The Incarnation

'Adoration of the Shepherds, Gerard van Honthorst, 17th century'

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Dig That Christmas Music

And now the Brian Setzer (former lead singer of the 80's band, Stray Cats) Orchestra...



...a modern rendition of the Nutcracker Suite.

His Christmas albums are very good: my favorite song is 'Angels We Have Heard on High' off of his Dig That Crazy Christmas.

Old Blood and Guts" dies

Everyone who knows me, knows I'm a big WWII history buff...fanatic. So, I like to periodically blog about WWII stuff. Today, 63 years ago, General George S. Patton, Jr. (affectionately known by his Soldiers as 'Old Blood and Guts') was severely injured in a car accident outside of Mannheim, Germany (in fact, the accident occurred in the vicinity of Kafertal, where I used to live).

He certainly was a 'tough as nails leader' but proved to be a little too controversial for the U.S. Army.

"Along the way, Patton's mouth proved as dangerous to his career as the Germans. When he berated and slapped a hospitalized soldier diagnosed with 'shell shock,' but whom Patton accused of 'malingering,' the press turned on him, and pressure was applied to cut him down to size. He might have found himself enjoying early retirement had not General Dwight Eisenhower and General George Marshall intervened on his behalf."

On December 9, 1945, a day before he was due to return to the United States, Patton was severely injured in a road accident. He and his chief of staff, Major General Hobart R. "Hap" Gay, were on a day trip to hunt pheasants in the country outside Mannheim. Their 1938 Cadillac Model 75 was driven by PFC Horace Woodring (1926 - 2003). Patton sat in the back seat, on the right with General Gay on his left, as per custom. At 11:45 near Neckarstadt, (Käfertal), a 2½ ton GMC truck driven by Technical Sergeant Robert L. Thompson hit the car containing the general head-on. According to the book "Unexplained Mysteries of World War II" the crash was at a railway crossing and the vehicles were just starting up, this means the crash was at no more than 20 MPH. At first the crash seemed minor, the vehicles were hardly damaged, no one in the truck was hurt, but George Patton was leaning back with trouble breathing. General Patton had been thrown forward and his head struck a metal part of the partition between the front and back seats. Gay and Woodring were uninjured. Paralyzed from the neck down, George Patton died of an embolism on December 21, 1945 at the military hospital in Heidelberg, Germany with his wife present.

Dwarves Have More Fun!

Curly's Sweater

It's been awhile since my last post, but I'm back from several weeks of travel and field duty.