November 30, 2019
In 2012 domestic terrorist Floyd Corkins stormed the headquarters of Family Research Council armed with a semi-automatic pistol, 100 rounds of ammunition and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
"I wanted to kill the people in the building and then smear a Chick-fil-A sandwich in their face,†the gunman told the FBI.
Corkins had been enraged by the nationwide Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day and he selected Family Research Council as a target based on a "hate†map created by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The massacre was averted when Leo Johnson, the building’s manager, tackled the rampaging gunman. Johnson’s arm was shattered by a bullet and he suffered serious injuries in the attack.
Corkins later pled guilty to three charges including committing an act of domestic terrorism while armed.
Now comes word that in 2017 Chick-fil-A donated money to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the same organization that created a map that nearly led to the slaughter of innocent Christians at the Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, D.C.
TownHall.com published an IRS 990 form that shows the Chick-fil-A Foundation contributed $2,500 to the SPLC.
Why would Chick-fil-A donate money to an anti-Christian group like the Southern Poverty Law Center? Company officials did not return my calls seeking comment.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told the Todd Starnes Radio Show he was stunned by the news.
"It’s time for Christians to find a fast-food alternative to Chick-fil-A,†he said.
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At Conservative Treehouse Sundance points out that Susan Rice is lying when she says she didn't know about the surveillance on the Trump campaign.
From the article:
Knowing what we know now, consider this long forgotten letterfrom Susan Rice’s lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler. Ms. Ruemmler is currently the global co-chairman of the Latham & Watkins white collar criminal defense practice; she formerly served as White House Counsel to President Obama. Ask yourself: how do these paragraphs reconcile?
[Feb 23, 2018] The memorandum to file drafted by Ambassador Rice memorialized an important national security discussion between President Obama and the FBI Director and the Deputy Attorney General. President Obama and his national security team were justifiably concerned about potential risks to the Nation’s security from sharing highly classified information about Russia with certain members of the Trump transition team, particularly Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
[…] While serving as National Security Advisor, Ambassador Rice was not briefed on the existence of any FBI investigationinto allegations of collusion between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia, and she later learned of the fact of this investigation from Director Comey’s subsequent public testimony.
Ambassador Rice was not informed of any FISA applications sought by the FBI in its investigation, and she only learned of them from press reports after leaving office. (link)
How could Ms. Rice be aware of a "national security compromiseâ€, "particularly surrounding Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn†after a "briefing by the FBIâ€, if she was not briefed on the existence of an FBI investigationâ€?
See the problem?
Yep; Suzie is a lying floozie.This thing came from the White House. Obama was a community organizer, and knew how to manipulate elections. He won every election he stood for prior to running for President by digging up dirt on the opposition and clearing the field. This is his bread-and-butter.
And he was notorious for spying on foreign leaders, particularly on our allies.
In short, there is every reason to believe Mr. Obama and his peeps orchestrated the whole vile thing.
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Here is an outstanding blogpost from Pastorius at Infidel Blogger's Alliance.
Entitled "Everything you need to know about PRISM: THE STORY OF HOW THE US "GOVERNMENT" (DEEP STATE) OUTSOURCED THEIR VIOLATIONS OF THE 4TH AMENDMENT ", he digs into the U.S. government's Prism program to collect data on unsuspecting Americans, on FISA courts (which greenlighted the spying on the Trump campaign), and on how Google was created by the CIA and NSA to collect data on the average American and circumvent the Fourth Amendment. It's really outstanding; don't miss it.
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If you are a martial arts instructor or if you just take martial arts, you need to be paying attention to bill SB 64 in Virginia. In theory, it is a bill to outlaw paramilitary organizations.
In reality, this bill is so poorly worded, it could make teaching martial arts a felony that carries 1 to 10 years in prison. It makes teaching almost any kind of self defense illegal.
And if this idiocy passes in Virginia, it won't stop there
A word from Tim:That's the whole point; to make any sort of resistance to their will futile. Guns were the tip of the Progressive iceberg in this instance; they want to take away any tool the citizen has to defend himself, from government or predators. If you are at the mercy of predators you need government, and will do anything to empower it.
