When "gospel rock" was an oxymoron
by Bryce Martin

It's the Devil's music with the Lord's chorus serving as counterpoint.

That might be my definition for the music genre known as "Christian rock" or "gospel rock." It, to me, is still an odd combination of words and an even more odd genre of music. When I first heard the term, I was stymied. Surely, it was an oxymoron, in the vein of "dry ice" and "jumbo shrimp," or everybody's favorite, "military intelligence." Rock 'n' roll was the Devil's music, birthed, bought and paid for in the 1950s, so why kowtow to it? Why humor it? Dismiss it outright and be gone with it.

In a recent newspaper filler, I read that the man who invented the genre had moved on to that rockin' band of angels in the sky, presumably. I imagine that history will little note nor long remember Larry Norman ("Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman dies at 60"; Tennessean; February 27, 2008). Norman, as noted in the small article, was inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame in 2001. But it was his 1969 album Upon This Rock that introduced the concept of Christian rock and the act that prompted his title as "father of Christian rock."

Christian-themed lyrics to Chuck Berry chords or a Bo Diddley beat.

Even a casual historian on the subject of rock 'n' roll music knows the genre owes a kinship to blues and gospel music. Some oldtime gospel songs even long before Elvis rocked in a way that Elvis was to rock later on. Elvis, in fact, received much of his music tutelage as a young churchgoer.

It gave me goosebumps to hear hundreds of combat boots stomping in an unrehearsed, completely inspired unison/cadence in my place of order in the balcony of a large chapel while our godforsaken pitiful selves sang "Onward Christian Soldiers" each Sunday in U.S. Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego in 1964.

The sound was there then -- and had been around for who knows how long -- many of us just didn't know it.

-30-

Suicide Bombers dumber than dumb
by Bryce Martin

Now we find out that the Feb. 1 market bombings in Iraq carried out by women suicide dingdongs were females who did not have Down syndrome as originally reported, that they were not women with that disability who killed innocent people and themselves in the name of their religion.

I suspected as much. People I have known with Down syndrome were smarter than that.
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Turnip Truck Talk

I was amused when Oprah Winfrey seemed shocked that many weeks after she endorsed Barack Omama she couldn't believe people felt she did it because he was black. Imagine that. Blacks vote for democrats (read liberals) at a 90+rate. (No bloc of voters would vote that high a percentage on the sun rising in the east each morning in the U.S. of A.). Plus, Omama is a strict liberal, with nothing new on the same old liberal agenda we haven't heard for years. It's not like she can say she offered her support because he is a fresh voice.
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The Real George

"Since pacifists have more freedom of action in countries where traces of democracy survive, pacifism can act more effectively against democracy than for it. Objectively the pacifist is pro-Nazi."

George Orwell, October 1941
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