M50 part two

All right, back for the second half of this year's year-end countdown!  Will the Iron Ceiling sweept the top?  Let's find out...


25- Shilpa Ray- Shoot This Dying Horse.  Shilpa's second spot on the countdown comes from this #2 from June.  53 points would have been 15th without the ol' Martin adjustment, so she'll line up with the other girls I've made mad this week...

24- Eleanor Friedberger- Make Me A Song.  Eleanor's return to the M10 topped off at #2 on my birthday.  46 point should have put her at 26, so nothing much changed here.

23- Derevolutions- Now You Know My Name.  Another neat video, this was the biggest of the three they put on the M10 this year.  The only one to make the 50, it hit #2 in June, gathering 44 points and ranking 28th.

22- Anna Burch- What I Want.  My newbie of the year, Anna's first time in the M10 was a 2-week #1 in October, taking 59 points, which would have been 9th... oboy, another one about to bash me...

21- Geowulf- Sunday.  Just as Star Kendrick started to get noticed mainstream for the song Saltwater being used on various ads, its lp mate on Great Big Blue hit the top of the M10 in early August.  47 points lands it right next door at 22nd.

20- illuminatti hotties- (You're Better) Than Ever.  Sarah has to be about done with me, as this #1 from January/February had enough points- 57- to land 11th.

19- Lucius- Neighbors.  The first of their 2 #1s this year from the accoustic lp Nudes came in February, and 55 points would have had it at 14th.

18- Anna Burch- 2 Cool 2 Care.  Currently as I type #2 on the M10, points would have only had it at 45th with 30- but I gave it "future cred".

17- Vanessa Carlton- Lonely Girls.  Vanessa's #2 spent 4 weeks waiting for Blackberry Smoke to get out of the way, which it never did.  Her 50 points put her at 20, so she did a little better.

16- The Beths- Future Me Hates Me.  The current top dog, their "future cred takes them up from what would have been 40th at 31 points.

15- Family Of The Year- Let Her Go.  Their big comeback spent the first part of June at the top.  Their 46 points would have left them 24th, but this is where the juice really starts getting turned up for me.





14- Alvvays- Not My Baby.  I almost missed this gem on Antisocialites, but it became their biggest M10 hit after its journey to the top in April.  Pointswise, it 60 for 8th on the points list, so we add Molly Rankin to the Get Chris Now Club.

13- Jayhawks- Everybody Knows.  This #1 would-have-been but for the summer run of Caroline Rose topped off at #2 in July.  Their 50 points would have left them 18th, but they got some "More Of The Same" points.




It was about here in compiling the list that I started saying, "I could see this at #2..."  Which tells you how much I love the songs at the top- and how solid the #1 slot is...


12- Sade- The Big Unknown.  This song hit me like a bomb early, but got a lot of competition.  Still, "future cred" puts the #3-as-I-type at this spot, some distance from the #35 spot its 38 points would give it.

11- Jayhawks- Backwards Women.  Brutally honest here, I always think of this song as much lower- until I play the darn thing!  Even so, it comes down here from what its 68 points would have made it- tied for 2nd, and in a 3-way tie for 8th all time.

And now, the top ten....

10- Not Many Miles To Go- Roseanne Cash.  

The bigger of her two hits on the M10 this year, it is also the other half of that 2nd this year/8th all time tie.  She was #1 most of last month.

9- Black Joe Lewis- Nature's Natural.

Black Joe hit #1 in July, and 55 points would have left him a too-low 13th.


8- Leon Bridges- Beyond.

A major reason I decided to veer way off points, this beautiful tune spent far too long stuck in the shuffle, and got a miserable 36 points (39th).  He hit the top in late September.

7- Caroline Rose- Jeannie Becomes A Mom.

One of her two monster hits, it was #1 the middle of May, and its 64 points would have been 5th by points and 15th all time.


6- Lucius- Eventually.

Tenth by points with 58, I would have loved to have jammed this April #1 up higher- there just isn't the room.


5- Sunflower Bean- Twenty-Two.

The first of the Iron Ceiling, the competition it faced for 6 weeks kept it from getting higher than a 12th by points at 58.  It spent the 4th and 5th weeks of the Iron Ceiling's six weeks at the top back in March/April.

4- Beach House- Lemon Glow.

The first of the Iron Ceiling to hit the top in March, its 63 points would have had it 7th- and third all time for the duo.


3- Blackberry Smoke- One Horse Town.

The 3-week #1 from September made two and three VERY difficult on me.  Points would have left it 6th at 63- same as Lemon Glow.

2- Caroline Rose- More Of The Same.

