"When Swing Was King" Helps Celebrate a 99th Birthday!

To set up for every "When Swing Was King" presentation takes a while. We lug in the screen and (in two suitcases) the other equipment: Claire's laptop computer, the projector, the sound system, all the electrical cords, black plastic sheets to block excessive window light, a little fan, and a few other items. We then unpack and arrange everything on two separate tables. We start playing "prelude" music; bring up the Power Point program, make all the electrical connections; check sound levels; get on our knees to tape down the cords so that no one stumbles; and work with the distance and angles of the projector to the screen to get the biggest picture possible.

We've got it down to an art but it still takes 20-30 minutes to get ready. And, quite often, the nursing home or senior living residents start coming in to watch us and visit while we're doing our thing. It's really a very pleasant part of the whole "When Swing Was King" experience -- as is our visiting with residents after the program too. There are stories shared, jokes told, complements passed around, and other expressions of warm friendship. Really wonderful...and that's not even mentioning the music and memories!

So, yesterday we arrived at Immanuel Fontenelle (one of our favorite places) and we're expecting the usual state of affairs. But no, something was going on. The whole room was arranged differently. Uh oh. Had we slipped up and come on the wrong day? Had they forgotten that they had us scheduled?

No. Everything was cool. It turned out that they were using "When Swing Was King" as the first part of a party they were throwing in honor of one of the resident's 99th birthday! Wow, what an honor...and what fun. There were a couple of our favorite people absent but there was a big crowd, plenty of people singing along, fancy decorations, delicious cupcakes, and a little thank-you speech from the birthday girl. It was a lovely afternoon.

Keep in mind that you can get in on this scene also. The monthly schedule for "When Swing Was King" is posted on the Vital Signs Ministries web site so you can find a spot most convenient for your schedule to come join us. And be assured, Claire and I and all of those seniors just waiting to make your acquaintance would love to have you!

A Word of Warning

The wisest thing in the world is to cry out before you are hurt. It is no good to cry out after you are hurt; especially after you are mortally hurt. 

People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. 

It is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists. It is no answer to say, with a distant optimism, that the scheme is only in the air. A blow from a hatchet can only be parried while it is in the air.

(G.K. Chesterton, 1922)

Oh, You Can Be a Christian; You Just Can't Show It.

"Britain is a very tolerant country but we seem to be more tolerant to some groups than others and at the moment we’re not at all tolerant to Christians. You can have faith but not demonstrate it.”

Bruno Waterfield's article in the Telegraph describes the double standard operating in Great Britain when it comes to protecting religious rights. He explains how the British government (despite the previous promises of Prime Minister David Cameron to protect religious expression) has taken a position against Christians being able to express anything about their faith (even wearing a cross) in the workplace.

But to the government, that's not discrimination nor is it a denial of religious freedom because, after all: 1) You can still be a Christian. You just can't let anyone know it. Or 2) You're free to go get another less-conspicuous job.


Good grief.

Here's the article.

Removing God -- From the Democrat Platform and from Life

The authors of the Democratic platform have inadvertently revealed to the world the sea change that has taken place in that party we once knew....

The omission of God is being called an oversight. But the viral reaction to returning God, even when Obama asked that it be done, testifies that this was no accident. God was deleted deliberately.

This process has been under way for a decade. In the 2004 platform, there were seven references to God. In 2008, one.

Like the European Union, whose Christian heritage is being excised from official documents by its secularist elite, the country led by the Democratic Party of Obama is being de-Christianized.

Still, why would Democrats do something so seemingly stupid, something that will inevitably cause a backlash among believers?

Answer: Millions of Democrats are themselves offended when God is included, because for them, the God of the Old and New testaments is an impediment to the progressive march of mankind…

(Pat Buchanan, "A Godless Party Expels the Creator.")

The Great Planned Parenthood/Mammogram Scam Exposed...by the Obama Administration?

Casey Mattox from the Alliance Defense Fund has written an absolutely first-rate article exposing the deliberate lies of Planned Parenthood, Barack Obama, and Democrats everywhere, about mammograms.

This is most definitely pass around material.

A deliberate effort is underway to rebrand Planned Parenthood as an integral provider of healthcare services, without which untold millions of women would lack basic medical care, or so the story goes. Thus, whenever any effort is made to cut off funding for the nation’s largest abortion provider and stalwart financier of leftist politicians, we’re told there is a “war on women.”

But it’s not a “war on women” when a state simply places a higher priority on funds for true health services that Planned Parenthood doesn’t perform Take, for example, mammograms.

