'After Christmas' --- a poem

After Christmas

 The tinsel now is put away,

We’ve discarded all the holly,

now memories begin to fade

of those few brief days, so jolly.

The batteries in the children’s toys

Have died and lost their power;

The tree’s shed all its needles,

And the pot plant’s lost its flower.

We search to find some food to eat,

But the turkey seems so sad,

That piece of cheese we overlooked

Is dressed up … going bad.

We’ve all blown our diets

And loosened up our things,

Made New Year Resolutions

That we shall break by spring!

But wait … think for a moment

Of the reason it was there:

A child, born in a manger,

Empty, rude and bare.

He came as God’s great gift to man,

Eternity to save.

He’ll never fade or lose His power,

Nor shed the love of that precious hour.

In Him we’ll find the food to fill

Our hearts and minds, to do His will.

When trimmings are all packed and gone,

Still the message of the infant Son.

A message of Joy … a message of Love,

A gift to us from God above.

© 1998 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh 

A Very Happy, Blessed & Peaceful Christmas to all of my readers for 2012

May this Christmas be all that you wish for the person that you love the most, but may it be that way for everyone.

'O Holy Night' sung by Cantoris.

Check out this Advent song on Youtube. Please feel free to use it in your worship services or school assembly, but please report its use to CCLI. I wrote this a couple of years ago and since then it has been widely sung in services around the world.

Coalition Ministers don't care about their own children

The Coalition government Ministers in the UK don't care about their own children, so why would they care about yours. If they cared then they would vote in an automatic block on internet pornography to ensure that children would be denied the easy access which currently exists, and that porn sites could only be accessed by an 'opting in' process, with those opting to view online porn having to register to do so.

Children's Charities, Child Safety campaigners and huge numbers of parents back the idea, as do much of the media. Over 40% of parents responded to the Government's own consultation in favor of such a process but, as so often is the case, their views have been ignored.

In theory, politicians are elected to put forward the views of the electorate, but in practice they tend to generally ignore them, despite the empty promises and assurances that are offered when the time comes for re-election.

What is needed is true People Power!

Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Connecticut

Says it all really, doesn't it. I know some will disagree, but if you make guns readily available then you put the means into evil hands. How many more of these tragedies must happen before the Gun Laws are changed?

In the aftermath of the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, will those in favour of the current gun laws in the USA consider tightening the Law up at all? I doubt it, yet the figures shown below speak volumes. If you allow pretty well anyone to own a gun then you permit them to use it as they want, even if that means committing a heinous crime like the one that has taken so many lives at Sandy Nook. There are many who might well consider that those responsible for the atrocity include the people who formulate the laws governing firearms, and thereby become culpable by association. 

There will be many emotions running high at this time, not least those who are incensed by any suggestion that the gun laws are too lax. All of the cliched arguments will no doubt be wheeled out once more, and we will be told that guns are not killers, it's the people who misuse them who are. Yet is it not true that guns are specifically for killing, despite the fact that many people use them for sport? 

Every nation is made up of a complete miscellany of characteristics amongst the population, and so if you arm the nation then you will discover many people who are unfit to be armed. The tragedy is that you invariably discover who they are in the most terrible and tragic manner.

Think today about the circumstances of every family who has lost someone in this tragedy, and of the community which will never forget their very own Black Friday. The scars will be carried by them all for the rest of their lives.

Sorry, America, but how many more tragic events will it take to bring about change in your gun laws?

Billy Keeble provides this morning's 'Music While You Work'

Yesterday I received Billy Keeble's latest CD, 'Just for You', which is what I'm listening to as I work this morning. It was a good day when I discovered this great Country Music singer, and now I can enjoy listening to him whenever I feel like it!
Check him out for yourself at http://www.billykeeble.com/

Jerzy F. Przybylski tells me that Christmas is coming to Wroclaw, Poland!

The Exposing of CAIR

The Washington Examiner story below (highlights added) reports the latest blow to CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Massive fraud, cover-up by CAIR exposed in federal lawsuit
http://www.examiner.com/article/massive-fraud-cover-up-by-cair-exposed-federal-lawsuit?cid=db_articles
BY: CHRISTOPHER COLLINS

Nihad Awad, CAIR Executive Director
November 26, 2012

Last Friday, the Law Offices of David Yerushalmi, P.C. and the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC) said that they filed a devastating legal brief supported by hundreds of pages of evidence, asking a federal judge to find the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) liable to five of its former clients for fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

In a release to the media today, AFLC stated:

“The legal brief demonstrates beyond any reasonable doubt that CAIR is a criminal organization that deceptively holds itself out to the public as the nation's largest Muslim-American civil rights organization."

