One Small Step for a Man...

July the 20th marked the 41st anniversary of the first man landing on the moon. Supposedly, the computers which guided the tiny spacecraft had less capability than the one you are using now to read this blog. Interesting, huh? Here's the video of the dramatic 1969 telecast...

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Persevero,

Will This Video Be Banned?

I think it will. How about you?

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Persevero,

Independence Day

"IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

Now for some laughs ('cause there are people who think we should be apologizing to the British)...

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

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Persevero,

Aleksandr Hrustevich Plays Vivaldi

Wow.

7x13 = 28

Gotta love it.

Bringing a Lawsuit Against a Law You Haven't Read

"Arizona has enacted a new law cracking down on illegal immigrants in response to a dramatic rise in violence along the Arizona-Mexico border. The new law authorizes law enforcement officers to arrest anyone reasonably suspected of being an illegal immigrant. Under the new law, state and local law enforcement officers are authorized to determine during lawful stops the immigration status of people for whom there is "reasonable suspicion" that they are in the country illegally. Reasonable suspicion is a legal standard requiring that before someone is arrested or detained there must be reasonable belief that the person has been, is or is about to be engaged in criminal activity."

Student News Daily

On Sunday, May 9 on NBC's "Meet the Press", Attorney General Eric Holder called for a federal lawsuit against Arizona's recently passed illegal immigration law (a law which is supported by 60% of Arizona voters). Then, on Thursday, May 13, Holder "told...the House Judiciary Committee the following about his knowledge of Arizona's recently passed immigration law-enforcement measure:

'...I've glanced at it. I have not read it.'

'...I have not been briefed yet.'

'... I've only made, made the comments that I've made on the basis of things that I've been able to glean by reading newspaper accounts, obviously, looking at television, talking to people who are on the review panel, on the review team that are looking at the law.'"

~

I'm going to bed. Wake me up when it's over. We have way too many morons in high places. 

~

"Holder Profiles Arizona -- Isn't that really what the Attorney General is doing?

He hasn't read the Arizona immigration law, even though reading the law is the basic duty of any lawyer (let alone the U.S. Attorney General) who is called on to assess a legal situation.

Thus, he hasn't got reasonable suspicion that Arizonans are violating the Constitution, even though reasonable suspicion is the basic investigative standard we expect law-enforcement to satisfy before officials harass Americans with stepped up scrutiny.

And we know he has a bias because he told us, unabashedly, that he thinks Americans are "cowards" on matters of race.

Think about it this way: If a police officer, without taking elementary investigative steps to inform himself about the facts of a situation, and thus without reasonable suspicion, simply assumed a person must be guilty of wrongdoing based on the police officer's avowed prejudice, what would Eric Holder call it?"

Andy McCarthy @ nationalreview.com

~

Watch this video of the Attorney General admitting that he hasn't read Arizona's law (first 1:30)

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Persevero,

What Does It All Mean?

Some of these stats are amazing; some bizarre; and still others disconcerting. They show how quickly the world is changing. For unbelievers, that's bad news. After all, the world is all they have to hold onto. It's the only treasure they'll ever have. They try to grab it, slow it down, keep it still. But they can't. They're digging their fingers into crumbling sand... and they keep slipping.
~
For the followers of Christ, things are different. Change holds no terrifying uncertainty for us. That's because Someone stronger than we are is holding onto us. We may live in an ever-changing world - but we are under the care of a never-changing God.

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Persevero,

A Tough Interview

"When President Obama gives TV interviews, the treatment he gets is typically soft, if not reverential. This is not because of the interviewers' respect for the presidency--they were much tougher on George W. Bush--but because of ideological and personal sympathy for the man who now holds the office. Yesterday was an exception--perhaps the first time Obama has ever faced a tough interview. The interviewer was Bret Baier of Fox News Channel, and the president was clearly unprepared, coming across as petulant and evasive.

~

"If the rest of the so-called adversary press had been doing its job for the past few years, Obama might not be in the political trouble he is. Then again, he might not have withstood the scrutiny and become president either."

~ excerpted from OpinionJournal.com's "Best of the Web"

written by the editor, James Taranto

Lego Orchestra: "The Imperial March"

 

No, I'm not a big fan of Star Wars. But I do enjoy the music of John Williams, and this creative lego version of the "Imperial March" was just too neat to pass up.

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Persevero,

Phone Fiasco

Just one reason why you should
never leave your phone lying around.

What If They Used A Shotgun

           ABORTION. MURDER. IT'S THE SAME THING.

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Persevero,

Scribe

It May Be Time...

A friend of mine recently wrote a post on his blog which included a link to this TV Ad... 

... hope it provides you with some laughs! :)

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Persevero,
Scribe

Mission: Impossible

Here's the trailer for the spy thriller Mission: Impossible (1996). As you watch it, you'll see a part where one of the characters is wire-dropping (he's in a high-security CIA vault in quest of a computer disc with vital information, in case you're wondering). The scene is pretty brief, so watch closely. After you're done, your next mission is to click here to see the Poff Clan's rendition of this suspenseful scene. I think you'll find it rather amusing...

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Persevero,

Scribe

"In Christ Alone" by Newsboys

A Comedian on Conviction

I urge you to speak with conviction... you know what I mean?

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Persevero,

Scribe

Subtitles

Subtitles. Some people love 'em. Others? Well...

I Wonder What Beethoven Would Say...

meChurch

A humourous (yet sadly true) video reflecting the selfish way many people look at God's Church...

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Persevero,

Scribe

Sampling Some Shakespeare

Even if you don't care for all of Shakespeare's works (I don't), you've got to admit, his style and prose are sometimes nothing short of brilliant...

But screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we'll not fail. ~ Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 1

Et tu, Brute! ~ Julius Caeser, Act 3, Scene 1

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. ~ Henry IV, Part 2, Act 3, Scene 1

Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war. ~ Julius Caeser, Act 3, Scene 1

Once more to the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close up the wall with our English dead! ~ Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1

Neither borrower, nor lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend. ~ Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3

This was the most unkindest cut of all. ~ Julius Caeser, Act 3, Scene 2

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. ~ Henry V, Act 4, Scene 3

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them as we will. ~ Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2

I thought upon one pair of English legs
Did march three Frenchmen. ~ Henry V, Act 3, Scene 6

King Henry V (played by Kenneth Brannagh) delivers the St. Crispin's Day Speech (read it here)...



Note: this video excerpt is taking from Brannagh's film Henry V (1989), based on Shakespeare's play. Highly recommended. (The soundtrack for this movie is one of our family's favorites. Search for it on iTunes to hear some samples...)

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Persevero,

Scribe

"Hey, Alan! Alan! Alan!"

~

And I thought Narnia was the only land where animals talked...

~

"Mirth is God's medicine. Everybody ought to bathe in it."

~ Henry Ward Beecher