The only 4-weeker of the year, #1-wise, she held forth in June and July, and by poins would have been 4th with 65.


And that leaves #1, the last of the Iron Ceiling, with only two weeks at #1- but they were on either side of Twenty-Two's 2-week run.  With 71 points, good for 7th all time...


1- Mikaela Davis- Little Bird.





And there you have it!  See you next time for the M10/Beauty Contest post!

M10 top 50 part one

Today we start the M10 top 50 of 2018 countdown!  And this isn't a dry, by points countdown- it's based on how much they play on my "internal radio", so you will see that there will be a slight difference where some songs placed- a BIG difference on others.  Because some songs, like some stars, burn hotter and faster than others.

And so, without further doo-doo, here are the songs from 50-25:

50- Kidsmoke- Patterns.  Hit #4 for them in August.  33 points would have earned them 42nd.

49- Lucius- Ghosting.  One of three on the 50 for the lovely redheads, and 22 points would have put them at 50.  It peaked at #5 on Thanksgiving week.

48- The Shacks- Follow Me.  It was topping out at #4 just as the other song by them was descending from #1.   37 points would have gotten them 37th.

47- Dan Croll- Tokyo.  One of my favorite videos, it was a #5 peak around St Patrick's Day.  21 points might have left it outside the 50.

46- Cullen Omori- Four Years. He peaked at #4 at the start of summer.  24 points would have left him at 47.

45- Neko Case- Bad Luck.  I still think my favorite line of the year was, "I died, and went to work..."  It flamed its way to #4 in early May, collecting 24 points and earning a 48th spot.




44- Jim Croce- Lover's Cross.  Discovered by me because Melanie had a cover at #101 one week, the oldest song on the list was recorded in 1973.  It hit #3 in early August, collecting 28 points and a 46th slot by points.


43- Escondido- Crush On Her.  A #5 in October,  it lasted long enough to grab 21 points, just off the board by points.

42- Beach House- Equal Mind.  Beach House grabbed it's 6th and 7th M10 hits this year.  From B-Sides And Rarities, this one peaked at #3 in September, gaining 31 points and a 44th position.

41- Voodoo Children, Tangerines and Daffodils.  Our first #1 on the list from late February, this duo had 35 points for the same #41 spot by points.


40- illuminatti hotties- Shape Of My Hands.  Sarah Tudzin and her BFFs were three times on this chart, all three of them hit #1- this one on Memorial Day weekend.  46 points means it would have gotten 24th by points.  Sorry, Sarah!

39- Mo Kenney, On The Roof.  Her follow up to Unglued hit #1 in January.  51 points would have given her a 17th spot.  Not real popular with the ladies right now, am I?

38- Shilpa Ray, Rockaway Blues.  Shilpa is on the board twice, and this one from Door Girl topped out at #4 in March.  36 points would have been 40th.

37- illuminatti hotties- Paying Off The Happiness.  Sarah's 2nd on the list was #1 in early May, and 39 points put it at 34th by points.





36- Decemberists- Severed.  Peaking at 3 at the end of February, the Decemberists' first of two on the list collected 50 points and would have been 20th had I not mucked with things.

35- The Shacks- Audrey (Spending All My Time With You).  Lapping over from last year, They got 40 this year points, good for 33rd, and spent the first two weeks of the year at the top.

34- Dorothy- Ain't Our Time To Die.  This late summer scorcher hit #2 at the end of August.  39 points would have netted it 35th.

33- Decemberists- Sucker's Prayer.  My favorite sing-a-long, they held the top spot two weeks in October, pulling down 42 points and a #32 spot.

32- ELO- Surrender.  Anniversary lps fueled a big ELO resurgence, and this one was #1 at the start of November.  44 points would have put it at 29.

31- Frankie Cosmos- Apathy.  I continue my winning ways with the ladies, as this Halloween week #1 would have grabbed 19th with its 50 points.  If I did video lists, it would have been top five, though.

30- ELO- Buildings Have Eyes.  The other ELO #1 topped things in late August, pulling down 52 points and 16th in points.

29- Alkonost- Paporotnik (instr. version).  My guys from Russia score a #2 just a few weeks back.  45 points would have it at #27.

28- Blackberry Smoke- You Got Lucky (feat. Amanda Shires).  One of two BS hits this time around, the Tom Petty cover got up to #3 last month, and 36 points would have had it at 38th, so at least they like me.

27- Dent May- Take Me To Heaven.  You almost forgot about our ol' buddy James Dent May, Jr, didn't you?  The end of January #1 got 43 points and would have been 30th.

26- Phantogram- Saturday.  The benefit of National Suicide Awareness song, it took 7 weeks getting to #4 and 9 on the charts back in July, prolly the longest ever for a song never topping #3.  41 points should have had it at #31, so at least Sarah Barthel still likes me.