Oh, and by what right do that have to ban "paramilitary" organizations? The Constitution spells out the right to a "militia' which would constitute a "paramilitary organization". So the Democrats are already trying to shut down the Constitution, and abolish the very thing that gave America her independence. Remember, George Washington's army was essentially a "paramilitary organization" outside of the British Army.
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Did Cro-Magnon Man exterminate the Neanderthals?
Nope
According to new research:
In their study, Vaesen and his team ran population simulations for Neanderthal societies of various starting sizes (from 50 individuals to 100, 500, 1,000, or 5,000), ignoring the hypothetical factor of competitive interactions with the direct ancestors of modern humans.
While the historical impact of that long-ago conflict was discounted, the researchers included in their simulation three elements known to have a big effect on small populations.
These included the impacts of inbreeding, Allee effects(a biological phenomenon where a small population reduces the average fitness of individuals in the group), and stochasticity: random demographic fluctuations in births, deaths, and sex ratio, which end up putting smaller groups at a disadvantage in terms of overall survival.
That and they interbred with the early Homo Sapiens. They simply could not afford to not reproduce with their own kind.This research ignores the major factor of climate change in Europe; where the Cro-Magnon lived in warm and wet Africa the Neanderthals lived in Europe and the, uh, unusuually cold weather of the last Ice Age sure didn't help them survive. Cold is the real danger, not warming. And that without industrial particulates in the atmosphere! Oh, and the Ice Age didn't end because of all those Neanderthal autos. Fred Flintstone's foot-powered car just didn't emit enough CO2.
Oh, Here is something the English have been saying for centuries; the Irish and the Scots appear to possess higher levels of Neanderthal DNA than do most other peoples. According to the article:
Researchers at the John Radcliffe Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford were quoted by The Times as saying the so-called "ginger gene" which gives people red hair, fair skin and freckles could be up to 100 000 years old.
They claim that their discovery points to the gene having originated in Neanderthal man who lived in Europe for 200 000 years before Homo sapien settlers, the ancestors of modern man, arrived from Africa about 40 000 years ago.
Rosalind Harding, the research team leader, told The Times: "The gene is certainly older than 50 000 years and it could be as old as 100 000 years.
"An explanation is that it comes from Neanderthals." It is estimated that at least 10 percent of Scots have red hair and a further 40 percent carry the gene responsible, which could account for their once fearsome reputation as fighters.
Neanderthals have been characterised as migrant hunters and violent cannibals who probably ate most of their meat raw. They were taller and stockier than Homo sapiens, but with shorter limbs, bigger faces and noses, receding chins and low foreheads.
Well, most of the women I dated called me a Neanderthal, and I do have a lot of Irish blood. My wife too, but then she's got a lot of English in her...
On the other hand, she's probably right. I certainly BEHAVE like a guy who just shuffled out of a cave.
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Looks like the attack on dietary fat was born out of manipulated science.
From NPR:
In the 1960s, the sugar industry funded research that downplayed the risks of sugar and highlighted the hazards of fat, according to a newly published article in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The article draws on internal documents to show that an industry group called the Sugar Research Foundation wanted to "refute" concerns about sugar's possible role in heart disease. The SRF then sponsored research by Harvard scientists that did just that. The result was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1967, with no disclosure of the sugar industry funding.
It always baffled me how the powers that be blamed dietary fat, when people had been eating fat throughout history with little problem. The big problems with coronary diseases and diabetes and obesity came when everyone started drinking vast quantities of Coca-Cola, eating ice cream at home, etc. And with pre-packaged foods they always have to add sugar to make them taste right - and salt to balance. So the America consumption of sugar skyrocketed in the '70's, at the same time everyone started getting fat.Here is something for the irony-impaired NPR crowd:
Isn't this how Global Warming has been pushed so hard? The Gang Green, the environmentalist lobby and their pretty-in-pink socialist brothers have systematically subverted peer review and seen to it that only papers that promote hysterical claims of doom were published. We know this from the Climategate e-mails, in which the "hockey team" of top climatologists openly conspire to bully journal editors or get them replaced with believers, to peer review each-others' papers, to blackball "denier" scientists. And they have gotten away with it, because the public was never told by a complicit media.
