Bill "Bojangles" Robinson performing at age 65 performing "Drum Dance"
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Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
He is trampling out the wine press, where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He hath loosed the fateful lightnings of his terrible swift sword,
His truth is marching on.
I have seen him in the watchfires of an hundred circling camps
They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps,
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps,
His day is marching on.
I have read a burning Gospel writ in fiery rows of steel,
As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal,
Let the hero born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Our God is marching on.
He has sounded out the trumpet that shall never call retreat,
He has waked the earth's dull sorrow with a high ecstatic beat,
Oh! be swift my soul to answer him, be jubilant my feet!
Our God is marching on.
In the whiteness of the lilies he was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that shines out on you and me,
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
Our God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, he is succour to the brave,
So the world shall be his footstool, and the soul of Time his slave,
Our God is marching on.
-- Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe, 1861 from Reminscences 1819-1899
Video above: Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and Shirley Temple performing together in 1935
"On the night of Dec. 14, 2009, a retired Nashville songwriter, producer, performer and general country music jack-of-all-trades named Cletus "Clete" Haegert posted this half-joking status update on his Facebook page:
"Hmm? I wonder if whoever broke into my home over the weekend found what they were looking for? At least I enjoyed going to the Titans game on Sunday. I know the culprits weren't Barry, Trey, Harrison (they were with me) or anyone that plays for the Rams/Titans, or attended the game. Everyone else is suspect.
"Clete, 68, had just spent the weekend in Nashville for his first pro football game. It was a needed getaway. Not a month before, he had been sitting in a hospital cancer ward with his wife, Marjorie "Marge" Harris-Haegert. He had held her hand as her breathing slowed, and he was there when she finally succumbed to pneumonia. They had been married for 15 years. Returning afterward to the three-story home they shared in southern Middle Tennessee was hard. Except for Clete, the house that was to be their romantic hideaway to the end of their days was now empty.
"But it was not undisturbed.
"Clete noticed truck tracks carved into the steep gravel drive that wound its way around to the rear of the house. After stepping inside, he must have crossed the hardwood floors, checking the two-story floor-to-ceiling paneled windows in the great room, the back doors, the three-car garage. He looked for missing valuables — exotic furs, Oriental rugs, Austrian crystal chandeliers, sets of china and centuries-old French desks. The house was stuffed to excess — not just with lavish furnishings, but with whatever odd bric-a-brac caught Marge's eye.
"Clete Haegert was a handsome man with amused, squinting eyes that terminated in deep crow's feet. He was often mistaken for Kris Kristofferson, and understandably so. His broad, dimpled face had a conquistador's beard trimmed low over the lip and jawline; his dark brown hair had gone completely silver over the last five years. It was still wavy and full at the temples, but of late it had grown into a short, unruly ponytail. It gave the impression of a rakish honky-tonker enjoying his twilight days, a pirate in retirement.
"That wasn't far from the truth. Every St. Patrick's Day, the stage at a saloon somewhere in Nashville would yield to one "Clete O'Hagerty" — Clete in sentimental Irish-tenor mode, reliving the St. Paddy's Day he met Marge at the now-defunct Franklin Road watering hole The Sutler. He'd had some near-success, even if his operatic singing voice never translated into commercial country appeal on Music Row. But he was a songwriter for Tree Publishing Co. during his early years in Nashville, when he migrated here from the family farm near Nash, Okla., chasing his radio-dial dreams....
"Three days later, police arrived at his Winchester home to find the front door unlocked. The door to an upstairs wardrobe had been ripped from its hinges. The drawers were torn out of a jewelry box that had been emptied of its contents. And there, near the entryway to the home of his dreams, lay Clete Haegert, dead of multiple gunshot wounds.
"Near Clete's body, there appeared to have been a struggle. A broken ceramic flowerpot sat upended. Clete's .38 caliber pistol rested on the floor near his body, cold at least a couple of days. His handsome face was a lifeless blue...." -- Brantley Hargrave in Who Killed Cletus Haegert? for Nashville Scene
...
In one year they sent a million fighters forth
South and North,
And they built their gods a brazen pillar high
As the sky
Yet reserved a thousand chariots in full force--
Gold, of course.