Stay tuned tomorrow and find out which other acts I got on the good and bad sides of!

M10 update

This being a holiday week and not many of you are even on the internet, much less paying attention, you get as announced JUST an M10 update today- but tomorrow and Saturday you get the two part top M50 of the year!  Next week at this point you'll be getting both this update AND the Beauty Contest!  Which lovely lady will Scrappy pick this year?

"Lady?  What lady?  I just see treats..."

Anyway, let me kick the tale off here with the #10...


10    

Foster The People drops from 5 to 10 with Worst Nights....

9  

Debuting in the 9 hole... veteran alt rockers Papa Roach...

8                                

Radiation City circa 2013 with Foreign Bodies, up one...

7                    

Tangerine and This Time Last Year, up three spots...

6    

Sade's The Big Unknown, falling 3 to #6 in week 6...

5    

The Beths dropping after two weeks at the top with Future Me Hates Me...

4        

Charles Bradley holds at 4 with Slip Away....

3                  

Castlecomer has its highest chart spot so far, climbing 3 to #3 with She's So High....

2                        

The Decemberists are in the top 2 for the third time this year with Travelling On, up from #7.......

And at number one...

Anna Burch's second #1 with 2 Cool 2 Care!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so tune in this weekend to find your favorites... well my favorites... of 2018!

Wednesday Bible Study: Seen, saw, him, who

Okay, so this week we get a bit of a break in a rather simple verse (yeah, you've heard THAT one before)- 1 Timothy 3:16.  Here, Paul recites a version of the Creeds they used for shorthand in teaching back in those days.  A Creed is a statement of belief, and this is as clear a statement of what a Christian believes as any:

1Ti 3:16  Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. 

So let me first show you what caught my eye, and then I will talk about what stumped the commentators...


First thing for me was the phrase "mystery of godliness".  Now mystery has been explained many times by pastors explaining Paul- for them a mystery or riddle was not so much something hidden, like it is for us, but something FORMERLY hidden, and now exposed..  But what was he going after with the term "godliness"?  Translated, it meant "piety", which in turn came from two words that boiled it down to "well-revered".  So, I imagine that the core idea is Paul asking, "How do we revere God the best possible way?  By believing the following:".  And this that we are to believe then, is a great thing- and because it is a "mystery", it was formerly hidden to us- and still is, to those who don't believe.

Second thing was my usual digging through the Strong's references to the other words in the Creed.  And this is what I noticed.

Both "manifested" and "vindicated" (or in some translations, "justified") have a similar start to the translation.  Manifested comes from a word meaning "To render apparent"- God revealed in the form of Christ.  A while back, a FB debater asked me why God didn't just take away sin straight out instead of going through what we were debating- the conception, whether Jesus as human or Mary as sinless.  One good reason is, had God just "waved the magic wand", there would have never been the proof of our faith that we received through the gift of Jesus coming to earth as man.  If God was going to reveal His mystery, He Himself would have to be "rendered apparent."

"Vindicated/justified" means "To render just or innocent".  Where Manifested references His birth in the flesh, Justified refers to something we've hit on a few Wednesdays back- the falling of the Holy Spirit on Jesus publicly at His baptism.  God knew Jesus was sinless and justified; and just like ours, Jesus's baptism was God's justifying Him publicly.

Third thing I looked at was "seen by angels".  Peter has told us that, because angels don't receive salvation, they "long to look into it." (1 Peter 1:12).  So perhaps this is what Paul was thinking of.  One commenter went so far as saying that the angels were fascinated by the sight of God made flesh, because THEY HAD NEVER SEEN GOD; that just as the Father was too wonderful for Abraham to see, even Jesus Before Flesh was too wonderful to look upon.  And there may be some truth to that;  I think of how the Cherubim always had two of their six wings covering their eyes, and how Lucifer was the "Covering Cherub", which may mean he was the one that blocked in his own person the angels from looking full-on at God.  But then you have to deal with the pre-incarnate sightings of Christ, the Angel of the Lord throughout the OT.  All I know for sure is the word "seen" means "to gaze, to stare", and it reminds me of the words from the old Easter hymn:

But angel hosts adore thee,

and tremble as they gaze.

The rest is fairly simple- he was preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the course of order, and taken up back into heaven.  And so, that was what Timothy was to teach his charges- Christ became man, but pure and innocent from sin; looked on by angels, preached to the Gentiles ( a job the Jews had been given but never did well), believed on by the people Timothy would pastor, and has went back in heaven to await the Day of Final Judgment.

