“Mary, Did You Know?” is a Christmas song with lyrics written by Mark Lowry and music written by Buddy Greene.
Mark wrote the words in 1984 “when his pastor asked him to write the program for the living Christmas tree choir presentation. It was while he was working on the project that Mark considered what it would have been like to have been Jesus’ mother”[citation needed]. The music was written by Buddy Greene several years later. Michael English was the first recording artist to record and release ‘Mary did you know” on his debut album aptly titled “Michael English” which was released on January 1st, 1992.
Pingback: Sunday Playlist… In Christ Alone by Michael English | Notes from a Southern Kitchen…
Don’t tell me that TRUTH isn’t stranger than fiction:
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Tuesday, December 4, 2012
A Mensch of a Princess
Mensch. That’s the Yiddish word for it. I’m sure there’s a Norwegian word, but Mensch will do. A “Mensch” is a person who shows himself or herself to be a decent person by performing a caring act.
The Queen-to-be of Norway is a Mensch. Her name is Mette-Marit and she is married to Crown Prince Haakon, who is next in line for the Norwegian throne. One of the employees in the royal household of Norway, whose name has not been published, is a gay man who wanted a baby, but he and his husband couldn’t get one in Norway, where surrogacy is illegal. They solved that problem by going to India for a surrogate.
Unfortunately, that was not the last of their problems. When the baby was born they found they could not get a visa to India, and there was nobody around to care for the baby. News reports I’ve read do not go into the reasons the mother was not up for doing that until the fathers could get there.
A real dilemma. You could beat yourselves up for not getting all your ducks in a row, guys, before the baby is born. Or, who knows what kind of mix-ups there might have been with visas to foil your plans at the last minute.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit to the rescue. The guys may not be able to get a visa, but she can. She’s a Princess and she has a diplomatic passport, so off she goes. When she gets to India she apparently tells nobody what she’s up to, but simply shows up at the Manav Medicare Center in New Delhi and somehow gets them to release the baby to her as its nanny. Would love to be a fly on the wall and find out what she had to say and do to get that subterfuge going. In any case, she was allowed to care for the baby until relatives of the daddies were able to get into the country and take over.
……………………………………………………..
There’s several lessons to be learned here. One is if you’re going to have a surrogate mother give birth to your baby in a foreign land, make sure you do your homework and get your ass over there for the birth. Two, have a back-up plan. Three, if possible, have your back-up plan be a princess.
Four – if at all possible, be a Norwegian, because in addition to having a Mensch for a Crown Princess married to a Mensch of a husband (he agreed to the whole business) you also have members of the press who catch wind of what is going on but withhold publication until the affair is resolved, because the baby and the others involved are not public figures and because all sorts of different people might have stepped in and stopped the process mid-way. The birth happened in October, the gay married couple finally got a visa in November, and the story went public only days ago after they returned home to Norway. One hopes that they will all be allowed to get on with their lives, although chances are somebody will sneak in from some tabloid somewhere for a story or two.
There are lots or worse things in the world, obviously, than being from Norway, where somebody in your royal family can become good friends with their employees. And not be afraid to show it.
P.S. Not part of this story is the fact that Princess Mette-Marit was a commoner. Not only that, but a single mother, when she met and married Prince Haakon. In case you had any thoughts that Norwegians were, as a whole, an up-tight lot. She was also the child of divorced parents and had a step-brother named Trond Bernsten. Bernsten was a policeman. One of the 77 people massacred on the island of Utoya when Anders Breivik went on his killing spree in July 2011.
http://hepzibahpyncheon.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-mensch-of-princess.html
This story makes me all warm and fuzzy. Thanks for sharing it.
Jenni Rivera
Passenger in Plane Crash
No Survivors
Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera is missing and feared dead after her plane went down shortly after take off this morning in Mexico.
Mexico’s transportation ministry says the plane lost contact with radar at 3:15 AM, approximately 61 miles from Monterrey. It was bound for Toluca.
