It's That Time of Year! Ding Dong!

One of the sweetest sounds in all christendom is the sound of church bells ringing. Well, maybe not to EVERYBODY!!!

Go Here for details:



www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001419_pf.html

Look, we have youngsters riding around in "rolling amplifiers" that produce so many decibels of pure, unadulterated, NOISE ...that I find it difficult to believe that anyone could protest the sweet sound of church bells! I suspect that if one placed a VU meter near those automobiles, which produce more sound that a small nuclear bomb, 75 decibels would sound like a whisper!

Sometimes the act itself speaks volumes about the perpetrators.

Longstreet

“Global Warming’s” Predictions for Hurricane Season 2006 Flat Wrong!"

I would like to gloat! I really would! But this ain’t my first rodeo, so… I won’t!

Why, you may ask, am I so ecstatic?

Glad you asked!

Today is the last day of the Atlantic Hurricane Season.

So?

So, all the Grandees, of the Global Warming Movement, stuck their collective foot in it, again! I take great pleasure in that… anytime it happens, but doubly so when they miss the hurricane predictions so badly.

Remember… all the dire warnings of Super Storms and the destruction wrought, by same, which would wipe out our coastal cities and casualty rates and the amount of damage done, in dollars and cents, would be off the scale. Remember all that? Well, those of us who live in Hurricane Alley remember. We said then, and we say now, it was then, and it is now, a lot of bunk.

You can read more on this subject at:

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBHKNBE0VE.html

So, why am I not gloating? 'Cause there is next season to worry about! That’s it in a nutshell!

So… we had a light season this year. Next season may be a recorder setter! That is the way of hurricanes.

Hurricanes have battered the coast of North America long before man ever got here, long before the Global Warming People glommed onto it as a scare tactic to frighten people into believing their mantra, and, truth be told, as long as this globe spins and the waters of the Atlantic heat up each spring and summer, we will continue to have hurricanes. Some years will be worse than others. Some storms will be stronger than others. And… the prognosticators will continue to beat us, about the head and shoulders, each year, prior to the opening of hurricane season in June, with their pronouncements on how many storms there will be… how many will hit the mainland, how many will make landfall along the gulf coast, and how strong the storms will be, etc., etc. It goes on and on. All the while those of us living here, with the huge bulls eye painted on us, just wait and prepare. This year we were blessed. Next year, we may be creamed by a “record breaker” in ferocity.

Hurricanes will humble you… at least those of us with any sense, at all, will be humbled by them. When you are watching the approach of a storm, which has many times the energy of the atom bombs dropped on Japan, you tend to develop a little awe… and if you are smart, you will be humbled in their presence.

I have been in this neighborhood for 42 plus years. In that time I have been struck by hurricanes from the east, from the southeast, from the south, and even from the southwest. Then, in the winter, the winter version hits us. We call them nor’easters because their strong winds come from the northeast.

You’ll have to forgive us if we don’t put a whole lot of weight on the findings of some scientist in a sterile laboratory somewhere as it pertains to our region and the chance of a storm hitting us. There are just too many veterans of hurricanes living among us… and… if there is such a thing as a hurricane expert, it is surely they, not the scientists.

So, if you must, continue to follow the “sky is falling” warnings of the Global Warming crowd. But discount what they say about global warming causing stronger hurricanes and more frequent hurricanes. If you want to know the truth about the deadly, impersonal, storms, talk to the true experts... the people who have lived for generations along the southern and gulf coasts of the US. Ask THEM about the storms and watch as they stare out across the waters of the Atlantic looking, for all the world, as though they could actually see the western beaches of Portugal and the Straits of Gibraltar. When they speak… listen to THEM!

Update:

During the so-called Medieval Warming Period form 800 to 1200 AD, the earth experienced the increase in global temperatures. In fact, the ice, on what we now call Greenland, had thawed and disappeared. The Vikings even migrated there and named it Greenland because of the lush greenery on it’s shores.

The oscillation of global temperatures is normal. They rise and then they fall. We have warming (warm) periods and we have cold (ice age) periods. Many scientists believe we have about reached the apex of the current warming period and are about to begin the long down hill slide into a cooling period or another ice age. I subscribe to the latter theory... except, I believe it will get a great deal warmer, than it is currently, before we begin the next cooling off period.

Longstreet

Dems: Don’t Call Us What We Are!!!

Well, well, well. Who woulda thunk it? The Democrats don’t like the name of their party!

Yeah! Can you believe it? And here, all this time, we thought they were democrats. But, no! They claim to be the “Democratic” Party! That’s sorta strange… because the Republican Party is a “democratic party”, too! So are the Libertarians and sundry other political parties in the US.

Want to see what I’m talking about?? Go the Washington Post at:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112101223.htm

This is so typical of the folks who call themselves democrats, whoops, “democratics” these days. They can’t win elections running as whom they are… “Socialist Liberals”. And they find their own party’s correct name insulting! Seems to me the democrat(ics) have some serious mental issues here!

Sometime ago, I began referring to the Democrat(ics) as Socialist Democrats, a name I felt more aptly described who, exactly, they are. To the best of my recollection, I have had no democrat(ics) complain about the addition of the word “socialist” in front of democrat. That, alone, speaks volumes about the way the democrat(ics) see themselves.

Putting aside the humor for a moment… I DO believe the Democrat Party should change its name. In my view “democrat” no longer describes who they are, as a party, and it lacks something in describing their platform. In the past few decades the Democrat Party has taken on so much of the Socialist Party’s platform that they are almost indistinguishable from one another. In my humble opinion, the Democrat Party SHOULD change it’s name to “The Socialist Democrat Party” and be done with it.

So, I would say to our friends on the Left, if you don’t wish to be referred to by your true name: “The Democrat Party”… then, change it. I suggest, of course, the name I put forward above: “The Socialist Democrat Party”.

Longstreet

Let’s Import Israelis Before There Aren’t Any!

Let’s Import Israelis Before There Aren’t Any!
By Alan Caruba

The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, expressing the intention of the ayatollahs, has said he wants to wipe Israel off the map by killing every man, woman and child. Iran will use a nuclear weapon and is close to being able to make one any day now.

If the nuclear option is not used, the proxy armies of the Iranian puppet-masters will be Hezbollah attacking from Lebanon and Hamas from Gaza. Israel is in a pincers between armed camps sworn to destroy it. In the past it has been able to defeat its enemies. It may not be able to do so in the future.

Jerusalem has changed hands many times since the nation of Israel was established in 1321 B.C. Since King David founded it, it has been the Jewish capital for 3,300 years. There are some six million Jews living in the latest resurrection of Israel. They are, combined with all other Jews, a mere 0.02 percent of the world’s population, but they represent 40 percent of all the Jews in the world.

When the Jews declared Israel an independent state on May 14, 1948, five Arab nations immediately attacked it. Offered a state of their own by the United Nations, local Arabs said no. For nearly six decades, Israel has never had a day of real peace.

In its quest for peace, Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 only to be provoked to war by Hezbollah. Israelis lived under missile attack for more than a month earlier this year. Hamas’ Palestinians are arming themselves for war despite Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza over a year ago and meaningless truces.

Over its short modern history, Israel’s primary support has come from the United States, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been unequivocal in her support for a two-state solution despite the failure of that effort. U.S. administrations have strong-armed Israeli and Palestinian leaders to sign agreements, none of which were kept by the latter.

I have a suggestion. Let’s import Israel’s Jews. Let’s offer them all passage to America and a fast track to citizenship. The United States has absorbed an estimated twelve to twenty million illegal Mexican, Caribbean, and South American aliens with hardly a whimper. Why not six million of the most talented people in the world, one of the highest concentrations of brainpower to be found anywhere?