Now, the commentators, scrolling through the Greek, found another contention.  At first it seems insignificant- but when you think about it, you really can see why God let it go this way.  Let me show you by giving you the phrase as the two different interpretations change it.  First, look at the KJV:

 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh...

And now, the Revised Version:

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh...

So the commentators debated, which is proper: "God" or "He who"?  First, here's how we got there.  Back in the day, since this was all copied in scribework, there were certain "shortcuts generally recognized" to make copying easier.  One of those was taking longer words, just using the beginning and ending of the word and drawing a line over the top to indicate that what was written was short for the longer word.  And on this word, it is unclear whether it was Θεὸς (Theos), meaning "God", or  ὅς  (Hos), meaning who, or which.  In fact, Albert Barnes gives us this interesting tidbit about whether the line was drawn above the "hos" or not:

Probably there is no passage in the New Testament which has excited so much discussion among critics as this, and none in reference to which it is so difficult to determine the true reading. It is the only one, it is believed, in which the microscope has been employed to determine the lines of the letters used in a manuscript; and, after all that has been done to ascertain the exact truth in regard to it, still the question remains undecided.

So what difference does it make? A subtle one, perhaps.  To me, reading it "God" expresses the concept in its unity- God the One did this.  He who makes me think of how it was the Individuality of Christ that did it, and makes it more real- more "apparent."

In the end though, I don't really think we need to take the eyepiece to it, and here's why.  Go back to the "seen" thing.  The word used here is middle voice:  more intense that, "I looked across the room and seen it (forgive the grammar)", but less than, "I examined it in tiny detail".  I gazed, and stared in amazement.  And that perhaps, is the point of the mystery after all.

Best place for Christmas is...

So last night I found a list via WalletHub of the best places to do Christmas.  They had a very complcated methodology, which I'd like to hit the highlights of...


Main categories:  Traditions and fun, Observance, Generousity, Costs, and Shopping.

Traditions:

This was based on some rather curious metrics, as was the whole study.  The first was the amount of advance hotel reservations made on Priceline...

Gee thanks, Bill...

Then you have Christmas "events" per capita, the amount of "Christmas event" searches done for each city on Google, Christmas tree farms per capita (believe it or not, Miami FL won that one), and then a bunch of things per capita that really have nothing to do with Christmas per se, such as restaurants (and their diversity-?), night life, bars, ice skating rinks, and so on.  As you can see, we're going to get a real good indication of things Christmassy here.

Out of 100 cities checked, the winner here: New York.  The worst?  Laredo, TX.  Good ol' Fort Wayne got 87th.


Next: Observance, AKA the 'religious section'.  The extent of this was "Share of Christian population", whatever that means, and Churches per capita.  Way to turn over every rock trying to find Christmas's REAL menaing, guys!  In this category, Birmingham AL came out the best; Fort Wayne, the "city of churches", scored 57th, and bottom ranked was the unholy community of Hileah, FL.  All those darn races, I suppose.


Third, Generousity, and this might have been a little more pertinant.  It included giving to charity, per capita food banks and online giving, sharing with the needy- and "Christmas Spirit", which was deduced through some arcane means from their "Most Caring Cities" list.  Here, the philnathropists of the mega-rich left skewed the findings, with Seattle in first.  Ft Wayne led off the bottom ten here at 91st, and this time it was Corpus Christi on the bottom.  Anyone that lives in FTW should now be convinced of the utter failure of their "methodology".


Then comes shopping, with per capita surveys of "Christmas markets", shopping centers, gift shops, toy stores and Hobby Lobbys (one single category), candy shoppes, card shops, and of course decoration sellers.  This pack was led by, amazingly, Las Vegas and Orlando, which proves they didn't distinguish between "holiday" gift shops and "souvenier" gift shops.  Not surprisingly, Fort Wayne blew chunks again- albeit smaller ones at #70- and the worst place to get a gift (considering my above assumption, this one should be a given) is Newark NJ.

Finally we come to cost... and the only thing Christmassy on this list is tickets to Christmas galas.  Other than that, it's how many 4.5 star or higher restaurants, price of three star hotel rooms, average restaurant meal price, average theater ticket, and how much booze runs- all that nice holiday stuff.  Here, the winner was the national cheap date, Oklahoma City.  Irvivne, CA was worst, and FTW came in 85th.  I wonder how this list would square with per capita consumption of Bud Light...

So before we get to the grand finale, Indianapolis was on here, too- how did Ft Wayne stack up against Big Brother?  Well, the only categories that they weren't ranked 50+ places better than the Fort were Observance and Shopping- and there they had us by 30+ each.