There were two pilots and five passengers on board, including Rivera, who performed in Monterrey on Saturday night.
Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2012/12/09/jenni-rivera-plane-crash/#ixzz2EbXaK5N7
US President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama with daughters Malia (R) and Sasha (2nd L) pose with children dressed as elves before the taping of the ‘Christmas in Washington’ television special on December 9, 2012 at the Building Museum in Washington.
they look beautiful.
I see the First Lady is continuing the GOLD theme for the season.
Love this pic. Our First Family are to LIVE for. And where is Mama Robinson?
On OWN tonight, from 8-9pm, Oprah will be interviewing Shonda Rhimes and Kerry Washington.
Sista Rhimes has 3, count them 3 hit shows on ABC:
1. Grey’s Anatomy- Thursday, 8-9 p.m. CT
2. Private Practice- Tuesday’s 9-10 p.m. CT
3. Scandal- Thursday, 9-10 p.m. CT
already have it on my DVR schedule
LOL You’re on it. I hope Oprah lets them talk.
James Carville: 90% of Dems Want Hillary Clinton
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/12/james-carville-90-of-dems-want-hillary-clinton/
__________________
No it doesn’t!
Skeletor & Crew can go suck eggs. If he’s including Blacks in the 90%, Hillary and nem will be in for another rude awakening, if she decides to run.Even if PBO campaigned for her, I WOULDN’T VOITE FOR HER. This is how strongly I feel about that.
Now RUNTELLAT, Carville.
tell it
The voting machines aren’t even cold, and these JACKALS are pushing this shyt.
http://youtu.be/euRmS3BgGKs
Dick Morris, Con Artist
Paul Waldman
December 7, 2012
And I mean that literally
A few weeks before the election, the invaluable Rick Perlstein published a lengthy article in The Baffler titled “The Long Con,” about how successful conservative entrepreneurs have been at separating the right-wing rank and file from their money over the past few decades. If you were to sign up for updates from the likes of Human Events or World Net Daily, you’d be inundated not only with come-ons from political groups but with innumerable offers for miracle cures for every ailment under the sun. “The strategic alliance of snake-oil vendors and conservative true believers points up evidence of another successful long march,” Perlstein wrote, “of tactics designed to corral fleeceable multitudes all in one place—and the formation of a cast of mind that makes it hard for either them or us to discern where the ideological con ended and the money con began.”
In today’s political universe there may be no pundit more ridiculous than Dick Morris, who never hesitates to offer a prediction and is almost always wrong. Like many of his brethren, Morris has found that opportunities for income are not restricted to a Fox contract and best-selling “books.” While Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Bill O’Reilly offer “premium” content on their web sites you can pay for (if the four or so hours a day of their television and radio shows aren’t enough for you), Morris decided this year that the fervid desire that 80-year-old angry white guy shaking his fist at the television screen has to get rid of Barack Obama was a business opportunity that couldn’t be passed up. What if you could say to that angry old man, “Give me your money, and I’ll use it to defeat Obama,” but then you actually, you know, kept the money for yourself? It might require a little creative accounting, but Morris was up to the task. Ben Dimiero and Eric Hananoki of Media Matters report:
According to FEC data released December 6, Morris’ Super PAC for America paid conservative news outlet Newsmax Media roughly $1.7 million for “fundraising” in October and November. A significant portion of the super PAC’s money likely went to renting Morris’ own email list, which is operated by Newsmax Media.
A Media Matters review found that in the month before the election, Morris sent at least 21 emails to his mailing list featuring fundraising pitches that were “paid for by Super PAC for America.” Super PAC also “paid for” at least 25 emails to Newsmax.com’s main email list during the same period.
Perhaps there’s a more innocent explanation for all this, but the way it looks is that 1) People (should we call them “marks”?) donate money to Morris’ super PAC; 2) he pays that money to Newsmax for “fundraising”; then 3) Newsmax turns around and pays the money back to Morris, for access to his list of donors. Perhaps Newsmax takes a cut, or perhaps the list is their cut, because these people can then become marks for all kinds of future scams.
