A winterval carol
The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it came, Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery.
It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. But for this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night, and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded.
He felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside him, and that its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread. He knew no more, for the Spirit neither spoke nor moved.
“I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come?” said Scrooge.
The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its hand.
“You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, but will happen in the time before us,” Scrooge pursued. “Is that so, Spirit?”
The upper portion of the garment was contracted for an instant in its folds, as if the Spirit had inclined its head. That was the only answer he received.
“Ghost of the Future!” he exclaimed, “I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?”
It gave him no reply. The hand was pointed straight before them.
“Lead on!” said Scrooge. “Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!”
The Phantom moved away as it had come towards him. Scrooge followed in the shadow of its dress, which bore him up, he thought, and carried him along.
They scarcely seemed to enter the city; for the city rather seemed to spring up about them, and encompass them of its own act. But there they were, in the heart of it; on Change, amongst the merchants; who hurried up and down, and chinked the money in their pockets, and conversed in groups, and looked at their watches, and trifled thoughtfully with their great gold seals; and so forth, as Scrooge had seen them often.
“But, but,” said Scrooge. “Where is Christmas? Why aren’t these people celebrating the birth of Our Lord? Where are all the presents? Where is Santa? Why do these poor souls look so sad and ashen and grey in visage? Why are they on bicycles instead of enjoying their cars? Where are all the children? Are they dead?”
“SILENCE!” the Spirit finally spoke. “Did your preacher not tell ye what would happen if ye voted Democrat in 2008? Weren’t thou not told what horrors would be unleashed, yay, upon the earth? And yet you intend to do it still! This ye see before ye is the “festival of winter”. Later on this afternoon, the children will put on a play about “equal rights” and “feminism”. Then everything will close because uber-dictator-fuhrer-witch Hillary Clinton has declared that there is too much capitalism at this time of year!”
“Christ is bad for America! We must stamp out Christ!” Hillary Clinton campaign speech, May 2008.
“Spirit!” said Scrooge, shuddering from head to foot. “I see, I see. Oh my! I will never vote Democrat again!”
But the spirit had one more thing to show him. The lake of fire! All around was desolation, empitness, death, hot bubbling lava. As far and as wide as poor Scrooge could see - NOTHING.
“This was once called Texas,” said the Spirit. “Those Texans just wouldn’t come round to Hellery’s way of thinking so she had the whole place destroyed. All other freedom loving Americans were put in death camps where abortion doctors used their “painless murder” skills to snuff out their lives.”
“Spirit!” he said, “this is a fearful place. In leaving it, I shall not leave its lesson, trust me. Let us go!”
Still the Ghost pointed with an unmoved finger to Scrooge’s mouth.
“I understand you,” Scrooge returned, “and I would do it, if I could. But I have not the power, Spirit. I have not the power.”
“You must tell of what you see, Scrooge. Tell all you know.”
he Phantom pointed as before.
He joined it once again, and wondering why and whither he had gone, accompanied it until they reached an iron gate. He paused to look round before entering.
A churchyard. Here, then, the wretched man whose name he had now to learn, lay underneath the ground. It was a worthy place. Walled in by houses; overrun by grass and weeds, the growth of vegetation’s death, not life; choked up with too much burying; fat with repleted appetite. A worthy place!
The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to One. He advanced towards it trembling. The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape.
“Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point,” said Scrooge, “answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?”
Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.
“Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,” said Scrooge. “But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!”
The Spirit was immovable as ever.
Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, “Ebenezer Scrooge”. Then the words: “The state killed him because he was too rich and took his money to build a hotel for lesbians.”
The finger pointed from the grave to him, and back again.
“No, Spirit! Oh no, no!”
The finger still was there.
“Spirit!” he cried, tight clutching at its robe, “hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?”
For the first time the hand appeared to shake.
“Good Spirit,” he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: “Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life!”
The kind hand trembled.
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. I will vote Republican in 2008! Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!”
In his agony, he caught the spectral hand. It sought to free itself, but he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it. The Spirit, stronger yet, repulsed him.
Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom’s hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost.
He awoke. It was still 2007! There was still time! Quickly he ran to his computer and began to type…
—
A merry Christmas to you all from Sam Johnston and the STR crew.
