I Wade Into New Musical Waters

My church had a Christmas music program on Saturday night. I played “Gesu Bambino” with a cello. It was an interesting experience, given that (1) I had never done a duet with a stringed instrument before, and (2) I didn’t approach said celloist to ask about playing until seven hours before the program (another trumpeter backed out on Friday). Obviously, we didn’t have much time to rehearse together.
Given the circumstances, the song turned out reasonably well. You don’t often hear it, but I think the trumpet/cello combo worked, at least on this song. You can listen to it here. It runs from approximately 5:36 to 10:05 on the file clock.

Potpourri

  • Quiz: “Do you want the terrorists to win? I scored a 98%.
  • Wow: “The average American today uses about as much oil as 400 Swiss citizens used in the Second World War.”
  • CNBC has a new website. It’s better than the previous version, but almost anything would meet that standard.
  • I added a couple albums to the photo gallery.

The U.S. Constitution According To Rightist Radio

Article VI, Section 3 (emphasis added):

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Dennis Prager:

Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress.

Nope, there’s certainly no religious element in requiring one to swear on the Bible instead of the Koran. Another one of those “historical traditions,” I suppose.
Oh, and he adds this:

But these naive people do not appreciate that America will not change the attitude of a single American-hating Muslim by allowing Ellison to substitute the Koran for the Bible. In fact, the opposite is more likely: Ellison’s doing so will embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones, as Islamists, rightly or wrongly, see the first sign of the realization of their greatest goal — the Islamicization of America.

Here here. If Mr. Ellison swears on the Koran, then the terrorists have won and every American will be killed by the Islamofacist’s quest for world domination.
I’m so glad we have these spokespeople of moral clarity to keep us straight.
UPDATE: This is even stupider than it appeared. According to this, the House doesn’t include a religious text in the swearing in ceremony. So apparently, this is another of those fake controversies intended to get people riled up over nothing.

I’m A Wikipedian

A while back I created my first Wikipedia entry.
It’s on Ozark Adventist Academy, my alma mater. I attended OAA my junior and senior year. Seven hundred and fifty miles was a long way to be away from home, but I enjoyed my time there. And during that summer I spent in rural Northwest Arkansas, I learned quite a bit about finding interesting things to do for entertainment.
Unfortunately, someone has since edited my Wikipedia article; I think I should have been consulted first.