Once again, Christmastime is here. People are hanging lights from their houses, singing awful songs about snowmen and going crazy trying to find that perfect present that has been sold out for months. Ahhh, Christmas.
I know, I’m the Grinch or a Scrooge or whatever you want to call me. I don’t mean to be, but as Christmas gets closer and closer I seem to hate it more and more. But I do try.
For instance, just the other night I watched “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” on television. I remembered watching “Rudolph” as a child and thought maybe it would get me in the Christmas mood. Umm, no.
First, have you ever noticed how chauvinistic the reindeer are? Rudolph may not get to play in any reindeer games but neither do any of the female deer. When Rudolph’s mother wants to go help look for him his father distinctly states “no,” like she was a dog. And have you noticed that female deer are called “does” which sounds a lot like, well, never mind.
And how about Rudolph’s nose itself? Why does it whistle? It isn’t the color of his nose that freaks out Santa, but the awful squawking and honking. If I were Santa I wouldn’t want to put up with that for a night of delivering toys. I wouldn’t have made it to Alaska before Rudolph would have mysteriously disappeared.
Oh well, I guess with the exception of “A Christmas Story” and “Christmas Vacation” there just aren’t many quality Christmas movies. I just wish I would have come to that realization before watching a stupid show about reindeer instead of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Stupid Christmas.
While I have been a Scrooge, Grinch or whatever for years, my daughter is starting to transform into Scrooge. Sure, she still wears her idiotic Christmas sweatshirts but last year she didn’t even put up any Christmas decorations and the tree stayed in the closet.
This year though, in my daughter’s attempt to regain the Christmas spirit, the tree was pulled out of the closet and put on a table in our living room. My daugther carefully strung the lights around the tree and put the star on top before going to bed with plans of finishing the next day.
A few hours later I come home and don’t even notice the tree. Maybe that is because our her naughty brother had knocked the tree off the table and it was laying in the floor. The star was nowhere to be found and there were little artificial needles all over our floor.
My daugther Kristel, calmer than I would have been, put the tree back up and finished decorating it over the weekend. She even found the star after spending way too much time looking for it. Then I looked at the tree and asked her why the lights were going on and off in sections like that. With the look I got, something tells me we may not have a Christmas tree next year. If we do, it will have sections of lights blinking on and off, that I promise you.
Thinking my daughter and us both needed a little Christmas spirit this year I decided I was going to put together some Christmas music for us to listen to while we are eating instead of watching television. The problem was, I had to find songs that weren’t awful. So I started my search.
Do you know how many versions there are of “Silent Night”? If I had a dollar for every person who has an album with that song on it I could buy the North Pole, evict Santa along with his elves and flying deer and really put a kink in Christmas.
After searching for way too long, or about 10 minutes Grinch time, I remember mydaugther saying she liked a song called “The Christmas Shoes.” Being the gofather that I am I decided to give it a listen to see if it would make our list. Big mistake. I can absolutely, positively say this is the worst song ever written and listening to it is like someone trying to pull your ear off of your head.
If you haven’t heard it, let me explain the plot of the song. A boy is looking to buy a pair of shoes for his mother who is dying. Yes, dying. It has to be the most uplifting Christmas song of all-time. They should have just written an alternate version of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” called “I Saw Mommy Holding Hands With the Grim Reaper.” Or instead of “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” maybe they should have written an alternate version, “I’m Going to Bury Mom on Christmas.”
It was then I decided that once again I will be Scrooge or Grinch or whatever this year and if my children wants to join me then I will welcome them. Maybe one day I will get the whole Christmas spirit thing but until then I will sit back and notice blinking Christmas lights while avoiding giving away Christmas gifts,listening to all Christmas songs and movies. Ahh, now that is a merry Christmas.
My daughter decorate the Christmas Tree
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Thanks championing the consideration! I longing to allege – thanks you for the sake this!
May boy friend na ba siya?
Puro poste ng ama ng magandang dalagita sa litrato sa kabila pero dito kahit “hello” man lang wala. Magpo-post dito tapos iiwanan lang. Ano ba iyan? Walang masama ang ipagmalaki ang anak pero huwag mo naman iwanan.
Kinopya ko lang ito:
An analysis, in the wake of the Ampatuan murders, by Bertini “Toto” Causing, a member of the board of the National Press Club of the Philippines and also legal consultant for the National Press Club. Mr Causing is columnist both of Hataw and Police Files Tonight. With the kind permission of Paul Brinkley-Rogers
ANALYSIS
You must know that Norberto Gonzales as Defense Secretary is a “terror” operator and if he is to work with political operator Ronaldo Puno, they become a dreaded pair.