So, the very worst places to celebrate Christmas by these standards are:


St Petersburg FL 91st
Garland TX 92nd
Stockton, CA 93rd
Toledo OH (hey neighbor!) 94th
Glendale AZ 95th
Chula Vista CA 96th
Our friends in Laredo 97th
NORTH Las Vegas (I never knew there was a "north" Las Vegas- does what happens there move south?) 98th
Sna Bernadino CA 99th
And those nasty racers in Hileah are 100th.

And the best?  They go like this:

Dallas TX 10th (Hi Holli!)
Seattle 9th (probably an embarrassment to them...)
Chicago IL 8th
Los Angeles CA 7th
San Francisco CA 6th
Pittsburgh PA 5th (Hi Ken!)
Atlanta GA 4th (Hi Doria!)
New York 3rd
Las Vegas 2nd

And Orlando (Hi Mickey!) #1!

As for Fort Wayne- 87th, just 59 spots behind Indianapolis...


From all of us to all of you...

Sunday Message: The TV Guy, The Bully, and Ronald McDonald

In a way, this post will be a sequel to the Funeral Priest and the Lambo Pastor from last week.  In some ways, this will be a lesson from 1 Peter 2.

So naturally, let me begin with a verse from Proverbs 21:

Pro 21:30  No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the LORD. 

Because this is the structure I will use to build a story with a lot of moving parts.  And they all start after I typed up last Sunday's message.  I have decided to type this up without a lot of names, because the names are not the point- the point is the same as last week:

Listen to what they SAY, but look at what they DO.  And apply that to yourself.

*******************************************

So after the Sunday Message published, I turned on a TV pastor I had not heard before to listen to while I exercised.  He had a pretty good message, and I enjoyed that he wasn't over the top promoting something he was selling.  There was something, though, that bugged me way in the back of my mind, and I made a mental note to look into him a bit more.  For the purposes of this post, we'll call him "TV Guy".

Later in the day, I became curious about the drawing power of megachurches, and learned of one harrowing story from the Pacific Northwest of a megachurch pastor who bullied his way into dividing his church into oblivion.  He was set up as an example of how not to do it, and we'll call him "the Bully".  After reading his story, I remembered TV Guy and began looking into him.  Lo and behold, I found out he was a friend of Lambo Pastor- and that both of them had ties to a name I will mention, since he is the "prosperity gospel" example of all that's wrong with televangelism- Joel Osteen.

So here's question one- do you judge the preacher by the company he keeps?

To start to answer that, I want to tie into two things.  One from our Proverbs verse- "..no wisdom..."  The other comes from a set of three lessons I listened to Friday that I believe apply here.  David Jeremiah was doing a series on the Christmas story, and was talking about all the times the story features the phrase- "Fear not."

My fear was, in seeing TV Guy ties to Lambo Preacher, and I hadn't really found anything bad about him, had I misjudged Lambo pastor?  So in searching TV Guy, I added a word to the name- "complaints".  Now I found a plethora of things, none of them especially damning except in the eye of the writer (a common thread of my internet research.  But what I did find was this:  He was running two churches- one on each coast- simultaneously.  Preach at the east coast church, "shake a few hundred hands", throw his family on a private jet, shoot to a west coast church that evening, spend two days taking care of business there, fly back east Tuesday and repeat the cycle.  His two young children were along with the ride.  And two things I noted in the whole story:  He saw the commutes as "quality time with the family", and he worked out a deal with the kids' school (s?) that made it okay for them to miss Monday and Tuesday EVERY WEEK whilst out west.  Two more things:  He "enjoys the jet-set lifestyle" (his quote) and the question raised by the author of the story- how can you shepherd a flock only spending half of every week with them?

God hadn't shown me the connection between the two pastors to admonish ME- but to question THEM.

*********************************

So now, let us turn to the "...no understanding..." part.  The second sermon was Allistair Begg wrapping up that same series on Joseph I've mentioned before.  His focus was the fact that where Abraham and Jacob had been faithful because God had spoken to them, Joseph was even more faithful- and we have no Biblical evidence that God EVER talked to him audibly.  He just had faith.  And that brings us to the antithesis of faith- the internet.

This whole ball of wax I've told you about led me to the subject of false teachers, and what was false about them.  One that I looked at was David Jeremiah, and there were only two things I found.  One guy had made a list of things that Jeremiah "believes that are NOT Biblical"- but when you read the list, it is a lot of hair splitting stuff that is "not Biblical" only because it is not completely spelled out in one spot, like a lot of things from Revelation.  (I will note here that that same Sunday I heard Jeremiah express regret at a relatively minor concept he taught previously that he changed his mind on after several people showed him why he might possibly be wrong!)  The other was an idiot who posted over and over, "Google 'David Jeremiah caught stealing'- the results will blow you away!"  So I did, and the only thing you actually find is somebody claiming he plagiarized Hal Lindsay in one of his books, citing an admission of the fact by Jeremiah's publisher, complete with a link to the "admission" that doesn't function...

