Eight Days Of Hannukkah

Hannukkah begins on Americans’ Thanksgiving this year. So for you Israelis, American Jews, and Jews worldwide that visit, we give you this song.

What else can you say about a song written by a Mormon Senator from Utah with the music written by a Jewish writer of Christian Contemporary music and sung by a Syrian woman from Indiana with backup vocals by Jewish children and the Mormon Senator other than take a listen and be uplifted?

We here at Truth Before Dishonor are Conservative. We are predominantly Christian. That means beyond any shadow of a doubt we are pro-Israel and pro-Jew. This uplifting Hannukkah song is merely a representation of our love for the Jews and for Israel, and a gift to all who visit, Jew or Gentile.

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This Christmas, Give the Gift of Shinola

 

Do you know the difference between … well, you know, and Shinola?

The difference is that Shinola, is made in America. Mostly. Or assembled here. Really, and it’s just too cool for school.

Except that it isn’t because it’s connected with school. A famous design school, The Center for Creative Studies, located in Detroit, Michigan.

Hand made bicycles, Swiss watch movements assembled in the USA and fitted with leather straps hand made in Florida; and footballs. Real honest to goodness footballs, made in America and made to be used.

Shinola Detroit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well maybe you would use it. On grass, once or twice.

Hey Bronko! Is that a Shinola?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take a look for yourself ….

 

Shinola

 

Made in Detroit … more or less … by college kids and their associates, more or less.

 

This is another “neat things” posting, not commercial advertising; and neither Truth Before Dishonor nor myself receive any compensation whatsoever for these entries. Not even coal ranges. Certainly not Morgan Roadsters. The manufacturers neither solicited nor even approved these postings. Except here, where I got permission to mention, first.

Easter: The Most Holy Day Of The Year

Or is it?

Week of Passion…and Possible Divorce (God’s Perfect Timing) — Vip Ogola’s description of the week leading up to and including Easter/Passover Sunday. And I’d say that is a very apt description of all the events that took place from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday a little over 2,000 years ago.

What I’m about to deliver today will sound familiar to many who read my articles, because I’ve said it before on Truth Before Dishonor and the now archive-only Common Sense Political Thought, both of which had threads with worthwhile comments, although at CSPT, you have to scan through mostly rubbish in the comment section.

Easter is important.
Air is desirable.
Water has value.

There are many who consider Easter the most important celebratory day of the year. I may be one of them but I am not entirely certain. Let me explain my predicament, using a Progressive tool: Values Clarification (which is actually values modification).

You are planning a journey to colonize the moon. In your plans, you have to decide what to take with you. There will be no other trips to your colony for a year. You have limited space, so you will have to do without a lot of things you would prefer to have in order to make your life on the moon survivable. List these items in order of importance:

Housing unit
Cold-weather clothing
Hot-weather clothing
Food
Excavation tools
Compressed air
Lunar maps
Water
Lunar compasses

So, what did you decide was most important for your trip? Air, perhaps? Without air, nobody will survive longer than a few short minutes. Without water, nobody will survive more than a few days. Without food, nobody will survive more than a few weeks. Without proper shelter or clothing, it is highly unlikely you could survive a week. So it’s quite possible that air is the most important on the list. Or is it?

If you will not gain anything for a year, what importance is the fraction-of-year survival without a certain item compared to the importance of the fraction-of-year survival without a different item? No matter how you order it, if you’re missing one for that duration, you’re still just as dead after the year is up.

So, what celebratory day is more important? Easter, Christmas or Good Friday? Without Easter, there would be no Resurrection and thus no redemption of sin. There could be no Resurrection without the Crucifixion celebrated on Good Friday (which I believe is the wrong day). That means the redemption of sin could not occur. Without the Birth, there could be no Crucifixion. Without the Virgin Conception, everything is moot. Remove any one of these four events and the other three events lose all their value. Remove Jesus’ 33 years of sin-free life and all four events lose all their value. And, as Vip Ogola reminded me, if Joseph had divorced his betrothed Mary as she was pregnant with Jesus as he had strongly considered before Providence spoke directly to him, again, all would be moot.

So, in the grand scheme of things, can any of the events truly be ordered as more important than the others?

As I said, my earlier article discussing this issue provided some worthwhile comments from the readers, and even a philosophical/logical discussion or two. On the TBD article, my MUD-geek friend Adara (pray for her as she’s still emotionally healing from the recent loss of her mother, whom she talks about in that 2010 thread), who is Catholic, said I gave her food for thought and was mulling over what I wrote. She also asked why I suggested Good Friday may be the wrong day. I explained my reasoning and invited Jeff, a non-Christian Liberal Jew (who I don’t know is practicing or not), to delve into the math of it and the Jewish nature of it, Which he did.

As I said, the CSPT thread is mostly unrelated garbage but Tyro visited to give me article-related grief and I believe left with a better understanding than he started with. If you want to follow that particular conversation,
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Link 4

Lights Of The Season, Season 3, Part XIX

A tribute to “big girls”.

Lights Of The Universe, Season 3, Part XVIII

DRJ from Patterico’s Pontifications liked this one in season 1.

Star Trekkin.

