Special H/T to the lovely SondraK!!!

As we gear up for the holiday season, one cannot help but notice how every year we are confronted with the laments of those who seek to undermine the Christian foundation of long celebrated traditions. The battle over public acknowledgement of Christ continues to increase with severity and malice. It’s bad enough that we have the ACLU running around screaming bloody murder every time someone puts up a Christmas Nativity on public or school property, but now we’re hearing of many private companies and retailers being strong–armed into adopting politically correct policies with regard to what used to be considered one of the most sacred, beloved and publicly celebrated holidays of the year. Folks have become way too complacent with the notion of “happy holidays” and “season’s greetings.” Christmas trees are now being marketed as “holiday trees!” What used to be called “Christmas vacation” in my skool daze is now referred to as “winter recess.” I could spend hours listing all the crazy political correctness I see with regard to Christmas, but that’s not what I wish to bring your attention to. My problem has to do with what I see being done to THIS holiday which we celebrate today.

Ever since the day after Halloween, there have been many instances where I’ve heard folks make reference to the meaning of Thanksgiving as a day we give thanks to family, friends and neighbors (even plants and animals) for all they have done for us throughout the previous year. Ok… so what? It’s a pleasant and respectful thing to show your gratitude for all of those good things in your life… right? Alright, but doesn’t anyone notice that something appears to be missing here? Try the absence of God from the occasion! Have so many forgotten what the primary objective of Thanksgiving is supposed to be? Well, allow me give you a little history lesson…

The first day of thanks in America was celebrated in Virginia at Cape Henry in 1607, but it was the Pilgrims’ three-day feast celebrated in early November of 1621, which we now popularly regard as the “First Thanksgiving.” The first real Calvinist Thanksgiving to God in the Plymouth Colony was actually celebrated during the summer of 1623 when the colonists declared a Thanksgiving holiday after their crops were saved by much needed rainfall.

The Pilgrims left Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620. They sailed for a new world with the promise of both civil and religious liberty. For almost three months, 102 seafarers braved harsh elements to arrive off the coast of what is now Massachusetts, in late November of 1620. On December 11, prior to disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they signed the “Mayflower Compact,” America’s original document of civil government and the first to introduce self-government.

The Puritan Separatists, America’s Calvinist Protestants, rejected the institutional Church of England. They believed that the worship of God must originate in the inner man, and that corporate forms of worship prescribed by man interfered with the establishment of a true relationship with God. The Separatists used the term “church” to refer to the people, the Body of Christ, not to a building or institution. As their Pastor John Robinson said, “[When two or three are] gathered in the name of Christ by a covenant made to walk in all the way of God known unto them as a church.”

Most of what we know about the Pilgrim Thanksgiving of 1621 comes from original accounts of the young colony’s leaders, Governor William Bradford and Master Edward Winslow, in their own hand:

“They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; for some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All ye somer ther was no wante. And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter aproached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degree). And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they took many, besids venison, &c. Besids they had aboute a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corne to yt proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained, but true reports.”

-W.B. (William Bradford)

“Our Corne did proue well, & God be praysed, we had a good increase of Indian Corne, and our Barly indifferent good, but our Pease not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sowne, they came vp very well, and blossomed, but the Sunne parched them in the blossome; our harvest being gotten in, our Governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a more speciall manner reioyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst vs, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some nintie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed fiue Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed upon our Governour, and upon the Captaine, and others. And although it be not alwayes so plentifull, as it was at this time with vs, yet by the goodneses of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.”

-E.W. (Edward Winslow) Plymouth, in New England,
This 11th of December, 1621

The feast included foods suitable for a head table of honored guests, such as the chief men of the colony and Native leaders Massasoit (”Great Leader” also known as Ousamequin “Yellow Feather”), the sachem (chief) of Pokanoket (Pokanoket is the area at the head of Narragansett Bay). Venison, wild fowl, turkeys and Indian corn were the staples of the meal. It likely included other food items known to have been aboard the Mayflower or available in Plymouth such as spices, Dutch cheese, wild grapes, lobster, cod, native melons, pumpkin (pompion) and rabbit.

By the mid-17th century the custom of autumnal Thanksgivings was established throughout New England. One hundred and eighty years after the first day of Thanksgiving, the Founding Fathers thought it important that this tradition be recognized by proclamation. Soon after approving the Bill of Rights, a motion in Congress to initiate the proclamation of a national day of Thanksgiving was approved.

Mr. [Elias] Boudinot (who was the President of Congress during the American Revolution) said he could not think of letting the congressional session pass over without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them. With this view, therefore, he would propose the following resolution:
“Resolved, that a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God…”

“Mr. [Roger] Sherman (a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution) justified the practice of thanksgiving on any signal event not only as a laudable one in itself, but as warranted by a number of precedents in Holy Writ…This example he thought worthy of a Christian imitation on the present occasion; and he would agree with the gentleman who moved the resolution…The question was put on the resolution and it was carried in the affirmative.”

This resolution was delivered to President George Washington who readily agreed with its suggestion and put forth the following proclamation by his signature:

“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 committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving 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 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 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 has been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplication 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 to 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 3rd day of October, AD 1789
George Washington

After 1815, prophetically, there were no further annual proclamations of Thanksgiving until the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln declared November 26, 1863, the last Thursday in November, a Day of Thanksgiving:

“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… I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, 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…[it is] announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord…It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.”

- Abraham Lincoln
November 26, 1863

On October 3, 1863, Lincoln’s proclamation passed by an Act of Congress. That proclamation was repeated by every subsequent president until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving Day up one week earlier than had been tradition, to appease merchants who wanted more time to feed the growing pre-Christmas consumer frenzy. Folding to Congressional pressure two years later however, Roosevelt signed a resolution returning Thanksgiving to the last Thursday of November.