O heart! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns!
Earth's returns
For whole centuries of folly, noise and sin!
Shut them in,
With their triumphs and their glories and the rest!
Love is best.
ACR's quarterly Classic Zero Probability of Accident Award goes to an "unsinkable" British ocean liner
The quarterly ACRAfro-Beat Music Award goes to France's Fango
The quarterly ACROustanding Way We Were Video Music Award goes to Airs' La Femme D'Argent from Moon Safari
ACR's Innovative Charity Award this quarter goes to Hungry For Music("founder and director of Hungry for Music, a Washington, D.C.-area nonprofit, Campbell takes in donated musical instruments and gives them to underprivileged young people. He's been doing that for 16 years and has handed out more than 3,500 instruments.
Simple idea, really — the whole trash/treasure swap. But for Campbell, there is complex harmony in helping others make music. After all, he says, 'music helped me through some dark times.'..." -- National Public Radio)
The quarterly ACRMost Fun Fractals Award goes to Neave Imagination(make your own just by drawing on the computer screen with your mouse!)
"People long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives -- potentially for years to come." -- The New York Times
"Lilia's story illustrates a puzzling new dilemma for the nation's food banks. While the elderly are living longer (thanks to advances in modern medicine), more of them are needing help -- especially since the recession wiped out billions in retirement savings. These seniors have spent much of their lives building this great nation. Now that they need us, we are honored to help any way we can...." -- Feeding America
"The simpleminded idea that what's good for the unscrupulous rich is in some way good for their victims is the crystalline form of stupidity." -- message board commentator
Video below: Stand By Me Worldwide
Video above: Free Hugs Campaign Worldwide, Italy
"... Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee." -- Saint Peter (Acts 3:6)
One “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. Two “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments. Three “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. Four “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Five “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Six “You shall not murder. Seven “You shall not commit adultery. Eight “You shall not steal. Nine “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Ten “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”
-- The Ten Commandments, (Exodus 20:2-17 NKJV)
"... You know how the arts can enrich all of our communities and the country. And you know how the arts can connect us to each other like nothing else can. You know how people who come from completely different cultures and backgrounds, people who might not even speak a single word of the same language, they might still be drawn together when their hearts are lifted by the notes of a song, or a vision on a canvas, or the graceful arc of a dance...." -- First Lady Michelle Obama, White House
"At a time when many thought that news out of the Gulf of Mexico couldn’t get any worse, BP announced today that the oil in the Gulf needs to be changed every six months. 'The oil will need to be changed every six months or every 15,000 lies,' said the BP spokesman. 'Whatever comes sooner.'" -- Borowitz Report
"Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman has turned down a $1 million prize for proving the century-old Poincaré conjecture, one of the world's most difficult math problems. Although Perelman solved the problem in 2003 and was awarded the prize in March, he did not refuse the honor until Thursday, citing disagreements with the 'organized mathematical community.'..." -- Jordan Ellenburg in Slate
"Who would turn down a $1 million prize for solving a math problem? Perhaps the smartest man in the world. Three months ago, a famously impoverished Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman was awarded the prestigious $1 million Clay Mathematics Institute Millennium Prize for his groundbreaking work -- having solved a problem of three-dimensional geometry that had resisted scores of brilliant mathematicians since 1904. Thursday, the institute announced that Perelman, known equally for his brilliance and his eccentricities, formally and finally turned down the award and the money. He didn't deserve it, he told a Russian news service, because he was following a mathematical path set by another. The president of the Clay Institute, James Carlson, said that Perelman was a mathematician of 'extraordinary power and creativity' and that it was he alone who solved the intractable Poincaré's conjecture. 'All mathematicians follow the work of others, but only a handful make breakthroughs of this magnitude,' Carlson said. Still, while he had been hopeful that Perelman would take the prize, he was hardly surprised that he did not. Perelman had already turned down several of the world's top awards in mathematics. And when he solved the Poincaré conjecture, he ignored the peer-review process and simply posted his three-part solution online. That was in 2003...." -- Marc Kaufman for The Washington Post
"Abstraction seduces the unconscious and therein lies the door to freedom – the inevitable quest of the artist." -- late sculptor Robert E. Kuhn
"Cultivate the ability to see the ridiculous, and to retain the ability to laugh. For, know -- only in those that God hath favored is there the ability to laugh, even when clouds of doubt arise, or when every form of disturbance arises. For, remember, the Master smiled --and laughed, oft-- even on the way to Gethsemane." -- Edgar Cayce Reading 2984-1, Association for Research and Englightenment
"Darth Cheney's handjob puppet" -- description of George W. Bush on internet commentary board
"... Meanwhile, BP executive Steve Westwell was heckled during his speech at the conference, where he was standing in for embattled chief executive Tony Hayward.