If you look at the FEC filing for Morris’ super PAC, most of the spending goes to two entities: Maelstrom Technology Solutions, for “credit card fees”—presumably they’re the ones processing donations to the super PAC, and they take a percentage on every donation—and Newsmax Media. In other words, Morris’ super PAC is an organization whose entire purpose is to raise money, and its expenditures involve raising money and finding new donors. And not, say, getting Mitt Romney elected.
As Perlstein says, it’s the corralling of fleeceable multitudes all in one place.
http://prospect.org/article/dick-morris-con-artist
December 09, 2012 10:49 AM
In Michigan: Revenge of the Kochs?
By Adele Stan
Let’s say you and your brother are a pair of billionaires who reap your profits from the poisoning of the earth and whose daddy co-founded the John Birch Society — and you poured millions into the 2012 elections, only to see your candidates felled by a party led by a black guy who’s big on green energy, and who bailed out the U.S. auto industry in a way that voters seemed to like.
Wow. You must be feeling pretty powerless, especially after all of that press about how you’re the mighty and nefarious force behind the Tea Party, whose brew has suddenly gone a bit tepid. So whattaya gonna do?
Why, find a way to crush those pesky labor unions in a place that will hurt them badly. Say, the auto capital of the world, where an entire industry (and consequently, its unions) was saved through government intervention by that integrationist tree-hugger: Michigan. You’ll show those “urban” voters who liked that stinkin’ bailout!
So, in a lame-duck legislative session last week, the Republican majority rammed through a destructively anti-union bill, which the governor — in contradiction of his previous policy — has pledged to sign. (Brother Kilgore has the deets here.) And the Koch-founded group, Americans For Prosperity, gave the governor a big high-five.
Local analysts chalk it all up to payback by Michigan legislators for the unions’ attempt to enshrine collective bargaining rights in the state constitution via a referendum known as Proposal 2, which failed at the ballot box on November 6, and for the repeal of Snyder’s “emergency manager” law, which succeeded. But from where I sit, in the nation’s capital city, I see something bigger, something national in character.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, has always tried to present himself as a breed apart from Kochbot governors of Wisconsin and Ohio, even as he grabbed for power with an “emergency manager” law that allowed him to appoint operatives to run failing cities and break labor agreements with public employees in those towns. But other anti-union measures, such as those forced through in Wisconsin, were deemed to be off the table by Snyder, as was the onerous proposition that workers in closed union shops should be allowed to opt out of paying dues. (Proponents call this sort of thing “right to work”; unions call it “right to work for less”.)
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_12/in_michigan_revenge_of_the_koc041675.php
Maybe the Third Biggest Story
by BooMan
Sun Dec 9th, 2012 at 09:05:51 AM EST
Politically, I think the biggest stories of the 2012 elections were that the Republicans have a real problem on the national level and that the Democrats have a real problem on the district level. Demographic change has put the White House almost out of theoretical reach for the GOP, but so has a combination of gerrymandering and cultural polarization put the House of Representative out of the Democrats’ reach. Consider that the Democrats received more than a half million more votes than the Republicans in House races and yet did not even come close to winning control of the chamber.
However, the complete and total radicalization of the Republican Party and the media’s inability to deal with it are also big stories from this election. Mitt Romney and his campaign were phony and dishonest from beginning to end, in big things and small. From their principles to their logic to their policies to their talking points to their allegations, none of it was even minimally true. Yes, it was unprecedented.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/12/9/9551/42775
Breaking Politics @breakingpol
Obama, Boehner meet at White House in private discussion over ‘fiscal cliff’ – @AP
Smartypants: Why ideologues will never “get” Obama
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-ideologues-will-never-get-obama.html?spref=tw
Today xpostfactoid takes direct aim at the DC meme about President Obama being distant and aloof in an article that everyone should read. He posts some great quotes from David Maraniss’ book Barack Obama: The Story – which I really am going to have to read. But one of them just blew me away. Its something Obama said back in 1982 when he was only 21 years old ( and yeah, I wish he wouldn’t talk in that 3rd person voice – its annoying).