Yes, this means abandoning Israel to the Arabs, but Israel is so small the entire landmass could sink into Lake Michigan and never been seen again. In one stroke, America would have defused the so-called “reason” that the Middle East is in such turmoil.

Consider how America would benefit.

In 2004 two Israelis received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for having discovered a process that will lead the way to DNA repair. Jews have won more Nobel Prizes than any other group.

Most of the Windows operating systems were developed by Microsoft’s Israeli center. The Pentium NMX Chip technology was designed at Intel’s center in Israel. Same, too, for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ, developed in 1996 by four young Israelis. Cell phone technology was developed in Israel by Motorola’s center.

Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees per capita than any other nation in the world. It produces more scientific papers per capita as well and, except for the U.S., its people file more patents on new inventions and processes than any other nation. Similarly, per capita, it publishes more new books.

In Psalm 137, the author asks, “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” Exile from Israel, however, has been a repeated factor in the long history of the Jews. “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy…”

Nice poetry, but bad policy if Israel’s Jews want to survive this century, let alone this decade. In the last century, their neighbors in Europe facilitated the slaughter of six million Jews in Nazi death camps.

By importing Israel’s Jews, America will have a people who will not fly planes into our skyscrapers, not gun down our school children, not blow up teenagers in discothèques or commit suicide to kill strangers in restaurants, on buses and trains. They will not kill people attending weddings and funerals.

Jews love peace so much they greet each other with the Hebrew word for it, “shalom.”

As experienced as Jews are with an exodus or an exile, Israel’s Jews are likely to fight any invader. Or they will die in their ancient homeland from a malevolent nuclear attack. Either way, it will be the world’s loss, but few will see it that way.

In the words of the great Jewish sage Rabbi Hillel, “If not now, when?”

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. His new book, “Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy”, has just been published by Merril Press.

© Alan Caruba, 2006

Why have Mainline Churches, in America, shown God the Door?

Why have Mainline Churches, in America, shown God the Door?

I left the religious denomination in which I spent over half my life as a member. It was one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make, but I felt, in the end, I had to do it, or drop the title of Christian. I felt that if I really was committed to following the teachings of the scripture I had no choice but to “come out from among them”. So, I did. Needless to say, I am looked upon as some sorta kook, but that’s fine by me. I have never particularly cared, one way or the other, what people think of me. I don’t have time for that sort of thing.

I was raised in a fundamentalist evangelical church. I remained in that church until I was 25 years of age. Even though I had distanced myself from the actual congregation, I remained, nevertheless. Then, I had the good fortune to meet a minister, of one of the mainline denominations in America, and he introduced me to the “practice of religion” I had never known. One, which adhered to biblical teachings and one, which was “Christ centered” as, in my opinion, a “Christian” church ought to be.

Upon attending services, at that pastor’s church, for the first time, on the walk back to our car, I remarked to my wife: “I feel as if I have been to church for the first time in my life”.

The teaching of this church, of which I soon became a member, stressed the love of God and the importance of following the teachings of Christ with the realization that no one is without sin and that as humans we will fall short. But the church went on to teach that when we do fall short… God is waiting… with open arms to forgive us and offer us compassion and strength. This church said there is no difference between Saint and Sinner. We are all sinners.

The pastor would stand in the pulpit Sunday, after Sunday, and preach from the scriptures. He would preach, and teach, about the God/Man from whom Christians derive their name… Christ.

It was a wonderful church, a church filled with love for God and for each other. Then something happened to change it… all.

About 20 years ago, the hierarchy of the church decided to merge with two other branches of the same name. Those churches were far more liberal than my church. Immediately the moderate church I loved began to go soft and become more liberal. Both in its approach to the scriptures and its acceptance of liberal politics and finally, the death knell sounded for me, the church accepted political correctness. That was the day the church died for me. It was over.

You see, for centuries my church had accepted the scripture as truth. But, the day the churched accepted “political correctness”; it was doomed. Why? Because, political correctness recognizes NO TRUTH. Everything is in shades of gray. There is no black and white in political correctness. The scriptures, as I know them, are anything but gray. There is absolute right and there is absolute wrong. A Christian cannot have it both ways. One must choose.

Look, either one believes the scriptures and makes and effort to live by them, or one does not. It is as simply as that for me.

Soon after the merger, or ministers began to preach about social matters, and political matters, from the pulpit. I remarked to my pastor that had I wanted to hear social politics on that particular Sunday I would have stayed home watched the TV news rather than waste my time at his church. Needless to say, that did not sit well.

As time went on, the church adopted more and more of the Political Left’s way of doing things. They even began the pagan practice of environmentalism. It soon became ridiculous. I was going to church to learn of Christ and instead I was being lectured in left wing politics. The church was dead! It was time to move on.

So, I left the church I loved… because it was no longer the church I had become a member of some 35 years earlier. The church I loved was dead.

Now understand, I have no fear for the safety of my soul. That was taken care of a very long time ago. But, I must tell you. I do miss the worship services with fellow Christians in an atmosphere of brotherly love as we bow before our God. I miss that. There is something strengthening in that sharing of love for one another and the expression of one’s love for God.

I do not regret leaving my denomination. Given the same set of circumstances, I would do it again, but a lot sooner.

Let me say this… it is my firm belief that when our mainline churches toss out their left wing politics and their right wing politics and begin, once again, to teach their parishioners from the scriptures, and make their primary purpose the practice of the Great Commission of Christ to his Church, as he departed, then our churches will once more be filled to overflowing.

There is a great longing throughout America for a renewal of America’s covenant with God. Notice, I didn’t say a contract, I said a covenant. A contract is an agreement between two equals. A covenant is an agreement between to unequal parties. And therein lies the root cause of the decline of America’s churches. We came to see our agreement with God as a contract, raising ourselves to the level of God, or worse, pulling God down to our level. One cannot do that without consequences. Bad consequences.

So, I am now among the “un-churched”. But not really.

We Christians are instructed, by Christ, to seek, first, the Kingdom of God and everything else will be taken care of. But today, out churches have switched that. Now, it is everything else first… then God, if… there is time before “coffee hour”.

As Christ was leaving this world, on his way home, he gave his disciples, the founders of the Christian church, a “charge”. In the Christian Church we refer to it as “The Great Commission”. He said this: 18”And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28: 18-20.) That’s it. That’s all there is to it.

You may notice that Christ’s charge to his church was not to rant against global warming. Not to demonstrate against world hunger, not to fight amongst ourselves over abortion, or homosexuality, or adultery, or politics, or a one world government, and he didn’t instruct us to create lobbying offices in Washington, DC, to lobby Congress in the churches stead. No, he did not charge us with any of those things. WHAT he DID charge us with was to preach and teach his commandments which, taken alone, will settle all the arguments above.

But the hierarchy of our mainline churches has resented the yoke of the covenant with God and they have finally laid it down… and taken up the position once occupied by God. Now, THEY decide what the church will teach and preach. “The Great Commission” is simply an anachronism. Out of date and frankly, in the way. So the church simply disregards it.

The Church has lost its way. Church attendance in America is somewhere around 30%. That means, of course, 60% of Americans don’t attend church anymore. Yet we say we are a Christian nation. How can that be? Do you suppose that many Americans, who did not like the direction the church has taken, have simply “come out from among them” and are living lives of quiet adherence to the commands of God outside the church? I, frankly, think so. In my case I read the scriptures and pray regularly. I tithe my income every month, but I send them to a church in a neighboring city… a church, which I feel, is actually trying to live up to Christ’s commands.

The Church has given its rightful place of leadership, in American society, over to the government. The scripture: “In as much as ye have done it unto the least of these… you have done it unto me” is now carved over the door of the Welfare Department and Social Services Department…not the Church door where it belongs.