I also found a page that claimed a list of teachers of false doctrine, and it pretty much had every famous preacher you may or may not know.  INCLUDING Billy Graham (because in 1948 he thought the Ecumenical Council was from the antichrist, and in 1976, he went to one of their conferences, and thus does the work of the antichrist) and Martin Luther (because he taught Sola Scriptura and yet still supported the "work" of baptism).  BTW, I think I should add that he TRIED to condemn Charles Stanley- but wrote "Paul Stanley" instead, and in all his time with Kiss, I never knew Paul Stanley was a preacher.

Lesson here- God gives a person enough understanding NOT to take everything they read as the truth.  Test everything.  Go to more than one source.  Perfect lead-in for part three.

******************************************************

The third chunk- "...no counsel..." ties to the third sermon I heard, from Chuck Swindoll (who also made that last 'naughty list') on the meeting between Jesus and the teacher Nicodemus.  It was the thing Jesus said to him- "You are the Teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?"  It struck me that what Jesus was saying is, here is the ultimate authority of faith and religion in the world, the cream of man's knowledge of God- and he doesn't understand the MOST BASIC THING about that faith- you must be born again.

And that leads me to the next step in my research journey, two days before.  I read an article in the Christian Post about how a pastor (Let's call him Ronald McDonald) who has had a semi-regular show on our Christian radio is under attack.  His story is almost a carbon copy of "Bully"'s:  Runs a huge organization, accused of intimidation and severe financial misdealings.  Apologizes, promises reforms, 'backs away from the financial end of things.'  Two blogs- one run by a lady, another by two guys (and yes, this is important), find evidence against him.  An electronic paper trail that shows not only his domination and the means thereof of the organization, but also that he never got out of the financial end, just put another face in front of his mouth.  The organization then sues the two blogs- and the one blog duo's WIVES- for defamation.  Why sue the wives?  A couple of neutral researchers asked the church for comment, and they gave none.  Which pretty much tells you it's the intimidation factor- and that pretty much goes with the previous complaints against Ronald McDonald, including the inclusion in the blog evidence of demands to "hush the story" in return for an equitable financial solution.  A solution that includes a payment of half-a-mil to- have you guessed it?- the Bully!

Birds of a feather?  My point being here, someone who knows the meaning of being Born Again wouldn't be doing this- he would have humbly confessed the first time, and repented of the sin.  Footnote: the blog releases coincided with Ronald taking himself off the public speaking circuit indefinitely, in order to get himself together- which "had been prayed about and decided before all this came to light".  Long story short- his reputation as a pastor became more important to Ronald than living up to that rep- something Lambo pastor can certainly identify with should he choose to.

Oh, and apparently, Ronald's church kept secret the fact that they had a youth pastor engaged in sexting with students for 10 MONTHS without saying anything- until an outside tipster clued in the Police and they arrested him.  That goes with the rep thing, and makes one think of the sorry state of the Catholic Church right now, which has grown to a point this week that a respected priest said that  “the Vatican has become a theological Chernobyl. We are in dangerous territory,” and, “The quality of reasoning and information of facts is so fugitive, that frustration yields to sheer embarrassment,” and topped it off with, “While constrained by respect for the Petrine office,

and aware of the strains that imposes, it is distressing to look for a train of thought and find only a train wreck.”

**********************************

So now, we are confronted with a two headed beast- how do we discern who is right and who is wrong, " and how do we apply it to ourselves?  This is where 1 Peter 2 comes in.

1Pe 2:1  So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 

1Pe 2:2  Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation-- 

1Pe 2:3  if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 

1Pe 2:4  As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 

1Pe 2:5  you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 

1Pe 2:6  For it stands in Scripture: "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." 

1Pe 2:7  So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," 

1Pe 2:8  and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 

Lesson one- Don't listen to attacks that can't be backed up- born of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, and slander.  Like Billy Graham serving the antichrist.

Lesson two- "The honor is for you who believe"- and if you believe, you can ask Jesus for discernment through the Holy Spirit.  Don't be overwhelmed by all the voices you hear- including mine, as I am prone to jump to conclusions.  You have a Bible, and access to God, use them.

Lesson three: Find out about them- did they disobey God in their actions?