The BP chief of staff was interrupted twice during his address by protesters shouting 'we need to end the oil age!' The hecklers were escorted out of the central London hotel by security.
Westwell said Hayward was 'genuinely sorry' not to be at the conference, where he had been due to give a keynote address on about the global responsibilities of international oil companies.
'He and I both hope you understand his schedule is under incredible pressure at the moment,' Westwell told delegates.
Hayward pulled out of the conference on Monday after stinging criticism for spending Saturday at England's Isle of Wight to see his yacht compete in a famous race. That outing drew outrage on the Gulf coast and an acerbic response from the White House." -- National Public Radio
"Guantanamo hurts the U.S.'s claim to 'moral authority' in a global conflict that it is apparently not winning by brute force." -- Dr. Jonathan Farley
"Finally, state and local aid happens to be an uncommonly effective form of stimulus. The difficulty with most stimulus spending is that not all of it gets spent. Tax breaks, for instance, often get saved. Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, estimates that cutting the corporate tax rate gets you only 32 cents in stimulus for every dollar you spend on it. That's not the case with state and local aid. When you're plugging state budget gaps, you know that money will be spent, because it was being spent before, and usually on something that the state's residents actually wanted.... analysts say it [the Obama stimulus package] did essentially what it promised: IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody's Economy.com all estimate it created around 2.5 million jobs.... Because some of the federal stimulus dollars were saved rather than spent, the effective stimulus we've had has been less than the $789 billion that's often touted. It might even be less than $610 billion shortfall in the states. Which would mean the anti-stimulus overwhelmed the stimulus. Or, you could look at it in reverse: Nick Johnson, who directs the State Fiscal Project at CBPP, says that 'the effect of the federal stimulus was to wipe out the negative effect of the state contraction.'" -- Washington Post
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, we have today half the product from the same number of oil wells within our geographic borders as in 1973. In that year, the ratio of off-shore to on-shore wells was 7:1; today it is 3:1. Meanwhile our population has risen from 203 million to 309 million, mostly through immigration as our birth rate has declined slightly, and per capita consumption has remained relatively stable.
"He that seeks the Lord must believe that He exists if He is to be found. One who doubts has already set up a barrier that prevents clear understanding, whether it pertain to physical, mental or spiritual attributes of the Divine, or spiritual, mental or physical aid. That sought in faith will be yours, as it was given and promised by the instruction 'Be my people and I will be your God.'" -- Edgar Cayce Reading 459-1, Association for Research and Englightenment
"I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are — are greedy companies or don't care, but that is not the case in BP. We care about the small people." -- BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, Yahoo News
"... So, boom. This is a settled matter. Does the public want President Obama to show more emotions over the oil spill? No. They want the oil spill fixed. They do not give two tugs of a dead dog's dick about the president's emotions." -- Jason Linkens in Obama's Oil Spill Response, Huffington Post
"If all paper cups in the U.S. were recycled, 645,000 tons of waste would be diverted from landfills each year, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 million mtCO2e, equivalent to removing 450,000 passenger cars from the road. Through a pilot program, Global Green is developing a recycling system that would recycle quick service restaurant paper food packaging with corrugated cardboard boxes." -- Global Green
Video below: The equally legendary Lena Horne and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson performing "Stormy Weather"
"'I fear that Christians who venture to stand on earth with only one leg will stand in heaven on only one leg too.' Those words, which were sent in a letter from Dietrich Bonhoeffer to his fiancé from his Nazi prison cell, were highlighted in Larry Rasmussen's 1997 book, Earth Community, Earth Ethics.