Global Warming isn't the only example of this, but it IS the most spectacular. We've also had Global Cooling, Nuclear Winter, Dioxin, nuclear power, any number of medical research, and almost all psychology. Vaping is another example; they are in the process of using "science" to demonize the practice, which came about when liberals complained about the health consequences of tobacco smoking. It was a healthier (not healthy, but healthier) alternative to puffing the butt.
Science has been politicized, especially since the late seventies when the government took over almost all funding. Now what gets published is work that supports things the government wants.
It may have been true that sometimes an industry was able to influence the thinking on an issue by funding research, but it was only one stream of funding and could be refuted by researchers without an agenda or with another agenda. Now, with the Big Dog paying the bills, no alternative research can exist, or at least compete. Science was always about testing hypotheses, especially alternate hypotheses against each-other. But when the money is all on one thing you no longer have science but political research.
BTW, it's interesting to note the main study that gave us the sugar craze was done at Harvard. Not Texas A&M, or Nebraska, but at the Ivy League's premier university, the citadel of liberalism.
After doing a study that was likely funded with taxpayer dollars, the authors conclude:
And instead should believe only studies produced by your friendly Washington bureaucrat.
Good luck with that!
Hat tip; Tim McNabb.
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November 29, 2019
As we come together with friends and family on Thanksgiving, we should all recognize that many in America – including those indigenous peoples with whom the Pilgrims shared the first Thanksgiving – have little to celebrate.
In addition to widespread poverty, insufficient health care and a host of other challenges, Native American communities in our country face persistent, egregious violence. In fact, Attorney General William Barr this week has done the country a badly needed service by pointing out that there is a virtual war against Native American women.
Before you think "war†is too strong a term, consider these facts.
According to The Associated Press, the Urban Indian Health Institute reported 5,712 indigenous women were murdered or went missing in 2016 alone. Of that staggering number, only 116 were listed in a U.S. Department of Justice database tracking such statistics.
Further, the National Institute of Justice estimated that 1.5 million Native American women have experienced violence in their lives – and more than half experienced sexual violence.
No American can be comfortable with a level of violence that affects more than 1 million women. It should be completely unacceptable that of the 5,712 cases of missing and murdered Native American girls, only 2 percent – one out of every 50 cases – makes it to the Justice Department database.
According to Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., who is himself a tribal member, 2016 National Institute of Justice reports reveal even more grim figures – estimating that more than four out of five Native American women have experienced violence, with more than half experiencing sexual violence.
As Cole put it: "Native women are more than one-and-a-half times more likely than White women to have experienced violence in the past year. Even more chilling, Native women face murder rates more than 10 times the national average in some parts of the country.â€
Dear readers, this is very disturbing! There's no reason in the world that this should be happening! With diversity being celebrated across the board, why should Native American women be suffering?
Please read the article here, https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/newt-gingrich-native-american-women-and-girls-are-under-attack and if you can find a website in your area with an initiative to help Native Americans, or any other minorities, especially as the holidays draw near, please consider doing what you can do!
Folks, we are all in this together, after all.
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Environmentalists and Green New Deal proponents like to say we must take care of the Earth, because "There is no Planet B.†Above all, they insist, we must eliminate fossil fuels, which they say are causing climate change worse than the all-natural Ice Age’s, Medieval Warm Period or anything else in history.
Their Plan A is simple: No fossil fuels. Keep them in the ground. More than a few Democrat presidential aspirants have said they would begin implementing that diktat their very first day in the White House.
Their Plan B is more complex: Replace fossil fuels with wind, solar, biofuel and battery power – their supposedly renewable, sustainable alternatives to oil, gas and coal. Apparently by waving a magic wand.