23 Comments so far
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Sam, your story chilled me to the bone. Is this what we have to look forwards to? Unfortunately the bleak image you paint will be a reality if the demoncrats get elected. I’m going to try to crosspost this on WorldNetDaily so that it gets read out in Churches throughout the land.
“‘Christ is bad for America! We must stamp out Christ!?¢‚Ǩ¬ù Hillary Clinton campaign speech, May 2008.’”
–”Freedom is bad for America! We must stamp out Freedom!” Sam Johnston blog, December, 2007
i have lost all motivation to skewer this post. Link, Wraith, LeftTurn, ProudGerman, RandomAussie…have a great holiday. and good hunting
“Did your preacher not tell ye what would happen if ye voted Democrat in 2008?”
He told me that it would be far better than the facist police-state the US is today.
“This ye see before ye is the ?¢‚Ǩ?ìfestival of winter”
Oh how I highly doubt that a government could change the name of a religious day.
“the children will put on a play about ?¢‚Ǩ?ìequal rights?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and ?¢‚Ǩ?ìfeminism?¢‚Ǩ¬ù.”
Great entertainment.
“uber-dictator-fuhrer-witch Hillary Clinton”
Clinton is left wing so technically she can’t be a dictator, magic is in the world of fantasy so she can’t be a witch either.
“All other freedom loving Americans were put in death camps where abortion doctors used their ?¢‚Ǩ?ìpainless murder?¢‚Ǩ¬ù skills to snuff out their lives.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù”
Which, ironically, is exactly what you want to do to every liberal.
Btw communing with spirits is against the “Law of God”
“Link, Wraith, LeftTurn, ProudGerman, RandomAussie?¢‚Ǩ¬¶have a great holiday. and good hunting”
Will do Raaine, happy holidays to you as well.
“Dad, what you have seen is the Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickins over 100 years ago.” - “Yeah, scriptwriters have milked that cow for years now.”
– The Simpsons, “‘Tis the Fifteenth Season”
“Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìEbenezer Scrooge?¢‚Ǩ¬ù. Then the words: ?¢‚Ǩ?ìThe state killed him because he was too rich and took his money to build a hotel for lesbians.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù”
Building a lesbian hotel is truly what the Democrats and Ron Paul would do if given the chance. This story is truly a deadly nightmare vision of the future if we don’t act now!
Always Right
…..problem: Hillary is againt the death sentence.
And if she?Ǭ¥d follow such a policy after being elected, she?Ǭ¥d get impeached pronto.
Besides, it?Ǭ¥s still possible that the democratic candidate won?Ǭ¥t be Hillary at all.
BARRACK OBAMA FTW!
The German Guy
IMPEACH BUSH!
And merry christmas.
@Random Aussie, “Clinton is left wing so technically she can’t be a dictator” Lenin,Stalin and Mao were far left-wing(Communist) dictators! Karl Marx was a far left-winger who advocated a dictatorship of the Proletariat! — Hillary is a neo-lib(The Democrat version of a neo-con),heavily funded by defense contractors! Even some of the anti-war left know that she’s supported by the Military-Industrial Complex! http://www.alternet.org/election08/70860 Democrat elite neo-libs have done nothing to stop the war! Nor have they repealed any police state legislation! They’re in favor of continuing it (Senate Bill 1959,The Violent Radicalization and HomegrownTerrorism Prevention Act)! S.B. 1959 is like COINTELPRO and a Nixon era enemies list! Anyone criticizing or protesting government policies could be labeled a potential terrorist under S.B. 1959 if it passes! @Proud German, Barrack Obama is a neo-lib in favor of S.B. 1959,wants to continue the War OF Terrorism(He recently debated with Hillary over conventional vs nuclear weapons as valid options in a future war on Iran! Hillary favored keeping a nuclear option!) and his campaign is also funded by defense contractors! Neo-libs are little different from neo-cons,they both are pro-interventionist and anti-liberty!
@Always Wrong, Where did you come up with the wacky notion that Ron Paul,a Baptist wants to build a hotel for lesbians? I’m sure Dr. Paul,as a libertarian Republican believes in live and let live but that doesn’t make him a libertine or even a liberal,just in favor of liberty! He wouldn’t stop private business interests from lawfully buying land and building said hotel with their own money! And if he did want to build one himself for some strange reason, (I don’t know why!) I know he wouldn’t do it with federal funding,much less kill a rich man and steal his money to do it,that’s for sure!