Yes, mammograms. Perhaps there is no greater falsehood than the deceitful, and largely successful, attempt to persuade Americans that Planned Parenthood performs mammograms. It doesn’t.

When the Komen Foundation announced in February that it would no longer provide grants to Planned Parenthood—partly due to the fact that Planned Parenthood does not directly provide mammograms - its ideological and political supporters sprang into action. They decried Komen’s decision to eliminate funding for this imagined provider of mammograms. Planned Parenthood’s Executive Director, Cecile Richards, , made the claim. So did President Obama. And an unsuspecting public was led to believe that such bold claims, by people who should know, must be true.

No matter that phone calls to Planned Parenthood from Live Action demonstrated clearly that this was not the case: Obama had spoken. And the president’s campaign together with Planned Parenthood’s ads continue to beat this drum (almost as if they were coordinated), building off the earlier confusion to frighten voters about the prospect of a Romney administration cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood’s “cancer screenings.”

Anytime someone suggests to you that Planned Parenthood performs mammograms, I encourage you to share with them this letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services demonstrating that it’s untrue. [The link to the Pdf copy of the government's letter can be found in the article itself -- follow the link given above.] No Planned Parenthood clinic in the country is authorized to perform mammograms. If they are nevertheless performing them, they are violating federal law.

Under the federal Mammogram Quality Standards Act, administered by HHS, “[n]o facility may conduct an examination or procedure…involving mammography” without a certification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While a 2004 amendment to this law permits some states to also authorize mammography facilities, these certificates are still issued under the authority of the FDA, and the FDA records all certificates and investigates facilities holding such certifications. In short, there is no uncertainty: if Planned Parenthood could perform mammograms, the FDA (and HHS) would know it.

When President Obama and other Planned Parenthood partisans were making their mammogram claims, Alliance Defending Freedom filed a Freedom of Information Act request to seek any certificates held by any Planned Parenthood clinic or affiliate in the country. The response from President Obama’s own HHS is that no such certificates exist. No Planned Parenthood affiliate in the nation possesses the necessary certification to perform mammograms under federal law. Subsequent e-mails to the department further confirmed this fact…

Some Planned Parenthood clinics may provide much less effective manual breast exams. And some encourage women to perform self-exams, which breast cancer organizations like the Komen Foundation actually discourage as counterproductive to women’s health. And, in some cases, Planned Parenthood employees may tell a woman she should go get a mammogram from one of the public facilities that could have provided one to her in the first place. But in order to get a mammogram, a woman needs to go to someplace other than Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood and the politicians it supports must persuade Americans that Planned Parenthood is a full-service women’s health provider—a critical part of our health infrastructure—in order to keep the spigot of taxpayer dollars open. And so continues the deliberate campaign to deceive the public into believing the falsehood that Planned Parenthood performs mammograms for women who otherwise wouldn’t have them.

Planned Parenthood doesn’t perform mammograms. And President Obama’s own administration agrees. Perhaps with this lie exposed, we can now have a serious discussion about the hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for Planned Parenthood and its political allies.

If Barack Obama Cared About Middle Class, He'd Act, Not Talk

From Amy Payne at the Heritage Foundation...

The economy is treading water and struggling for breath. This is exactly the wrong time to raise taxes. Yet with Taxmageddon bearing down on the economy, that is exactly what some members of Congress have proposed. This would be a terrible mistake.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported recently that if Congress and the President do not act before the end of the year to prevent Taxmageddon, America will have another recession on its hands in the coming year. With 12.5 million Americans already out of work, imagine a fresh recession.

Taxmageddon, scheduled to hit on January 1, 2013, will be the largest tax increase in American history. It’s a one-year, nearly $500 billion tax hike that will hit businesses, families, young people—its impact will be devastating. Heritage has calculated that a middle-class family of four will see their taxes go up by more than $4,100 just next year. [See how Taxmageddon will impact you.]

If Congress and the President do not prevent Taxmageddon, the CBO said sluggish economic growth won’t be our problem next year. Instead, the U.S. economy will actually shrink. It will shrink by 0.5 percent, and the unemployment rate will spike to 9.1 percent…

A shrinking economy. More than a million jobs out the window. The country cannot afford this. The time for political speeches is over. It’s time for Congress and the President to do the one thing that matters most before the end of the year: preventing an economic catastrophe from happening on New Year’s Day.

Today's Posts

Yet Another "When Swing Was King" Volume? Wow!

Evaluating the Democrat Convention

How Bad Was the Dem's Day? So Bad the MSM Noticed.

Pat Sajak -- Away from the Wheel for a Bit

Who Needs Black Panthers? Dems Caught in "Ordinary" Vote Fraud.

