May 2007 be a great year for you and yours!
In case you're wondering, this picture is from Sydney, Australia, the first major city to celebrate the New Year.
I decided to do something I don’t do very often and take a look at the latest album by an old band – Warrant’s “Born Again” CD.
As this is the season for families to come together, the Blogland brings you news of a bill to be introduced in the State House by State Rep. David Weeks, a Democrat from Sumter.
-Trisagion Prayer for the Departed"O God of spirits and of all flesh, Who has trampled down Death and overthrown the Devil, and given life unto Your world, give, we beseech You, eternal rest to the soul of Your departed servant, in a place of brightness, in a place of verdure, in a place of repose, from whence all pain, sorrow, and sighing, have fled away.
Pardon, we beseech You, every transgression which may have been committed, whether by word or deed or thought. For there is no man who lives and does not commit a sin. You only are without sin, Your righteousness is everlasting, and Your word is the Truth.
For You are the Resurrection, and the Life, and the repose of Your departed servant, O Christ our God, and unto You we ascribe glory, together with eternal the Father, and Your Most Holy, and Good, and Life-giving Spirit, now and forever, and for ages to come. Amen.
May our gracious and merciful Lord, who rose from the dead, Christ, our True God, through the intercessions of His Holy Mother and of all the Saints, establish the soul of His departed servant in the mansions of the righteous; give rest in the bosom of Abraham, and number his soul among the just, and have mercy upon us and save us".Eternal be Your memory.
Today, we Christians celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord (that means Christmas, ya'll) as one. Let us share with each other the spirit of peace and goodwill on this day.
Democrats in the South (yep, a Democratic blog)
The Body Politic (as blatantly partisan as DITS above)
Former Virginia governor James S. Gilmore III has decided to form a committee to examine running for president in 2008, casting himself as a fiscal conservative with executive experience and national security credentials.
In an interview yesterday, Gilmore said his candidacy would fill a void among Republican presidential hopefuls, who he believes are not dedicated enough to important conservative principles.
While the insurgents dominate the headlines with suicide bombers, car bombs, and IEDs, an equally hopeful President George W. Bush is winning the war of ideas. He has been hotly ctisized, especially after his Axis of Evil speech of January 2002, which was strangely reminiscent of Reagan’s speech 20 years earlier, both in its truthfulness and the amount of sarcasm it has received. By challenging the tyrants and terrorists to mend their ways, or face the wrath of the people, he has placed their backward ideology on notice.
Iranian President Ahmadinejad and other demagogues may shore up their defenses, expand their nuclear arsenals, and seal their borders, yet the truth will always filter through. While they console themselves in the strength of their suicidal converts, and with the sympathy of Western elites, the very extremeness of their constant rhetoric reveals an increasing dread that their time is short.
"Nukes won't save Iran" (12/11/2006)
Here's some of what Time had to say about their choice:
To be sure, there are individuals we could blame for the many painful and disturbing things that happened in 2006. The conflict in Iraq only got bloodier and more entrenched. A vicious skirmish erupted between Israel and Lebanon. A war dragged on in Sudan. A tin-pot dictator in North Korea got the Bomb, and the President of Iran wants to go nuclear too. Meanwhile nobody fixed global warming, and Sony didn't make enough PlayStation3s.
But look at 2006 through a different lens and you'll see another story, one that isn't about conflict or great men. It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.
... interesting idea.
Anthrax is one of the most-enduring and better known bands in the metal scene, and still going strong. Without a doubt, these guys are the real deal.
I got photos back from my company's latest highway project completion: the Peach Road interchange at Mile 32 on Interstate 77 in Fairfield County, and thought I'd share them with ya'll.
Of course, the signs for the interchange arrived just as we were getting ready to have the ribbon-cutting event. Talk about perfect timing! 
With 200-300 acres of undeveloped land, with water, sewer, and roads in place, between Charlotte and Columbia, improving access to this park might be the catalyst for development in a fairly poor rural county that needs good paying jobs and tax revenue.
Also, I have to thank the local officials who invited me to attend the tree-lighting in Winnsboro the night before, after I looked over the event location. I didn't have much time to check it out, considering how tired I was between two events in a week, finals in grad school and a pretty bad cold, but it was definitely worth making the side trip.
Winnsboro is a nice little town, and one that hopefully will be a little better off for my company having done our part.
At long last, the halfway point to my Master's Degree has been reached. Five classes down, four more to go (two in the spring), and of course, my thesis project. So far, I'm on track to be among the first to receive the new Master's Degree in Communication in the spring of 2008.
It's an early Christmas for the folks at the Charleston School of Law, where they received their accreditation from the American Bar Association. Those who took the leap of faith by enrolling in the school while it was a start-up will be rewarded with the opportunity to take the Bar exam and pursue careers in the legal profession.
Mr. Branton now faces a judgment for an attempt to send out a mailing from an anonymous group, making false claims about the County Council incumbent he sought to defeat.
The damages continue to mount from a negative flier that Dorchester County Council Chairman Skip Elliott says cost him a re-election bid this summer.
A judge will tell former Sen. Bill Branton how much money he owes Elliott next month. Elliott sued Branton for libel, and Branton failed to respond to the complaint. Elliott is seeking actual and punitive damages.
Meanwhile, two companies that helped print and mail the flier have been left holding the bag for the bill.
The flier arrived in Summerville mailboxes a few days before the Republican primary in June. It implied that Elliott had voted for his own property deals on council.
Actually, Elliott's father conducted the deals, and Elliott recused himself when council voted on them. The mailing urged people to "vote for anybody but Walter 'Skip' Elliott."
The flier was labeled as paid for by Citizens for Change, an unregistered name for which nobody claimed responsibility. Branton denied knowing anything about it, as did Elliott's other opponent, Jamie Feltner.
- Charleston Post and Courier (12/9/2006)
The clock ticks to the end of my fall semester, the toughest one yet. In the next 24 hours, I will try to put in six hours of study time, work a full day, chair a midday work meeting, drive to Columbia for a presentation and make it to class by 6pm for the final in my last class of the semester.
Sunny Phillips over at the Crunchy Republican has tired of her blog comment section becoming fertile grounds for anonymous cowards with petty agendas, dishonest motives, or just plain mental issues, and is cracking the whip in her "Enough Already" posting.
Last Monday, I turned in a 22 page paper.
In the center (above) is Dwight Stewart, Clarendon County Council Chairman.
In the center (above) is Jim Porth, the District 7 SCDOT Resident Construction Engineer.
