Saturday, July 02, 2011

I won't be blogging on July 4th either, so Happy Birthday to the USA!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W01sBHymxE&feature=related

Here are the full lyrics to a complicated, but beautiful poem:

O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
’Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust;”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave![

These lyrics were added during the War Between the States:

When our land is illumined with liberty's smile,
If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile
The flag of the stars, and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained,
Who their birthright have gained
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.



The

1 comment:

Joel said...

Hi Scott

I also have stopped cluttering Jim's face book page. Sadly Scott you are still being dishonest. Though in this case I think you are not being honest with yourself. What you did in your argument was use the old "what the word really means" trick. That is fine if you are a lawyer trying to get your client acquitted but it is not befitting a discussion among friends. You still owe Don an apology. It is possible that you didn't know what you were doing but you really should Scott.

There is no point in proving that doctrines were not disparaged in the New Testament. If you succeed we will still need a word that we can use the way we now use the word doctrine.

When you rebutted Don You used the word Can in your argument. Let me tell you something else about arguing. When ever you use the word can you are admitting that most of the time it is not true. You wouldn't say fish can swim it is redundant. You might say horses can swim because usually they don't. A good example of this is how liberals talk about Christians. If someone says group XYZ is bad liberals always say 'Christians can be just as bad'. Can statements are also dishonest or at least unfair because there is no way to rebut them since they only speak to a possibility. Again maybe you didn't know this but now you do.

Scott it has been pointed out to me that I may have gotten involved in this out of pride and that may be true. Pride is a failing of mine. Even so try to take some of this to heart. Even if you don't like me and think I'm an arrogant know-it-all (yes! I am but as we used to say 'Christ is not finished with me yet'). Think of it as a spiritual challenge to learn something.
joel