Posts Made By: James Brown

Today is Gaudete Sunday in the Catholic tradition.Gaudete means "rejoice."

By happy circumstance, today is also Ludwig van Beethoven's birthday.

At Mass this morning we sang "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" obviously this song fits the theme of "rejoice," but also this selection marks tribute to the great composer's birthday. The melody is from the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony, you would all recognize the tune as the "Ode to Joy" The lyrics we sang were adapted to this immortal melody in 1911 by Henry van Dyke. His poem is a simple statement of universal Christianity. There is no "my Church is better than your Church" nonsense to be found here. To sing these words paired with perhaps the most inspirational melody ever written...well, I'm not much of a singer, but it was a beautiful and moving experience.

The actual Ode to Joy chorus which is such a central part of the 9th symphony was adapted by Beethoven from the poetry of Friedrich Von Schiller. Von Schiller's poetry is a hymn to God in the most Universal sense. His are inspired words which I think all amateur astronomers can appreciate. Spirituality is not limited to organized religion. Both versions are included below. Rejoice!

Jim



[COLOR="Blue"]Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee,
Opening to their sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day.

All Thy works with joy surround Thee,
Earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee, Center of unbroken praise:
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Blooming meadow, flashing sea,
Chanting bird and flowing fountain, Call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blest,
Well-spring of the joy of living,
Ocean-depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our Brother,
All who live in love are Thine:
Teach us how to love each other, Lift us to the Joy Divine.

Mortals join the mighty chorus, which the morning stars began;
Father-love is reigning o'er us,
Brother-love binds man to man.
Ever singing marching onward, Victors in the midst of strife;
Joyful music lifts us sunward In the triumph song of life.

Henry van Dyke[/COLOR]

**************************************************

[COLOR="Maroon"]"Brüder über'm Sternenzelt
Muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.

Ihr stürzt nieder, Millionen?
Ahnest du den Schöpfer, Welt?
Such'ihn über'm Sternenzelt!
Über Sternen muss er wohnen."

"Brothers!, above the starry canopy
A loving father must dwell.

Can you sense the Creator, world?
Seek him above the starry canopy.
Above the stars He must dwell.

Be embraced, Millions!
This kiss for all the world!
Brothers!, above the starry canopy
A loving father must dwell.

Can you sense the Creator, world?
Seek him above the starry canopy.
Above the stars He must dwell.

Friedrich Von Schiller
[/COLOR]

Wow, the Democrat side NH results sure are different than the pundits projected. Clinton's showing is very interesting.

The best news in my opinion is that Edwards got spanked again. I wonder if he'll spin it as a win....

Jim

bob sharpe said:

This was a brilliant strategy by the clintons....to have hillary perform a youtube bawling act the day before the election and garner the sympathy vote...the timing was impeccable, just enough fence sitters felt the 24 hr emotional tug to place their bets on the old brood mare...

if they held the election today, she probably loses to obama...uncle bill's footprints were all over this one....

Floyd Cirruli, a respected local Colorado pollster described today that Ms. Clinton's campaign had "redefined the turnout model" which inevitably leads to skewed pre-election poll results. (On Tuesday far greater numbers of women and early voters showed up to vote for Clinton than had been projected.)

Basically, any poll is premised upon a demographic projection of what the actual voter turnout will look like. If the demographic projection fails (if the turnout model is wrong) the poll results will be skewed.

Given that virtually all political pundits thought that Clinton's tearing up on Monday was going to hurt her, I'm inclined to believe Cirruli for an explanation of why the polls were wrong. In a small election like the NH primary it is probably easier to fool the pollsters. But if Clinton redefines the turnout model on a national scale, look out.

Jim

John Kerry threw his "weighty" endorsement behind Obama today. I am sure that his former running mate John Edwards was not particularly thrilled.

Does this mean that Kerry has read the tea leaves and wants to back the winner?

Or does it mean that Kerry really and truly wants Edwards to win. After all, Edwards fought beside Kerry throughout the grueling campaign of '04 and Kerry is nothing if not loyal to his men... right? Maybe Kerry is so smart that he figured the best way to support Edwards was to endorse Obama....

Jim

Did you see the news from the commerce department this morning? Orders for durable goods are up 5.3%. That's a big deal to those into recession forcasting. Unemployment stubbornly remains at historic lows...

Whoa, what's with the good news when virtually everyone, left and right is telling us that a major recession is inevitable.... Hmm.

Maybe the economy is not in such bad shape. Do you suppose that political posturing might have something to do with the recession headlines? Maybe the economic stimulus package is not really all that necessary (except as a convenient way to buy votes and increase the deficit).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120147855494820719.html?mod=special_page_campaign2008_mostpop

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120156683044223797.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

No doubt those on the right will claim that Bush's leadership and the timely stimulus package staved off the inevitable recession when things are proved to be OK a year from now.

No doubt those on the left will credit president Obama or president Clinton and the fresh ideas they bring with staving off the inevitable "Bush" recession.

Do you suppose many politicians and editorialists will be shouting out, "Hey guys, your recession was not inevitable! 2007 was a minor natural correction, these things happen... But a recession? No way! The economic fundamentals never really pointed to recession!"

That's what I'll be shouting.

Jim

McCain rolled to a reasonably convincing victory in winner-take-all Florida. According to various pundits, the nomination is now his, barring an unfortunate faux-pas. Rudy is supposed to bow out and endorse McCain tomorrow.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2ZkZmE3ZTA5ZWViODhlNzg5YmRjYjIzYTYzYWEwOTQ=

Meanwhile, the Clinton/Obama battle rages on....

Jim

I would consider this reasonably bad news if I were Clinton or Obama....

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/01/30/nader-takes-steps-towards-another-white-house-bid/

Jim

I say Patriots 34, Giants 17. I hope the commercials are good because it's going to be 21-3 at the half.

You heard it here first.

Jimmy the Geek

You all know how one thing leads to another. There I was thinking, "I wonder what's happened to Paul Kammueller?" So I search for his last post. It was in December, 2007, and it led me to this hilarious report card from Stevie C. VCS.

http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=561313&poll_id=&news_id=&page=

I never saw this the first time around. Don't think for a moment that I don't know what the "F" in sports under "Catholics" means Mr. C! I bet you'd like to take that one back eh? Up 'till now I really wasn't sure how the Giants did it. Now I know; mystery solved. Your own cockiness cost the Patsies a date with history Steve-o. For the record, the Broncos won their last game of the season! Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ah !

Jim

p.s. This level of cockiness could have ramifications as far out as October 2008 too, mi amigo!

Hi all:

I came across this remarkably familiar quote earlier today. Can anyone name the author? (No googling allowed) I'll give you a hint. The author is not Eric Gage or James Lacey....

"I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw."

Jim