Yet Another "When Swing Was King" Volume? Wow!

We start September's schedule of "When Swing Was King" at 2 o'clock this afternoon at one of our favorite places, Immanuel Fontenelle. And, as we've managed to do now almost every time we "swing" into a new month's worth of presentations at area nursing homes and senior living facilities, we will have a brand new show ready to go. New songs (with maybe a couple of favorites repeated), new pictures, new patter.

Here's the song list for Volume 18:

1) Glenn Miller Orchestra -- "Mission to Moscow"

2) Tommy Dorsey Orchestra -- "I'm in the Mood for Love"

3) Duke Ellington Orchestra, vocals by Rosemary Clooney -- "Sophisticated Lady"

4) Benny Goodman Orchestra -- "Somebody Loves Me"

5) Dean Martin (backed by the Paul Weston Orchestra) -- "I'll Always Love You"

6) Artie Shaw Orchestra -- "Begin the Beguine"

7) Chick Webb Orchestra, vocals by Ella Fitzgerald -- "Love & Kisses"

8) Harry James Orchestra, vocals by Dick Haymes -- "How High the Moon"

9) Glen Gray & the Casa Loma Orchestra -- "Ballin' the Jack"

10) Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, vocals by Helen O'Connell -- "All of Me"

11) Ted Weems Orchestra, vocals by Perry Como -- "Fools Rush In''

12) Lawrence Welk Orchestra, featuring clarinetist Henry Cuesta -- "Stardust"

13) Roy Rogers -- "San Fernando Valley"

As always, you're invited along for the fun, the fellowship and the adventure of new friendships.  And, if you can't make it today, the rest of September's schedule will be up on the Vital Signs Ministries website by this evening.

Evaluating the Democrat Convention

If you haven't yet read these reports on the Democrat convention, please have at 'em. You'll be glad you did.

* Hadley Arkes' post over at National Review's The Corner, "God Runs Deep."

* Jennifer Rubin's Washington Post column, "Horror Show: Wednesday Night at the DNC."

* "The $675 Billion Platform" by the editors of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

* "Democrats Lose Grip on Reality" by David Harsanyi at Human Events.

* "The Party of Government" by Rich Lowry at Politico.

How Bad Was the Dem's Day? So Bad the MSM Noticed.

How bad was the Democrat Convention's bumbling, stumbling attempt to fix a platform that had dissed not only Israel but every American who believes, like the Founding Fathers, that man's "inalienable" rights derive from God?

It was so bad that even the mainstream press had to comment on it. And those comments included words like embarrassment, fumble, backfire, stupid, angst, awkward, and so on.

True, the fact that the MSM sees these moral outrages as mere embarrassments is sad but, of course, the vast majority of MSM journalists share the secular, anti-Israel worldview of those Democrats who shaped the platform in its original form. So who's surprised.

Yet it remains noteworthy that the Convention and Team Obama were so extremely out there 1) in their misjudging of the American people, 2) in the fact that everyone knew the Prez had already signed on to the platform language which had removed God and Jerusalem, something he's now denying, and 3) in the obviously heavy-handed and false voice vote taken to replace God and Jerusalem -- that the MSM was forced into seeing it.

Republicans will be well served indeed if more Americans see the videotape of Democrat delegates on their feet booing God and Israel -- and even more if they begin to understand how deep, how angry and how dangerous is the modern Democrat Party to religious liberty.

Pat Sajak -- Away from the Wheel for a Bit

If you're a person interested in Western culture (including the current culture wars), you'll want to zero in to one of the most unusual spots on the internet. The site is Uncommon Knowledge, a video interview program hosted nowadays by National Review in which Peter Robinson talks to conservative economists, philosophers, academicians, and social activists in a thoughtful conversation that is then sliced into 5 portions and served up to discriminating viewers every weekday.

It's a Charlie Rose format but instead of the pretentious, liberal Charlie Rose, you get an informed and principled interviewer with an intensive background as a speechwriter, researcher, author and, yes, interviewer.

In the conversation this week? Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak. Good stuff.

Who Needs Black Panthers? Dems Caught in "Ordinary" Vote Fraud.

From the Associated Press:

A Democratic state legislator from east Arkansas, his father and two campaign workers pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to commit election fraud after federal prosecutors said the lawmaker's campaign bribed absentee voters and destroyed ballots in a special election last year.

