Legendary Finger Picker Guitarist “Doc” Watson dead at 89

“Doc” Watson was proof that no matter the difficulties, trials or tribulations that life throws your way, if you put your heart and soul to whatever your hand finds to do, you can excel.

May his memory be blessed.

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Doc Watson, Blind Guitar Wizard Who Influenced Generations, Dies at 89

May 29, 2012
By WILLIAM GRIMES

Doc Watson, the guitarist and folk singer whose flat-picking style elevated the acoustic guitar to solo status in bluegrass and country music, and whose interpretations of traditional American music profoundly influenced generations of folk and rock guitarists, died on Tuesday in Winston-Salem, N.C. He was 89.

Doc Watson performing in New York in 2005. (Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos)

Mr. Watson, who had been blind since he was a baby, died in a hospital after recently undergoing abdominal surgery, The Associated Press quoted a hospital spokesman as saying. On Thursday his daughter, Nancy Ellen Watson, said he had been hospitalized after falling at his home in Deep Gap, N.C., adding that he did not break any bones but was very ill.

Mr. Watson, who came to national attention during the folk music revival of the early 1960s, injected a note of authenticity into a movement awash in protest songs and bland renditions of traditional tunes. In a sweetly resonant, slightly husky baritone, he sang old hymns, ballads and country blues he had learned growing up in the northwestern corner of North Carolina, which has produced fiddlers, banjo pickers and folk singers for generations.

His mountain music came as a

UPDATED: Army Nurse Dies in Afghanistan while Off Duty

UPDATE: Monday, 07 May 2012

Army officials have not yet released the 43-year-old Nurse/Soldier’s cause of death, but confirmed Monday that he was not shot.

Spokeswoman Chris Grey said, “Although the investigation into his death is open and ongoing by Special Agents from the US Army Criminal Investigation Command, we can positively say that Captain Clark was not shot. Agents conducting the investigation, found no trauma to the body beyond minor abrasions and a possible broken nose most likely caused from Captain Clark striking his face on his desk when he collapsed. Investigators will continue to probe the death but they do not “suspect foul play.”

Beaumont Army Medical Center Public Affars Officer Clarence Davis said the cause of death has not been determined, and that “The autopsy and investigation will reveal the cause of death.”

According to CPT Clark’s brother Justin Hallenbeck, he even spent time as a volunteer firefighter.

CPT Clark was a part of A Company, Troop Command at Beaumont, and deployed to Afghanistan in March.

He was stationed in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan, which was described by Army officials as a town of about 10,000 people.

His awards include the Army Commendation Award, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Army Service Medal.

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It’s still a dangerous place in Afghanistan, as this story testifies.

Oh yes… men make great nurses, and in the Armed Services all RNs are officers.

May his family be comforted during their time of grief.

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Army officer dies during Skype chat with wife

May 6, 2012 8:23 PM

US Army CPT Bruce Kevin Clark, RN was thought to have been killed by a bullet in Afghanistan while off-duty during a Skype video conference session with his wife, who is stateside.

(AP) HOUSTON – The wife of an Army officer serving in Afghanistan witnessed her husband’s death as the two video chatted via Skype, his family said Friday.

The circumstances of Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark’s death were not immediately available. The Pentagon said it was under investigation, and his brother-in-law said he didn’t have details.

“We are entrusting the military with investigating and with finding out what happened to Capt. Clark,” Bradley Taber-Thomas told The Associated Press.

Clark, a 43-year-old Army chief nurse, grew up in Michigan and lived previously in Spencerport, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester and his wife’s hometown. He joined the Army in 2006 and was stationed in Hawaii before he was assigned to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso. He deployed to Afghanistan in March.

A statement from the family released by Taber-Thomas said Clark died Monday while

So long, Goober… and, thanks for the memories.

The story of an Alabama man who made good, and gave back significantly to his home state.

This line of his will get you started: “We were so poor that we’d eat beans for breakfast, drink water for lunch and swell up for supper.“

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George “Goober” Lindsey dead at 83

Posted: May 06, 2012 10:37 AM CDT
Updated: May 06, 2012 12:33 PM CDT
Posted by Micca Terrell

Alabama-born & raised George Lindsey (1928-2012), famous for his role as “Goober” in the 1960′s sit-com The Andy Griffith Show

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -Actor and comedian George “Goober” Lindsey died early Sunday morning after a brief illness, according to his publicist. He was 83 years old.

Lindsey was born on December 17, 1928 in Fairfield, Alabama, and grew up in the small town of Jasper.  Sources tell Channel 4 that The Andy Griffith Show and Hee Haw star will be buried there.

