have been wanting to get one of those for years, and finally have been able to do so.  Of course, I have a lot of LP's to transfer yet, so it is a project that will take a while, but the good thing is that I have some good stuff on CD now that I have better access to listen to and enjoy more.  That project actually entails two aspects - one is vintage big band records, and the other is some of my old Gospel and Armenian/Assyrian music that is both on vinyl and cassette.   Like many things that stimulate good memories, this stuff does - hearing some old material on cassette I haven't listened to in years was particularly refreshing, whether it be the Chilingirian String Quartet's recording of Aslamazian's Armenian Suite, or Diane Bish's masterful rendition on the great Rufatti organ at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church of Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee, or other LP's of vintage material - soprano Sylvia Kutchukian's beautiful rendition of Armenian sacred music, Baptist evangelist Ed Reese's recordings of Gospel standards on an instrument called the Cordovox (an electronic accordion that also can play organ tones), or the earliest vintage LP's of such Christian music luminaries as Dino Kartsonakis (from 1963) and Phil Driscoll (from 1972).   As for my vintage big band collection, it is also good to get some material like Ernie Hecksher and Jose Melis, two bandleaders who have no CD reissues available, on disc.   However, I have to do these in small doses due to the fact school now has me pretty busy.  However, I anticipate doing about 30 more LP's in the coming few months.

Concerning the holidays, Christmas decorations are now up too, and the cats as usual think the Christmas tree is a big chew toy.  Let me ask you all something, and feel free to email me with the answer to this if you have it - why is it that cats like chewing on Christmas trees anyway??   For one thing, our tree is artificial, so it cannot taste all that nice.   And, then after chawing on the tree, these dang cats get sick and yack up bits of green stuff all over the floor, which is a mess to clean up.   What complicates that fact is that we have four of them, and all but one likes munching on the greenery!   However, despite the fact I would like to strangle them on occasion, I love our four furry children - even as a kid I have always been a cat person.  They are adorable, fun to watch, and at this point in my life I can't imagine what it would be like not having a cat in the house.   And, no offense to dog people, but I have much more patience with cats than I do dogs - my mother's shi-tzu, honestly, has got to be one of the most mentally-unbalanced of God's creatures; he seems to always be hungry and "horny" all the time (pardon the crassness of the latter term, but for alliterative purposes and also the fact there is not a better word that fits this creature, I had to use it!) - and, for some reason he has an unnatural affection for cats, as he is always trying to molest ours.  Of course, that never ends well, as he generally ends up getting the tar knocked out of him by our large male Snowshoe Siamese at least once during the course of a visit.  But, like people who vote for Obama (my apologies to any friends who did - nothing personal!) he didn't learn the first time!  If they had a Dr. Phil for pets, just saying, that person would get rich from just treating Mom's dog!

Meet "the Beast" - Mom's shi-tzu Cobby, eater of all and rider of cats!

Got a new show you all should watch too that I have gotten interested in over the past few months since we switched to satellite.  If any of you get RFD-TV, there is a show on at 11 PM on Saturdays called "Larry's Country Diner," and it is a must-see for anyone who likes a good, clean variety show with a down-home feel.   The show is actually set up as a diner that serves food, with the MC, Larry Black, overseeing the festivities of the program.  The highlight of the show is Nadine Nadine (no kidding - that is her name!), an elderly but sharp-tongued church lady who arrives to the tune of ragtime music with a print dress and matching hat carrying a big Bible that Charles Atlas would have a challenge lifting!  Although vintage country music is not my thing, this show is a haven for those who do appreciate it, as he often features as guests vintage country musicians such as Jim Ed Brown and others.  Of course, my favorite guests of his are Riders in The Sky - one of the best groups ever!  So, if you have nothing better to do on Saturday nights (Larry is on after the Molly B Polka Party which I also never miss), take a virtual visit to Larry's, where, as the tag line says, "the cameras are rolling and WE DON'T CARE!" 

 

The one and only Nadine!