We don’t have a Planet B and they don’t really have a Plan B. They just assume and expect that this monumental transformation will simply happen. Wind, solar, battery and biofuel technologies represent the natural evolution toward previously unimaginable energy sources – and they will become more efficient over time. Trust us, they say.
Ask them for details, and their responses range from evasive to delusional, disingenuous – and outrage that you would dare ask. The truth is, they don’t have a clue. They’ve never really thought about it. It’s never occurred to them that these technologies require raw materials that have to be dug out of the ground, which means mining, which they vigorously oppose (except by dictators in faraway countries).
They’re lawyers, lawmakers, enforcers. But most have never been in a mine, oilfield or factory, probably not even on a farm. They think dinner comes from a grocery store, electricity from a wall socket, and they can just pass laws requiring that the new energy materialize as needed. And it will happen Presto!
It’s similar to the way they handle climate change. Their models, reports and headlines bare little or no resemblance to the real world outside our windows – on temperatures, hurricanes, tornadoes, sea levels, crops or polar bears. But the crisis is real, the science is settled, and anyone who disagrees is a denier.
more...
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American film makers have been voluntarily censoring their films to appease Communist China.
From CNET:
"China is an incredibly important movie market and in fact is second only to North America in terms of the amount of revenue that it generates in movie theaters each year," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at media analytics company Comscore. There would be a "huge void" in the global box office without the money Chinese audiences spend on US blockbusters.
China's box office is sometimes even more important to Hollywood studios than the domestic box office. In 2016, video game adaptation Warcraft avoided bomb status thanks to China's $225 million in revenue, compared to $47 million in the US. In 2017, the eighth Fast and the Furious movie picked up over $100 million more in China than in the US. A year later, a quarter of Aquaman's $1.1 billion global box office washed in from China.
Then there's Disney. It's one of the biggest winners in China: So far this year, the proud owner of Marvel Studios is sitting on more than $1 billion from the country's box office. Avengers: Endgame made $600 million in China, vital to its victory over Avatar as the highest-grossing movie of all time. Avatar, by comparison, made just over $200 million in the People's Republic.
In other words, China is now dictating propaganda to Americans. Is it any wonder why American films are so very anti-American?The Left has made it a cultural norm for businesses to fund "social justice" programs and whatnot. They demand the flow of funds to their causes as a matter of "corporate responsibility". Strangely, they are not the least bit concerned about this.
The most fundamental corporate responsibility is to protect and foster the nation that has so blessed them. It should transcend the base pursuit of money. But, as with all things where China is concerned, cash is king and every company sees those billion plus potential customers and lusts.
As Lenin so eloquently stated "the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them." That's why these big multi-national corporations are happy to sneer at America, and to attack our basic values and heritage.
That has to stop.
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This shows how difficult this sort of thing really is.
When the Eagle made her final descent Armstrong and Aldrin found their landing site full of boulders and had to scramble to find a new landing site. It was a LOT closer than everyone knows; they suffered a computer error at the last minute and it was too late to abort. Only Armstrong's excellent piloting skills saved the day. Barely. And that was with a test pilot at the controls in real time. It's harder to land when you aren't there.
The Soviets soft landed a probe on Venus, which was much harder than anything we've ever tried to do (even harder than landing on Titan.) Venus has earthlike gravity, an atmosphere as dense as the bottom of the ocean, and incredible acid rain. They were able to do it because they had a lot of practice. Space travel is not for the novice or tenderfoot.
That said, I want to point out that India is working towards this kind of expertise, and I still believe India will be the next great power. They are smart, they are industrious, and they are willing to try, which is perhaps the most important thing. So much of life is about showing up.
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Oh for the love of God!
The researchers agree it is difficult to understand the full extent of the interplay between Earth's myriad of climate-affected systems, but note carrying down the business-as-usual path will still put us on track for approximately 3 degrees of warming. Notably, the authors highlight Earth's climate has been unstable across timescales before, caused by small changes in Earth's orbit. However, now, humans are "strongly forcing the system" into a state that hasn't been seen for millions of years.
THERE HAS BEEN NO STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT PLANETARY WARMING SINCE THE LAST CENTURY!
