December 2009

“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

-G.K. Chesterton

hat tip: JR

Here are two memorable quotations from C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters:

• My dear Wormwood,
  I note what you say about guiding your patient’s reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naive? It sounds as if you suppose that argument was the way to keep him out of the enemy’s clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier.

• Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead.

10. A Christmas Story (so many classic lines)

9. Frosty the Snowman (brings happiness even thinking about it)

8. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (lovin’ the song)

7. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon, not the Jim Carey)

6. Miracle on 34th Street (the black and white version, of course)

5. Ernest Saves Christmas (admit it, you like this one too)

Read the rest of this entry »

“The only thing inexpensive about Massachusetts’s health-care bill is that there you can get a $50 abortion.”

-Mike Huckabee, addressing social conservatives in September 2009

My criteria include:

a) focus on the Christ Child and all His coming means;

b) whether it has stood the test of time (i.e. newer songs have the burden of proof; and

c) musical quality (though I realize many older hymns were later put to other tunes).

But first, honorable mentions include: Hallelujah! Chorus (I was recently told this was actually part of the Easter, not Christmas, portion of Handel’s Messiah); O Come All Ye Faithful, and Mary Did You Know?

The top five are:

5. What Child Is This? (I love the composer’s answer to his own question)

4. Away in a Manger (Children love this song and for good reason)

3. Silent Night (Is there any more serene song that this?)

2. O Holy Night (enough said)

Read the rest of this entry »

Maggie Gallagher, a tireless defender of traditional (or, shall we say, real) marriage, has a post by that title in response to Ben Smith’s assertion that it is. For the impatient, she says it is not for these reasons:

1. Nothing is inevitable.
2. Young people are not as unanimous as most people think.
3. The argument from despair is bait and switch.
4. Progressives are often wrong about the future.
5. Demography could be destiny.
6. Change is inevitable.
7. Newsflash: 18-year-olds can be wrong.
8. New York’s highest court was right.

Read the whole post here for the details.