“Yes with every person one meets, one is presented with a weakening of one’s certainty, a shakedown of the habits and grooves of separate existence,” he wrote. “A challenge which most people react to by fear or flight. They misunderstand the nature of the challenge. It lies in forging a unity, mixing it up, constructing the truth to be found between the seams of individual lives. All of which requires breaking some sweat. Like a good basketball game. Or a fine dance” (p. 455).
I have to wonder if everyone resonates with the deep truth of this as much as I do. Every real meeting we have with another human being presents us with a threat to our certainty and the opportunity to construct a new truth “between the seams of individual lives.”
It reminds me of one of my favorite Tracy Chapman songs/videos.
http://youtu.be/PSSjhsPCc3s
Heisman Trophy 2012 to Johnny Manziel over Te’o, Klein (VIDEO)
Unique trio vying for 2012 Heisman Trophy award, American college football’s highest honor.
Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel made football history on Saturday night in New York City when he became the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy.
To win the 78th annual Heisman Trophy, he beat Kansas State University quarterback Collin Klein and Notre Dame middle linebacker Manti Te’o.
”That barrier’s broken now,” Manziel said, The Associated Press reported.
”It’s starting to become more of a trend that freshmen are coming in early and that they are ready to play. And they are really just taking the world by storm.”
Voters gave Manziel 474 first-place votes and 2,029 points overall. Te’o was second with 321 (1,706) while Klein was a distant third with 60 (894).
Regardless of who won, it was going to become a first for someone: a first for Kansas State versus the first freshman or the first true defensive player to ever win the highest honor in college football.
Klein would have been the first Kansas State Wildcat to win the Heisman Trophy. He passed for 2,490 yards and 15 touchdowns and rushed for 890 yards and 22 touchdowns this season.
The senior holds the record for most rushing touchdowns in two seasons, totaling at 49 between 2011 and 2012. Klein ranks second in Kansas State history for scoring with 336 points and third in career yards with 7,028.
He also won the Johnny Unitas Award as top senior quarterback in the NCAA.
Manziel becomes the first-ever freshman Heisman Trophy winner. The 20-year-old quarterback passed for 3,419 yards and 24 touchdowns. He also rushed for 1,181 yards and 19 TDs.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/world-at-play/heisman-trophy-winner-2012-klein-manziel-teo-video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdXryyFw7No
Ok, it’s snowing bigtime, and the oldies are on.
I don’t like the shoes but love love the dress and jacket. Yes!!!!!!!!!!!
This is HAWT!
no to the shoes….the rest is fierce
I’d wear the shoes too; LOVE THEM
Whatever you want , alright with me, you got that WHIP APPEAL. Lay all that sweet loving on me
… “work it on me…whip all your sweet sweet lovin’ on me”
Sooky! Sooky! ;)
Better than love; sweet as can be, you got that whip appeal, come and WHIP it on me.
Waiting for Boehner
—By Kevin Drum
| Sun Dec. 9, 2012 9:47 AM PST
There’s been a tremendous amount of chatter lately about the possibility of raising the Medicare eligibility age as part of a fiscal cliff deal. Why so much chatter? As near as I can tell, it’s mostly because Ezra Klein wrote a piece a few days ago suggesting that “smart folks in Washington” think it will be part of a final package. This is testimony to Ezra’s immense agenda-setting power among the chattering classes, since there doesn’t really appear to be any additional evidence that this is actually on the table.
That’s sort of off topic, but I just thought I’d mention it. Amazing guy, that Ezra. What’s on topic is Adele Stan, suggesting that maybe the worm is turning and Obama won’t agree to raise the Medicare age after all:
Among the Very Serious People who sometimes admit me to their enclaves, strictly with a non-voting observer status, the talk has now turned to, well, if raising the Medicare eligibility age is off the table, then what should Obama offer Boehner in exchanges for raising the tax rates on the wealthy? After all, you gotta give the guy some cover, the reasoning goes.
