Monday, November 30, 2009

Free Election in Honduras - Against All O(bama)dds

An interesting post from http://www.hughhewitt.com/ about the elections in Hondorus. You can get more interesting articles by subscribing to this post here.

Free Election in Honduras - Against All O(bama)dds
Posted by: Jude The Presidential election is underway today in Honduras. Very little thanks to the Obama administration, which has treated our poor neighbor like a banana republic, ignoring the Honduran constitution - and virtually all of Honduras' governing bodies - while threatening to not recognize the results of today's election unless the criminal Chavez crony, "Mel" Zelaya were reinstated. Along the way, of course, we (Omerica) sanctioned the country and punished its people by cutting off aid while also trying to deligtimize the government by revoking travel visas, so that no representative of the current administration could appear at the UN. I've gone on about this before, but for now I'm glad our State Department has finally wrapped its collective head around some obvious truths after two months of supporting a would-be strongman in order to align more closely with Hugo Chavez and his acolytes in the region. We officially "support" the election process, which at this point may well be a surprise to democratic dissidents around the world. Of course, Obama also officially, wants Zalaya to be reinstated after the election for a brief term, but thankfully the Honduran Congress gets to decide that one....Maybe the big moment came when Zalaya told the press that he was being bombarded with some kind of alien technology by Israeli commando mercenaries, or something, while holed up in the Brazillian Embassy... maybe then Ian Kelly told Secretary Clinton that she had to break the news to President Obama that there just wasn't enough cover left for him to side with Chavez, Castro, Arias, Ortega (the latest Latin American leader trying to extend his term beyond constitutional limits), probably FARC, and Zalaya, and against representative constitutional democracy, rule of law, good old truth, the will of the people, and President Micheletti, who has been calmly tryng to shepherd his country though an election in which he himself was never a candidate. Or maybe the integrity and character of the Honduran people won the day, by never taking the bait laid all around them by Zelaya and Chavez toward more civil unrest. Here's to tomorrow in Honduras!
Update: the NYTimes gives the Obama administration a press release on the whole crisis. Also reports that Panama and Costa Rica are the only OAS members also pledged to recognize today's election.
Update II: Neither Barack Obama's election as the first African American President nor his premie Peace Prize are being cited by Hondurans in exit pols as to why they are excercising their right to vote...

NY Times Scrubs Its Own Reporting on White House Party Crasher Tareq Salahi’s Board Membership in Pro-Palestinian Terror Grp

An interesting post from www.debbieschlussel.com about the White House crashers. For more interesting articles like this you can subscribe to this blog here.

NY Times Scrubs Its Own Reporting on White House Party Crasher Tareq Salahi’s Board Membership in Pro-Palestinian Terror Grp
By Debbie Schlussel
Why did the New York Times scrub out news that it broke about the White House-crashing couple’s ties to an organization that supports Islamic terrorism?
Yes, Tareq Salahi, the male half of the couple who crashed the White House State Dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is a Palestinian and likely Muslim. And not only that he’s an activist Palestinian who is likely Muslim, and who is on the board of the Muslim-dominated American Task Force on Palestine (see the google cached page, which has since been scrubbed), a group which–as I’ve previously noted on this site–is anti-Semitic and believes that all of Israel is Palestine and which openly supports HAMAS, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and all of their mass-murdering terrorist attacks.

“Hey, Baby, Is That an ObamaCare Bill in My Pocket . . . Or Am I Just Happy to See You?“
“Um, Barack, Who Are You Talking To?“


But, strangely, the New York Times–which first reported Salahi’s membership on the ATFP board– has scrubbed that from the article that first appeared Thursday.
Yup, now there is no reference at all to the American Task Force on Palestine in the article which originally reported that. Why? I’m sure it has noooothing whatsoever with protecting Palestinians (who are likely Muslims) from bad press, right? Maybe NYT reporters, Helene Cooper and Brian Stelter, can tell us why their report was doctored.
And it looks like the NYTimes gives good lessons in whitewashing to the ATFP, which also scrubbed all references to Salahi from its site. We wouldn’t want any Americans thinking that Palestinians who support terrorism against innocent people would actually crash a White House party, now would we? Sad that I have to reference the far-left, but only Talking Points Memo bothered to capture the scrubbed ATFP page, below. Too bad they didn’t do a screen save of the New York Times article, too. There’s a whole lotta Formula 409 and Comet being put to use over this strange and calculating couple.
And the wife, Michaele Salahi, is a congenital, psychotic liar, apparently. All of the things the mainstream media reported about her are false. No, she was never a Victoria’s Secret model, as she claims. No, she was never a Washington Redskins cheerleader, as she claims. It goes to show you that the MSM is inclined to believe anything a Palestinian (and a likely Muslim) says about himself on his Facebook page . . . and anything the dhimmi-witted Barbie doll future womb donor who is sleeping with him says about herself on that FB page.
And don’t forget, this is the guy who sued his own parents to take ownership of their winery. One extensive news report of the epic legal battle compared the family’s story to the soap opera “Falcon Crest,” and reported that Salahi blamed his mother for a failed winery purchase bid by NBA star Shaquille O’Neal. Well, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that a guy who supports the homicide bombings of innocent people, would literally run over his parents to get what he wants.
The White House-crashing by this couple is such a comedy of errors, such a huge security breach, that it would make a great movie sequel to “The Wedding Crashers. Since he’s the blond, I pick Owen Wilson to play bim Michaele Salahi. And Vince Vaughn can bone up on the terrorist-accented Palestinian dialect of Arabic to play Mr. Salahi.

