“O Holy Night“ (“Cantique de Noël“) is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem “Minuit, chrétiens” (Midnight, Christians) by Placide Cappeau (1808–1877). Cappeau, a wine merchant and poet, had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem.[1] Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight,[2] editor of Dwight’s Journal of Music, created a singing edition based on Cappeau’s French text in 1855. In both the French original and in the two familiar English versions of the carol, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and of mankind’s redemption.
‘Oh Holy Night’ is truly one of my most favorite Christmas songs. The words ring so true to me.
FALCONETTI….watching Rich Man Poor Man Book 2
found this quote at TOD:
“Defeated by the Southern strategy, McGovern neatly summed it up: “What is the Southern Strategy? It is this. It says to the South: Let the poor stay poor, let your economy trail the nation, forget about decent homes and medical care for all your people, choose officials who will oppose every effort to benefit the many at the expense of the few—and in return, we will try to overlook the rights of the black man, appoint a few southerners to high office, and lift your spirits by attacking the ‘eastern establishment’ whose bank accounts we are filling with your labor and your industry.””
Curvy Jones @Curvy_Jones4m
Pretty sure #BlackTwitter should vett Supreme Court Justices. Ya’ll dig up some scary stuff.
Black Canseco @BlackCanseco17m
#BlackTwitter been snatching edges, player cards and jobs and egos all week.
Charles Wade @akacharleswade20 Dec
#BlackTwitter got African correspondents. BET COULD NEVAH!!!
Nig-ella Lawson @JanvierNoir14m
#BlackTwitter was like who we know in Capetown!!? We got the flight number. Get somebody at that damn airport NOW!!!
SueBee @PhattyF5m
Girl…they got me shook RT @ArykanotErika Folks worried about NSA clearly have never met #BlackTwitter .
SueBee @PhattyF1m
#Voldemort RT @JanvierNoir #BlackTwitter bout to become They Who Shall Not Be Named.
Nostradeptus @adept2u2m
It is very difficult to play on a few million people who recognize game #BlackTwitter is no joke.
Nig-ella Lawson @JanvierNoir10m
#JustineSacco got off that plane and #BlackTwitter posted the first appearance. TMZ ain’t shit!! Got Nothin on y’all. Nothin.
Charles Wade @akacharleswade20 Dec
#BlackTwitter got African correspondents. BET COULD NEVAH!!!
Nig-ella Lawson @JanvierNoir14m
#BlackTwitter was like who we know in Capetown!!? We got the flight number. Get somebody at that damn airport NOW!!!
BWA HA HA HA … in their bestest Whoopi voice from GHOST!
*hollaring*
Dr. Susan Rice on 60 Minutes with Leslie Stahl.
What did Leslie Stahl ask about interracial marriage?
LOL Not that I heard. She asked about Syria. Rice handled her business.
HUH?
American Median Incomes By Race Since 1967 [CHART]
Steven Perlberg
Sep. 17, 2013, 2:04 PM
The Census Bureau has released its annual report on poverty, income, and health insurance.
The chart below shows the state of American income last year based on race.
“Among the race groups, Asian households had the highest median income in 2012 ($68,636). The median income for non-Hispanic White households was $57,009, and it was $33,321 for Black households. For Hispanic households the median income was $39,005,” according to the report (the levels were not statistically significant from the 2011 report).
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-median-income-in-the-us-by-race-2013-9#ixzz2oFWGZUuV
LOLGOP @LOLGOP
Follow
1,426,994 private enrollments 3,903,855 Medicaid 3,000,000+ parents’ plans 7+ million plans the GOP wants to cancel http://acasignups.net
12:58 PM – 22 Dec 2013
Vikings & Texans, WAKE UP, DUDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What is the score?
Vikings-7 Bengals- 28
Bronchos-16 Texans-13
wow…close game for Broncos and Texas
I am going to take a nap…..
I received this gift yesterday from a couple in our community. I love it.
Oooh, SG2……l am REALLY looking at that fruitcake. Looks yummy!
I didn’t eat the fruitcake but the cheese is so delicious.
*eyeing the MEAT* Tee hee hee.
Well, SG2 doesn’t seem to be here at the moment…..shall we wait to see if we may have some, Ametia, or shall we just help ourselves? Think she will miss any?