 

 

Speaking of polkas, I have been watching Molly B's show on RFD religiously, as both myself and Oreo our cat love it.  What I found to be really good about that lately is that she is featuring more bands that play this style of polka called "Dutch Hop," and it is good stuff!   This is a style of polka you will hear a lot out in Colorado and adjacent areas, and is a product of the various groups of Volga Germans (Germans originally from Russia) that settled there over a century ago.   The distinction of this style is that it utilizes (thanks to the Russian influence) an instrument called a hammered dulcimer, which really gives the music a pretty sound.  This instrument has popped up in other musical genres before (notably in klezmer, where it is called a streifidl (Yiddish for "straw fiddle") but I never had the appreciation for it that I developed listening to these "Dutch Hop" bands.   Some of the better-known groups are the Polka Nuts (they are phenomenal!), John Fritzler, and the Dutch Hop Music Makers.   Google them if you wish to find out more information about them, or for a historical book and recordings on the genre, go to the Center For Volga German Studies website at http://cvgs.cu-portland.edu/.   I promise, once you hear "Dutch Hop" it will be a good experience to your ears!

 

A hammered dulcimer, the trademark instrument of "Dutch Hop" polka bands.

 

 

That is all I have to share for today, but hopefully will be visiting with you again soon before 2012 winds down (provided the Mayans were not correct - just joking!). And, if I miss some of you, may you have a blessed holiday season, and remember Who we are celebrating it for and why.



Election Reflections

November 6, 2012, has come and gone, and with it any possibility for America to recover any sense of greatness she once had.  Barack Obama is still on his throne for at least another four years, and this has many people concerned.  I myself am concerned too, and wanted to share some thoughts on the issue concerning it.  This is much more serious in tone than many things I have written here over the past year, yet it must be addressed.   I doubt if even all words here will be sufficient to say what needs to be said, but it is an attempt to try.

What will another four years of Obama mean for us, the average "Joe Schmo" whose demographic makes up what much of this nation is?  I recently watched Dinesh D'Souza's 2016 film, and that was frankly very enlightening.  D'Souza, a capable theoretician and accomplished scholar, recounted his own immigrant origins in India and contrasted them with Obama's, but the differences between them were like night and day.  D'Souza, along with Lebanese-born activist Brigitte Gabriel, Assyrian actress/activist Rosie Malek-Younan, and thousands of others, represents what America is all about - these people are proud Americans, they love and value our nation's heritage, and although many of them are naturalized citizens, they have brought a valuable contribution to our nation.  I am proud to call all of these wonderful individuals Americans, and many of them I am also honored to have as friends too.   I would also like to mention in that group as well some lesser-known people - my dear friend and Assyrian Church of the East Deacon John Khio, a parishioner in our parish by the name of Jeanne Radcliffe, another former parishioner of ours named Susan Winslow, and Subdeacon Najib Jacob, a Palestinian immigrant who faithfully serves at St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox parish in Pinellas Park, FL.  All of these people are dear friends, and I wouldn't trade my friendship with these dear people for all the gold in the world.   Many immigrants have enriched America greatly and helped her to become the great nation she once was, and that being said, I also want to go on record as saying that if anyone chooses to come to the US, and goes through the legal channels of doing so, they are welcome and I trust their giftings and talents will enhance the communities they settle in once they arrive.   God's blessings truly be with these people.

Then there is our "fearless leader" President, Barack Hussein Obama Jr.  Obama is proported to have been born in Hawaii, although much speculation has been evident over the past several years regarding his birth certificate.   His mother was an American (and a distant relative of mine, I might add), and his father was from Kenya.  Although Obama may have been born in America (d'Souza affirms that he was in the film) his mindset is anything but - his mentors were well-versed in anti-colonialist sentiments, Marxism, and Black Liberation theology, and he also received some of his education in a madrasa (Islamic parochial schools, which in recent years have been linked to recruiting/training Islamic militant terrorists) in Indonesia.  And, much of Obama's own policies - especially his increasing the deficit to twice the amount of all his predecessors combined, as well as his disdain for the military - reflect that anti-colonialist mentality.   And, that is really the root cause as to why so many people were worried when he won re-election by the electoral vote, which I have noted elsewhere has the usefulness of a foreskin, rather than the popular vote, which was overwhelmingly for Romney.  Lest anyone misunderstand, I don't see the electoral college as totally unnecessary, as the Constitution does allow for it, but in recent times the way that it currently operates renders it unethical.   It has initiated the question as to who comprises the electoral college, and why they do not reflect the popular vote like they were supposed to.   Some people I have talked to have even come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter how they vote because the phantom menaces on the electoral college have the final say anyway.  Are they right?  I wonder about that myself, and perhaps I need to meditate more on that question.