Christmas: The Untold Story


A very interesting story from http://www.ucg.org/. You can get a free copy of this booklet here For more interesting stories like this one subscribe to this blog here.


Christmas: The Untold Story


People almost everywhere observe Christmas. But how did Christmas come to be observed? How did the customs and practices associated with Christmas make their way into traditional Christianity's most popular holiday?
Did you know December 25 has a checkered past, a long and contentious history? This should come as no surprise given that Christmas and many of its popular customs and trappings are nowhere set forth in the Bible.
Our Creator's view of this popular holiday is ignored or not even considered by most people. Yet His perspective should be our main consideration. Let's examine the history of Christmas and compare it with God's Word, rather than our own ideas and experiences, to discover His opinion regarding this nearly universal holiday.
Historians tell us the Christmas celebration came from questionable origins. William Walsh (1854-1919) summarizes the holiday's origins and practices in his book The Story of Santa Klaus: "We remember that the Christmas festival ... is a gradual evolution from times that long antedated the Christian period ... It was overlaid upon heathen festivals, and many of its observances are only adaptations of pagan to Christian ceremonial" (1970, p. 58).
How could pagan practices become part of a major church celebration? What were these "heathen festivals" that lent themselves to Christmas customs over the centuries?
The ancient origins of Christmas customs
During the second century B.C., the Greeks practiced rites to honor their god Dionysus (also called Bacchus). The Latin name for this celebration was Bacchanalia. It spread from the Greeks to Rome, center of the Roman Empire.
"It was on or about December 21st that the ancient Greeks celebrated what are known to us as the Bacchanalia or festivities in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine. In these festivities the people gave themselves up to songs, dances and other revels which frequently passed the limits of decency and order" (Walsh, p. 65).
Because of the nocturnal orgies associated with this festival, the Roman Senate suppressed its observance in 186 B.C. It took the senators several years to completely accomplish this goal because of the holiday's popularity.
Suppressing a holiday was unusual for the Romans since they later became a melting pot of many types of gods and worship. Just as the Romans assimilated culture, art and customs from the peoples absorbed into their empire, they likewise adopted those peoples' religious practices.
In addition to the Bacchanalia, the Romans celebrated another holiday, the Saturnalia, held "in honor of Saturn, the god of time, [which] began on December 17th and continued for seven days. These also often ended in riot and disorder. Hence the words Bacchanalia and Saturnalia acquired an evil reputation in later times" (p. 65).
The reason for the Saturnalia's disrepute is revealing. In pagan mythology Saturn was an "ancient agricultural god-king who ate his own children presumably to avoid regicide [being murdered while king]. And Saturn was parallel with a Carthaginian Baal, whose brazen horned effigy contained a furnace into which children were sacrificially fed" (William Sansom, A Book of Christmas, 1968, p. 44).
Notice the customs surrounding the Saturnalia: "All businesses were closed except those that provided food or revelry. Slaves were made equal to masters or even set over them. Gambling, drinking, and feasting were encouraged. People exchanged gifts, called strenae, from the vegetation goddess Strenia, whom it was important to honor at midwinter ... Men dressed as women or in the hides of animals and caroused in the streets. Candles and lamps were used to frighten the spirits of darkness, which were [considered] powerful at this time of year. At its most decadent and barbaric, Saturnalia may have been the excuse among Roman soldiers in the East for the human sacrifice of the king of the revels" (Gerard and Patricia Del Re, The Christmas Almanac, 1979, p. 16).
Winter-solstice celebrations
Both of these ancient holidays were observed around the winter solstice — the day of the year with the shortest period of daylight. "From the Romans also came another Christmas fundamental: the date, December 25. When the Julian calendar was proclaimed in 46 C.E. [A.D.], it set into law a practice that was already common: dating the winter solstice as December 25. Later reforms of the calendar would cause the astronomical solstice to migrate to December 21, but the older date's irresistible resonance would remain" (Tom Flynn, The Trouble With Christmas, 1993, p. 42).
On the heels of the Saturnalia, the Romans marked December 25 with a celebration called the Brumalia. Bruma is thought to have been contracted from the Latin brevum or brevis, meaning brief or short, denoting the shortest day of the year.