Help yourself…I was watching “Home Alone”. *I made my family disappear* I still love watching it during this time of the year.
My sister brought me some Peanut Brittle last night.
I don’t even like Peanut Brittle, unless it’s the top of the line stuff.
THIS is top of the line. This stuff is so addictive, it’s crazy.
Good thing I didn’t let her leave the box.
There’s a reason I stopped going to the Amish booth at the Farmer’s market…I’d buy their Brittle and the next thing I knew the whole tub was gone..
Ooh. Sounds so good, rikyrah!
A lady in our community made me homemade Peanut Brittle and I had to make myself PUT IT DOWN. It’s soo delicious. MMMM…
LOL Enjoy the Peanut Brittle, Rikyah. It’s not every day your Sister brings you TOP-O-THE-LINE Peanut Brittle!
Ya’ll must have better teeth than I do.
My favorite Christmas treat:
Besides cookies…..I love these (although I haven’t had any for three years):
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDc1WDU3Ng==/$T2eC16ZHJHoE9n3KfvE!BQH+nOnQMw~~60_35.GIF?set_id=8800005007
@Liza…That’s why I have to be careful and not over do it b/c I have enough problems already. It’s so hard to stop at one piece. :)
Can feminists still enjoy R. Kelly’s music?
Joy Reid breaks down the recently resurfaced stories of R&B singer R. Kelly’s alleged sexual abuse of young girls.
VIDEO: http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/watch/can-feminists-still-enjoy-r-kellys-music-98278979587
*Sight* Bengals just scored another TD against the Vikings 21-7
Come on Texans; take DOWN the Bronchos!
What? Where is SG2?
I’m here watching.
Oh….Hi Hi! :)
A kindergarten student at a holiday concert enthusiastically sang the songs with her classmates, but also used sign language and animated facial expressions to help her deaf parents in the audience enjoy the show.
This cutie has earned six million hits on YouTube in the nine days since it was posted.
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/family-life/great-kids/5yo-signs-for-deaf-parents-during-holiday-concert.html
http://youtu.be/zQeygYqOn8g
This child really warms my heart. Thank you for the share, Rik.
So dear and so thoughtful of her!
“O Holy Night” is my favorite Christmas song. Always reminds me of singing the midnight mass on Christmas eve with the 7th and 8th grade girls choir at the Catholic school that I attended. Our choir director was a tiny little nun from the Dominican Republic who was actually very talented, and they gave her a lot of our time for choir practice. It was fun, but I didn’t know at the time that these would be some of my best memories of Christmas past. Anyhow, I like Mahalia Jackson’s version of “O Holy Night” because it reminds me of midnight mass.
Another version of “O Holy Night” that I play at Christmas by Aaron Neville.
with Deniece Williams as soloist.
My mother played the LP of this version NONSTOP. Uncomparably, Ms Mahalia Jackson.
BRING IT, SMARTYPANTS AKA HORIZONS: Nancy LeTourneau’s big picture look at politics and life
The Republican’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 2013 According to most pundits and the White House Press Corp, the big story right now is that 2013 was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for President Obama. Of course they have facts like the botched rollout of Healthcare.gov and his low poll numbers to back up that claim.
But one way to demonstrate the distorted lens through which the media tends to look at things like this is to think about how 2013 looked for Republicans. Their primary goal lately has been to see Obamacare fail. They were given an assist on that when the web site launched so badly. And BOY, did they run with it!
As anyone who is interested in more than a few days of our frenzied media market knows, a web site can be fixed…and it has been. Now what? They can freak out all they want over Pajama Boy, but the reality is that come January, millions of Americans will have affordable health insurance. And there’s nothing they can do to stop that.
Read on:
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/#!/2013/12/the-republicans-terrible-horrible-no.html
MSM? FIXATED ON LOW POLLS FOR PBO & HORRIBLE YEAR?
WHAT A YEAR FOR PBO!
SYRIA, DESTROYING STOCKPILE CHEMICAL WEAPONS!
ACA- MILLIONS RECEIVING HEALTHCARE INSURANCE!
JOBLESS RATE DOWN IN 45 STATES EMPLOYMENT UP IN 43 STATES!