Remember that Gonzales came from National Intelligence Security Agency, from where came the Vidal Doble who taped Garcillano’s talks with Gloria. Also remember that Puno (the bad one) was instrumental in making Miriam Santiago lose to FVR and in Garci operations in Mindanao.
You must also know that before the Ampatuan massacre, there were hell-bent planning sessions on how Gloria could possibly hold over, de facto or de jure.
They were looking at how they can foment war in Muslim areas to have a justification for sinister plots.
Instead of launching war against MILF and MNLF which is expensive, what Gonzales did was to make “chismis” circulating between two possible warring clans. The timing was perfect because Datu Andal Sr. was so worried how he can stay in power because of the three-term limit. Andal Sr. even went to the Comelec in the Province of Maguindanao to ask what should he do to enable him to run again for the 2010 elections. A “bobo” Comelec official advised him to take a leave. Another Comelec official advised him to resign. Confused, Andal Sr. went to Malacanang and asked an Arroyo confidante what to do. And Andal was told that the only way for him to hold on to power is to prevent elections there from happening. And he was advised to do what is necessary. I do not know what was the advice; but I surmise that he was egged on not to give in to the Mangudadatus who were hell bent on grabbing power from him. In short, “binatirya” or “tsinismis patalikod ang mga Mangudadatu kay Andal na aagawin ang poder sa kanila.” And once the power is taken over, the Mangudadatus would take revenge for the earlier raids done on them resulting in seizure of firearms.
Obssesed with desire to keep power revved up by “chismis”, the Ampatuans harbored deep hatred and extreme fear of losing power. And to ensure that no election shall occur, the killings should be done with extreme brutality to justify “martial law,” a condition when no election can be held in the province. They were only looking at killing and burying to nowhere the Mangudadatus and families so that they would only be recorded as missing and would be charged against the rebels or Abu Sayyaf, not thinking they would be including 30 journalists in their plan for they did not think that Mangudadatu would ask for the help of media men. And if there would be martial law, the Ampatuans stay in power under the hold-over principle. But their game plot failed during the execution. Thank God: before they knew it, Toto Mangudadatu was able to know the abduction because his wife was able to call him up, prompting Toto Mangudadatu to call for Army assistance; the soldiers responded quick enough that forced the killers to escape even though the other victims were not yet buried, leading to the discovery of the plan; thus, the execution failed. The original plot was just to make it appear that the victims disappeared mysteriously so that it can be blamed to heightened rebellion that would justify attacks on MILF which, in turn, would justify martial law.
Until here, I believe I have answered now the question why it should be as brutal as this. It was the Ampatuans who did the act and planned the act. The Gloria government only happened to have benefited from it to justify martial rule.
What would be the net effect when martial law gains momentum in Maguindanao? It will embolden the Gloria machines to do the same in other Muslim provinces: (a) Wahab Akbar’s family vs Gerry Salappudin’s in Basilan; (b) Sakur Tan clan vs Tupay Loong clan in Sulu; (c) Jaafar clan vs opponents in Tawi-Tawi; (d) Dimaporo clan in Lanao Norte against a challenging clan; and (e) Many clans in Lanao Sur.
If Norberto Gonzales would have his way, he wanted all of them to fight each other to justify martial law in the rest of Muslim provinces.
Remember that the total number of votes in these provinces is substantially big enough to cause suspension of proclamation of winners in Presidential, Vice-Presidential and Senatorial races.
So that when proclamation cannot be had and it will be aggravated and prolonged by creative petitions and protests to be filed before the Comelec, the Speaker of the House (Gloria) would act as Acting President. Why? Since there would be no president, vice president and senators who would be proclaimed, the Speaker takes over under the Constitution. Gloria would argue that the 12 present senators cannot choose a Senate President because it needs at least 13 votes to elect the Senate President.
Another plus or bonus for them: the House of Representatives will approve to extend martial law by means of them voting together with the Senators where the senator’s vote is only one. A dummy petition shall be filed to question the act of “voting jointly” by means of outnumbering the Senators; and hoping the Gloria-appointees- dominated Supreme Court would rule that “voting jointly” means lumping together the senators and the congressmen and each of them has only ONE VOTE. And when the Supreme Court would go Gloria’s way, they would now implement House Resolution 1109 calling for the senators and congressmen to “vote jointly” for a CON-ASS to pave the way for a parliamentary government. This PLUS or BONUS may happen before or after the 2010 elections. If it happens after elections, the picture that you would see is that the leading candidates for president, vice-president and senators cannot be proclaimed because their margin of leads can still be overturned by the total votes in areas where voting would be deferred till eternity by Martial Law.