Honestly, I have not felt that feeling like I felt on the morning of November 7th since the mid-1990's, when the whole Ruby Ridge/Waco thing happened, and in 1999 when another Democrat, Bill Clinton, attacked a sovereign Christian republic (Serbia) to defend a bunch of Moslem terrorists - Kosovo, I feel, is what led to 9/11, but that is just my feeling!  Yet, I have found it hypocritical that the same people who got so hawkish about Kosovo were the very ones to yell at Bush when he went in to take out Saddam Hussein in 2002 - these liberals sicken me at times with the blatant hypocrisy they harbor, and another thing about that was the deafening silence of people like Jesse Jackson, who likes crying "racism" at everything, being so silent back in the early 1990's when South Sudanese - mostly Black and Christian - were being slaughtered by the thousands by the militant Islamic government of Sudan.  South Sudanese scholar, Dr. Dominic Mohammed, nailed it when he asked the very excellent question - "Are Black Christians less valuable than White Muslims to these Americans?"   It does make one wonder, doesn't it??   Of course, in lieu of what has happened, Jesse Jackson today thankfully has all the relevance of a pet rock - he's all mouth, all about entitlements, and is more racist himself than those he accuses.   Not much, honestly, separates Jesse Jackson and his Black Panther friends from David Duke and the Kluckers - they are all evil, in my book.  And, evil doesn't differentiate skin color, contrary to these politically-correct thought police who like confusing disagreement with "racism."  Which now leads me to my next issue to discuss - will America as a republic stand?

In 1981 a guy by the name of Joel Garreau wrote a classic text on a discipline called bioregionalism entitled The Nine Nations of North America.  I originally read this back in 1999, and when I did it revolutionized my thinking.  Garreau is not even close to forecasting the dissolution of the US as a political entity, but what he does say is that America is not a single entity anyway, but rather a collection of nine regional "nations."   Each of these "nations" has its own economic base, its own culture and values, and even its own language in some cases.  I myself am a committed bioregionalist, but I will go on record as saying that I differ somewhat with Garreau's model in that I feel there are more than 9 "nations" - Texas and Hawaii, for instance, were once independent entities in their own right and still retain much of that mindset, while the Ozarks, Appalachia, and Utah all have very distinctive histories that are all their own. I would even propose that the South - which Garreau calls the "Nation of Dixie" - is not a homogenous unit either - Louisiana, Florida, and the Carolina Piedmont are all vastly different than the "Deep South" areas of Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi (even among the latter, there is state pride - Alabamians and Georgians, for instance, have a sort of intense rivalry between them).  Then there are all the American Indian tribes - each one of them is already a separate nation - as well as enclaves of Blacks and Hispanics.   Even within states, there are differences - California, for instance, is almost like 3 different states itself.   Garreau expresses this variance well in the opening paragraphs of his book when he writes:

Consider, instead, the way North America really works.  It is Nine Nations.  Each has its capital and its distinctive web of power and influence.  A few are allies, many are adversaries.  Several have readily acknowledged national poets, and many have characteristic dialects and mannerisms.  Some are close to being raw frontiers; others have four centuries of history.  Each has a peculiar economy; each commands a certain emotional allegiance from its citizens.  These nations look different, feel different, and sound different from each other, and few of their boundaries match the political lines drawn upon our current maps.  Some are clearly divided topographically by mountains, deserts, and rivers.  Others are separated by architecture, music, language, and ways of making a living.  Each nation has its own list of desires.  Each nation knows how it plans to get what it needs from whoever's got it. (Joel Garreau, The Nine Nations of North America {New York:  Avon Books, 1981} pp. 1-2)

Garreau's map of the "Nine Nations" as he documents in his book

Geography, economy, semantics...many things differentiate one region from another.  Yet, we need to see how that would figure into the future of the US as a nation.   Will these bioregional distinctions become political reality?  Who's to say, but one thing is for certain - no empire is eternal, but only God's eternal kingdom is.  Which leads us into the next aspect of this discussion.