Please feel free to add
MEDIA FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Corporate media in the US never allows facts to get in the way of the “news” they create. I wonder if it is this bad in other “democratic” countries.
Tee–heee!
Hey vitaminlover. Hope you’re having a great Sunday afternoon. Thanks for helping us sift through the bullshit the MSM TRIES to pass off for news.
Thank YOU, Ametia!
https://twitter.com/metaquest/status/414804783166263296/photo/1
BWA HA HA HA HA HA H AH AHA HA HA HA
………………..
Small Alabama town accidentally hires black drag queens to dance in Christmas parade
By Scott Kaufman
Sunday, December 22, 2013 12:09 EST
Residents in the small town of Semmes, Alabama were surprised when one of the acts in the annual Christmas parade was a group of black drag queens known as “The Prancing Elite.”
The captain of the troupe, Kentrell Collins, said he believed the offer had been made in good faith, and that the representative for the Friends of Semmes to whom he spoke knew who she was hiring.
“I said we’re all over 21 and we’re guys. She was so excited. She was like I didn’t know they had any groups like that in Mobile,” Collins told Fox 10 News.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/22/small-alabama-town-accidentally-hires-black-drag-queens-to-dance-in-christmas-parade/
HOLLERING! There’s no escape white folks. YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN AMERICA.
We aren’t? :)
Beautiful
Best Christmas Songs Playlist
Thanks for this!
Whee! Thanks SG2!!!
<b.Cuts at NBC’s Washington Bureau?
Posted in MSNBC on December 21, 2013 by icn2
In a must read, the New York Post’s Claire Atkinson writes about cutbacks at NBC’s DC Bureau…
SNIP
Particularly distressed by the changes is the DC bureau team, whose duties include providing political coverage to “Nightly News with Brian Williams” and Sunday talk show “Meet The Press.”
Turness has been trying to figure out the future for David Gregory’s “Meet the Press,” with options including bringing in MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” team of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski for a Sunday show, or blowing up the entire franchise and trying something completely different, sources familiar with the situation said.
The jury is still out on what to do as Turness still hasn’t decided, these sources added.
http://insidecablenews.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/cuts-at-nbcs-washington-bureau/
Fired PR Exec Justine Sacco Apologizes for ‘I’m White’ AIDS in Africa Tweet
Justine Sacco, a public relations executive who was fired after her tweet about race, AIDS and Africa went viral while she was on an international flight, issued an apology Sunday morning.
http://www.mediaite.com/newsletter/redirect.php?id=1brp5og:1ie3nk0&post=fired-pr-exec-justine-sacco-apologizes-for-racist-aids-tweet
https://twitter.com/amk4obama/status/414747369956061184/photo/1
I so love this picture!
Here’s the Worst Part of the Target Data Breach
—By Kevin Drum
You know what the most infuriating part of the massive data breach at Target is? This:
There’s really no excuse for this. The technology to avoid this kind of hacking is available, and it’s been in real-world use for many years. Every bank and every merchant in American knows how to implement it. But it would cost a bit of money, so they don’t. And who pays the price? Not the banks:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/12/heres-worst-part-target-data-breach
Trust, they’ll find a way to blame Target’s fuckery on PBO too. We need to get back to the local shops and businesses. The corporate owned stores don’t give a damn about consumers. BOTTOM LINE =BENJAMINS.
This reminds me of ‘Trading Places’ with Eddie Murphy and his SNL crew. They got those big business guys in the end. It’s on channel 249 now on Comedy Central Channel if you have Directv
https://twitter.com/sara_HR4All/status/414503860439236608/photo/1
https://twitter.com/RebelMouse/status/414054544386314240/photo/1
https://twitter.com/AnimalDisguises/status/412635012178382848/photo/1
Hilarious!
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Bemoans The End Of White Rule In The United States
By Adam Peck on December 21, 2013 at 3:40 pm
There are a lot of problems in Washington, D.C these days, but not many solutions to them. Inefficiency, an allergy to cooperation, and stiff resistance to pragmatism have all ground the federal government to a stand-still. But one op-ed contributor to the Wall Street Journal knows what the real problem is: not enough rich, white men.