Funeral arrangements are being handled Marshall Donnelly Combs Funeral Home of Nashville.

As a young boy, Lindsey’s best buddies were his dog One Spot and his pal Sappo, a lifelong friend and a popular foil for Lindsey’s stand-up comedy act. He became interested in acting after seeing a production of Oklahoma! when he was just 14.

Lindsey liked to hang around his Aunt Ethel’s gas station, where the mechanics wore felt caps to keep the grease and oil from dripping into their hair. Those caps would inspire Lindsey’s trademark “beanie” worn by Goober.

Gas station notwithstanding, the Lindsey family of George’s youth felt the full weight of the Great Depression. Those hard times were later a rich source of material for his comedy act, with jokes guaranteed to get a laugh, such as: “We were so poor that we’d eat beans for breakfast, drink water for lunch and swell up for supper.”

As a student in Jasper, Lindsey was a good athlete. At Walker County High School, he excelled in football and basketball. One of

Watergate Criminal Made Good – Chuck Colson dead at 80

Skeptics abounded when it was announced that Mr. Colson had converted and become Christian.

Their skepticism was misplaced, for Mr. Colson’s conversion was genuine.

If anything, Mr. Colson’s life is a story of the redemptive and transformative power of the living Christ.

His life story is a familiar one. A man with significant talent and power goes terribly awry. When confronted with the error of his ways, he is genuinely repentant, and changes his ways. He become another man altogether… a man no one would recognize, were it not for his name to identify him.

“I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’”

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’”

- the words of Jesus Christ, Matthew 25:36-40

May he rest in peace, and may his memory be blessed.

1 Corinthians 13 >> New International Version 1984

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1If I speak in the tongues^a of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^b but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

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Former Nixon aide Chuck Colson dies at 80

April 21, 2012 4:29 PM

By Leigh Ann Caldwell

(CBS News) Chuck Colson, a former aide to Richard Nixon, evangelical leader, author and nonprofit founder, died Saturday at the age of 80.

He passed away at a hospital in Northern Virginia, three weeks after surgery to ease intercerebral hemorrhage — a large pool of clotted blood in his brain.

Jan. 16, 2011
Through his prison ministry, Colson established a rehabilitation program that aimed to cut the recidivism rate. He publicly opposed the death penalty and called for alternatives to incarceration, particularly for non-violent offenders, who make up a significant portion of the prison population. (photo by Bill O'Leary / The Washington Post)

Colson was Nixon’s special counsel and was part of the Watergate scandal which led to Nixon’s resignation. He was known as the president’s “hatchet man,” and also served on Nixon’s re-election committee, which plotted and attempted to steal information from the Democratic Party headquarters.

Colson pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and served seven months of a one-to-three year prison sentence.

Prior to the start of his prison sentence, Colson became a born-again Christian. After his release from an Alabama prison, Colson founded Prison Fellowship, a nonprofit organization that conducts outreach to prisoners to “seek the transformation of prisoners… through the power and truth of Jesus Christ.”

According to his bio for Prison Fellowship, Colson formed the idea of Prison Fellowship when a fellow inmate told him “there ain’t nobody cares about us. Nobody!” Colson started the organization and ran it for 33 years.

Jim Liske, CEO of Prison Fellowship, told CBS News that

Remembering the Nazi Genocide

Yesterday – Wednesday, 18 April 2012 – began Holocaust Remembrance Day 2012. It is now coming to a close as I write.

For those unaware, the Holocaust refers to the genocide of Jews, primarily, and of Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the crippled, aged, mentally ill, and those with other disabilities, including homosexuals, dissidents and any others whom Nazis sought to eradicate because they thought them either subhuman, or ideological enemies.

In recent years, the word “holocaust” is being replaced in popular usage with another word “shoah,” because the word “holocaust” refers to a burnt offering as sacrifice made to the Almighty. The Jewish genocide was neither 1.) a burnt offering; and 2.) was not an offering to the Almighty. Shoah means catastrophe. Both words, “holocaust” and “shoah,” are Hebrew in origin.

One of the most fascinating stories of Remembrance comes from a tiny town of 1600 in the rural mountains of southeastern Tennessee.

Tucked away in the gentle rolling green hills where coal mining is a way of life for many, is a memorial to the 6,000,000+ people brutally killed by Hitler’s Nazi regime. Even more fascinating is that the memorial was a project by the middle school children of Whitwell. For example, who would imagine that children whom are largely isolated from world events by their location, who are homogeneously white, Protestant Christians, would have any connection to the tragedy that remains one of the most brutal scars in human history?

The 2004 documentary film Paper Clips retraces the steps in the process of bring that memorial to fruition.

