Here is the Sunday Morning Hymn:Come, thou almighty King,help us thy Name to sing, help us to praise!Father all glorious, over all victorious,come and reign over us, Ancient of Days!Come, thou incarnate Word,gird on thy mighty sword,our prayer attend!Come, and thy people bless, and give thy word success,Spirit of holiness, on us descend!Come, holy Comforter,thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour.thou who almighty art, now rule in every heart,and ne’er from us depart, Spirit of power!To Thee, great One in Three,Eternal praises be, hence evermore.Thy sovereign majesty may we in glory see,and to eternity love and adore! 

Here is my ode to the first day of summer 2007. This is the day that the sun is 75 degrees elevation above the horizon at noon.

June 20th 1863 is the birthday of West Virginia. Nick Rahall’s speech yesterday : HT Back porch politics

To honor West Virginia, I thought it would be fitting to post Nick Rahall’s Extension of Remarks in the Congressional Record:

Madam Speaker,

I rise on this special day to honor my home among the hills, the great State of West Virginia. It was on June 20, 1863, that West Virginia became the 35th state to enter the Union.

The distinctiveness of West Virginia can be traced to its unique founding, as the only state to have been formed as a direct result of the Civil War, through Presidential proclamation.

In a reaction to Virginia’s overrepresentation of eastern planters in the state legislature and complicated further by the swirling political issues of the day, on June 11, 1861, delegates from Virginia’s western counties met to nullify Virginia’s secession from the Union. Fifty counties (all of present-day West Virginia except for the land that now comprises Mineral, Grant, Lincoln, Mingo, and Summers Counties) constituted the newly formed state and served as the genesis of the vibrant and diverse place we know today as West Virginia.

The Constitution of West Virginia was approved in April of 1862, and in May of 1863, Arthur I. Boreman became our first governor. By June 20, 1863, West Virginia was officially a sovereign state. The sheer beauty of West Virginia now stands in stark and welcome contrast to the ugly conflict from which it was born.

Since its inception, West Virginia has been blessed with a striking landscape, placing it — we West Virginians believe — in a league all its own. The West Virginia State Motto — Montani Semper Liberi — “Mountaineers are always free,” sums up our powerful love of liberty and pays homage to our beautifully rugged lands that have honed our grit and determination, while attracting thousands of visitors each year.

West Virginia has historically been leader in steel, glass, aluminum, chemical manufacturing, and natural gas industries. Small family farmers continue traditions that have served them for generations, providing, among other goods, some of the world’s best apples. And our miners, who have long produced the coal that made our country strong, continue to dig to keep our national economy running.

But, as the old saying goes “nothing endures but change.” And we are seeing a change in West Virginia. In fact, West Virginia’s foray into new technology has provided new horizons for her residents, opening West Virginia for business while allowing us to remain wild and wonderful.

West Virginia my be 144 years old today, but it is just beginning to blossom. Our future is as bright as an early summer morning sunrise over the Appalachian hills.

Today, and every day, West Virginians thank the Lord for our bountiful blessings. We are kindred spirits, bound together in loyalty and love for our fine state. And everyday, wherever we may roam, we think of “happy home” and that place among the hills that truly is “Almost Heaven.”

It seems entirely appropriate to celebrate by everyone singing

West Virginia Hills
Words by Mrs. Ellen King,
Music by H. E. Engle

1. Oh, the West Virginia hills! How majestic and how grand,
With their summits bathed in glory, Like our Prince Immanuel’s Land!
Is it any wonder then, That my heart with rapture thrills,
As I stand once more with loved ones On those West Virginia hills?

CHORUS:

Oh, the hills, beautiful hills, How I love those West Virginia hills!
If o’er sea o’er land I roam, Still I’ll think of happy home,
And my friends among the West Virginia hills.

2. Oh, the West Virginia hills! Where my childhood hours were passed,
Where I often wandered lonely, And the future tried to cast;
Many are our visions bright, Which the future ne’er fulfills;
But how sunny were my daydreams On those West Virginia hills!

CHORUS

3. Oh, the West Virginia hills! How unchang’d they seem to stand,
With their summits pointed skyward To the Great Almighty’s Land!
Many changes I can see, Which my heart with sadness fills;
But no changes can be noticed In those West Virginia hills.

CHORUS

4. Oh, the West Virginia hills! I must bid you now adieu.
In my home beyond the mountains I shall ever dream of you;
In the evening time of life, If my Father only wills,
I shall still behold the vision Of those West Virginia hills.

CHORUS

Rick of Right Wing Nuthouse gets it right with this excerpt from his blog:

Yes, she’s a “Grand Old Flag.” A little tattered perhaps. A little careworn as a result of neglecting some of the principles on which our nation was founded; self reliance, tolerance, and that fighting for freedom is a good and sometimes necessary thing. But despite her appearance, she still flies proudly, snapping in the breeze as a reminder to all that choose to see it, that this is still the greatest country ever created filled with the most remarkable people ever born. And despite all of our problems, disagreements, mistakes, and failures, there is still no place on earth I’d rather live.

Here is a link to the rest of the post.

HT to Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

Here is a funny music video I found posted on kevinrose.com

Link:

Here is a link to an article by Jeff Jarvis who wrote in The Guardian thus in conclusion:

Zuckerberg’s ambition for Facebook -which he has so far refused to sell, even though it is said he has been offered more than $1bn – is nothing less than for it to become the social operating system of the web, the Google of people. If the service opens up yet more – if it becomes the twine to tie together my lives online in my blog, my work, my town, YouTube, Flickr, Del.icio.us, Amazon, eBay, Twitter, and more – then his ambition may be attainable. That would be elegant organisation indeed.

Its time to check this out. Facebook is now available to anyone.

As a further example of using RSS feeds in reader.google.com here is a story that just came in from a subscription on the word “emmitsburg”

“Floyd Lee encouraged youngsters by telling them about his growing up in a poor family and working his way out of poverty through education.

“It all began in Emmitsburg, Md., in a segregated Catholic school,” Lee wrote in a printed program celebrating his retirement in 1995. “There were 12 black students from first to eighth grade in the same classroom.”

He and his five siblings were raised by their mother and maternal grandfather on a farm in Emmitsburg. Lee’s father was absent for the most part, wandering in and out of their lives.

The kids walked along the railroad tracks, looking for pieces of coal to heat their home. They often ate meals at a Sisters of Charity convent.”
For the whole story go to link:

Here is an exerpt of a post by La Shawn Barber (who is black)

(Quote) It’s a shame that the government has to take up the slack for so many slack black men and women who have little regard for getting marriage and creating a home before having babies.

It’s embarrassing that black people insist on blaming third parties for every conceivable problem in their lives when everything that’s happened to them has been the result of their own foolish choices and dumb decisions.

They seem ignorant of the harm they’re causing their own children, yet they’re highly aware of the harm others might be causing them.

My stance against such slothfulness and immorality has hardened since I started this blog. Three out of four black babies in this country are born into illegitimacy, which (unquote)
read link to the rest here

What she is saying could also be said about any family that; due to divorce, having a lifetime fiance, (which is a euphemism for shacking up), or other reasons for single parenthood, causes untold harm to children and families. Her idea of getting a license to have a baby while farfetched is a notion that family responsibilities begins with the thesis of the film “Knocked Up” which has just been released.