I really don't know how to make it any plainer.
Having spun a fanciful tale, they are now saying it's settled and are pretending doomsday is upon us when none of the metrics have been met. There is no tropospheric hot spot. There has been no warming per satellite data. Planetary ice is stable. Sea level rise has not increased significantly. There is no "missing heat" in the deep oceans.
In short, all we have are computer projections and solemn assurances by people who make their living by research funded by computer projections and solemn assurances. Government funds this stuff, and government wants this because it means more in taxes, more regulations, and more government control. Global warming is a statists' wet dream.
And in a world where funding goes to the guy who crows the loudest you aren't going to find many scientists - especially young ones just starting out - who will buck this. It's career suicide. That's why it's primarily older people who say this is hockum; they aren't facing oblivion for calling out imperial nudity.
What''s truly sad is how easily our young people are duped, and most especially tech people like the good folks at CNET. They don't know the difference between simulation and reality.
Does anyone remember the Star Trek episode The Menagerie? It used the original pilot for Star Trek (starring Jeffrey Hunter and entitled The Cage) which was rejected by NBC. The premise was Captain Christopher Pike (who proceeded Kirk as Enterprise captain) was kidnapped by aliens who could put completely realistic illusions into your mind. They could give you anything you wanted, make you happy beyond belief. But they could also make you miserable and frighten you. The aliens had been forced off the surface of their world to dwell underground, and had developed their mental abilities to project illusions. As it turns out they wanted to rebuild their world and avoid extinction - an extinction that was becoming increasingly likely because, as they tell Pike, their power was a terrible trap. Illusions are too pleasant to be rid of, and their race was incapable of actually doing anything. They wanted to seed the surface with a vigorous people through whom they could experience new life. In the end they gave up on the idea and set Pike free.
I fear computers and virtual technology is moving us in that very same direction, and the Global Warming issue is proof positive that too many people - especially our young - are now seriously out of touch with reality.
As science fiction writer Phillip K. Dick put it, reality is that thing which, when you stop believing in it, won't go away. And no matter how much we devote to the digital alternate universe in the end we still have the real universe to contend with. A willfull refusal to accept reality usually comes back to bite you HARD.
I fear that is where we are heading.
Maybe this is the answer to the Fermi Paradox? There have been all kinds of speculations about alien intelligences in the Universe, including the famous Drake Equation which uses statistics to "prove" there has to be alien civilizations out there. Enrico Fermi, the great physicist and member of the Manhattan Project, famously asked "where are they?" His point being that if all this intelligent life is out there why is it we haven't found even the tiniest shred of evidence of them? Surely we would find something, be it an alien equivalent of a Kuerig cup or a pull tab from alien beer cans. But there's nothing. So where are they?
Maybe any intelligent species will eventually devise a way to create such wonderful illusions that they will inevitably degenerate into sessile creatures, permanent couch potatoes. Maybe computers are the beginning of the end for any technological civilization.
Reality is harsh. It is far more pleasing to live in a world of illusion. I can imagine few living creatures that wouldn't substitute illusion for reality, since illusion is nothing more than imposing your will and desires on the world you inhabit. That is the goal of survival for every creature, after all. It is so ubiquitous that I cannot imagine a powerful enough civilization NOT tempted into such a trap.
We may become extinct not from war or disease or asteroids or any other titanic event, but from our own dreams.
It's something to think about.
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Here is the story of how the Pilgrims nearly starved thanks to socialism - and how freeing the market made them prosper. It's why they were able to have the first Thanksgiving.
From the article:
Hardly. The "common property†approach killed off about half the settlers. Governor Bradford recorded in his diary that everybody was happy to claim their equal share of production, but production only shrank. Slackers showed up late for work in the fields, and the hard workers resented it. It’s called "human nature.â€
The disincentives of the socialist scheme bred impoverishment and conflict until, facing starvation and extinction, Bradford altered the system. He divided common property into private plots, and the new owners could produce what they wanted and then keep or trade it freely.
