REFLECTIONS

THANKSGIVING

Freedom from Want - Painting © Norman Rockwell

Happy Thanksgiving!

REMEMBERING 9-11

Photo by James Nachtwey for TIME magazine.

On this date, five years ago, we experienced a great national tragedy in the United States. Not only in the lives that were lost in the terrorist attacks, the families torn asunder, and the emergency responders who are suffering terrible health problems as a result of working at the scene - but also in the way we view ourselves and our world.

The photo essays linked below (in the September 9 post) are a reminder of what we all went through on that fateful day.

I've written a longer reflection at my ministry blog.

BILL BIGGART: REMEMBERING 9-11

Bill Biggart's final photograph. He was killed when the second World Trade tower collapsed on top of him. He was 53 years old.

You can read the story about Bill Biggart's last images and see an album of his last photos at The Digital Journalist.

You can see other 9-11 photo albums by Chip East, Peter Turnley, David Turnley, and Aris Economopoulos.

PERSONALITY HEAT MAPS

Britney Spears Heat Map

I came across an interesting curiosity. The State University of New York at Stony Brook has been tracking the amount of exposure various personalities are getting in the news on a geographic basis. The results for March 2005 are available in a series of "heat maps". The more red in a given area of the country, the more news coverage that person received in that area.

Bill Clinton Heat Map

Some of the results are predictable and some aren't. It makes sense that former U.S. President Bill Clinton would get more coverage in the northeast since his wife Hillary is a Senator in New York. He also gets more coverage in his home state of Arkansas. But why is Britney Spears getting so much attention in the sparsely populated Rocky Mountain West? It is clear that Britney got a lot more coverage than Bill in the month this data was collected.

Bill Gates Heat Map

I would expect that bill Gates, head of Microsoft, would get a lot of news coverage in the state of Washington (home of Microsoft) and in financial and tech centers like New York and Silicon Valley, but why all the news about Bill in North and South Dakota?

You can ponder all of this and check out the heat maps for a long list of personalities. More information is here and you can look up the personality of your choice.

THE 4th of JULY

Fireworks over Yukon, Oklahoma. Photo © Jim Doty, Jr.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

From the Declaration of Independence, signed July 4, 1776. Written by Thomas Jefferson (1762-1826). 3rd US President (1801-09).

To see an engraving of the original and George Washington's personal printed copy, go here.

The entire declaration follows.

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts

John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

SOURCE: Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington

SAVE THE INTERNET 2

An open post from Representative Zoe Lofgren who is on our side in the Net Neutrality debate in Congress.

Guest post from Rep. Zoe Lofgren

May 26th, 2006

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 5417, the “Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006,” which I introduced with Committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, Ranking Member John Conyers and Rep. Rick Boucher last week. This is the first bill with real protections for Net Neutrality that has passed any committee in Congress, and I am proud to be a part of it.

The bill requires broadband providers to operate their networks in a non-discriminatory manner and makes sure that the phone and cable companies cannot favor or block access to the Web sites or online services that they pick instead of the consumer. It will keep the Internet an open and free marketplace of ideas and services chosen by consumers instead of big corporations. It will also guard against those who own “the pipes” gleaning profits by creating a virtual toll road.

H.R. 5417 was introduced by a bipartisan coalition from the Judiciary Committee and passed out of the Committee by a vote of 20-13. Fourteen Democrats and six Republicans voted in favor of it, and 13 Republicans voted against it. One Democrat voted present.

The Internet has revolutionized the way Americans communicate with one another and do business. It’s only right to keep that revolution where it belongs — in the hands of Internet users instead of the phone and cable companies.

The next hurdle for Net Neutrality is whether we will have a full vote on the House floor. If you care about the freedom that Net Neutrality protects, contact your Member of Congress and ask that H.R. 5417 be scheduled to come before the full House of Representatives as either a separate bill or an amendment. Urge them to vote for Net Neutrality protection!

Source: http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/

SAVE THE INTERNET

A plan before Congress, backed by big telecom dollars, could gut the internet's first amendment: Net Neutrality. What is at risk is your right to choose the internet sites you want to go to, and even your right to receive emails from whomever you want. Do your part today to protect your internet rights and save Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality means YOU choose the sites you want to visit, and they are provided to you without outside intereference.

Action could take place as early as next week in the House of Representatives to protect or take away your rights.

AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, AOL-Time Warner, and other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to gut Net Neutrality. If big telecom companies get their way, big subscribers can pay ISPs to have their web sites delivered to your computer in the "fast lane", and slow down or block other web sites from being served to your computer. You lose your power of choice.

The big telecoms could block you from viewing this blog simply because I am criticizing them.

Sound far fetched? It's already happening.

* In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service.

* In 2005, Canada's telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a labor dispute.

* In April, Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com — an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme.

NPR and PBS have reported on these and other similar abuses.

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps has called for stronger Net Neutrality protections. Existing laws provide insufficient protection against these abuses. The FCC acts on the rules but congress makes them. If legislation before congress passes, we will have little or no protection from having our ISPs (internet service providers) decide what sites they will allow us to access, and how fast.

If big telecom companies get their way, the internet as we now know it will go away. Imagine you want to buy an item on the internet. Company A is selling it for $100 and Company B is selling it for $60. You go to Company B's web site but it loads very slowly or not at all. Why? Because Company A paid the telecom company to give them priority so your access to Company B is either dramatically slowed down or blocked completely. Big dollars, not your choices, will control the internet.

Who is on our side? Supporters of Net Neutrality include Amazon.com, Earthlink, EBay, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Skype, Vonage and Yahoo, the American Library Association, churches and hundreds of other non-profit organizations, political groups, bloggers, small businesses, thousands of small web site owners, and thousands of others who are opposed to the telecom backed plan now before congress. Also on our side are some of the computer scientists that developed the internet in the first place.

NPR and PBS have reported that several telecom executives have already announced their plans to decide which web sites get served to you in the fast lane (based on big buck payments to the telecoms), which web sites are served in the slow lane, and which ones won't be delivered at all. Big telecoms and other ISPs want this huge source of potential new income.

For big telecoms, the internet isn't a highway system where you choose to go in whatever vehicle you have Idial up, cable, DSL etc). Telecom execs refer to the internet as "big pipes" and they want to control what flows down the pipelines to your computer. And they will choose based on who pays them the biggest bucks to send their content to your computer.

A multi-million dollar ad campaign ("Hands Off the Internet") has been launched by the big telecoms to downplay the Net Neutrality cause. Do you trust the big telecoms to have your best interests at heart, or all the online companies, big and small, that want you to have equal access to the sites you want to visit on the internet?

The glory of the internet is neutrality. Any ordinary Joe or Jane can put up a website and anyone else can go to it. The pages on my web sites receive between 1,500 and 2,000 visits per day, and anyone can find me on Google or most any other search engine. If big telecom gets their way, I would have to pay them or they won't feed my site down "their big pipes" to your computer. I will be shunted off to one of "their little pipes" at really slow speeds or not at all.

For more information, go to SaveTheInternet.com. Be sure and read the FAQ, then write, call, and email your representatives in congress.

MOVIE SCRIPTS

Four of us were watching "Lost in Translation". At the end of the movie, Bob whispers in Charlotte's ear. We re-ran the DVD but we were unable to figure out what Bob was saying. Curiosity led to an internet search which turned up the script and we now know what Bob said. Even better, we found hundreds of other movie scripts.

Want to read the the script of one of your favorite movies or check out a favorite scene? If it is a well know movie, odds are good that it is online.

So what did Bob say to Charlotte, at least according to the script? "I know. I'm going to miss you too."

Have fun looking for your own movie quote.

Links:

The Daily Script, scripts A-M

The Daily Script, scripts N-Z

Movie-Page, scripts A-M

Movie-Page, scripts N-Z

Links to more movie scripts

GOOGLE MARS

Screen shot (reduced in size) from Google Mars showing Olympus Mons and the Tharsis area of Mars.

Just what you've always wanted, a color-coded, topographic map of the surface of Mars. Scroll across the surface, zoom in and out, and look at the surface of Mars in visible or infrared light. You can also search for surface features, spacecraft, and stories.

In the reduced size screen shot above, Olympus Mons is the large white volcano above and to the left of the three volcanoes in a row. It is the largest know volcano in our solar system at 374 miles in diameter (approximately the size of Arizona). It is 16 miles high with a caldera at the summit measuring 50 miles wide. NASA has more info on Olympus Mons here.

Have fun exploring.

Google Earth, Olympus Mons closeup, NASA JPL

THE WHITE ROSE


Hans (left) and Sophie Scholl with Cristoph Probst (right), leaders of "The White Rose" resistance movement. Munich Germany, July 1942.


Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie were part of "The White Rose", a group that opposed Hitler and the Nazi party. Hans served as a medic on the Eastern (Russian) front from late July to October 1942. One month later, 300,000 Germans were trapped in Stalingrad and only 5,000 returned to Germany.

Hans and Sophie were arrested February 18, 1943 for distributing leaflets and indicted for treason. They were "tried" February 22, 1843 along with their friend Cristoph Probst, found guilty, and executed by guillotine later the same day. A moving account of the trial and visits with their parents during their last hours is toward the end of this article.

12 or so years ago, my son Jim acquired the above photo. He and his friend Eric wrote the following poem at that time.

--- --- ---

WHITE ROSE

They are the things of nursery rhymes
Such as ones you read to children –
Unknowing toddlers suffering parents’ crimes
And burned beneath the ashes of Dresden:
Petals falling to the ground.
Sophie stares darkly serious
With heavier weight than should be
Allowed for a woman on twenty-one.
But everyone carried burdens.
Three hundred thousand bodies
make the conscience sour,
Shameful that a much larger number
would be necessary to sate one man’s
Thirst, or earn
righteous vengeance.

For Hans, perhaps no healing powers
Ever learned could stop the burns and amputations
from the
EAST
Or mend the bleeding of a people
Once vast
Once proud
Once beautiful.
And more than beauty, the daisy
sits
Close to Sophie’s bosom,
In its last bastion of protection
Where life and beauty survive
If only for a moment –

Innocence lost, like blood drained and
Whitened leaving zombies in blind sleep;
Red sapped from passionate roses
Stifling growth,
Cultivating compliance,
Leaving only a single symbol
Of virginity
Of purity
On aninimity

White Rose

- Copyright © Eric Duckworth and Jim Doty III

--- --- ---

You can learn more about Hans, Sophie, and the White Rose here , here, and (if you speak German) here.

Sophie's story has been made into a critically acclaimed movie that will be released in major U.S cities between February and May. You can learn more about the movie here and here.

Current play dates are at the movie site.

WHERE ARE THE PHOTOS?

Photos on this site (as well as my other blogs) actually live in my albums at ImageEvent.com. When you view one of my posts, the photos are pulled off of ImageEvent's servers. They are running v-e-r-y slow today (which is unusual). That is why images are slow to show up here, or don't appear at all.

ONLY 2 DAYS to SAVE OUR U.S. NATIONAL PARKS


From the National Council of Churches home page, February 16, 2006

You have until February 18 to do your part to save our National Parks. It will take you less than two minutes of your time if you use the form letter at the link below.

Proposed changes to the policies that have protected our National Parks can turn them into "A Noisy, Hazy, Off-road Nightmare." Keeping the 2001 NPS Management Policies would be much better for our parks than adopting the proposed changes.

A number of retired employees of the National Park Service, each of whom served the National Park Service in executive level leadership positions, are opposed to the proposed changes and have explained their concerns in a detailed letter. The signers of the letter include three Deputy Directors that served between 1975 and 2002 and a long list of Regional, Associate, and Center Directors. Their letter will tell you most of what you need to know (see the "letter of protest" link below). They call the proposed changes "a drastic and dangerous departure from a longstanding national consensus." They go on to say "We are especially troubled by the omission from the opening sections of the Management Policies of their long-established emphasis upon the NPS’s overriding responsibility to preserve resources on behalf of all Americans, including those yet unborn."

Several senators are also opposed. The National Council of Churches (NCC) and FaithfulAmerica.org are calling on Americans to do their part to stop these changes. Surprisingly enough, it was an email this morning from the NCC that brought this issue to my attention.

If you are a photographer and you want to protect our National Parks from visual degradation, DO YOUR PART.

If you are a person of faith (no matter what religion) and you believe that stewardship of the earth and preserving the beauty of some of our national wonders is important, DO YOUR PART.

If you want your children and granchildren to be able to enjoy our National Parks in the future in the way that you have enjoyed them in the past, DO YOUR PART.

If you believe in the values of wilderness, tranquility, and peace, and you don't want our National Parks to sound more and more like amusement parks, DO YOUR PART.

If you use the form letter at the link below, it will take you less than two minutes to fill out and send. The NPS deadline for sending emails or post marking letters is February 18 at 11:59 pm MST.

While you are at it, write to your representatives in the House and Senate. Find your elect officials here.

Send an email to the NPS:

Send a message to the National Park Service with this online form letter from the Faithful America web site. Just fill in your name, email address, and mailing address and click "Send this message". You can edit the letter or write your own letter in the box provided.