The one standard, for our American society, used to be the church. No longer. The church has abdicated the throne of “The Standard Setter” in favor of deferring to the Supreme Court. Now, this is the same Supreme Court which ruled we, as a Christian society, cannot display the Ten Commandments on the grounds of a courthouse in America. That, in spite of the indisputable fact that the American code of laws is founded upon the Ten Commandments and old English Common Law.

The title of this piece is “Why have Mainline Churches, in America, shown God the Door?” Simple. God is inconvenient. Our churches today can’t be bothered with that 2000 to 6000 year old code of conduct, and law, and instructions for living a decent, God-fearing life. No, they have adopted the position that it does not apply today. Let me give you some examples:

Today the church does not feed and clothe the hungry. The government does it. Today the church is not saving men’s souls. It’s too busy saving the environment. Today the church does not set the standard to live by. The Supreme Court does. (The church won’t challenge it for fear of losing its tax-free status.) Today the church does not condemn that conduct the scriptures call sin. No. Indeed, the church is celebrating it, and in many cases, blessing those who indulge in one of the most heinous sins mentioned in the scriptures.

Yes, God is inconvenient for today's mainline churches in America. But, you know, truth is inconvenient, also. And one of the great truths from the scriptures is: “It is appointed unto man, once to die… and after death… the judgment.”

Eventually the hierarchy of our mainline denominations will ultimately answer to God for what they have done to his people, to his church. In the meantime, those of us who persist in, at the very least, making an attempt at, living a decent, God fearing life, outside those congregations, which no longer reflect Christian truth, will remain outsiders. But, you know. God himself said, there would be but a "remnant" of his people left. I think I have come to know, now, what He actually meant by that.

Longstreet

The Californication of the Economy ... by Alan Caruba

The Californication of the Economy
By Alan Caruba

The midterm elections were held on November 7th and by November 10th the Associated Press reported that California Senator Barbara Boxer was promising “major policy shifts on global warming, air quality and toxic-waste cleanup as she prepares to lead the U.S. Senate’s environmental committee.”

“Time is running out,” said Sen. Boxer about global warming “and we need to move forward on this,” during a conference call with reporters. Noticeably missing from her Chicken Little pronouncement was any scientific evidence that (1) there actually is a global warming threat and (2) why any of the draconian proposals to deal with it would have the slightest effect.

“Boxer said she intends to introduce legislation to curb greenhouse gases, strengthen environmental laws regarding public health and hold oversight hearings on federal plans to clean up Superfund hazardous waste sites across the country.”

I call this the “Californication” of the economy because Sen. Boxer would model federal legislation on a new California law that imposed the first statewide limit on greenhouse gases, seeking to cut that State’s emissions by 25 percent in an effort to return them to 1990 levels by 2020.

The National Center for Public Policy Research recently noted that, “Despite ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union is on track to miss its Kyoto emissions reduction target of 8% below 1990 levels by 2012. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the CO2 emissions for the l5 original member nations of the EU increased an average of 9% between 2000 and 2004.” Industrialized societies that require economic growth should never place a meaningless obstacle like “greenhouse gas emissions” in the way, but that’s exactly what the United Nations Kyoto Protocol does.

The primary greenhouse gas that impacts the Earth’s climate is nothing more ominous than water vapor. The other greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide (CO2). Every living creature on the planet breathes in oxygen and exhales CO2. At the same time, every form of vegetation absorbs CO2 and gives off oxygen. This symbiosis accounts for life on this planet and has worked well for millions of years.

Imposing an entirely bogus scheme in which some companies can pay hard cash for greenhouse gas “credits” that would allow them to continue to emit the designated gases has already been tried and the result, as in the case of Europe, is that no reductions have occurred or ever will.

Neither California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, nor Sen. Boxer appears to be aware that nations such as India and China are not participating in this nonsense, nor other developing nations, many of whom are still in need of energy sources that will enable their economies to grow.

Energy efficiency is a worthy goal, but it is something the marketplace should determine, not the government. There is a growing “cleantech” industry and, for example, truck fleet operators are saving millions of dollars by installing systems that allow drivers to plug into electrical outlets, rather than running truck engines, for auxiliary power at night or during rests. As the cost of oil edges up worldwide, you can be sure that all kinds of industries will seek ways to be more energy efficient. They will not need government mandates to make it happen.

Politicians, now calling themselves “progressives” instead of socialists, see global warming as a big club to wield against corporations.

In early November, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) wrote a joint letter to Exxon Mobil CEO, Rex W. Tillerson demanding that Exxon Mobil cease funding two dozen organizations and individuals they call a “small cadre of global climate change skeptics.”

To put it another way, they want to silence any dissent about “global warming” despite the fact that there is ample scientific evidence that dramatic climate changes are not occurring. Meanwhile Exxon Mobil has announced it will contribute a million Euros to a European research project devoted to carbon capture and storage.

The Earth, of course, has been warming since the last Ice Age about 11,500 years ago, but despite the bogus “computer models” on which the “global warming” hoax is based, there is no evidence that anything other than perfectly natural climate cycles are occurring.

When oil prices spiked after the temporary impact Hurricane Katrina had on oil from the Gulf of Mexico, two Democrat Senators, Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) were calling for a “windfall profits tax” that would have imposed an excise tax when the price of a barrel is more than $40.00. What better way to deprive oil companies of the profits they need to explore for and extract much-needed new sources of oil or to build new refineries? These enterprises cost billions, but some legislators would rather that money go into government coffers.

The new Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, has announced that Democrats intend to move toward greater energy independence “by rolling back the multibillion dollar subsidies for Big Oil.” This is utter nonsense. The government provides a plethora of subsidies for every kind of industry in the nation. How much energy independence does Rep. Pelosi, another Californian, think the U.S. will achieve if Congress attacks energy companies?

Political guru, Charles Cook, interviewed in Business Week magazine’s November 20th issue was asked which industries should be worried by a Congress where the Democrat Party is the majority. He named pharmaceutical companies, managed-care companies, and oil companies.

A cadre of “progressive” members of Congress will now attempt to destroy the nation’s latest spate of economic growth and prosperity. They will do so in the name of “global warming” and a working class they say is suffering under the heel of evil capitalists.

America.

Karl Marx is dead, but Marxism marches on despite its unbroken record of failure.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com. His book, “Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy”, has been published by Merril Press.

© Alan Caruba, 2006

The "Cause of Death" for America

Multiculturalism, Diversity, and Political Correctness have destroyed a Country.

There was a time in America, not so long ago, when we had white people, black people, brown people, yellow people, etc. We had men and women. We had healthy people and we had sick people and we had handicapped people.

We had smart people and we had dumb people. We had retarded people and we had normal people.

We had homosexuals but... we had no gay and/or lesbian people.

We had truth and we had the lie.

We had people who loved America and people who hated America. There was no “in-between”.

We had Republicans and Democrats and no Independents. We had conservatives and liberals. We did not have moderates.

Well, what happened? Answer: World War Two!

What’s World War Two got to do with it, you may ask?

Glad you asked!

It has everything to do with the mess we find ourselves in in America today.

Our US troops, who fought in Europe, and were stationed there after the war, brought something back from Europe that was, up ‘til that time, alien to America. In those days it was called “Moral Relativism”. Simply defined it says there are no absolutes. There is no absolutely black and there is no absolutely white. There is no absolute truth and there is no absolute lie.

Now this was like a bombshell going off in America. Those of religious faith saw it instantly for what it was. The GREAT LIE!

The "pointy head elites", in the northeastern states, and the university academia, saw instantly a way to cover all the things they wanted to do, and say, with cloak of moral relativism. And they took it up and reveled in it. They began to teach it to our kids. Then those kids became elementary and high school teachers themselves… and they, too, taught it to our kids and, their kids.