The author goes on to discuss the failures of Socialism around the world and Robert Owen, the guy who founded New Harmony Indiana, a socialist community that went bust in two years.It's a short read, so check it out.
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Michael Bloomberg is a real piece of work. Apparently Nanny Fine thinks rather poorly of women.
From Fox News:
The article goes on to launch into an attack on Donald Trump. Nobody has ever said Trump ordered a woman to kill her unborn child. And Trump is quite open when he calls a woman a hyen - just ask Rosie O'Donnell.
The core of Bloomberg's campaign is his holier-than-thou moral superiority. Trump is not held to a high standard because he has no pretense to being a moral rolemodel. But Bloomberg does. Bloomberg is the man who knows what is best for us and tells us we should listen to and obey him.
I would like to modify Bloomers' statement to create a new campaign slogan:
"What, are the Democrats dumb and blind? What the hell are they marrying Bloomberg for?â€
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Joe Biden pulls back into the lead, according to Quinnipiac.
There must be panic in the smoke-filled back rooms of the DNC, where they had probably hoped the scandal-plagued gaffe machine would quietly fade away.
I doubt this will last; it's probably a sympathetic reaction to the impeachment hearings, since the Democrats perceive Biden as somehow a victim of Donald Trump. This is likely to go away as the tide of impeachment wanes.
(I'm not saying they won't impeach Trump but that the shock value will wear thin over time, and with it any sympathy for Crazy Joe.)
If Biden wins the nomination he'll be the worst candidate anyone put up since Hillary Clinton, or before that Mitt Romney, or John McCain, or John Kerry...
I really don't think the Democrats can win with a guy like Biden, unless somehow Trump jumps the shark, not an impossibility.
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November 28, 2019
James Forrestal was very helpful to the wording of the surrender terms of Japan, indicating that the Japanese military should surrender but the Emperor would not surrender his position in his central role in Japanese culture and society. A few years later, Forrestal became the first Sec. of Defense under Truman in 1947 (before then, the office was called Secretary of War). But he had differences with Pres. Truman. With the 1948 Presidential election coming up, the Republican Thomas Dewey was considered a "sure thing" to defeat Truman. But a major investigative journalist and radio commentator named Drew Pearson, famous in earlier years, uncovered that Forrestal was secretly negotiating with Gov. Dewey to become his Sec. of Defense. An angry Harry Truman quickly fired Forrestal and when Truman won the 1948 election in a major upset, Forrestal had lost all his future job prospects with both parties. Why didn't Forrestal wait until a day after the 1948 election to see if he should be contacting Gov. Dewey? Who knows. But here is where the story gets even worse for Forrestal.
In 1955 they named the first super aircraft carrier the USS Forrestal. It didn't have nuclear power but served for many years and was scrapped in 2005.
There are morals to this story.
1-Don't steal major war trophies from the US Marines. It's bad karma.
2-As for Forrestal's fights and intrigues behind Pres.Truman's back that blew up in his face, there is a saying: ""Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad" (as in make crazy).
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Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards 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 cannot 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 unequalled 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 theatre of military conflict; while that theatre 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 defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe 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 battle-field; 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 it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity 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 Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State
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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 favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee78 requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanks-giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.â€
The Senate concurred in the House resolve to this effect, September 26.
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th. 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, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety 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 favors which he hath 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 public 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 shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease 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.
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07:44 AM
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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 Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc.
Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and 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 in a Civil Body Politic, 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 hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620.
(William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, ed. Samuel Morison, 75-6.) See the Mayflower Compact in William Bradford's hand.
| John Carver | Edward Tilly | Digery Priest |
| William Bradford | John Tilly | Thomas Williams |
| Edward Winslow | Francis Cooke | Gilbert Winslow |
| William Brewster | Thomas Rogers | Edmund Margeson |
| Isaac Allerton | Thomas Tinker | Peter Brown |
| Miles Standish | John Rigdale | Richard Bitteridge |
| John Alden | Edward Fuller | George Soule |
| Samuel Fuller | John Turner | Richard Clark |
| Christopher Martin | Francis Eaton | Richard Gardiner |
| William Mullins | James Chilton | John Allerton |
| William White | John Craxton | Thomas English |
| Richard Warren | John Billington | Edward Doten |
| John Howland | Moses Fletcher | Edward Leister |
| Stephen Hopkins | John Goodman |
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:37 AM
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November 27, 2019
Iran is on the verge of revolution.
http://www.conservativehq.com/node/31477
Our embargo seems to be squeezing the Iranian regime to death.