What does this mean in the face of our present crisis?
The Christian perspective that ignores earth in favor of one leg in heaven, concentrating on the things of the Spirit, has forgotten that what God desires of us is care of the earth of which we are a lovingly created part (Genesis 1:26-28). We have forgotten God's joy in creation in all its diversity (Job 38:39-39:30, Matthew 6:26-30).
The birds struggling to emerge from the ruddy sludge entrapping them are Christ right before our eyes, demanding that we stand on earth with two legs, making our lives, as Bonhoeffer says, 'a 'yes' to God's earth.' And then there are the oysters, the jellyfish, the sea grass, the plankton and the snails, all struggling because of human choices, and no less cherished by God.
Whether animals have consciousness, souls, rights or sacrifice is irrelevant in the face of the fact that animals are God's good creation, which we are required to love as our neighbors.
No expense of time or money is too great in caring for these completely innocent victims of human behavior. To the suffering of God's whole amazing creation in the Gulf of Mexico, the religious answer is two legs on God's good earth. Our job is to make this real in our lives." -- Rev. Dr. Janet Edwards, Pittsburgh PA, More Light Presbyterians, in Washington Post On Faith Panel
"Earth has a surface area of 196,940,400 square miles, slightly less than a perfect ball with a diameter of 7913.5 miles (which is the mean diameter of the Earth - see "Prove it" under 103).
The surface area of the seven continents and all the islands of the world is about 57 million miles, while the total area of the six habitable continents (Antarctica excluded) is around 52 million square miles.
Including Antarctica , over one fifth of the globe's land mass is under water (oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.) or ice. This leaves about 45 million square miles of exposed land.
The human population on earth has crossed six billion. If we distribute all the exposed land evenly among all mankind, 133 people would have to share one square mile. What that means is that every single person on Earth, man woman and child would have close to five acres of land for his or her use. More precisely, each person would get 209,000 square feet of land, or a square plot of land 457 feet on each side.
Not all this land can be used beneficially however. A significant portion of the Earth's exposed land is unhabitable or cannot be used for any agricultural purpose. Large portions lie in the far north. Large portions are extremely arid. Large portions are very mountainous. In sum, only about one fourth of all the land on earth, or somewhat more than 12 million square miles, is arable.
Today, over half of the arable land in the world is in fact not under cultivation. Bringing the unused land into service in many cases would require huge investments of money and effort, and would do considerable damage to the environment. For example, only about 28% of the arable land on the African continent is used for growing crops. Immense tracts of forests or jungles would have to be cleared to bring the rest of the arable land on that continent to productive use.
Thus, only about one eighth of each imaginary plot of land distributed to each person is land which is under cultivation. In effect, each person has a piece of land about 26,000 square feet (a square 161 feet on each side or just a bit more than ½ an acre) at his or her disposal on which to grow all that he or she needs." -- Big Numbers
"And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." -- 1 Corinthians 13:2
Video below: 16-year-old sailor Abby Sunderland prepares to circumnavigate the globe
Amendments I-X of the Constitution of the United States
The Conventions of a number of the States having, at the time of adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added, and as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution; Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two-thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States; all or any of which articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said Constitution, namely:
Amendment I --
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.
Amendment II --
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III --
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV --
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V --
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI --
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII --
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII --
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX --
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X --
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
A Country Rag
The ACR quarterly Most Creative Newly Coined Political Term Award: (from Rethugnicans, Rethugnirats, Rethugniduns, Repulsivecats, Rethugnidums, Rethugnidams, Resluglicons, Rethugnicants, Rethugnidins, Rethuglipigs and Rethugnisins) Rethugniduns
ACR's quarterly Classic Dance Video Award goes to Shirley Temple and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson tapdancing in a 1935 black and white film
This quarter ACR's Classic Poem Award goes to 
ACR's quarterly Classic Zero Probability of Accident Award goes to an "unsinkable" British ocean liner
How did I get here anyway? --
Take me to Appalachia 