It is not accidental that those on the left side of the political spectrum in America came so quickly to adopt Moral Relativism. You see… they WERE the university elite. Someone has said recently, it is now a part of the DNA of the political left and the Democrat Party.

Nowadays, Moral Relativism is known as Political Correctness. No matter what it is called it is still the most effective way to live a lie and sell that life style to others.

When I was a boy, America was referred to as a great Melting Pot. People from all over the world would come to America and melt right into the unique American society and culture. Sometimes it took one, or even two, generations to make the cycle complete but they worked at it. And it made America strong.

Then, the Left came up with something called “Multiculturalism”. Basically, that is to say... that any, and all, cultures are as good as ours. (When we had a unique American Culture. And for those of you too young to remember… we did have our own culture!) The breakdown of American society, and culture, began at that moment. The Political Left set their plan in motion. What was that plan? It was to no longer have a single American culture... but a vast array of cultures, from all the peoples who had come here to, ostensively, become Americans.

It was kind of cute at first, the gay colors of the Hispanic peoples and their holidays… and the October fest of the Germans, and the Irish holidays, and the various other cultural celebrations of the host of other peoples in America. Then.... it became sinister. That unique American culture began to be absorbed into the multitude of other cultures. Now, for all intents and purposes, the American culture is gone. And with it went the identity of the American people.

And then came the icing on the cake: Diversity.

Ever since there has been marriage, a man and a woman deciding to live together and create a family… man has needed to get away from the little woman.

You have to understand, men are barbarians. We can’t help it, that’s the way Nature made us and we will never be house broken. Even in the pre-Columbian days of the Native Americans, on this continent, the tribes had their “Man’s House”. Even then, the men needed to get away. It’s not that the man loved or respected the woman any the less; he just needed to let the beast out for a while. He could not, and cannot, do that in a domesticated setting.

For a very long time, the work place served as the man’s retreat. Then the feminist movement came along and women decided they could have it all… including the heart attacks, ulcers, nervous breakdowns, alcoholism and everything that goes with the workplace, and they chose that over their families. The invasion on the man’s retreat was on and it was overwhelming.

The office known as “Personnel” was suddenly changed to “Human Resources” and diversity in the workplace was near complete.

But… not quite so in American society. The Military was next. Man’s last retreat from curtains, and all forms of domesticity, was invaded and defeated. Again In the name of "diversity".

Now, "diversity and multiculturalism" feed off each other and they both feed off Political Correctness. How is that, you may ask?

Well, if we clear the fog of political correctness away for a brief moment, we can see that multiculturalism is bad for the country. It has robbed us of our identity. Diversity has robbed us of our homes and families… and robbed us of our places in society. Male and female have morphed into one sex now. And again, we have lost our identity. Even the forced injection of different races into each other’s cultures, in the name of diversity, has robbed all races of their distinct identity. So we come up with hyphenated names to try to identify who we are. But… it doesn’t work.

Why can’t we see this? Because Political Correctness has laid the cloak of the Big Lie over everything and we dare not question any of it because that would be… you guessed it… Politically Incorrect.

And so… we are lost. We don’t know who we are anymore, we don’t know where we are anymore, and we don’t even know how we got here.

So how can we change it? We can’t. You can’t unring a bell. You cannot re-institute virginity. We’re stuck!

The US has succumbed to that fatal disease which strikes all great nations and brings them their knees. Guilt!

I mean, heck, we can’t even fight a successful war anymore for fear that we will hurt the enemy. And we feel guilty for, well, something or other. The Left will certainly fill in the blank for us.

We’re near the Thanksgiving season in America. Certainly we can take a tip from our founders, those 102 frightened, but determined, souls who left their country in search of a new beginning.

Like the Pilgrims we are going to have to leave and begin anew. Where, you may ask? Antarctica? Hardly. I would point in one direction. Straight up. Our destiny lies out there … among the stars.

Since government can’t afford to fund a colonization program, it will have to be private enterprise, which comes up with the money, the will, and the way. And do not kid yourselves; they are hard at work on plans for such a venture right now.

In the past 2 decades or so, I have become increasingly dissatisfied with the nearness of our horizons. We have become fat, lazy, and satisfied. The wanderlust is gone. The curiosity to learn what lies over the next hill has diminished. And THAT, Dear Reader, is a death sentence to any society. To paraphrase the scriptures “Without a vision, the people perish”. Our vision is gone.

Well, that’s not ENTIRELY true. Some, among us, cling to the vision of spreading our collective wings and soaring into the universe. Some of us believe it is our destiny. And, as we look around us, some of us believe it is our salvation as well.

Longstreet

Do it Now, or Do it Later?

(This post first ran in July of 2006!)

Do it Now, or Do it Later?
************
The argument rages among Americans whether we should take the leash off our Armed Forces and allow them to mop the desert and mountains up with the terrorists, or put it off in hope they will "learn to love us" and drop their warlike ways toward us.

Historians tell us that when the 13 American colonies, of Great Britain, went to war for their Independence, from the mother country, roughly 1/3 of Americans were for the war… 1/3 of Americans were against the war… and … roughly 1/3 of Americans could not have cared less, one way or the other. Yet all benefited from the successful conclusion of that war… as has the entire world.

I was born before the Second World War. My formative years were the war years. Then, as I entered my teens, the US became embroiled in the Korean Conflict. Then, as I donned the uniform of my country, the secret war in Vietnam, in which the US had been involved since the 50’s, (to one degree or the other) went public. So, by the time I was a middle-aged man, I had experienced three wars.

Now, I mention this only as a means to express the fact that my experience has left me totally puzzled at the attitude of those Americans who are afraid of war. I cannot fathom the depth of that fear.

Nobody likes war! Well, maybe some do. But generally speaking, the vast majority of humans don’t like it. Unfortunately, war is a part of living on this planet and it will continue to be as long as the earth holds together and continues it’s spinning journey around the sun. It is the way of things.

Americans must get over this “scardy-cat” mentality and attack the future as we used to do. If that means we have to go to war to realize one, or another, of our goals, then so be it.

Look, a great nation doesn’t quaver when a threat to it's security is made by anyone. If they do, believe me, it will not be a great nation for long. Once that chink in a nation’s armor is made visible, it is the open door through which all that nation’s enemies will seek entry.

Here in America, our weak link, our chink in the national armor, is the Political Left. Their quavering has caused more deaths of Americans, and American servicemen, and servicewomen, than any other single cause. A country cannot hesitate when confronted with danger. It must reply to that threat immediately and with irresistible force. Half-hearted military forays into to the homelands of our enemies only leads to unnecessary American deaths. The sooner America attacks, with overwhelming force, the sooner the battles, and the war, are over and battle deaths are minimized.

Unfortunately the American Left has control of our Public School System and our institutions of “so-called” higher learning. They are turning out carbon copies of themselves every year. With every graduating class the future of America, as a great nation, a free nation, grows dimmer. As the Scriptures teach us: “As the twig is bent, so growth the tree!”

I have advocated the abolishment of the American public school system for some time now. Home schooling, and private schooling, is the only way to win our children back and to secure a future for America.

This is not the America I knew neither as a boy nor as a young man. The America I knew bowed to no one. We were a great nation. We were a great people. We feared no man. We had confidence in ourselves that we could do anything, go anywhere, and be anything we wanted. Then the cancer of Leftist Politics took hold. And like the cancer, that it is, it has eaten away America’s soul and her will to live. It has robbed us of a future as a Great, Free, people.

So, if you have been asking yourselves why America hesitates these days, in my humble, or not so humble opinion, (as you choose), the answer lies above in the text of this post.

