Happy Birthday, Kelly!

Kelly It's Your Birthday

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Elvis Presley & Céline Dion - If I Can Dream

A breathless performance with Elvis Presley and Celine Dion, of the song "If I Can Dream"!

Enjoy the Wonders of Modern Miracles!

This is amazing!

Best viewed in Full Screen Format. Click box in lower right corner.

And so it goes...

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During a speech at Colorado Christian University on Wednesday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argued that the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit religious references in public places, including schools:

“I think the main fight is to dissuade Americans from what the secularists are trying to persuade them to be true: that the separation of church and state means that the government cannot favor religion over nonreligion.”

Scalia suggested that if Americans want a more secular political system, such as those in Europe, they can “enact that by statute, but to say that’s what the Constitution requires is utterly absurd.”
At the heart of the argument over separation of church and state lies the age-old debate over the intent of the First Amendment:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

So is the intent “freedom of religion,” or “freedom from religion”? Justice Scalia argues that it is the former:

“We do Him [God] honor in our pledge of allegiance, in all our public ceremonies. There’s nothing wrong with that. It is in the best of American traditions, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

I think we have to fight that tendency of the secularists to impose it on all of us through the Constitution.”

As a conservative on the bench, Scalia has endured the wrath of liberals for years. These comments are sure to add to the fire. His take on his critics?

“What can they do to me? I have life tenure.”

And so it goes...
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GoPro 4 Promotional Video

This is a promotional video fo the new GoPro camera, GoPro 4.  Great scenery, great music.  I think you will enjoy!

GoPro 4 Promotional Video

And so it goes...

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Willie Nelson - "My Family Bible"

For Kelly...

William Hugh Nelson was born in Abbott, Tex., in 1933 to a musically inclined couple: Ira and Myrle Nelson, who already had a 3-year-old daughter, Bobbie. Abbott is cotton country, and there's not much to do there, so Bobbie learned piano and Willie was writing poems by the time he was 4. Mostly they were sad — perhaps because his mother had left when he was 6 months old and his father wasn't around much.

When Bobbie was 16, she married a guy named Bud Fletcher, who had a western swing band. She played piano, and 13-year-old Willie signed on to play guitar — and almost immediately, he had a fan club. He fell into the life of a professional musician, and made his first recordings as a guitar player in 1954 in San Antonio. He had a job as a disc jockey there, and used the studio to record a song of his own: "When I've Sung My Last Hillbilly Song."

It wasn't much of a song, but the voice is recognizable. The record company he sent it to ignored it for a few decades, and Willie went on to DJ in Fort Worth. From there, he drifted to Portland, Ore., where he did more radio and gigged as a musician.

Somehow, he came to the attention of Nashville songwriter Mae Boren Axton, who encouraged him to move there, but he ran out of money on the road and wound up back in Fort Worth.

There, he made a record for the Houston-based D Records label, which did well enough that he was allowed a second one. The label decided it wasn't country enough and refused to release it, so Nelson and a friend released it under another name. It was the beginning of Willie Nelson the songwriter.

If anything was going to warn Nashville that this young songwriter wouldn't fit in, "Crazy" was it, but the country-pop crossover made famous by Patsy Cline has proven one of Nelson's most durable songs. After he wrote a song called "Family Bible" and sold it for $100, it became a smash country hit for Claude Gray. Pamper Music offered him a contract, and he finally moved to Nashville.

Hit after hit — for others — followed: "Nightlife," "Hello Walls," "Funny How Time Slips Away."

Because he was such a valuable hit-writer, record companies wanted him as an artist, because the publishing deal they'd strike with him would mean income for their bigger stars. Finally, in 1964, Nelson signed with Nashville's most prestigious label, RCA, but not much happened. He had put together a band with some of his Texas buddies — Johnny Bush, Jimmy Day on steel guitar, and drummer Paul English — but based on the evidence of "Me and Paul," one of his most famous songs from those years, the road wasn't that much fun, either.