Why was this period significant? "The time of the winter solstice has always been an important season in the mythology of all peoples. The sun, the giver of life, is at its lowest ebb. It is [the] shortest daylight of the year; the promise of spring is buried in cold and snow. It is the time when the forces of chaos that stand against the return of light and life must once again be defeated by the gods. At the low point of the solstice, the people must help the gods through imitative magic and religious ceremonies. The sun begins to return in triumph. The days lengthen and, though winter remains, spring is once again conceivable. For all people, it is a time of great festivity" (Del Re, p. 15).
During the days of Jesus' apostles in the first century, the early Christians had no knowledge of Christmas as we know it. But, as a part of the Roman Empire, they may have noted the Roman observance of the Saturnalia while they themselves persisted in celebrating the customary "feasts of the Lord" (listed in Leviticus 23).
The Encyclopaedia Britannica tells us that "the first Christians ... continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed" (11th edition, Vol. 8, p. 828, "Easter").
Over the following centuries, new, nonbiblical observances such as Christmas and Easter were gradually introduced into traditional Christianity. History shows that these new days came to be forcibly promoted while the biblical feast days of apostolic times were systematically rejected. "Christmas, the [purported] festival of the birth of Jesus Christ, was established in connection with a fading of the expectation of Christ's imminent return" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, Macropaedia, Vol. 4, p. 499, "Christianity").
The message of Jesus Christ and the apostles—"the gospel of the kingdom of God" (Mark 1:14-15)—was soon lost. The Christmas celebration shifted Christianity's focus away from Christ's promised return to His birth. But is this what the Bible directs Christians to do?
How the Christmas date was set
Gerard and Patricia Del Re explain the further evolution of December 25 as an official Roman celebration: "Saturnalia and the kalends [new moon, in this case of January] were the celebrations most familiar to early Christians, December 17-24 and January 1-3, but the tradition of celebrating December 25 as Christ's birthday came to the Romans from Persia. Mithra, the Persian god of light and sacred contracts, was born out of a rock on December 25. Rome was famous for its flirtations with strange gods and cults, and in the third century [274] the unchristian emperor Aurelian established the festival of Dies Invicti Solis, the Day of the Invincible Sun, on December 25.
"Mithra was an embodiment of the sun, so this period of its rebirth was a major day in Mithraism, which had become Rome's latest official religion with the patronage of Aurelian. It is believed that the emperor Constantine adhered to Mithraism up to the time of his conversion to Christianity. He was probably instrumental in seeing that the major feast of his old religion was carried over to his new faith" (The Christmas Almanac, 1979, p. 17).
Although it is difficult to determine the first time anyone celebrated December 25 as Christmas, historians are in general agreement that it was sometime during the fourth century.
This is an amazingly late date. Christmas was not observed in Rome, the capital of the empire, until about 300 years after Christ's death. Its origins cannot be traced back to either the teachings or practices of the earliest Christians. The introduction of Christmas represented a significant departure from "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3).
European influences on Christmas customs
Although Christmas had been officially established in Rome by the fourth century, later another pagan celebration greatly influenced the many Christmas customs practiced today. That festival was the Teutonic feast of Yule (from the Norse word for "wheel," signifying the cycle of the year). It was also known as the Twelve Nights, being celebrated from Dec. 25 to Jan. 6.
This festival was based on the supposed mythological warfare between the forces of nature—specifically winter (called the ice giant), which signified death, vs. the sun god, representing life. The winter solstice marked the turning point: Up until then the ice giant was at his zenith of power; after that the sun god began to prevail.
"As Christianity spread to northern Europe, it met with the observance of another pagan festival held in December in honour of the sun. This time it was the Yule-feast of the Norsemen, which lasted for twelve days. During this time log-fires were burnt to assist the revival of the sun. Shrines and other sacred places were decorated with such greenery as holly, ivy, and bay, and it was an occasion for feasting and drinking.
"Equally old was the practice of the Druids, the caste of priests among the Celts of ancient France, Britain and Ireland, to decorate their temples with mistletoe, the fruit of the oak-tree which they considered sacred. Among the German tribes the oak-tree was sacred to Odin, their god of war, and they sacrificed to it until St Boniface, in the eighth century, persuaded them to exchange it for the Christmas tree, a young fir-tree adorned in honour of the Christ child ... It was the German immigrants who took the custom to America" (L.W. Cowie and John Selwyn Gummer, The Christian Calendar, 1974, p.22).