Prosecutors said Democratic Rep. Hudson Hallum of Marion, Kent Hallum, Phillip Wayne Carter and Sam Malone acknowledged that they participated in a conspiracy to bribe voters to influence absentee votes in the Arkansas District 54 primary, runoff and general elections in 2011. The four were released pending a sentencing hearing…

Prosecutors said Hallum and his father, Kent, tasked Carter and Malone with obtaining absentee ballot applications for certain voters and assisting voters in filling out the ballots, "actually completing absentee ballots in some instances without regard to the voter's actual candidate choice."

The ballots were typically placed in unsealed envelopes before being mailed to local election officials.

"If a ballot contained a vote for Hudson Hallum's opponent, it was destroyed," prosecutors said in a bill of information filed with the court.

Prosecutors also accused the four of offering money and food to absentee voters in exchange for their support.

At one point, prosecutors said, Hallum told Carter: "We need to use that black limo and buy a couple cases of some cheap vodka and whiskey to get people to vote."…

Prosecutors said in the charging documents that the four tried to conceal the absentee voter fraud by using rental cars when collecting ballots and using coded language such as "gold tokens," ''duct work" and "watermelons" when referring to the absentee ballots.

Sentencing hearings will be held later for the four. The maximum penalty for the conspiracy charge is five years in prison plus a potential fine of $250,000…

Today's Posts

The Democrats Are Reaching for Your Tomorrow

Helpful Video Clip -- How Not To Be a Racist

It's the Same Old Thing

The Best Lines from the Convention (The Republican Convention, That Is)

Hell Is a Bummer, Dude. (But Hell Is All Too Real.)

Modern Education: High Investments in a Broken System

Excuse Me, Did the New York Times Just Describe the President as a Jerk?

The Democrats Are Reaching for Your Tomorrow

"Speakers at the Democratic National Convention portrayed President Barack Obama's presidency in glowing terms Tuesday evening, but sometimes left out important details or embellished his record. Others mischaracterized programs backed by Republican challenger Mitt Romney and GOP running mate Paul Ryan."

Surprised? Of course not, although it's nice to see that a couple of AP reporters noticed.

But what else marked the commencement of the Democrat Convention?

* The convention's first day was awash in Planned Parenthood partying and other abortion zealotry. And, very significant, the party platform was changed to banish the old phrase pledging "to make abortion safe but rare" and replace it with promises to oppose all limitations of abortion whatsoever and to use taxpayer money to pay for abortions.

* The promotion of homosexual marriage remained in the platform. 

* Talk about Big Brother! How about the in-your-face socialism of an official Democrat video clip insisting that "The Government Is The Only Thing We All Belong To." Amazing.

* The phrase "God-given potential” was dropped from the party platform. After all, this God thing is so intolerant, so unintellectual, so anti-progressive.

* Also dropped from the party platform was pro-Israel language and the call for the recognition of Jerusalem as the nation's capital.

* And finally (last but not least in importance) is the honoring of the Convention of, gulp, Teddy Kennedy. Here's Jim Geraghty's comments:

Perhaps there's no better, or more symbolic choice, for the Democrats to honor on the first night of the convention than former Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Here is what appears to be one of the defining differences between Republicans and Democrats: Republicans think the fact that Ted Kennedy killed a woman, or at the very least put her in circumstances that led to her drowning and took no action to save her or even report her death, is unforgivable and colors every action thereafter; Democrats feel like this is some obscure family tragedy where Kennedy is almost as much a victim as she is and everyone should just avert their eyes and hush up about it because it was a long time ago.

Guy Benson: "Dems: Romney killed a woman! (False). Dems: We love this guy who actually killed a woman! (True)."

Helpful Video Clip -- How Not To Be a Racist

It's the Same Old Thing

And the same old thing was a major flop. 

Let's not go there again.

The Best Lines from the Convention (The Republican Convention, That Is)

Need a little break from the abortion zealotry, the bad math, and the Big Brother socialism which is the Democrat 2012 Convention?

Then check out John Hawkins collection of the 30 best quotes from last week's G.O.P. convention. They'll help a bit.

Here's my favorites. Which ones that John cites would make your list?

“None of us have to settle for the best this administration offers – a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us.” (Paul Ryan)

 “The only just government is the government that serves its citizens, not itself.” (Cardinal Timothy Dolan)

"They’ve got a Jobs Council that never meets. A Democratic Senate that doesn’t act. A President who doesn’t believe and a Vice President who won’t stop talking. They just don’t get it.” (Former Staples CEO Tom Stemberg)

“I’ve come to realize that Barack Obama is the tattoo president. Like a big tattoo, it seemed cool when you were young. But later on, that decision doesn’t look so good, and you wonder: what was I thinking? But the worst part is you’re still going to have to explain it to your kids.” (Tim Pawlenty)

“The man assumed office almost four years ago – isn’t it about time he assumed responsibility?” (Paul Ryan)

“Ronald Reagan used to say America was a city on a hill. Under Obama, America is becoming a tent city with people waiting in line for government handouts.” (Immigrant business entrepreneur Yash Wadhwa)

“Barack Obama’s failed us. But look, it’s understandable. A lot of people fail at their first job.” (Tim Pawlenty)

 “The EPA is now the ‘Employment Prevention Agency.’” (Bob McDonnell)

Hell Is a Bummer, Dude. (But Hell Is All Too Real.)