In Saturday’s paper and online, author Joseph Epstein mourns the collapse of what he describes as the “genuine ruling class, drawn from what came to be known as the WASP establishment,” (WASP, the commonly-held acronym for White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant). Instead, he argues, we are living in a meritocracy, governed not by an elite subset of the uppermost crust of society but rather by a group of people who overcame some kind of adversity and achieved success thanks to their own merits, not based on what family they were born into. This, according to Epstein, is a tragedy.
Epstein’s embrace of white privilege (or is it power?) is almost too transparent, resembling something closer to satire than to outright racism. And yet he gives no reason to believe that he isn’t completely serious when he argues that modern day “corruption, scandal and incompetence” are hallmarks exclusive to this new era of non-white rule. Or when he memorializes the virtues of keeping those not born into the “WASPocracy” away from the halls of power. Or when he faults the leadership of the country’s top colleges for its role in ending white rule by “lessening the number of legacies automatically admitted, and using racial preferences to encourage the enrollment of blacks.”
Instead, Epstein argues, we should return to an era of WASP rule. Why? Because rich, white men born into rich, white christian families would never lead the country astray:
http://linkis.com/thinkprogress.org/ho/oq38
believes that the delusional world of Mad Men was real. That they were actually big fish in a big pond.
In actuality, they were big fish in a pond where 95% of the rest of the fish were shoved into sardine cans.
Now, those fish are out and have no fucks to give, and neither need the delusional’s approval for anything.
The only one lamenting about the ‘ good old days’ are White Men. …have said that for forever and a day.
Bottom line! White men are the oppressors!
@SG2. SPOT ON! See how these folks get paid to pen hundreds of words that amount to a one liner calling for self-preservation?
WSJ is a Rupert Murdock rag that espouses RW ideology. ENOUGH SAID.
The Inside Story Of How The U.S. Acted To Prevent Another Rwanda
By Hayes Brown on December 20, 2013 at 9:00 am
The Central African Republic had finally exploded. After months of signs that the country was a powder keg, with dire warnings of impending doom from the United Nations and human rights observers, outright clashes ignited the capital, Bangui, in early December. Hundreds were killed. Thousands more fled their homes, those who had not already done so in the eight months since the crisis first began. For a period, it looked as though the world was preparing to sit idly by yet again as another mass atrocity was perpetrated on the continent of Africa.
Two days later, it was like a switch had been thrown. The president of the United States asked for the people of the CAR for calm, speaking to them directly through the Internet and radio. The president shook $100 million loose from the federal budget, to purchase much-needed supplies to the African peacekeepers struggling to stem the killing and airlift in reinforcements. And on Thursday, Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, announced yet another $15 million in humanitarian aid and the pending presence of U.S. military advisers to assist the African Union’s forces in restoring peace.
Preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States
Activists and U.S. officials alike say that the speed at which the United States has responded is unprecedented and part of it is due to a little heralded document and the bureaucratic tool it created. Presidential Study Directive 10 (PSD-10) came into being in 2011, declaring for the first time that “preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States.” Never before has an official document so bluntly said that the United States’ “security is affected when masses of civilians are slaughtered, refugees flow across borders, and murderers wreak havoc on regional stability and livelihoods. America’s reputation suffers, and our ability to bring about change is constrained, when we are perceived as idle in the face of mass atrocities and genocide.”
The cornerstone of this directive was the creation of the Atrocities Prevention Board (APB), an interagency panel meant to draw expertise and ideas from across the federal government on how to prevent mass atrocities before they gain traction. Drawn from 11 agencies — including State, Defense, Treasury, Justice, the CIA and others — and represented by high-ranking officials, the APB was designed to be both a forum for long-term strategic planning as well as emergency response to developing crises. It would seem that the situation in the Central African Republic would be a prime case for the APB, after a lackluster first year of existence. Even fans of the administration’s approach found themselves criticizing the Board for not effectively working to prevent the mass slaughter being seen in Syria.
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/12/20/3054321/inside-story-acted-prevent-rwanda/
Nicole Bonnet @NicoleBonnet1
Follow
To whiny, melodramatic RWNJS:
NOTHING is like genocide but genocide.
NOTHING is like slavery but slavery.
NOTHING is like rape but rape.
1:36 PM – 21 Dec 2013
YES!