"The brief and supporting evidence were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in two companion cases, Saiyed v. CAIR and Lopez v. CAIR, in which David Yerushalmi is lead counsel. The brief and supporting evidence overwhelmingly demonstrate that CAIR was involved in a massive criminal fraud and cover-up that injured numerous client-victims who had looked to CAIR for legal assistance, yet the CAIR "attorney" allegedly handling their cases was in fact not an attorney.”

Yerushalmi, who is also Co-Founder and Senior Counsel of AFLC, commented, "The evidence has long suggested that CAIR is an organization set up by the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas to further its aims of stealth Jihad in the United States," referring to the fact that CAIR was named by the federal government as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial.

"According to the facts that are carefully laid out in our legal brief and fully supported by the record evidence," Yerushalmi explained, "CAIR has engaged in a massive criminal fraud in which numerous CAIR clients have been victimized, and because of the CAIR cover-up many still don't realize it. The fact that CAIR has victimized Muslims and non-Muslims alike demonstrate that it is only looking out for itself and its ongoing efforts to bilk donors out of millions of dollars of charitable donations thinking they are supporting a legitimate organization."

AFLC went on to say that five former clients of CAIR filed the two lawsuits in federal court alleging common law and statutory fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and intentional infliction of emotional distress against CAIR. These two lawsuits followed an earlier lawsuit which had also alleged that CAIR's fraudulent conduct amounted to racketeering, a federal RICO crime. In that case, the court dismissed the RICO counts, concluding that CAIR's conduct as alleged was fraudulent but not a technical violation of RICO. The two civil lawsuits were filed by Yerushalmi on January 6, 2010, and because they arise out of the same facts, the cases were consolidated.

AFLC stated, “The supporting evidence, which was compiled after more than a year and a half of contentious discovery that involved numerous document requests, motions to compel the production of documents that CAIR was concealing, and multiple depositions of high-ranking CAIR officials, shows that Morris Days, the "Resident Attorney" and "Civil Rights Manager" at the now defunct CAIR-MD/VA chapter in Herndon, Virginia, was in fact not an attorney and that he failed to provide legal services for clients who came to CAIR for legal representation.

The evidence also shows that CAIR knew of this fraud and purposefully conspired with Days to keep the CAIR clients from discovering that their legal matters were being mishandled or not handled at all. While Yerushalmi and AFLC represent the five plaintiffs in these two lawsuits, three of whom are Muslim Americans, according to CAIR's internal documents; there were many more victims of the CAIR fraud scheme.”

“As set forth in the court filings, CAIR knew or should have known that Days was not a lawyer when it hired him. But, like many organizations accused of wrongdoing, things got worse when CAIR officials were confronted with clear evidence of Days' fraudulent conduct. Rather than come clean and attempt to rectify past wrongs, CAIR conspired with Days to conceal and further the fraud. To this end, CAIR officials purposefully concealed the truth about Days from the clients, law enforcement, and the media. When CAIR did receive calls from irate clients about Days' failure to provide competent legal services, CAIR fraudulently deceived them about Days' relationship with CAIR, suggesting that he was never actually employed by CAIR.”

Robert Muise, co-counsel in the lawsuit and Co-Founder and Senior Counsel of AFLC, commented, "The overwhelming evidence marshaled in this case will finally put to rest the myth fabricated by CAIR's PR machine and perpetrated by a complicit media that this is a legitimate Muslim-American civil rights organization.”

“This lawsuit strips away CAIR's veil of legitimacy."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its sister organization, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), have been controversial over the years and recently were systematically involved in the 2012 presidential elections in getting American Muslims out to vote for President Obama in the swing states of Florida, Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Those states election results became controversial due to voter irregularities and allegations of voter fraud in favor of President Obama.

Siobhan Owen to sing in Wales soon!

What a wonderful opportunity for folk to hear such a great artist! This will be well worth travelling to see and hear.

Here is a taster from Siobhan Owen, singing 'Cariad' which is one of the songs on her outstanding CD 'Storybook Journey'

Eric Agnew sings 'Here Comes the Hurt Again'

What a terrific talent the late Eric Agnew had, and how much he's missed by all the folk who were fortunate enough to discover him and enjoy his music.

'Born to be a Soldier' sung by Gary Cordice

Congratulations to Gary Cordice on getting 674 views for this great song in just a few weeks. Let us try and get it up to 700 by the end of the day!

Grace Bawden sings 'If Only I Had Wings'

I've just been listening to the amazing Australian songstress Grace Bawden singing 'If Only I Had Wings' which was written by hit-making duo, Colin Gordon-Farleigh and Greg Scheer. 
What a fabulous version this is of such a beautiful song.
I hope you enjoy it!