Lesson four: application.  Don't let Satan buffalo you into doubting yourself.  Remember Doc Martin's Rule- Satan accuses from hate, Jesus admonishes from love.  Check everything- including your own belief system.  I went on this journey wondering what the draw to the megachurch was, and found that #1 was the lure of the charismatic leader.  If you hear an accusation about your pastor and your first reaction is, "How dare you!" instead of, "Is there truth I can find about this", then you likely have a problem.  And finally, examine YOURSELF for disobedience.

Time Machine co-ordinates VILXXV518122171

Today, we fly into December 21st of 1971, the day the UN, in its usual right-on-time style, called for an immediate end to the war between India and Pakistan over the birth of Bangladesh- some 5 days after the Pakistan Army IN Bangladesh surrendered to the combined forces.  Which of course was mere power politics- because the USSR supported India, the US was willing to take a pass on what Pakistan was doing in East Bengal, and because the US didn't want Pakistan to be totally annihilated by India, the Soviets vetoed attempt after attempt to get such a resolution passed through the Security Council.  In the end, the facts on the ground gave the superpowers their compromise:  The Indians were brought to heel after getting what they wanted, and the Pakistani nation got to live another day.  The US got their resolution without having to use the conveniently located 7th fleet, the Russians got their boy to win, and Red China got to tell Pakistan, "We told you so..."


Oh, and Bangladesh got their Independence- which, as I recall, we schoolkids realized was the right thing to happen.  A lot of voices from "those days" like to bash US policy in Vietnam- but our real moral failures in the early 70s were in Bangladesh and Israel.

"Martin, I'm gonna belt you..."

Sorry, Dick, but I calls 'em as I sees 'em!  Anyway, it's time to get started on a Time Machine that includes yet another OT Panel battle, some Christmas stuff, the holiday schedule, and the return of George Harrison!   Bombs away, dream babies!


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Let's kick off some Christmas spirit with the first of 2 debuts this week.  While not strictly a Christmas song, it is certainly seasonal!  At #10, here's Tangerine...






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Welcome back to the Musical Tardis George Harrison!  How are you doing?

Well... uh... we aren't going to bring up last time, are we?

No.  Although I hope you noticed the new signs we've put up from the Board of Chronal Health about the bologna casserole...

Yes, I had seen that... though  the "in honor of G. Harrison" at the bottom of the plaques is a bit much...

NARDOLE:  Well, you didn't have to clean and launder the mess, did you?

Nardole, don't you have something else to do?  Anyway, it's 15 candidates- one of which I'm going to keep aside for a bit- and 63 stations.  And, a run-off between the top two!  Here is the one-vote wonder list...


Awl right, then, let us see...Why, there are only four of them...

Five actually, but one is the one I'm holding out...

Ah.  So first, dropping to #48 on Cashbox, the Grass Roots and Two Divided By Love...

Then the only one currently charting in me homeland, Cher with Gypsies Tramps And Thieves, #8 in the UK and 21 here.

Then, from the at-sea station from the Netherlands, Mouth and McNeil with How Do You Do, which charts in the States in July next year...

The Stylistics with You Are Everything at #19...

...and Al Green with Let's Stay Together at #22.  At least the top ten did better than usual!

That they did, so far.  All right, here's the "Also Receiving Votes"...

Thank you... we have two songs that got three votes.  Little Michael Jackson- I think he might just have a future in music- with Got To Be There at #3.

The other is Sly and the Family Stone with Family Affair at number one.

Then we have 3 songs that got two votes... the first being Rod Stewart's Maggie May, which got the Australian vote and peaked in the States in October....

...then we have the Lorenco Marques song of the week, Free Movement with I've Found Someone Of My Own, which peaked last month...

...and finally, Jonathan Edwards' Sunshine, which is at #17.


Okay, and that gets us to the final four...

Yes, here we have the Chi-Lites and Have You Seen Her at #9...

Don McLean's American Pie at #11...

Melanie and Brand New Key at #2...

...and Three Dog Night and An Old Fashioned Love Song at #4.


There you have it!  Pay attention, because I'll be cutting this list down to the two that each got 18 votes-  28.6% each- soon!  George, will you be popping off to the buffet?

Er, no... I packed a thermos...

Good idea!

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So the tune that I held out, with its one vote from South Africa, is a tune we've had on TM before, the international hit Mamy Blue (or Mammy, depending on the version/nation).  The most-known version here in the US was by the Stories of Brother Louie fame.  But the main act that carried the banner around the world were the Pop-Tops, a Spanish vocal group with a Trinidadian lead singer.  The Pop-Tops hit #57 here, #1 in France, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Austria, and Denmark, #2 in Japan, and top ten in many other countries.  However, the Pop-Tops struggled in English speaking areas, finishing outside the top 30 in the UK and outside the 40 in Canada.