Roosevelt’s inclination to manipulate Thanksgiving for commercial interests, foretold much of the secular nature of “thanksgiving” to come. But, amid all the oppression of secular materialism in advance of that day in December when we give thanks for the birth of Christ, oppression vastly different but somehow remarkably similar to that of our Pilgrim forefathers, we are still at our core, a nation eternally thankful to God.

On this Day of Thanksgiving, may God rest your heart and mind. May He bless and keep you and your family. May He extend His blessing upon our nation, guiding us one and all by His calling. Amid the haste, we remember His words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3-10)

Copyright, The Federalist – 1998,
Courtesy of the Family Policy Network

Every day I wake up, I thank God for all that I have in this world and for the opportunity to become a better person today than I was the day previous. In a world that sometimes appears determined to bring down the best of us, we cannot allow ourselves to loose sight of the fact that we each have so much to be thankful for. Remember folks, though you may not have much, make every day a day of thanksgiving and your gratefulness will be returned to you ten-fold.

SINCE WHEN HAS
AL-JAZEERA EVER BEEN
AN ALLY OF THE
UNITED STATES?!?!?!

For years now, the Al-Jazeera news service has been the premiere propaganda spin machine for the islamo-facist movement and should have been taken out long ago. The UK Daily Mirror claims that a “Top Secret” Downing St. memo shows that GW wanted to take out Al-Jazeera in Qatar and Tony Blair talked him out of it. *DAMNIT!!!* Oh well. At least – according to Al-Jazeera – we did get to take out their Baghdad office back in April, 2003. In a way, I see it as de-ja-vu of what happened in 1991 during the first Gulf War in that we should have finished the job then too and we’d have been better off today because of it. Come to think of it, we should’ve bombed out the rest of the liberal MSM while we were at it. In order to take out the WWII Nazis, we had to target the propaganda machine. It’s just the way it had to be done to win the war against evil. You want some world peace? Here’s the solution… Let a few of those “stray” missles “accidentally” hit the NY/LA Times, Washington Post, CNN, BBC, yadda, yadda, yadda. Now that’s what I would call a “smart bomb!”

- Here’s one.
- That’ll be nine pence.
- I’m not dead!
- What?
- Nothing… here’s your nine pence.
- I’m not dead!
- Here… he says he’s not dead!
- Yes, he is.
- I’m not!
- He isn’t.
- Well, he will be soon, he’s very ill.
- I’m getting better!
- No, you’re not… you’ll be stone dead in a moment.
- Oh, I can’t take him like that… it’s against regulations.
- I don’t want to go on the cart!
- Oh, don’t be such a baby.
- I can’t take him…
- I feel fine!
- Oh, do us a favor…
- I can’t.
- Well, can you hang around a couple of minutes? He won’t be long.
- Naaah, I got to go on to Robinson’s… they’ve lost nine today.
- Well, when is your next round? Thursday.
- I think I’ll go for a walk.
- You’re not fooling anyone y’know. Look, isn’t there something you can do?
- I feel happy… I feel happy.

*whop*

- Ah, thanks very much.
- Not at all. See you on Thursday.
- Right.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail © 1974

Is it any wonder that communism is a major contributing factor in the culture of death? The concept that human beings are expendable organisms on par with common animals has been pushed by this evil ideology for more than a century. Those who think that man is accountable only to himself and the state and not to God have sown these seeds of death under the guise of charitable and social utopianism. Also, as the communist economic model falls under the weight of its own corrupt system of values, so falls its quality of health care as evidenced by this story by Reuters where a dying woman’s family, without financial or government assisted means, had taken her to a crematorium to have her put out of her misery thereby sparing the family undue and continued hardship.

Human life is a precious gift from God that deserves every possible opportunity for its survival. Without freedom, liberty, the belief in God and the benefits of a strong capitalist economy, we open ourselves up to eventually being deceived into accepting the abandonment of life for the sake of convenience.

This man calls himself a Marine!?!?

“Well, hell, you’re nothing but a God-damned coward!”

“…God-damned bastard! Get him out of here!
Take him back to the front! You hear me?
You God-damned coward!!!”

I have never know – and I know many – brave, fighting men and women who serve proudly in the Corp and I have never heard any of them ever speak or even contemplate cutting and running from battle! They know that this is the most important war this world has seen since the struggle to wipe out the Nazis in WWII and premature withdrawal will only further embolden a ruthless and untiring enemy who seeks to control the world through terror, murder and oppression.

When the forces of freedom hear the propaganda machine in the Middle East grab hold of the defeatist rhetoric coming out of the mouths of the anti-war leftists in our country, they feel saddened, but when one of their own use political opportunism to undercut their efforts for success, they become heartbroken and spittin’ mad!!! I am not afraid to say that this man named John Murtha is a disgrace to the honor of the Corp and a coward who has the nerve to call for surrender, thousands of miles away from the heart of battle!

Our country’s bravest have accomplished great victories in this war and continue to do so. They are successfully razing the enemies of the civilized world on a daily basis and continue to do so proudly, in the name of and in the defense of freedom.

God bless them!

And God damned the yellow coward bastards who spit on the honor of our troops and the righteous cause for which they fight so honorably!

That’s it! I had it with MT! Folks can’t even use the Typekey to login. ’sides, I felt it’s time to give this place a more polished look. I been meaning to do it for quite some time and now that the construction season is winding down and family activities have become more limited for the fall/winter months, I thought I better take care of it before I start doing any serious posting. So what do you think? Looks/feels a little better? How was it registering and logging in? If you have any website and/or navigation problems, please let me know.

TNX!!!

-The management