So that this is a GRIM POSSIBILITY.
Patriotically yours,
Toto Causing
Ang pinakamagandang Christmas gift na hinahangad ng mga tao ay sana bababa ang presyo ng langis, pagkain, gamot, kuryente, at tubig.
May nakikinig ba sa inyo?
Hayaan na natin si pareng Berto na magsaya tutal nabibilang na ang kanyang araw. Kapag nagretiro na iyan sa serbisyo wala na siyang paki sa security ng bansa. Magtatanim na iyan ng saging kasi ito ang paborito niyang kaining prutas.
Pareng Berto continue lang ang trabaho mo, huwag mo lang kakalimutan kung peace and order ang problema nandiyan si Pacman at Krista, ang mga superheroes na lumalaban sa mga kampon ng kadiliman.
Isang sakong ampalaya ang regalo ko naman sa kumpareng Berto ninyo panggamot ng kanyang diabetes.
Kuya Berto nawa’y gumaling-galing na ang inyong diabetes at ang sakit ninyo sa puso.
Kung puwedi daw ay palitan na ninyo ng puso ng saging, hehehehe.
Amazing issue, did not thought reading this was going to be so amazing when I looked at the url!!
Napagalitan ni Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile si Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, presidential candidate ng Liberal Party (LP), dahil sa hindi pagsipot sa hearing ng budget ng isang kagawaran na gusto nitong busisiin.
Kahit magkakampi sa majority coalition, hindi naiwasan ni Enrile ang kanyang emosyon na pagsabihan si Aquino dahil nagpareserba pa itong magtatanong sa panukalang budget ng Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) subalit hindi naman pala sisipot.
Dahil dito, pinaaprubahan na ni Enrile ang budget ng DENR dahil ayaw umano niyang ma-hostage ang budget ng isang kagawaran dahil lamang sa hindi pagsipot sa trabaho ng isang senador.
Ipinaliwanag pa ng senador na kung hindi lamang sila gipit sa panahon, maaari pa niyang pagbigyan ang hindi pagpasok ni Aquino subalit dahil sa hati ang trabaho nila sa budget hearing at sa joint session ng Kongreso kinahapunan, mahalaga ang bawat oras sa Senado.
…Pasensiya na sa mga maka-Noynoy pero talaga daw tamad siya. Tanghali na kasi kung magising. Unico Hijo kasi.
Sinong Berto? Si Sarhento na ngayon ay nasa Middle-East? Kung may diabetes siya, siguro namana sa kanyang magulang. Baka naging Sugar Daddy ang kanyang tatay.
Was Jesus Wealthy?
(CNN) — Each Christmas, Christians tell stories about the poor baby Jesus born in a lowly manger because there was no room in the inn.
But the Rev. C. Thomas Anderson, senior pastor of the Living Word Bible Church in Mesa, Arizona, preaches a version of the Christmas story that says baby Jesus wasn’t so poor after all.
Anderson says Jesus couldn’t have been poor because he received lucrative gifts — gold, frankincense and myrrh — at birth. Jesus had to be wealthy because the Roman soldiers who crucified him gambled for his expensive undergarments. Even Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, lived and traveled in style, he says.
“Mary and Joseph took a Cadillac to get to Bethlehem because the finest transportation of their day was a donkey,” says Anderson. “Poor people ate their donkey. Only the wealthy used it as transportation.”
Many Christians see Jesus as the poor, itinerant preacher who had “no place to lay his head.” But as Christians gather around the globe this year to celebrate the birth of Jesus, another group of Christians are insisting that Jesus’ beginnings weren’t so humble.
They say that Jesus was never poor — and neither should his followers be. Their claim is embedded in the doctrine known as the prosperity gospel, which holds that God rewards the faithful with financial prosperity and spiritual gifts.
A clash of gospels?
The prosperity gospel has attracted plenty of critics. But popular televangelists such as the late Oral Roberts, Kenneth Hagin and, today, Creflo Dollar have built megachurches and a global audience by equating piety with prosperity.
The prosperity gospel, however, clashes with the traditional depictions of Jesus as poor. That’s because the traditional image of Jesus as destitute is wrong, says the Rev. Tom Brown, senior pastor of the Word of Life Church in El Paso, Texas.