But, as I said, this wasn't the end of the story.  A plethora of acts struck gold with this song, one of the most charted covers tune I've ever seen.  Frenchman Joel Dayde also hit the top in France, and #3 in Australia, and a lady going by the name Nicholetta was also top five in many countries.  In Argentina (of all places), where they did a Cashbox-like combining of versions, the #1 spot was claimed by versions by James Darren, Ricky Shayne, Roger Whitaker, an otherwise-unknown American quartet called Punch, and native sons Apocolyptis.

So here, Billboard, as I said, had the Pop Tops finishing at #57, and the Stories at #50, along with James Darren's take at #107.  But when you look at the two competing charts with BB, it gets a bit more spread out:

Darren hit #66 on Record World, and 77 on Cashbox;
the Pop Tops claimed 44 on RW and 68 on CB;
The Stories got a 38 on RW, and climbed all the way to 21 on CB;
And the Bob Crewe Generation, who also charted in Uruguay (!) hit RW's #107.

In Canada, the Pop Tops were joined both by a local act called the Oak Island Treasury Department (#48), and a French-language version by Roger Whitaker which was a #2 on the Canadian French-language chart.

So which one got the South African vote? NONE of 'em!

Their #1 was from a studio band calling themselves Charisma.  They were unnotable anywhere else, except for one detail- their lead singer...

Her name is Stevie Vann, and she was the lead singer on a song you MAY remember- working with Chris Thompson of Manfred Mann's Earth Band, she handled lead vocals for the band Night, which hit #18 back in '79 with Hot Summer Night.  Wow.


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Here's the secondary reveal- the two songs that went to the run-off were American Pie and Brand New Key.  I will tell you one thing about the run off (which won't help you):  The song that won was number two on 10 of the 18 times the loser got a #1;  the loser, by contrast, got NO #2s on the 18 the winner had.

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And now, the high debut at #6- my boys from Castlecomer:





I thought seeing them live was worth the extra stuff on the video.


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So, in nosing around Billboard this week, I noticed that there is one advantage to the age of streaming songs- a lot of the old Christmas classics, PC be damned, are charting again.  Lps for Christmas by Pentatonix (3 of 'em), and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (3 here, too) are being joined by Frank Sinatra (2), Dean Martin (2), the Carpenters, and Andy Williams (2), along with almost 2 dozen others.  And the hot 100 is not immune!  Here is where Christmas songs were on the latest Billboard hot 100:

7- All I Want For Christmas Is You, Mariah Carey;
16- It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year, Andy Williams;
21- Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, Brenda Lee;
22- A Holly Jolly Christmas, Burl Ives;
26- Jingle Bell Rock, Bobby Helms;
29- Christmas Song, Nat King Cole;
34- Last Christmas, Wham;
36- Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Gene Autry;
 and 41- Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Dean Martin!

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Stat Pack:

Well, let's see here... I knew 47 on CB's 100, and 17 on the UK 50.

The #101 was a bit of the holiday SAD from Ray Charles, What Am I Living For.

The #71 in '71 was a band called Dusk with the peppy Treat Me Like A Good Piece Of Candy.  Their lead vocal was Peggy Santaglia, of the Angels and "My Boyfriend's Back" fame.

The UK #1 is one we've seen before- Benny Hill's Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West.

Our big mover this week was the Jackson Five and Sugar Daddy, 40 spots from 60 to 20.

And the winner of the label game-

...MGM, who scored 32.7 average position on four hits from the Osmonds- One Bad Apple (9) and Yo-Yo (68) from the whole group, and Go Away Little Girl (8) and Sweet And Innocent (46) by Donnie solo.  Columbia once again got the most end-of-year hits with 7.


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The rest of the M10:

Holding at 9, Rad City's Foreign Bodies.

Slipping a spot to 8, Juanita Stein's Get Back To The City.

The Decemberists climb 3 to 7 with Travelling On.

Foster The People backs up one to #5 with Worst Nights.

And Charles Bradley takes that #4 slot with Slip Away.

Giving ground grudgingly is Sade's The Big Unknown, down one more to #3.

Anna Burch moves up to 2 with 2 Cool 2 Care.

And second week at the top for...

...the Beths and Future Me Hates Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And the winner of the run-off, by a 10-4 margin...

....Melanie and Brand New Key!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now, about that schedule...  This is how I am seeing the next few weeks:  On the 27th, an M10 update; the 28th and 29th, I'll do the year's top 40 or 50, depending; on the 4th, we'll have the M10 AND the Beauty Contest; and be back to normal on the 11th, where, God willing, we will be doing Melanie and 1972!