If we handle this right it may be the end of the terror masters.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
11:43 AM
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The last man to carve Mt. Rushmore has passed away.
Last Mt. Rushmore Carver Dies at 98
They don't make them like that anymore!
In our modern era we see this as an extravagance. Why waste money on a monument when there are people we can help with it instead! That is small thinking. As Jesus said "the Poor you shall always have with you" and the money saved from such a project will wind up being wasted. But building something like Mt. Rushmore, or doing something like going to the Moon, bespeaks a vital, vibrant culture, one capable of forward thinking, of doing, of challenging fate. It shows a nation is alive. America is increasingly incapable of big feats like this because we have become a small people.
It is part of why I liked Donald Trump's suggestion that we buy Greenland. Greenland has some oil, but not a lot else to offer, and the inhabitants of that enormous Island (well, islands) would undoubtedly wind up on government assistance and vote for Democrats, but at least it was an attempt, no matter how feeble, to expand, to grow, to flourish. America always thought that way; it's why Jefferson bought the Louisiana territory, why Seward bought Alaska. We've lost that, that sense of adventure, of growing and building.
We are now drowning in the mundane and futile. Where once we had a sense of national purpose, of WHY America existed, we now have frivolity and purposelessness. Increasingly Americans just waste time.
There was a man named Frederick Jackson Turner who, in 1893, wrote a thesis that is often called The Frontier Thesis or Turner Thesis. In it he argued that the American frontier was the psychological and spiritual bedrock of America, that America was always defined by her having a frontier to expand into, to develop, to provide a psychological safety valve to the populace. Even if someone wasn't going to be a pioneer he or she always knew it was a possibility if times grew hard, or if they were wanted by the law, or what have you. It was always there, it was free, it was wild, it offered a challenge, it offered a way out. Once the frontier was closed America's psychology was going to be markedly changed, Turner argued.
He was right. America substituted big projects for the frontier; building massive bridges, dams, roads. Inventing all sorts of new technology. Much of what drove America in the 20th century was a substitute for the frontier. Mt. Rushmore was a big part of that; an enormous project to honor America and some great Americans, to show we still had worlds to conquer.
The passing of this last pioneer of the peak is sad not just because we have lost someone from our history but because he represented a spirit which we no longer possess. He was a dreamer of great dreams. We are now dreamers of the mundane.
Modern Americans think small, dream small, and have small ambitions. Where once men hung from cliffs to carve Mt. Rushmore we now have people whose ambition is to get on Jimmy Kimmell and trash the President or have a youtube hit for dressing in the clothes of the opposite sex or whatnot. Americans are shallow. Americans are vain. Americans are empty-headed, shiftless, and ungrateful. Americans are apathetic and at the same time judgmental.
When America believed in God we had a sense of purpose. We had a serious nature, a feeling that we had a destiny. But the Progressives and the atheists have labored for decades to destroy God and America's sense of self and have succeeded. America is now adrift in frivolity and immaturity. Our new frontier is "social justice". We no longer have worlds to conquer; rather, we are supposed to conquer ourselves in shame and discontent.
The word is decadent. America is decadent, and I doubt we can sustain any really long major project. In the end we just give up and go back to our fantasy worlds inside our computers.
It is a sad thing, but it is where we are. I don't see any light at the end of this tunnel, either.
The inevitable course of societal degeneration will find us incapable of acting, and in the end our society will splinter and fall. We may not even realize it has fallen (as the Romans did not for several centuries after it was effectively gone) but in the end future historians will know, and will speak of America in the same hushed tones that once we spoke of the terrible fall of the Caesars.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
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