And
NOTHING IS LIKE THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT BUT CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Thank you so much for this.
The Civil Rights Movement cannot be copied/duplicated/replicated. I’m so damn tired of folks wanting to compare/claim/steal the hard brutal sufferings of the 60’s. In the words of Rev Wright..Nah Nah Nah…
Survey finds dads defy stereotypes about black fatherhood
By most measures, report says, black fathers are at least as involved with their kids as other men in similar living situations.
By Emily Alpert Reyes
December 20, 2013, 10:45 p.m.
Defying enduring stereotypes about black fatherhood, a federal survey of American parents shows that by most measures, black fathers who live with their children are just as involved as other dads who live with their kids — or more so.
For instance, among fathers who lived with young children, 70% of black dads said they bathed, diapered or dressed those kids every day, compared with 60% of white fathers and 45% of Latino fathers, according to a report released Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Nearly 35% of black fathers who lived with their young children said they read to them daily, compared with 30% of white dads and 22% of Latino dads. The report was based on a federal survey that included more than 3,900 fathers between 2006 and 2010 — a trove of data seen as the gold standard for studying fatherhood in the United States. In many cases, the differences between black fathers and those of other races were not statistically significant, researchers said.
The findings echo earlier studies that counter simple stereotypes characterizing black fathers as missing in action. When it comes to fathers who live with their kids, “blacks look a lot like everyone else,” said Gretchen Livingston, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center who has previously studied the topic. And in light of the negative stereotypes about black fathers, “that is a story in itself.”
In Watts, Bryan August-Jones battles the stereotype daily. Every weekday, he wakes his three sons before sunrise, gets them dressed, then ferries them to the baby sitter and to school. On weekends, he takes them bicycling or to Red Lobster, which his youngest son — “a little fancy guy” — prefers over McDonald’s.
His Latina mother-in-law and her family think black men cannot be good fathers, but “I prove them wrong all the time,” August-Jones said.
Worry about black fathers has been tied to a persistent fact: Black dads are especially likely to live apart from one or more of their children — and fathers of all races tend to be less involved in the day-to-day lives of their kids when they live elsewhere.
Yet the report also revealed that among American fathers living apart from their children, black dads were at least as involved as other dads not living with their kids, or more so, according to most measures. Among fathers living apart from older children, more than half of black fathers said that several times a week or more, they talked to their kids about their day — a higher percentage than among white or Latino dads living separately from older children, the report showed.
In Bellflower, Jason Franklin phones his young daughters daily during the week. The girls stay with him on weekends. Franklin remembers that when his own parents parted, his father sometimes skipped visits “out of spite.” He vowed not to do the same thing to his children when he and their mother split up.
“Even if I don’t see them every day, my role as a father doesn’t change,” Franklin said.
Nearly half of black fathers living apart from their young children said they played with them at least several times a week, 42% said they fed or ate with them that frequently, and 41% said they bathed, diapered or helped dress them as often — rates on par with or higher than those of other men living apart from their kids.
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-black-dads-20131221,0,2912014.story#ixzz2oDYD7Ksi
So we really needed a REPORT on black men to prove they are REAL fathers to their kids.
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Happy Sunday, everyone!
Good Morning Everyone!
Good Morning, Everyone! :-)
Hope you enjoy the Kwanzaa festivities today, Yahtc.
Same here.
Hi Ametia and SG2,
I am back now. I enjoyed the event tremendously. Carmen gave a talk during the service explaining the Kwanzaa and then we enjoyed a lunch of traditional foods.
I also got to meet another of Carmen’s daughters who teaches theater in NYC and also performs. She studied acting and theater in college.
I am SO glad I was able to go. I did not encounter any ice on the road but was cautious because it was 32 degrees and raining.
Wonderful, Yahtc. I’m glad you had a great time and enjoyed yourself.
:)
Wonderful, Yahtc! So glad your event was a joyful one.
Yes!
Today Carmen told about how she was teaching Black Studies at Cal State Long Beach when Dr. Maulana Karenga was also there and knew him well. She has had the experience of watching from the point of his wanting to begin Kawanzaa to seeing it flower to what it is today!
You know, Ametia it is almost as if some guardian angel brought Carmen and me together! I mean, it is amazing some of the discussions we have had together!