Someone has said that we are the first generation, which will not leave America a better country than we found it. Unfortunately, I must agree with that!

Longstreet

The Tyranny of Numbers ... by Alan Caruba

The Tyranny of Numbers
By Alan Caruba

When America hit the 300 million mark in October the U.S. Census Bureau held a press conference and their electronic display was on the evening news shows ticking off the numbers of new citizens until it showed…what?

It showed there are just way too many people in America if you worry about things like the provision of sufficient energy, dependency on unfriendly nations for our oil imports, overcrowding of cities, uncontrolled immigration, unfunded entitlements, and a whole list of other problems.

Hard core ecologists—environmentalists is another name for them—if you get a few drinks in them will tell you we will just have to get rid of a couple of million people every month or so if the Earth is to sustain the six billion taking up space, expecting to be fed every day, driving around in cars or on motorcycles, and making more people.

Mark Steyn has written one of the most important books published this year. It’s America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It (27.95, Regnery Publishing). Steyn deals with demographics, a topic most people in that particular field of scholarly endeavor manage to make so dull you just want to run screaming from the room. It is the study of human population trends. Steyn, however, is a talented writer and therefore knows how to turn statistics into a lively discourse.

Demographics have a way of sneaking up on you unnoticed. It’s all those cars and trucks on the road, seemingly driven by maniacs who have no regard for their own lives or yours. I’ll bet you didn’t know that in 2005, traffic deaths reached an all-time high. While the headlines scream about each new U.S. casualty in Iraq, 43,443 people were killed last year, up 1.4 percent from the 42,836 the year before. It was the highest number in any single year since 1990.

The ecologists have a virtually unbroken record of getting demographics wrong. As Steyn notes, in 1968 Paul Ehrlich declared in his bestselling book, The Population Bomb, that “In the 1970s the world will undergo famines—hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.” Wrong. In 1973, a landmark study by the Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth, announced that the world would run out of gold by 1981, of mercury by 1985, tin by 1987, zinc by 1990, and petroleum by 1992. Wrong.

The dumbest man Americans ever elected President, Jimmy Carter, predicted in 1977 that, “we could use up all of the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of next decade.” It is a tribute to the Constitutional system that America actually is able to survive the occasionally stupid or venial man we put in the Oval Office. Former President Clinton is showing up everywhere these days telling anyone who will listen that global warming is going to end life as we know it if we don’t give the United Nations the opportunity to run everything everywhere. Wrong.

Meanwhile, most of us toiling away at our daily lives need to focus in on “what really did happen between 1970 and 2000”, says Steyn. “In that period, the developed world declined from just under 30 percent of the global population to just over 20 percent, and the Muslim nations increased from about 15 percent to 20 percent.”

Ask the French what that means. They are now into their second year of an all-out Intifada being fought by young Muslims (the press always calls them “youths”) who are burning cars and now buses with people still in them. There are areas in cities throughout Europe where no non-Muslim dares to go these days.

“The salient feature of Europe, Canada, Japan, and Russia,” says Steyn, “is that they are running out of babies.” It’s all about fertility rates and, in one developed nation after another the native-born population is not replacing itself as they continue to age and retire, living off the largess of the few young people left to do the work. This is what happens when you create a socialist system that pays for just about everything and promises to take care of you in your old age in case your kids will not.

When a nation loses its survival instinct, releasing its native population from the responsibilities of adulthood, someone is going to have to pick up the tab and do the work. Europe imported Muslims. America is ignoring a wholesale invasion of Mexicans. It’s all about the tyranny of numbers.

America, we’re told, is the lone superpower in the world. Lord knows we have a mighty military machine. We need it because our major export to the rest of the world is defense or, to put it another way, protection.

We’re protecting the Saudi oil fields. We’re protecting the Japanese and South Koreans against a crazy man with nukes. We protect the world’s sea lanes to keep oil and products of every description moving around. We have been protecting Europe since the end of World War II against the Red Menace despite the fact that they have embraced socialism.

And do we get any thanks for this? Hell no! That’s because we have lost our talent for waging a really nasty war to reduce our enemy’s cities to rubble and destroy their armies in the field. That’s how wars have always been won in the past.

But World War II was a different kind of war you say. You’re right. However, the stakes of the war in which we now find ourselves are no less critical. Thousands of young Muslims led by a fanatical core and funded by those afloat in oil money and religious passion have decided that America does not have the stomach for war.

“Our enemies,” Steyn says, “have made a bet—that the West in general and the United States in particular are soft and decadent, and have no attention span.”

If your attention span to this brief polemic on demographics and the guts to defend America has begun to wander, Steyn is right.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. His new book is “Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy”, from Merril Press.

© Alan Caruba, 2006

Conservatives Are Concerned Over the War in Iraq, Too!

(This post first ran in August of 2006!)

Conservatives are concerned over the war in Iraq, too!

Trust me when I tell you that Conservatives in America are not satisfied with the prosecution of the war in Iraq. We haven’t been happy with it in a long while now. That said, however, our concern is quite different from that of our liberal brethren and sisteren.

You see, we want the war fought as a war… and not a Sunday School class!

We have just had a very public demonstration of what happens when you try to fight a war with kid gloves. When you try not to hurt the opposition, when you try to be fair and equitable in causalities. In other words, if the enemy kills two of your men, you should only kill two of his men! Ridiculous!

For our friends in the media, Hizbollah’s; condemnation of Israel for fighting too hard is not the first time we have heard that refrain. The American left has been beating the Bush Administration, and the US military, about the head and shoulders, with the willing assistance of the left leaning media, in this country, and the world, right from the outset of the war in Afghanistan right through the current phase of the war in Iraq. And you see what it has gotten us! A mess! The same thing it got Israel.

As I said, Conservatives are not satisfied with the prosecution of this war. We want it to be far more aggressive than it has been. We want our troops to flatten Iraq. We want our troops to kill as many of the Islamofacists as it is humanly possible to do. We want an unrelenting steamroller of war bent on the destruction of everything before it. We want the enemy completely wiped out, decimated and taught a lesson. Go against the US and you will suffer as no human being has suffered before… in the history of the world. Then, and only then, can we load up our troops on our planes, and ships, and bring them home.

If the US continues on this half-assed way of war fighting, we will still be slogging away at those at those empty-headed Islamo freaks, until kingdom come, with no particularly noticeable effect. In other words, pretty much what we have today.

Our good friends, in Israel, have experienced it first hand. It now appears they are not prepared to have that happen again. There will, most likely, be changes at the top, in both their top military echelons and political echelons. And there should be.

Israel has approximately 6 million inhabitants. The Arabic nations surrounding them contain some 650 million, not counting Jordan and Egypt. Count those two nations and the Arabic count goes to 250 million Arabs, and Persians, to, as we said, roughly 6 million Israelis. The point of all these numbers is to point out the sheer idiocy of trying to fight a “kid gloves” war with their enemies, any of their enemies.

I do not understand the lack of will on the part of the US government to understand the importance of “peace through victory”. We are fighting an enemy bent on world domination. The Islamofacists are no less a threat to America than the Nazis of World War II were. Quite possibly, the Islamofacists are worse than the Nazis.

One thing is for sure. This war will not stay away from our shores. It’s coming… as surely as night follows day. It is only a matter of time. So, if we do not use the full potential of our armed forces against them in Iraq and in Afghanistan, to blunt their coming attack on our homeland, we are in for a rude awakening of the worst possible kind.

America is a sitting duck. We have a target painted on our back and the Islamofacists are aiming directly at it.