Instead of worshipping the sun god, converts were told to worship the Son of God. The focus of the holiday subtly changed, but the traditional pagan customs and practices remained fundamentally unchanged. Old religious customs involving holly, ivy, mistletoe and evergreen trees were given invented "Christian" meanings. We should keep in mind that Jesus Christ warns us to beware of things that masquerade as something they are not (Matthew 7:15; compare Isaiah 5:20; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
The roots of modern customs
Many of the other trappings of Christmas are merely carryovers from ancient celebrations.
"Santa Claus" is an American corruption of the Dutch form "San Nicolaas," a figure brought to America by the early Dutch colonists (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, Vol. 19, p. 649, "Nicholas, St."). This name, in turn, stems from St. Nicholas, bishop of the city of Myra in southern Asia Minor, a Catholic saint honored by the Greeks and the Latins on Dec. 6.
How, we might ask, did a bishop from the sunny Mediterranean coast of Turkey come to be associated with a red-suited man who lives at the north pole and rides in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer?
Knowing what we have already learned about the ancient pre-Christian origins of Christmas, we shouldn't be surprised to learn that Santa Claus is nothing but a figure recycled from ancient beliefs tied in with pagan midwinter festivals.
The trappings associated with Santa Claus—his fur-trimmed clothing, sleigh and reindeer—reveal his origin from the cold climates of the far North. Some sources trace him to the ancient Northern European gods Woden and Thor, from which the days of the week Wednesday (Woden's day) and Thursday (Thor's day) get their designations (Earl and Alice Count, 4000 Years of Christmas, 1997, pp. 56-64). Others trace him even farther back in time to the Roman god Saturn (honored at the winter Saturnalia festival) and the Greek god Silenus (Walsh, pp. 70-71).
What about other common customs and symbols associated with Christmas? Where did they originate? "On the Roman New Year (January 1), houses were decorated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and the poor. To these observances were added the German and Celtic Yule rites ... Food and good fellowship, the Yule log and Yule cakes, greenery and fir trees, gifts and greetings all commemorated different aspects of this festive season. Fires and lights, symbols of warmth and lasting life, have always been associated with the winter festival, both pagan and Christian" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, Micropaedia, Vol. 2, p. 903, "Christmas").
"In midwinter, the idea of rebirth and fertility was tremendously important. In the snows of winter, the evergreen was a symbol of the life that would return in the spring, so evergreens were used for decoration ... Light was important in dispelling the growing darkness of the solstice, so a Yule log was lighted with the remains of the previous year's log ... As many customs lost their religious reasons for being, they passed into the realm of superstition, becoming good luck traditions and eventually merely customs without rationale. Thus the mistletoe was no longer worshiped but became eventually an excuse for rather nonreligious activities" (Del Re, p. 18).
"Christmas gifts themselves remind us of the presents that were exchanged in Rome during the Saturnalia. In Rome, it might be added, the presents usually took the form of wax tapers and dolls—the latter being in their turn a survival of the human sacrifices once offered to Saturn. It is a queer thought that in our Christmas presents we are preserving under another form one of the most savage customs of our barbarian ancestors!" (Walsh, p. 67).
When we see these customs perpetuated today in Christmas observance, we can have no doubt of this holiday's origin. Christmas is a diverse collection of pagan forms of worship overlaid with a veneer of Christianity.
Accommodating a pagan populace
How, we should ask, did these pagan customs become a widely accepted part of Christianity? We should first understand what a strong hold these celebrations and customs had on the people of those early centuries. Tertullian, a Catholic writer of the late second and early third century, lamented the fact that the pagans of his day were far more faithful to their beliefs than were the compromising Christians who were happily joining in the Roman midwinter festival that eventually evolved into what is now Christmas:
"By us [Christians], ...the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year's day presents are made with din, and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians" (Tertullian in De Idolatria, quoted by Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, 1959, p. 93).
It wasn't long before such non-Christian rites and practices were assimilated into a new church religious holiday supposedly celebrating Christ's birth. William Walsh describes this process and the rationalization behind it: "This was no mere accident. It was a necessary measure at a time when the new religion [Christianity] was forcing itself upon a deeply superstitious people. In order to reconcile fresh converts to the new faith, and to make the breaking of old ties as painless as possible, these relics of paganism were retained under modified forms ...