In 1970, Nelson's Nashville house burned down, and he moved to the Hill Country just outside Austin, Tex., more depressed than he'd ever been. A year later, he recorded The Words Don't Fit the Picture, an album so dark that it barely sold, and has never been reissued.

Just when it seemed that Nelson had hit bottom, things turned around. He played a gig at an auto-dealership opening in Austin and noticed hippies in the crowd. When the local psychedelic dance hall, Armadillo World Headquarters, asked him if he'd like to do a show, he agreed. Odd songwriters began approaching him with distinctly Texan songs they'd written and were performing in small local clubs. Willie Nelson had found his people, and in 1973 he celebrated the Fourth of July with a small rock festival where a lot of these folks played.

His RCA contract ran out and he signed with Atlantic Records, where he made a concept album called Phases and Stages — a masterpiece. But the label closed its country division before it could become a hit.

From there, Nelson went to Columbia Records in 1975, and in a week he recorded another concept album: Red Headed Stranger, which contained his first hit, "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain."

Willie Nelson became famous, and the more famous he became, the fewer songs he wrote — which, really, was fine. Those songs had been unutterably sad, and now Willie Nelson was happy.

And so it goes...

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Derek Jeter - New York Yankee

Derek Jeter, New York Yankee short stop wears number 2 on his jersy but he will always be number 1 in the hearts and mines of his baseball fans. Jeter recently played his last professional baseball game at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox ending a twenty year career with the New York Yankees.

In 1948, I sat in Yankee Stadium for a game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Soxs. For a 12 year old boy that played organized baseball every summer in Memphis, Tennessee it was a memorable and thrillinbg experience. The 1948 Yankees; Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto and Joe DiMaggio. The only player I remember playing for the red sox was Ted Williams. Ted Williams, center fielder and, in my opinion then, one of the greatest players to ever played professional baseball. I was beyond thrilled! I have never been a Yankee fan. I blame that in part on George Steinbrenner. But I have always been a fan of Derek Jeter even though he was a Yankee. The New York Yankees signed Derek Jeter in 1992 right out of high school. He was called up to the big show in 1995 at age 20. The next season he was named the starting short stop and he was named Rookie of the Year and the Yankees won the World Series.

The Yankees won five World Series during Derek Jeter's career, the last in 2009. Jeter was not only a role model for the youth of the world, he was the guy that even professional baseball players tried to immulate. He was a great baseball player and a real class act on and off the field as well. He played with grace and dignity the same way he conducted himself in life. He had a humble attitude that belied and downplayed his skills. The world needs more champions like derek Jeter.

An emotional evening as Jeter plays his last game in Yankee Stadiums!

The last farewell wave to his loving and loyal fans!

One word that describes Derek Jeter; RESPECT!

 

Click on the link below for photos of Derek Jeter in the early years.

 

Derek Jeter's career in pictures

 

And so it goes...

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Battle of Antitam - September 17, 1862 (Civil War)

I can not believe that September 17th slipped by me unnoticed. September 17, 1862 is an important date in American history as it was on that date that the Battle of Antitam, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, was fought. It became known as the bloodiest day in the Civil War. Eleven hours of the most savage fighting that has ever occurred on U.S. soil resulted in more than 23,000 casualties, including more than 3,500 dead.

On October 6, 2006 I posted to the Union and West End Cemetery blog a brief summary of this battle. A few days later I followed the life of Pvt. James L. Clader, a member of the 46th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. Pvt. Clader's young life ended at Sharpsburg in the Battle of Antitam.

You can review both of this postings by clicking on the link shown below:

The Battle of Antitam or Sharpsburg

The Union and West End blog recapitulates many of the more well known events of the Civil War. If you have an interest in a particular battle of the Civil War, post the battles name in the 'search' window in the upper left hand corner of the blog. A brief history of the battle may have been previously posted to the blog.

And so it goes...

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