Longstreet

Oil, Terror & Environmental Pipedreams ...by Alan Caruba

Oil, Terror & Environmental Pipedreams
By Alan Caruba

In late October I attended a luncheon briefing in New York sponsored by the Middle East Forum. The speaker was R. James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and currently a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton. The room was filled with men who represent a class of citizenry known as “influential.” Woolsey’s topic was “Energy Alternatives and the War on Terror.”

Normally, I give men like Woolsey a lot of respect because they’ve earned it. However, it didn’t take long before I began to hear views that made me begin to question, not just the wisdom of what Woolsey was saying, but why he was saying it.

“The way strategically over the long run to weaken the enemies of Israel, such as Ahmadinejad, is to weaken the role of oil,” said Woolsey. “Oil makes it harder to avoid genocide in Darfur because the Sudanese have a deal with China, and it makes it harder to deal with Iran, because China and Iran have an oil deal.”

Say what? Weaken the role of oil? Genocide in Darfur has something to do with China? Iran will not pursue its lunatic Islamic apocalypse because it has an oil deal with China?

A lot of what Woolsey told the attendees is fairly common knowledge. He noted that natural events such as hurricanes can affect the amount of oil available and that terrorism—he called it “malevolent interference”—could provoke a war that would interrupt the flow of oil out of the Middle East.

If the availability of Iraq’s huge reserves of oil wasn’t a component of the reason the U.S. and its coalition invaded that nation, than we have wasted a lot of national treasure and lives for no good purpose. If a recent, failed al Qaeda attack on Saudi Arabia’s largest refinery wasn’t about oil and the power that flows from it, then we are ignoring an unspoken objective of the Islamic Jihad.

Granted, there’s no joy in knowing that a portion of our oil dollars is going to a handful of nations in the Middle East, but that is where, like Russia, a lot of oil exists. However, the U.S. purchases quite a bit of its oil from Canada and Venezuela, and secures a significant portion from national reserves in the Gulf of Mexico. No matter with which Middle East oil potentates we must make deals, the oil—a global commodity—is going to flow.

So, when I heard Woolsey suggest that the United States needed to make “substantial changes in our transportation”, i.e. begin to massively move away from gasoline to alternatives like ethanol, he really got my attention. Ethanol’s price competitiveness as an energy source is protected by U.S. subsidies. It takes more energy to make, generates far less energy than gasoline, and is not kind to auto engines.

I kept waiting for Woolsey to recommend that the United States open up the massive oil reserves in Alaska’s ANWR or for States to increase access to the massive, untapped reserves of oil and natural gas that lie off the U.S. continental shelf on both coasts. What I heard was “hybrid cars.”

Woolsey’s main contention was that, if we reduce our use of oil for transportation needs, the U.S. could have a substantial impact on events in the Middle East by reducing the dollars that flow there. This ignores the growing oil needs of China and India, and other developing nations. Money will flow to the region no matter what steps the U.S. takes. Competition for oil will increase. The answer is to find more oil because vast, untapped reserves are known to exist.

And I thought to myself, gee whiz, we could save billions if we just pulled all our troops out of the Middle East, along with that huge naval task force that is parked off the coast of Iran. What this ignores is the fact that our major export to that region is defense, security, and for most of its nations, stability.

In the 1980s Saddam waged an eight-year war with Iran with the intention of getting his hands on its oil. That war ended in a stalemate. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, he was after its oil. Later, when enough nations became concerned about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction (recall that everyone thought he had them and he probably did), we invaded again.

Saddam the tyrant who had killed millions of his own people was not the issue. Saddam who wasn’t content to skim millions in oil revenue and live a quiet life of luxury was the problem.

Granted the whole region wakes up screaming “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, but even the Saudis have put forth a quite rational plan to end the conflict with the Palestinians. What is happening in Iraq scares the Sunni Saudis and what Shiite Iran is saying these days scares them even more. Do we want to keep Saudi oil flowing? You bet!

“We could, with systems that have been invented and are on the market in different ways, begin before long to move decisively away from oil as our principle transportation vehicle,” said Woolsey.

The environmentally-correct pipedreams of Woolsey and others who are trying to conjure up an economy in which most of our cars get to plug into electrical outlets or maybe a nation of drivers in cars with batteries the size of bathtubs sound to me about as realistic as the typical ranting about global warming or the horrors of nuclear power.

I admire R. James Woolsey for his service to this nation. I just wish he didn’t want to join hands with Al Gore to sing folk songs. I wish he would take our enemies more seriously than suggesting “alternative” energy options.

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column, “Warning Signs”, posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, http://www.anxietycenter.com/. His book, “Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy”, has been published by Merril Press.

© Alan Caruba, 2006

McCain Ain’t It!

Ok, the MSM is having an orgasm that McCain is going to run for President in 2008. Like… this is a surprise???

Give me a break! The man has been running for President since, well, before the year 2000!

But he won’t win the Republican nomination.

Why?

Because the base sees him for what he really is and not as he would like us see him.
McCain is a lot of things. A conservative he is not. I can’t even fathom how one can look at McCain’s record and come to the conclusion that he is a conservative.

Yes, conservatives would like an articulate candidate. But, we want an articulate candidate without barbed wire for a personality. McCain is far too rough, and bristly, for most conservatives. Those, not of the conservative mindset, might think Conservative are set on charging, hell bent for leather, into any situation, ready to fight. But, that is not the case. We are passionate about our beliefs and we are passionate about out country. But, we want a well-reasoned, articulate candidate, who is solid, and uncompromising on conservative issues. We want no more “compassionate conservatives”.

At the moment, conservatives have no leader… at least no leader that I can identify. I don’t know whom that leader will ultimately turn out to be… but McCain it ain’t!

Now add, to all the above, the definite lack of love for McCain in the South and the GOP has a liability on their hands, not a winner.

Back in 2000, McCain “dissed” my home state of South Carolina, and he “dissed” the flag of out ancestors… and we have not forgotten, nor will we. We have very long memories here in my South. This is the Southland where dueling to the death, over a slight, was accepted practice and was not outlawed in the state of South Carolina (my home state) until the 1960’s. My Grandfather (not my Great Grandfather… my GRANDFATHER… killed a man in a duel!) Well, to be honest, it was more a gunfight than a duel. But they did square off in the middle of the street and fire at one another with handguns! So, as the romantic that I am, I will claim that as a duel!

It is often said that Southerners will vote for a Southerner for President over anyone else. That is not necessarily true. For instance, McCain is from the great state of Arizona. Now, Arizona was a part of the Confederacy during the great war of Northern Aggression. Arizona seceded from the Union on February 14th of 1861. She fought among confederate troops.

Even though McCain is from Arizona he has yet to gain the favor of the Southern voter. I don’t think he ever will.

At this point in time, I don’t see a GOP candidate Southerners can support. Many Southerners have left the GOP and signed up with the Southern Party and/or the Constitution Party. Many Southerners who can no longer abide the Democrat party’s continued trek to the left have pulled out of that party and registered as Independents. They still hold the Republican Party responsible for the Civil War and those horrible years after the war laughingly called “Reconstruction”. (I TOLD you we have LONG memories!)

So, whom will the South support for President? I would love to pontificate here and be able to point to some candidate, even an unknown, as the person the South will support. But the plain truth is… I can’t!

The next six months or so are going to be interesting to watch as the Dems try to refrain from committing political suicide and the Republicans try to regain their regal roost as the majority party in the Congress.

So, I’ll close this post as I began it. McCain will not be the Republican candidate for President in 2008.

Longstreet

That Uniquely American Holiday… Thanksgiving!

That Uniquely American Holiday… Thanksgiving!

Today we halt our busy lives, here in America, to offer Thanksgiving to Almighty God for His bountiful gifts over the past year.