“I believe he was the richest man on the face of the earth because he had God as his source.”
–Rev. Tom Brown, pastor of Word of Life Church, El Paso, Texas
The proof, he says, is scattered throughout the New Testament. One example: The 12th chapter of the Gospel of John says that Jesus had a treasurer, or a “keeper of the money bag.”
“The last time I checked, poor people don’t have treasurers to take care their money,” says Brown, author of “Devil, Demons and Spiritual Warfare.”
A debate over the economic status of Jesus may seem nonsensical to some. Does it really matter whether Jesus was rich or poor?
It matters to people like Luke Timothy Johnson, a prominent New Testament scholar and author. He says that a rich Jesus is a distortion of history and a threat to one of Christianity’s core teachings: God’s identification with the poor.
“If Jesus reveals God, there is something powerful about God appearing and working among the poor,” says Johnson, a New Testament professor at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Jesus’ lifestyle is not of one in a gated community or a corporate office,” says Johnson, a former Benedictine monk. “You don’t have to go through a security gate to get to Jesus. People touch him. He reached out and touched children. His accessibility is one of the most powerful messages of Christianity. In Jesus, God is with us, and the majority of us are poor.”
‘The poor won’t follow the poor’
Some prosperity preachers extract a different message from the same biblical texts. Brown, the El Paso minister, says he doesn’t say that Jesus was rich because he wants to give people an excuse to live self-indulgent lives. He wants people to understand that Jesus used his material and spiritual riches to help people — and so should they.
Brown says Jesus’ own words prove that he wasn’t poor.
“Jesus said you will always have the poor, but you will not always have me,” Brown says. “Jesus did not affirm himself as being part of the poor class…
“I believe he was the richest man on the face of the earth because he had God as his source,” Brown says.
Jesus’ wealth is evident even in the Gospel accounts of his execution, some pastors say.
The New Testament reports that Roman soldiers gambled for Jesus’ clothing while he hung on the cross. They wouldn’t gamble for Jesus’ clothing unless it was expensive, Anderson says.
“I don’t know anybody — even Pamela Anderson — that would have people gambling for his underwear,” Anderson says. “That was some fine stuff he wore.”
Anderson says Jesus never would have had disciples or a large following if he was poor. He would not have been able to command their respect.
“The poor will follow the rich, the rich will follow the rich, but the rich will never follow the poor,” Anderson says.
Twisting scripture for personal gain?
Johnson, the Emory University New Testament professor, calls Anderson’s argument “completely illogical.”
The only way you can make Jesus into a rich man is by advocating torturous interpretations and by being wholly naive historically.
–Bruce W. Longenecker
“So Martin Luther King must have been a millionaire,” he says. “Crowds followed Siddhartha Buddha and he was poor. And mobs followed Mahatma Gandhi, and Gandhi wore a diaper, for God’s sake.”
The argument that Jesus was wealthy because the soldiers gambled for his clothes at his crucifixion doesn’t makes historical sense, either, says Johnson, author of “Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity.”
“Crucifixion was the sort of execution carried out for slaves and for rebels,” Johnson says. “It wasn’t an execution for wealthy people.”
A Baylor University religion professor who specializes in the study of the poor in the Greco-Roman world also says there is “no way” that Jesus could be considered wealthy.
Bruce W. Longenecker says life in Jesus’ world was brutal. About 90 percent of people lived in poverty. A famine or a bad crop could ruin a family. There was no middle class.
“In the ancient world, you were relatively poor or filthy rich, there’s very little in-between,” says Longenecker, author of “Engaging Economics: New Testament Scenarios and Early Christian Reception.”
The New Testament is full of parables where Jesus actually condemns the rich and praises the poor, Longenecker says. In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus actually curses the rich, he says.
“The only way you can make Jesus into a rich man is by advocating torturous interpretations and by being wholly naive historically,” Longenecker says.
Anderson, the Arizona pastor, doesn’t buy that argument. He says the church has actually been damaged by teaching that Jesus was poor. God wants his followers to be rich, not for selfish gain, but to help others in need and spread the gospel.
When he first preached that Jesus wasn’t poor to his church, Anderson says he “ruffled some feathers.”
Now, he says, his church has 9,000 members and a global ministry.
“That’s so pathetic, to say that Jesus was struggling alone in the dust and dirt,” Anderson says. “That just makes no sense whatsoever. He was constantly in a state of wealth.”
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