"The Story of English: An English-Speaking World" with Robert MacNeil

This 1986 documentary chronicles the history of the English language and its "extraordinary journey from an obscure Germanic tribe to the edge of the universe." Presented by the erudite Robert MacNeil, the series spans a millennium and travels to 16 countries and across 5 continents to tell this fascinating story. We will post subsequent episodes over the next eight Saturdays.

Rush Limbaugh Press Conference in Hawaii

Vienna Philharmonic - "Radetzky March" - Johann Strauss

Broadcast to more than 70 countries, the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert is the largest classical music event in the world. The highlight of this New Year's tradition is the Radetzky March, composed by Johann Strauss, Sr. in 1848. 

Europe's Looming Demise

From The Washington Times
By Pamela Geller

"The Europe as you know it from visiting, from your parents or friends is on the verge of collapsing," Geert Wilders said in a speech in the United States last year.

The leader of the Netherlands' populist Party for Freedom added: "We are now witnessing profound changes that will forever alter Europe's destiny and might send the Continent in what Ronald Reagan called 'a thousand years of darkness.' " And not just Europe, but America as well.

Been to Europe lately? Thought it was bad? You ain't seen nothing yet. The passage of the Lisbon Treaty, hailed by President Obama, nailed the coffin shut on national sovereignty in Europe. The people of Europe fought it, but were overwhelmed by their political elites and the lack of American leadership in this age of our rather Marxist, collectivist U.S. president.

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Democrats Join Calls for Napolitano to Step Down Following Failed Attack

Democrats have joined the ranks of those calling for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to step down following the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight a week ago.

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Happy New Year!

I Wish All My Dear Friends and Readers a New Year Filled with Happiness and God's Richest Blessings!

RING OUT, WILD BELLS

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night--
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new--,
Ring happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land--
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Christianity's New Centers of Power

Photo: Pope Benedict XVI in Cameroon. The Catholic church has seen tremendous growth in regions such as Africa and Southeast Asia. (Cristophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images)

From The National Post (CDN)

By Ron Nurwisah

It is a vision most mainstream Canadian church leaders can only dream of: Sunday mornings in which parishioners dance and sing through three-hour services. Seminaries overflowing and unable to keep up with demand for pastors as the number of the newly baptized rises.

The dream is a reality in such places as Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, where there is an explosion in Christianity. In the past decade, this demographic surge has started to spill out of Africa, as well as Asia and Latin America, in the form of missionaries to the West, a trend influencing everything from styles of worship to doctrine.

Whereas many Catholic intellectuals and academics in North America have the luxury to worry about, for example, the ordination of women, the Africans entrust that issue to the judgement of the Vatican and concern themselves instead with the practical work of basic survival.

John Allen, in his most recent book, The Future Church, a look at global Catholicism over the next 100 years, wrote that issues such as abortion, condoms and female priests will not even be on the table in part because of the African influence.

Even the woes of the Anglican Church of Canada can be put on the doorstep of surging African Anglicanism. The conservative parishes that deserted their far more liberal national Church in the past decade received their moral support primarily from the conservative bishops of Africa.

The reasons for this growth and subsequent influence are complex, but simple demographics help tell some of the tale: Western birth rates are in sharp decline while African rates are soaring.

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