It is especially poignant during time of war when Americans gather, as families, to offer our gratitude to God. Members of our families are in foreign lands, bearing arms, in an attempt to keep their families… and all Americans free. Free to be able to celebrate a Thanksgiving Day.

As far back as 1789 Our First President proclaimed a National Day of Thanks giving.

On October 3rd, 1789, President George Washington proclaimed:

”WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:" NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our sasety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us. And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best. GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine. (signed) G. Washington”

You can find more on this at:
http://grove.ufl.edu/~leo/washington.html

Jefferson Davis, President Of the Confederate States of America proclaimed a National day of Humiliation and Prayer .

The Confederate States of America came into being February 4, 1861, one month before Lincoln's inauguration. The text of the first Thanksgiving Proclamation issued by the president of the Confederacy, is reproduced below.. This Proclamation was made two full years before Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation, which Lincoln made on October 3rd, 1863

A THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION, 1861

"WHEREAS, it hath pleased Almighty God, the Sovereign Disposer of events, to protect and defend us hitherto in our conflicts with our enemies as to be unto them a shield.
And whereas, with grateful thanks we recognize His hand and acknowledge that not unto us, but unto Him, belongeth the victory, and in humble dependence upon His almighty strength, and trusting in the justness of our purpose, we appeal to Him that He may set at naught the efforts of our enemies, and humble them to confusion and shame.
Now therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, in view of impending conflict, do hereby set apart Friday, the 15th day of November, as a day of national humiliation and prayer, and do hereby invite the reverend clergy and the people of these Confederate States to repair on that day to their homes and usual places of public worship, and to implore blessing of Almighty God upon our people, that he may give us victory over our enemies, preserve our homes and altars from pollution, and secure to us the restoration of peace and prosperity.
Given under hand and seal of the Confederate States at Richmond, this the 31st day of October, year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty one. By the President, JEFFERSON DAVIS"


Then there was Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation:

The sixteenth president's proclamation of October 3, 1863 was actually his third; he had issued proclamations in April 1862 and August 1863. The reason the following is usually considered to be the first modern presidential proclamation of Thanksgiving is that with it began an unbroken string of such acts, always setting a late-November date for the celebration.

THANKSGIVING DAY 1863 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA—A PROCLAMATION

"The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore if, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October A.D. 1863"

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

There have been, of course, many more Presidential proclamations referencing Thanksgiving. But I think we would do well, to take a look at the document those men and women aboard the Mayflower signed as they "hove to" off the coast of America. It’s called the Mayflower Compact. This simple document made all the others possible. It also set the tone for a new country whose very existence is dependent on God.

Here is the Mayflower Compact:

"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, e&. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620."

There followed the signatures of 41 of the 102 passengers, 37 of whom were Separatists fleeing religious persecution in Europe. This compact established the first basis in the new world for written laws. Half of the colony failed to survive the first winter, but the remainder lived on and prospered.
*********************
So, we have arrived at a day we have set aside for Thanksgiving in the year of our Lord 2006. Our nation remains at war and will, indeed, remain at war ...even if we bring our troops home from Iraq.

One of the things we, as a nation, should be thankful for this year is the fact that we have a standing military made up of the “creme de la creme” of America’s youth. All the men and women of our Armed Forces are Volunteers. Think of them today and give thanks that they saw their duty and are, in fact, doing it.

If one could make a list of things for which the nation should be thankful this Thanksgiving, it would reach around the world several times, I’m sure. But we can’t do that. Each person, each family has it’s own priorities and it’s own list of blessings for which to be thankful.

So, as we pull up our chairs at the dinner table, laden with all the abundance with which God has blessed this nation, let us take time to offer a prayerful thanks to God.

And if I may, I’d request that we all ask God not to withdraw his Arm of Protection from this nation. There will come a time, in the not too distant future, when that will be all between us and our enemies. Pray God that he continues to stand with America.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Longstreet

The Winds of War are Approaching Hurricane Velocity!

The Winds of War are picking up over the Middle East. As if that is a surprise.

With Its announcement that it’s nuclear program is nearing completion and Israel set to intervene peremptorily, and with Syria making a move on the Golan Heights, once again, and the Hizbollah rearmed and redeployed to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, with Palestinian terrorist arming as fast as they can unload the weapon’s … yes, there is reason to believe all hell is about to break loose in the Middle East. Iraq? Well, Iraq is lost. Bob Gates is being seated as the latest Sec/Def for the sole purpose of pulling the troops out of Iraq.

With America’s new Socialist Democrat Congress, Israel can expect no American help when the “defecation hits the rotary oscillator”. They’re own their own. With the Socialist Peaceniks in charge, in Washington, no defense of America is acceptable until New York and Washington are vaporized.

While the Socialist dems sit around in a great circle, on Capital Hill, and sing “Kumbaya” the world is going to hell in a handbag! Yes, the “flower children” of the 1960’s are in charge and there will be a hell of a price to pay!

I mean…it’s not like we conservatives didn’t try to warn the nation and the world. But, we have been shouted down.

Don’t get me wrong… I enjoy being right as much as the next guy. But it’s going to be a little difficult to gloat when the sky is raining radioactive dust from the craters that once were the great cities of the American East coast.

For every action… there is an equal… and opposite reaction. You’ll probably remember that rule of nature… provided you were not educated in one of our government schools. Well, a few days ago the American electorate chose to insert it’s head into the sand and willingly close it’s eyes to the clear and present danger surrounding America and America’s interests.

Why, all lf a sudden, have world events, especially in the Middle East turned so sour? Because the bad guys of the world have been set free! That guy from Texas and a bunch of hard-nosed conservatives were holding back that wave of evil… against all the odds. Then the American electorate spoke and that levee, that seawall, has been removed and the wave of evil is about to break upon the shores of this land. Sad to say, the people of America are not going to believe the ferocity with which that wave strikes. By the time the American electorate realizes the newly elected Socialist Democrats are not equipped, and are certainly not prepared to handle the onslaught, the damage will have been done.

Looking candidly at the Middle East… Israel is about to attack Iran. Unlike America the Israelis understand they are the target of a madman bent on their destruction and the destruction of America. Israel may very well be the savior of the United States. Iran must be dealt with and, as of this moment, Israel is the ONLY nation with the bravery to handle the task. Thank God for Israel. Israel is aware that attacks from their north, their south, and their east are eminent. They will do what a proud, brave, nation does. They will strike with everything they have and pray that it is enough. Would to God that my own country’s government had the courage to protect its people with the bravery and heroism of the Israelis.

Centuries from now when the stories of how easily this nation was conquered are told… nobody will believe it! It will read like a fairy tale.

Confucius once said: “ When it is obvious the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps!”

I guess our newly elected Congress has never heard this, huh?

Longstreet

Bring Back the Draft? Some Want to Try!

Bring Back the Draft? The Dems are Gonna Try!

Congressman Charlie Rangel, Democrat of New York, wants to bring back the military draft.

As if that idea alone isn’t bad enough, he wants “options”, for those drafted, to either serve 2 years in the military or two years doing some kind of “social work”.

Now, I have to tell you, that a draft will drive the overall intelligence and skill of our military downward and THAT we do not need. The All Volunteer Military may be smaller but it is smarter, and more efficient, than any US Military before it.

For instance, in a single battle, the "Battle of the Bulge", the US lost 19,000 Americans killed. US Military Forces have been in Iraq for 4 years and we have less than three thousand "Killed in Action".

A draft simply provided “cannon fodder” for the war machine then, and it will, again. (I lost an Uncle in The Battle of the Bulge). When a military has fewer men it makes war “the smart way”. When that same war machine has an unlimited supply of men it simply uses those numbers to try and overwhelm the enemy and fatalities skyrocket. No, bringing back the draft is a DUMB IDEA!