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/12/waiting-boehner
L.O. owns Girngrich
Go Larry O
It’s official, Winter has arrived pre-solstice. Snow blanketing the Twin Cities today, and we’re walking in a witner wonderland.
I’ll bet it’s a beautiful sight. We don’t get to see snow here.
Bob Corker: Debt Ceiling Is Republicans’ Leverage In Fiscal Talks
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/09/bob-corker-debt-ceiling_n_2267211.html#comments
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Sunday doubled down on the idea that Republicans should use the debt ceiling as leverage in fiscal talks with President Barack Obama — a prospect that Obama has already said is a nonstarter after last year’s debt standoff resulted in America’s first credit downgrade and billions lost in taxpayer dollars.
During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Corker said Republicans will probably have to go along with Democrats’ demands to let the Bush-era tax cuts expire on the top 2 percent of Americans in a fiscal cliff deal. But in return, he said, Republicans should vow not to raise the debt ceiling unless it is tied to significant cuts to Medicare.
Gabby Douglas is on MHP now.
The Obama Campaign’s Real Heroes
Meet 10 key operatives who got the president re-elected
By Tim Dickinson
December 7, 2012 1:45 PM ET
Now that the dust has settled and the vote totals are nearly certified, it’s clear that the 2012 presidential election was never a squeaker. It was a landslide. Barack Obama beat Mitt Romney by more than 4.6 million votes nationwide, driving the Republican down to a karmic 47 percent of the popular vote.
Obama didn’t win on merit alone. His high-tech, data-driven, socially-networked campaign was one for the history books, turning out key demographic blocks in astonishing numbers. Consider that in Ohio, the president’s team drove the African-American share of the electorate to up to 15 percent, versus 11 percent in 2008. That’s more than 200,000 new votes for the president in a state decided by a margin of 165,000. In other words: That was the ballgame.
President Obama owes his second term to a masterful campaign team – few of whom are household names. Here are ten heroes of the Obama 2012 team:
Read on
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-obama-campaigns-real-heroes-20121126
PSY to Perform at White House as Scheduled After Apologizing for Anti-War Protest
11:42 AM PST 12/8/2012 by Jordan Zakarin
Following his mea culpa for a decade-old protest of the Iraq War, the South Korean rapper held on to his performance slot in the White House Christmas special.
There’s still hope of seeing President Obama dance “Gangnam Style,” after all.
Following his mea culpa for a decade-old protest of the Iraq War, the South Korean rapper held on to his performance slot in the White House Christmas special.
There’s still hope of seeing President Obama dance “Gangnam Style,” after all.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/psy-perform-at-white-house-399627
GOP governors seek leeway on Medicaid expansion
By N.C. Aizenman,
Dec 09, 2012 12:45 AM EST
The Washington Post
Republican governors are ratcheting up pressure on President Obama to scale back a key provision of his health-care law.
In a letter to Obama last week, 11 governors asked for a meeting “as soon as possible” to negotiate for greater control over their Medicaid programs.
Among other things, the governors want the option of expanding Medicaid — the state-federal program for the poor and disabled — in a much more modest way than envisioned in the law.
To make any health care reform truly successful, [the administration] should let states do what they do best — innovate and tailor solutions to the needs of their citizens,” the governors wrote. The letter was signed by Jan Brewer of Arizona, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Rick Scott of Florida, Robert F. McDonnell of Virginia and the governors of Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Ohio, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/gop-governors-seek-leeway-on-medicaid-expansion/2012/12/08/80ab2e72-3e52-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
Scott Walker’s Son Used Same-Day Registration, Accompanied By The Governor
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/08/scott-walkers-son-same-day-registration_n_2264642.html#comments …
the hypocrisy never stops with these folks.
Good Morning, everyone!
Love, Joy and Peace to you all.
Godd Morning, SG2 & Everone! :-)
Good Afternoon, Everyone at 3CHICS!!