Pathology knows no end when Left-wing fanatics dress up in Conservative clothes and fuel the insanity of the Democrats. They even pollute the classics with their perversion and evil droolings on madness they impose on the Republicans.
Oh Spirits! Bring full flesh tearing consequences on this hateful enterprise! Let Christmas Future flood the whore of Babylon with lakes of fire. All disease and misforturne to the wayward STR.
Ah, I haven’t laughed at an STR article for so long… Great entertainment!
“Lenin,Stalin and Mao were far left-wing(Communist) dictators!”
Mohandas Gandhi was a far left-wing anarchist (well, sort of). And I would not consider Mao left-wing in any practical way.
“Karl Marx was a far left-winger who advocated a dictatorship of the Proletariat!”
No: he advocated that the proletariat usurp the means of production. A ‘temporary dictatorship’ would be established to smooth the transition from the monarchical rule to the new communal utopia, however Marx fails to explain how this dictatorship will disband after its ‘role’ was ‘fulfilled’. Marxist Communism consistently fails because of its idealist construction against the greed and megalomania of human nature. Karl may have been an economist, but he didn’t appear to be politically well-knowledged.
“Link, Wraith, LeftTurn, ProudGerman, RandomAussie?¢‚Ǩ¬¶have a great holiday.”
…And a happy and healthy new year!
“In politics, the concept of left-wing, refers to a segment of the political spectrum that considers a high priority the achieving of social equality through collective rights (social), as opposed to purely individual interests (private) and a traditional view of society, represented by the right-wing policy.
In general, the left-wing tends to uphold a secular society, egalitarian and multicultural. Depending on the balance of all these factors, the political left is divided into many branches ideologically.The term has been associated, in varying degrees, with Social liberalism (as opposed to Classical), American Liberalism, some forms of Populism, Social Democracy, Socialism, Communism, Marxism, Syndicalism, Communalism, Communitarianism, Libertarian Socialism, Anarchism, Left-Libertarianism, Anti-colonialism, Green Politics, Progressivism, and the Religious Left.”
@LeftTurn, After advocating that the workers usurp the means of production,Karl Marx did advocate a “Dictatorship of the Proletariat”,albeit temporarily.You’re getting into semantics because I didn’t go into details. —I’m confused as to what you mean about Mao. How was Mao, a Communist dictator not left-wing in any practical way? Maybe I don’t understand exactly what you mean by “practical”! Or your definition of “left wing”! Or both! — I once read years ago an op-ed piece in a socialist newpaper claiming that National Socialism(Nazism) wasn’t really socialism! I think it was merely a case of the author disowning a racist brand of socialist philosophy that didn’t fit into his multicultural, egalitarian “socialism with a human face” type of idealism! — The political spectrum can be confusing. For example,if some say anarchism is on the left,then how does one explain anarcho-capitalism, aka free-market anarchism? There are some people who say the extreme Left is defined as extreme socialism and extreme social control whereas the extreme Right is no socialism and no control at all. By that definition, wouldn’t the extreme Right not be Nazism(National Socialism) but instead be nihilism?
“@LeftTurn, After advocating that the workers usurp the means of production,Karl Marx did advocate a ?¢‚Ǩ?ìDictatorship of the Proletariat?¢‚Ǩ¬ù,albeit temporarily.You?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re getting into semantics because I didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t go into details.”
No, that’s what I said. The key word being a temporary dictatorship, for economic, rather than political purposes.
“I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m confused as to what you mean about Mao. How was Mao, a Communist dictator not left-wing in any practical way? Maybe I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t understand exactly what you mean by ?¢‚Ǩ?ìpractical?¢‚Ǩ¬ù!”
Well, it might be more a matter of opinion, but when Mao took the helm, the CCP put the iron gauntlet on so fast, . While Stalin may have been initially driven by the Communist vision, Mao never shared any allegiance to his party’s ideology, and practiced Communism by immaterial preaching only (in the entirety of his Little Red Book, only two passages are devoted specifically to working-class citizens). While Stalinist Russia was technically collective, Maoist China was pure give-and-take (and Mao took the most).
Once again, this is more a matter of opinion: by the same logic, I could argue that Stalin wasn’t left-wing.