You can also use the NPS comment form. You are limited to a 4,000 character message.

Or write to this NPS email address: waso_policy@nps.gov and use this subject line: "Comments on NPS Management Policies (ID: 12825)".

There is an online form letter you can log on and use at the Sierra Club web site and another online form at the National Parks Conservation Association web site.

Information Links:

The web site of Faithful America with more information about this issue.

Read the letter of protest to the NPS Director from National Park Service employees that served in executive level leadership positions with the park service prior to their retirement.


The National Parks Conservation Association is also opposed to the proposed NPS policy changes.


Some Republican and Democratic Senators oppose changes to proposed NPS policies changes.

The complete text of proposed revisions to National Park Service management policies.

National Council of Churches home page.


From the FaithfulAmerca.org web site, February 16, 2006.

Happy Valentine's Day!


Grocery store, February 14, late in the afternoon. Photo (c) Jim Doty, Jr.


Ah! Valentine's Day. I was at a local grocery store about an hour ago and the flower section was packed with men and women doing some last minute shopping. The card section was packed too and the card shelves looked like a tornado had gone through.

Despite all the reports in the media about how stressful this day can be (Men: "What if I don't choose the PERFECT gift?" Women: "What should I wear?"), I like Valentine's Day. The flowers I bought are in a vase, the card purchased, the gift ready to go, and I will take my favorite girl out to dinner later this evening. It's a good day. Maybe this day is less stressful since I am less perfectionistic than I used to be (at least that is what I keep telling myself). So what if things aren't just perfect? Flowers orders can get lost, dinner reservations get mixed up, things can and do go wrong. So? What really matters is the people we care about.

If you haven't done so already (and it doesn't matter what day you read this post) it's a good day to call, write, or email some of the special people in your life and tell them how much they mean to you.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I HAVE A DREAM . . .


Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963, Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

The text below is from the end of King's "I have a dream" speech, one of the most significant and powerful speeches of the 20th century. Links to the full speech and an audio file are below.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together." [Isaiah 40:4-5]**

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

**Isaiah 40:4-5 (King James Version of the Holy Bible). Quotation marks are excluded from part of this moment in the text because King's rendering of Isaiah 40:4 does not precisely follow the KJV version from which he quotes (e.g., "hill" and "mountain" are reversed in the KJV). King's rendering of Isaiah 40:5, however, is precisely quoted from the KJV.


Martin Luther King Jr.

The complete text and a downloadable audio file of the whole speech can be found at American Rhetoric.

HEATED MATTRESS PAD - FAILED MARRIAGE

" ... I originally bought this product for my ex Shoko Y_____ because she got cold even more easily than me and I wanted her to be happy…of course she left me later…I guess it takes more than a warm mattress pad to make a relationship work ... I wouldn’t suggest dating her, but I would highly suggest buying the mattress pad! "

I found these lines in the middle of an odd review of a heated mattress pad at Amazon.com. Without further comment, here is the full review.

"This product is so awesome!!! I bought this because I get cold very easy. I have Scandinavian blood in me and yet I get seasick and cold easy so I would have been a horrible Viking! But with this mattress pad, I am toasty warm come winter. It has an auto shut off, and has 20 different temperature settings from Low to 20. I find that on 5 it's quite warm and can't imagine going up to 15+ unless I lived in Minnesota (in which case I still wouldn't be a Viking, but would get to see them!...football joke). So if you buy this you will get something that keeps you warm, is safe, adjustable, easy to clean (I do simply put it in the wash and dryer...whatever), and something that for the last 3 years has been working very very well for me. Also, while this review is only me writing, I would love to rustle up some ex-girlfriends who could also attest to how wonderful this product is. In fact I originally bought this product for my ex Shoko Y_____ because she got cold even more easily than me and I wanted her to be happy...of course she left me later...I guess it takes more than a warm mattress pad to make a relationship work...things she apparently didn't have: like commitment, love in her heart, self-esteem, good communication, etc... Anyway, I wouldn't suggest dating her, but I would highly suggest buying the mattress pad! Good luck people of the world staying warm! Also, I sometimes take it for granted, but this product requires 120 volt electricity, which is not included! So if you live in the "developing world" you pretty much won't want to spend the difference on this product and I would suggest a normal mattress pad for your queen sized beds, maybe a pillow top and still save money, which I figure is good advice because you probably don't have very much anyway. Take care all, and those in the first world, once again, I highly suggest this product!!

Sam"

The original review is here.