Now let’s look at the problems those “Options” would cause.

Allowing a young person, when drafted, to choose between serving in the Military or serving in some “social program” is no good. We will still have the same number of recruits for the Military as we have now. The others will simply sign up for one of the “safe” social programs. I mean… this is not rocket science! If we are going to have a draft it must be a draft for the military ONLY. If you are drafted, you WILL serve in the US Military. No options, no deferments, no nothing! Oh, and one other thing. If it is going to be fair... then the draft must include women as well as men!

But that is not going to happen.

Call me paranoid, if you like, but I see an ulterior motive behind the new Bring Back the Draft Movement. It is not to bring fresh recruits into the Military, but is, in fact, an attempt to create more social programs into which more young people can be poured and molded into life long Democrats AND WARDS OF THE STATE!

Some of you dems had better get on the horn to Congressman Rangel’s office and disabuse him of this awful idea before next January when it will, most likely, be introduced in the from of a bill or resolution in the US House.

As I write, the US has over a million men at arms who have not been committed to combat in the Middle East. Oh, but they ate juts Rserve troops and National Guard Troops.

I don’t ever hear anyone, in my presence; ever again, say a disparaging word about the Reserves or the National Guard! Some of the finest troops we have in the Middle East today are Reserves and National Guard troops. They are taking causalities on a par with, or in excess of, the “Regular” troops. At last count 40 some odd percent of the US troops fighting in the Middle East were/are Reserves and National Guard.

Now, having said that, if our new Sec/Def, Bob Gates, wants to do some constructive he can see that a bill is introduced and passed through the Congress to give National Guard and Reserve troops the exact same benefits as Regular Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine troops get. As of today, they do not. They take the same risks, but they don’t get the benefits. That’s just plain wrong!

In the meantime, I don’t think Congressman Rangel’s “Bring Back the Draft” bill will have as much chance of passing both Houses of Congress as Satan has of rolling a snowball clear across hell in the middle of August! But… you never know! We would do well to pay attention to such things as the Democrats control both Houses now.

We recommend you contact your Congressman, and your Senators, and let them know, in no uncertain terms, how you feel about bringing back the draft. Don’t wait, do it today!

Longstreet

The Dark Forces of the Left Insistent on a National Healthcare System!

Back in March of 2005, I wrote the following: “National Health Care is a Socialist dream. It is also a Conservative’s worst nightmare.” Americans are about to wake up “to”, not “from”, that nightmare!

Already the Socialist Forces of the Democrat Majority are gathering to foist this “socialist dream” on the American public. The really scary thing is… the American public actually thinks it wants a national healthcare program… of some sort.

Now, if you really want the government to have control of your life, I mean every facet of your life, then a National Healthcare program is EXACTLY what you want! If, on the other hand, you want to preserve your freedom, then a national healthcare program is the last thing on this earth you want.

Look, “womb to tomb healthcare” has so many strings attached that it isn’t worth the hassle , the increase in taxes, and the decrease in the quality of health care that is sure to come as a result of the most intrusive government program ever devised by the mind of man.

Already, the damage done to the world’s premier healthcare system has been devastating. The money saving schemes sold to corporations to reduce that corporation’s expenditure on it’s employees group healthcare programs, of many varieties, has devastated healthcare in the US. Once, just a few short years ago, the US healthcare system was the envy of the world. No nation on this planet enjoyed the quality of healthcare as did Americans. That is no longer the case. The US healthcare system has fallen far down the list from the number one position it held a decade, or two, ago.

But, if you happen to suffer from a chronic disease and require frequent medical attention, you already know that. In my case, I have required 70 some odd hospitalizations since 1965. Doctor’s office visits for me run about one or more a month or six weeks. Now, during all those years of experience with doctors and hospitals I have been in an unenviable position, which enabled me to observe the decline of healthcare in this country.

These days hospitals and doctor’s offices run patients through the system at a rate, which approximates that of a downhill bobsled run! You wait in the doctor’s waiting room for an hour to have the privilege of spending 5 minutes with your doctor. Does anyone actually expect even the country’s best doctors to be able to accurately diagnose an illness in five minutes? Sure, things like a cold, the flue, etc, but a serious illness is going to be missed. If the patient insists there is something seriously wrong, then the patient is hit with a battery of tests that cost in the thousands of dollars and yet depend upon the trained eye of the specialist to interpret. It becomes a circus.

Hospitals are sending patients home “sicker and quicker” than ever before. In my case the same illness used to require ten days to two weeks of hospital time plus 30 days of recovery at home before I could return to work. In the last decade, or so, the same illness requires a hospital stay of three days, four days tops! What has changed? The way, in which, the insurance companies, and the government, pay the hospitals. These days a hospital is forced to move patients through their system and continuously bring new patients in, and through, the system, at as fast a pace as is possible... in order to stay profitable. Non-profits have to do it to remain open.

As a result, the emphasis in the American healthcare system today, has shifted from the care of the patient… to the viability of the practice as a business, or the hospital as a business. The quality of care, for the patient, is no where near what it was just 20 years ago.

Now, the dark forces of the American Left want the government to deliver your healthcare. That sound you hear is the “death knell” of the American healthcare system.

Back in March of 2005, I wrote the following:

“National Health Insurance” is one of the primary tools used by a government to control her people. That alone is enough for me to be whole-heartedly against it.

Now, lets get something straight… I believe the Health Insurance Companies, in America, deserve what they get. They have been, in my opinion, abusing their subscribers for entirely too long. Rates have risen thru the roof at an undeservedly fast pace. Sure medical costs have gone up, but not at the percentages your insurance premiums have gone up. This has to stop. But National Health Care is a cure worse than the disease.

More government in our lives is more than just a little bit scary. Once National Healthcare is implemented, and don’t get me wrong, I believe some form will be, your life will be under the control of the administrators of that insurance.

For Instance, lets say you have an obesity problem. You have developed a heart problem as a result of the obesity. You need treatment for your heart. National Health Care says: “OK, we will not pay for the heart treatment until you lose weight”. Or, they provide all citizens with a chart, approved by the FDA, of the “Approved Foods” all citizens should eat. They make it clear that if you cannot show proof of having ingested those “approved” foods, on a regular basis, also decided by them, you Health Insurance is no good. You will not receive treatment.

Or, another example, you may be allowed to have one child only. It must be a boy. (See China.) If you choose to have another baby, after the approved ONE, the costs will come out of your pocket. Get the picture?

Now, this does not take into account the reduced quality of care we will receive from the medical community. Their hearts will not be it. After 8 years. or so, in school, to learn their profession and they will become “salaried government employees”. Need I say more?

The left is hell-bent on imposing such a system on the citizens of this country. That is another reason we must refuse them power, ever again, in the Congress. At least in numbers large enough to affect legislation.

National Health Care is a Socialist dream. It is also a Conservative’s worst nightmare.

We must be on our guard, for some form of National Health Care is about to raise its ugly head in the Nation’s legislature. It is time for conservatives to exercise their power and stop it in its tracks as we did the “Clinton Care” attempt in the ‘90s.

Lets get it done."

That was 18 months ago. Now we have a democrat socialist majority in both houses of the Congress. Their goal is to bring socialist change to this country. They will do that as quickly as they can... before the American electorate has recovered from the shock of the election.

Let’s face it. The America my generation grew up with, a global super power, a nation that could not fail… because it did not believe in failure, a nation that had a vision unlimited even by the sky, is gone. What we are left with is a defeated, deflated, depressed, democrat socialist country, with its core slowly rotting away.

A national Healthcare System will be the last nail in the coffin of a proud independent, and free, America.

Those Americans among us, who still value freedom, must fight any attempt at a National Healthcare program with everything we have.

Longstreet