“I once read years ago an op-ed piece in a socialist newpaper claiming that National Socialism(Nazism) wasn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t really socialism! I think it was merely a case of the author disowning a racist brand of socialist philosophy that didn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t fit into his multicultural, egalitarian ?¢‚Ǩ?ìsocialism with a human face?¢‚Ǩ¬ù type of idealism!”
Well, when the Nazi Party was originally founded in 1918, it was socialist. But after Hitler took control, the party ideology quickly shifted to the right wing. By 1933, the only element of “socialism” left in the party was its title. Indeed, with a person like Hitler leading a “socialist” party, people are bound to be skeptical. This ties with my statement above.
“The political spectrum can be confusing. For example,if some say anarchism is on the left,then how does one explain anarcho-capitalism, aka free-market anarchism? There are some people who say the extreme Left is defined as extreme socialism and extreme social control whereas the extreme Right is no socialism and no control at all. By that definition, wouldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t the extreme Right not be Nazism(National Socialism) but instead be nihilism?”
That’s why the political compass was created:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
DUNCES! You can’t even distinguish Left from Right! All communism is LEFT-WING, whether it has a totalitarian goverment or not. The same is true of Nazism (fascism)- it’s RIGHT-WING bunnies- even when it is totalitarian like Hitler.
@LeftTurn, according to the political compass, and the World’s Smallest Quiz http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html I’m right-libertarian. — Hitler,lke Mussolini was a corporatist,a marriage of big government and big business. Corporate welfare,government works programs etc. for Aryans only. A watered-down,race-based form of socialism. The lines blur economically in the case of fascism,aka corporatism as the following article explains: “Corporatism and Socialism in America” by Anthony Gregory http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0411e.asp @Journey, My basic point was ECONOMICALLY,not politically there are political philosophies further to the right(paleo-conservatism,objectivism,right libertarianism,anarcho-capitalism) than National Socialism and fascism which means fascism and National Socialism are not ECONOMICALLY to the farthest right! Fascists are to at least some small degree socialists, not laissez-faire capitalists,after all! Neo-conservative Republican social policies are also ECONOMICALLY further to to the left than paleo-conservative Republicans in government long ago! Even Democratic President JFK was fiscally more conservative than our current President George W. Bush!
?¢‚Ǩ?ìChrist is bad for America! We must stamp out Christ!?¢‚Ǩ¬ù Hillary Clinton campaign speech, May 2008.”
…I doubt it. Even though I do agree with the quote.
“i have lost all motivation to skewer this post. Link, Wraith, LeftTurn, ProudGerman, RandomAussie?¢‚Ǩ¬¶have a great holiday. and good hunting”
Thanks, and same to you XD.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/link48010/Capture-4.jpg
That’s about where I expected I’d test out.
If you compare the 10 Planks of the Communist Manifesto to our current government,you’d discover that the US government is over 50% of the way towards fulfilling the 10 planks! “Wake Up America! - America — Capitalist or Communist?” http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/wua11.shtml
@link, I beg to differ! It isn’t Christ that needs to be stamped out,nor is He bad for America! It’s the modern-day Pharisees who claim to be members of His fan club! They’re type of people He warned us about!
“It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s the modern-day Pharisees who claim to be members of His fan club! They?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re type of people He warned us about!”
That is a good point, thanks for the correction. I agree with you. (although I still think life would go on without belief in Jesus).
“That is a good point, thanks for the correction. I agree with you. (although I still think life would go on without belief in Jesus).”
No matter how basic your belief may be- if only recognizing Jesus as a prophet- better find some way to accept Him! I could be an Islamist Terrorist and recognize Jesus as a messenger from God.
You people are “dull sport” for any thinking human- what happened? Did your piss-bag get plugged up?
@Journey to “Truth”, Islam isn’t the only religion with terrorists and other violent radicals in it! How about the Christian Falangists in Lebanon who massacred Lebanese civilians and Palestinian refugees on June 6,1982? Or other terrorists and violent radicals who call themselves Christians such as the Army of God,Church of Jesus Christ Christian(Aryan Nations) or the war- crazed beliefs of Christian Zionists? All these people claim to “accept” Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace! And before you accuse me of just picking on Christians,let’s not forget the Stern Gang and the Jewish Defense League! I imagine there were some members of these groups who thought they were “doing God’s will” too! Here’s some more food for thought: “Infamous Hall of Christian Terrorist Organizations of the World” http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/christian_terrorist_organizations.htm
“But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
John 8:7