Also unbeknownst to many, during World War II, the humble paperclip was a symbol of Norwegian national solidarity, concord and opposition to Nazi German authorities occupation.

But moreover, you may be asking “Why remember?”

For the simple reason that “Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it”

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‘Paper Clips‘ Links Town, Holocaust Legacy

April 18, 2012 – Deborah Hirsch, Jewish Exponent Staff

Whitwell, Tenn.The Jewish population of Whitwell, Tenn., increased by 5,300 percent on Sunday as a busload of 53 teens and adults from Har Zion Temple pulled into the tiny, rural town.

Har Zion student Rachel Weiss tours the rail car Photo by Jay Gorodetzer.

The mostly white, Protestant population here has grown accustomed to welcoming tourists since middle schoolers collecting paper clips to represent the Holocaust death toll picked up media attention and eventually built a full-fledged memorial. But this was the first time they’d greeted so many Jews from quite so far away: 27 students plus parents and clergy from the Conservative synagogue in Penn Valley.

“We’re standing in Appalachia and not somewhere you’d expect that people would care, and I feel like they care even more,” said Jordan Gottlieb, a freshman at the Shipley School.

The impetus for the whirlwind overnight trip came from Norman Einhorn, co-principal of Har Zion’s Hebrew high school. He’d been using the 2004 Paper Clips documentary to teach his students its “incredible lesson about taking care of others,” and arranged to have Whitwell teacher Sandra Roberts come to Har Zion in November. So moved by her speech, he vowed — “in the heat of the moment” — that synagogue members would find a way to visit the memorial.

In less than six months, he had more

Report: 20% of all American suicides are new Veterans

UPDATE 19 April 2012:

Major General Dr L. P. Chang, commander of 807th medical command says #army #suicide rate surpassed civilian rate in 2008. #AASConference
— Mayo Clinic (@MayoClinic) April 19, 2012

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The news you don’t hear…

Just because you don’t hear it doesn’t mean it goes away.

Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Bryan B. Battaglia, who is the Defense Department’s top enlisted leader, held a press conference in Washington, D.C. December 9, 2011 in response a report to Congress on suicide among America’s military veterans conducted by Center for a New American Security. Testimony was given December 2, 2011 before the House Committee on Veteran’s Affairs, and may be found here. The findings are that suicide by veterans constitutes a serious threat to the stability of an all-volunteer military force. About 1 percent of Americans have served during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but 20 percent of suicides in the United States are former service members. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 18 veterans die by suicide each day.

Never before have our military service members been asked to do so much. Never before have our military service members been asked – or required – to attend numerous tour of combat duty consecutively. Those changes occurred under

American troops bodies thrown in garbage dump

Thanks for nothing.

Is there no dignity?

And the news just in is that the Department of Defense (DoD) will now remove sex with animals as a prosecutable offense. (See story here.)

It’s only just and right, I suppose – particularly that they’ve just been screwed.

Perhaps necrophilia is next to be removed from the taboo list of perverted sexual practices, eh?

What is wrong?

Remains of 274 US troops dumped in landfill: report

The US Air Force dumped the cremated, partial remains of at least 274 troops in a landfill before

iOS 5 Crashes & Kills Stanza reader

UPDATE: 12/25/11 Please read the updated entry on this issue: Stanza Reader Updated: Now compatable with iOS5.
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If you use an iPhone and the Stanza e-book reader app, you may want to consider NOT upgrading to the iOS5.

Why?

According to numerous emerging reports, it is buggy – so much so, that it crashes the app, which in many cases, will not work at all.

Macworld reported Nov 2, 2011 12:20 pm that “Stanza version—3.1 - which was originally developed for both the Mac and iOS platforms by Lexcycle – last updated in February, is barely useable on iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads running the iOS 5 updated released by Apple a month ago. And Amazon, which owns the app, has

I am saddened

This evening, I have been weeping.

Yes, I – a full-grown man – have shed very sorrowful tears upon learning of the untimely death of a long-time college friend and colleague.

My friend Jeffrey Rosado died this evening. Apparently, while dining at

Rest In… Pieces of A Man, Gil Scott-Heron

The world learned of musician poet/author Gil Scott-Heron‘s death via Twittter from his manager Jamie Byng.

His voice was one that demonstrated a strong sense of outrage over social injustice, and will be sorely missed.

Early in his life, his parents divorced where they lived in Chicago, and his mother moved him to Jackson, Tennessee where he was raised by his grandmother Lillie Scott.

He first came to public renown through his recording “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” which was a semi-prophetic commentary upon the times in which we now find ourselves.

Known for