Popular author and Director of Eternal Perspective Ministries Randy Alcorn asked Julia Stager, a young student at Western Seminary, to address the subject of universalism, a very old heresy that has gained new traction in religious circles the last couple of decades.

Julia does a good job.

Here are a few excerpts:

...The Bible taken as a whole presents a much stronger case against Universalism than for it.

A partial truth is no truth at all. Universalism promotes its partial truths at the expense of the complete biblical truth. Christ himself refutes Universalism every time he speaks of Hell, and he spoke about it more than anyone in Scripture. Since Christ clearly taught that not everyone will go to Heaven, and that some will go to Hell, it is logically inconsistent to claim to follow Christ and also be a Universalist...

The Scriptures do say God is love, but our understanding of love is easily perverted. It’s popular today to tolerate and accept various heresies that claim to be true love. Love is exalted (rightly) while holiness is glossed over (wrongly). Ignoring the problem of sin and its consequences in the name of “love” does not actually solve anything. Theological discussions are frowned upon as divisive. People resist a faith they have to defend because, after all, who could argue against love? Why should we debate doctrine when we could just love each other instead? Doesn’t God win when love wins?

Yes, he does – just differently than how the Universalists think of it. God wins when truth wins. God is love and truth. Love does not and cannot exist apart from truth. By truth and love we are to encourage each other in the way of righteousness (Hebrews 10:24), save people as out of the fire (Jude 12-13), warn them against apostasy that leads to death (Hebrews 6:4-6), explain the consequences of not obeying the gospel (2 Thessalonians 1:8), and speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15)…

Read the whole column here.

Modern Education: High Investments in a Broken System

"Nationally, average per-pupil spending exceeds $11,400 this year, meaning a child entering kindergarten today can expect to have no less than $148,000 spent on his or her education by the time the child graduates high school."

You think it's worth it?

Amy Payne has an brief article over at the Morning Bell (Heritage Foundation) that looks at a few encouraging trends in American education as well as some of the really lousy things going on. And, yes, I'm afraid there's an awful lot of that.

Thus, along with the good news (like the NEA membership declining a bit while support for school choice is growing), Payne also describes how spending per pupil continues to soar even though the bang for the education buck fizzles as badly as ever.

Read "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of a New School Year" right here.

Excuse Me, Did the New York Times Just Describe the President as a Jerk?

A Sunday New York Times front page story — New York Times! — might have killed President Obama’s re-election hopes.

That's how Rich Karlgaard, one of the staff writers over at Forbes magazine, sizes up the surprisingly candid article by Jodi Kantor, “The Competitor in Chief — Obama Plays To Win, In Politics and Everything Else.” 

Karlgaard continues:

With such a title, and from such a friendly organ, at first I thought Jodi Kantor’s piece would be a collection of Obama’s greatest political wins: His rapid rise in Illinois, his win over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries, the passage of health care, and so on.

But the NYT piece is not about any of that. Rather, it is a deep look into the two outstanding flaws in Obama’s executive leadership:

1. How he vastly overrates his capabilities...

2. How he spends extraordinary amounts of time and energy to compete in — trivialities...

Is Karlgaard overstating the case? Sure. And I think he might be wrong about Kantor's motives in examining the egotistic drive that marks Barack Obama's every move. I mean, there are a lot of folks that actually admire people who display a self-centered, arrogant strut. Look at the fans of certain athletes, business tycoons and rock stars.

But Barack Obama's public image wasn't supposed to be anything like this. America wanted him to be the healer, the servant, the other-directed "soul captain" who would rise above partisanship, rancor, secrecy, money...and ego.

He didn't rise above any of these things.

Not by a longshot.

And that's why Jodi Kantor's New York Times article, coming out on the eve of the Democrat Convention, is indeed going to shake things up a bit. And not in a positive way for the President. For even if the writer was trying to be friendly to Barack Obama, even if the Times was trying to spin his egoism in some kind of positive direction, most readers are going to put down the article thinking one overriding thing; our President is a petty, preening jerk.

I recommend reading both articles.