Is America going to disintegrate?  Many are talking about that now, although in recent years the 9/11 tragedy has deflected some attention from it.  However, with Obama in a second term, the subject is starting to resurface, as well as talk of re-forming the militia movement that gained so much notoriety in the mid-1990's.   Pat Buchanan and other writers argue that the influx of illegal immigrants and the aging/decline of native populations is a factor as well, basing the theory on much of what has happened in Europe.   He also correctly cites another reason for America's demise on the international stage, and this one is the factor many refuse to admit but it is true:

The detronement of God from American life was not done democratically, it was done dictatorially, and our forefathers would never have tolerated it.  Why did people of a once-fighting faith permit it, when prayer, Christmas carols, Bible reading, and posting the Ten Commandments were backed by huge majorities?   Because we live under a rule of judges, Congress is unwilling to confront.  if America has ceased to be a Christian country, it is because she has ceased to be a democratic country.  This is the real coup d'etat.  (Patrick Buchanan, Death of the West {New York:  Saint Martins Press, 2002} p. 188)

Republican democracy, as Buchanan notes, has its roots in Judeo-Christian principle.  The sanctity of life, freedom to follow one's conscience, and the liberty to worship as one is led to do so are values intrinsic to the American experience.  With the growing secularism rampant in American society today, it is no wonder that socialism and other things are gaining a sympathetic ear.  My Archbishop, Mark Haverland of the Anglican Catholic Church, even said in a number of his writings that the American Evangelical churches are following suit by conforming to culture, and thus even the Church has been secularized (this "Emerging Church" heresy I note in my theological articles at www.sacramentalpresenttruths.blogspot.com is the ultimate and latest expression of the secularizing tendency in American Christianity).  However, the thing is, not every person in every part of the nation is doing what New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and the other major metro areas are dictating, and this is causing an ever-heating discontent just under the surface.  In time, that discontent could lead to division, and by division, I mean demographic/geographic division possibly along bioregional lines.   Are we ready for that? 

I would love more than anything to see the US get back to its roots, sans some of the mistakes of the past, and recapture the core values that made us great to begin with.  However, realistically, I don't think it will happen, and therefore I predict that one day - maybe closer than we think! - the US will dissolve as a political entity as its influence as a major power declines.   A number of small regional sovereign entities will replace the US as it once was, and in the long run this may be for the best.   To prove it is not far-fetched, this has happened before - remember the Western Roman Empire?  It was not conquered, nor did it fall by any great catastrophe - it slowly whittled away until in 476 AD the last emperor of the West, Romulus Augustus, was deposed by a "barbarian" chieftain and counsel by the name of Odoacer.  And, it didn't take a lot for that to happen either - he deposed and exiled the boy emperor, and politely sent the imperial symbols to the Eastern Emperor with the message that it was no longer necessary to appoint a successor.   America is on that road too, and it is only a matter of time.   Will it happen prior to 2016?  That remains to be seen, but inevitably it is going to happen someday.  We, as a nation, are just too big for our britches and the cumbersome bureaucracy we have, and the secularizing influences they have, is getting too hard to maintain and too much for the common citizen to bear.  If Obama has his way, he wants to institute a Third-World, anticolonialist, secular socialism that would in essence deconstruct the American system as we know it and replace it with something very sinister.  Thing is, most Americans would not stand for that, and would rise against it rather than accept it.  So, in all likelihood, if the ominous feelings many have about Obama have merit, we could see states, or regions of states, breaking away from the United States in the very near future.  Given the choice of secession or tyranny, I choose secession - America can best be preserved in remnants in that instance.   Question is though, where would I choose to place my loyalties if something like that were to happen?  Given my own heritage, my first choice would be advocating for an independent Appalachian state, but I would also support a Southern coalition too.   I personally hope that myself and many of the "naysayers" about all this stuff are wrong, because such a transition would be a mess, and I would much prefer to save and restore the US to what she should be rather than to see its dissolution.  But, if it comes down to it, I ultimately want to secure my and my family's freedom, and will do what it takes.   Will you?   The decision is one only you can make, but in lieu of the times,  I would suggest that you more thoroughly think about it.   God bless until next time.