Lights Of The Season, Season 3, Part XVII

If you need a little Breath Of Heaven, just watch these Christmas Lights dance to Mary’s Song as sung by Amy Grant.

Lights Of The Season, Season 3, Part XVI

Simon, Theodore and Alvin belting it out for you.

Lights Of The Season, Season 3, Part XV

There are many reasons for Russians to be mad these days, what with the Communist former KGB agent Putin stealing the elections via fraudulent voter numbers, but the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Mad Russian is a bit different.

Last minute gift ideas

Looking to get your “better half” a gift that she will really remember this Christmas? Interested in preparing yourself for a future of solo, off-the-grid living and self-sufficiency?

Depending on your better half and her tastes and sense of humor, one might very well lead to the other.

On the other hand, there is just something really fascinating about the mere existence and persistance of certain classic or traditional technologies, into the modern age.

A famous example of this is the Morgan Roadster well known to every red blooded American boy who has had a brush with blue blooded British traditions.

2011 Morgan Roadster

At only 43,500 Pounds Sterling it’s a remarkable deal.

So, let’s say that you now have your roadster for those weekend trips to that hideaway in the woods. Out there beyond the range of the power poles and the vagaries of distilate hydrocarbon supplies, you still need to eat though. And presumably to cook. That bearskin rug in front of the crackling fireplace is less than an ideal food preparation site. It looks bad enough already with all those cracker crumbs and the stains from Cheez Whiz and cheap champagne.

What you need, is to add something reliable, something failsafe, to your cozy retreat. Something all-American traditional, yet modern too.

Forget the bottle gas.

What you obviously need is a coal burning cooking range. Yeah, you heard me, a coal burning range. A practical one though. Up to date, with the most modern 1950’s style improvements. Not some airy-fairy baroque monstrosity made by French talking Belgians, which will leave  your wife looking askance at you and your hunting buddies laughing their heads off.

But is there such a buggy whip still available? Well, are windmills and stock watering tanks and  authentic pickling crocks still made in the USA? In case you didn’t know, the answer is yes and yes. (But why in the world you insist that you want a pickling crock for your roadster is beyond my comprehension.)

Nonetheless, so as with them, so as with the Knox modern coal fired cooking range. You too can still have, if you act with decisiveness and alacrity, the last word, probably literally the last word, in a modernistic design, enamel finished (just like Laura Petrie had) coal cooking stove. Except the stove Dick Van Dyke’s wife had on TV wasn’t coal fired. But no matter, it was avocado or gold enamel, just like these.     Probably.

Modern Coal Stove

Made in the USA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, make your wife happy with the most modern of conveniences. Heat your house or cottage as a byproduct. Cool the earth through the emission of protective sulfur dioxide particulate.  Show your disdain for Al Gore’s hyperventilating hyperbole; and teach Toronto a lesson in gratitude by reminding them in a small way of what it would be like to live downwind of a country like  China –  if we really wanted to get tough.

And as always, “Buy American” … unless it’s something really cool that isn’t made here at all.

 

 

A more serious note:

During the course of my researches on “cottage”  heaters I naturally came across many companies still engaged in the business of producing wood and coal burning heaters in the United States, as well as other retro technologies such as propane powered ammonia refrigerant refrigerators, and so forth. As a matter of fact I even own  a dual fuel wood/coal heater with a lift top which supposedly exposes a cooking surface of some kind. I wouldn’t know for certain. I never installed it. It’s stored in the barn, still in the box it was purchased in 10 years ago. And too we all have friends with various kinds of Franklin fireplaces and fireplace inserts, so…

But I have to admit, when I stumbled across the ads for the coal ranges, I couldn’t help but be amazed that this kind of an everyday use type product (as opposed to a principally decorative object)  was still produced.

Please also note that this is a posting on interesting things still produced here, and in the case of the Morgan example, abroad. It is not a testimonial nor an advertisement. Neither Truth Before Dishonor, nor myself has any direct or indirect interest in, or profit relation to, anything linked.

 

 

 

Lights Of The Season, Season 3, Part XIV

From Perth, Australia comes what is easily one of my top three favorite all-time displays. It was featured in the inaugural season and now it’s back for a repeat performance.

Music Box Dancer

Lights Of The Season, Season 3, Part XIII

The High School Musical edition. Get your head in the game and remember the Reason for the Season (and it ain’t basketball).

Lights Of The Season, Season 3, Part XII

I’m proud to be an American! Thank you, troops and veterans, for sacrificing so much for our freedom!

Can you contribute to the Semper Fi Fund in honor of our troops and veterans?

Lights Of The Season, Season 3, Part XI

Did I see Captain Janeway?

Lights Of The Season, Season 3, Part X

The “less is more” episode. Only 9,000 lights, quality music that is not overpowering, very relaxed visuals. A job well done.

“Without You” cover by ThePianoGuys.

Lights Of The Season, Season 3, Part IX

Medellin, Columbia. Yes, the city best known for the drug cartel, narco-terrorists, drug lords, and all manner of violent deadly crime, tyranny, and anarchy. A beautiful light-and-water show, which I doubt was choreographed to this “music”.

Not all coming out of Medellin is evil, just most.