"Thus we find that when Pope Gregory [540-604] sent Saint Augustine as a missionary to convert Anglo-Saxon England he directed that so far as possible the saint should accommodate the new and strange Christian rites to the heathen ones with which the natives had been familiar from their birth.
"For example, he advised Saint Augustine to allow his converts on certain festivals to eat and kill a great number of oxen to the glory of God the Father, as formerly they had done this in honor of [their gods] ... On the very Christmas after his arrival in England Saint Augustine baptized many thousands of converts and permitted their usual December celebration under the new name and with the new meaning" (p. 61).
Gregory permitted such importation of pagan religious practices on the grounds that when dealing with "obdurate minds it is impossible to cut off everything at once" (Sansom, p. 30).
Tragically, Christianity never accomplished the task of cutting off everything pagan. According to Owen Chadwick, former professor of history at Cambridge University, the Romans "kept the winter solstice with a feast of drunkenness and riot. The Christians thought that they could bring a better meaning into that feast. They tried to persuade their flocks not to drink or eat too much, and to keep the feast more austerely —but without success " (A History of Christianity, 1995, p. 24).
Early contention over Christmas
In the beginning, Christians were opposed to Christmas. Some of the earliest controversy erupted over whether Jesus' birthday should be celebrated at all.
"As early as A.D. 245, the Church father Origen was proclaiming it heathenish to celebrate Christ's birthday as if He were merely a temporal ruler when His spiritual nature should be the main concern. This view was echoed throughout the centuries, but found strong, widespread advocacy only with the rise of Protestantism. To these serious-minded, sober clerics, the celebration of Christmas flew in the face of all they believed. Drunken revelry on Christmas! The day was not even known to be Christ's birthday. It was merely an excuse to continue the customs of pagan Saturnalia" (Del Re, p. 20).
The Encyclopaedia Britannica adds: "The [church] Fathers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Epiphanius, contended that Christmas was a copy of a pagan celebration" (15th edition, Macropaedia, Vol. 4, p. 499, "Christianity").
The decision to celebrate Christ's birth on December 25 was far from universally accepted. "Christians of Armenia and Syria accused the Christians of Rome of sun worship for celebrating Christmas on December 25 ... Pope Leo the Great in the fifth century tried to remove certain practices at Christmas which he considered in no way different from sun worship" (Robert Myers, Celebrations: The Complete Book of American Holidays, 1972, p. 310).
Indeed, of all times of the year suggested as the birth of Christ, December 25 could not have been the date (see "Biblical Evidence Shows Jesus Wasn't Born on December 25").
Again, the idea of celebrating Christ's birthday on any date was initially problematic—to say nothing of celebrating it on a date derived from paganism.
"To the early Christians the idea of celebrating the birthday of a religious figure would have seemed at best peculiar, at worst blasphemous. Being born into this world was nothing to celebrate. What mattered was leaving this world and entering the next in a condition pleasing to God.
"When early Christians associated a feast day with a specific person, such as a bishop or martyr, it was usually the date of the person's death ... If you wanted to search the New Testament world for peoples who attached significance to birthdays, your search would quickly narrow to pagans. The Romans celebrated the birthdays of the Caesars, and most unchristian Mediterranean religions attached importance to the natal feasts of a pantheon of supernatural figures.
"If Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, and his purpose in coming was anything like what is supposed, then in celebrating his birthday each year Christians do violence, not honor, to his memory. For in celebrating a birthday at all, we sustain exactly the kind of tradition his coming is thought to have been designed to cast down" (Flynn, p. 42).
Christmas: a banned celebration
In England "the Protestants found their own quieter ways of celebrating, in calm and meditation," while "the strict Puritans refused to celebrate at all ...The Pilgrims in Massachusetts made a point of working on Christmas as on any other day. On June 3, 1647, Parliament established punishments for observing Christmas and certain other holidays. This policy was reaffirmed in 1652" (Del Re, p. 20).
Even colonial America considered Christmas more of a raucous revelry than a religious occasion: "So tarnished, in fact, was its reputation in colonial America that celebrating Christmas was banned in Puritan New England, where the noted minister Cotton Mather described yuletide merrymaking as ‘an affront unto the grace of God'" (Jeffery Sheler, "In Search of Christmas," U.S. News and World Report, Dec. 23, 1996, p. 56).
The reason Christmas has survived and grown into such a popular holiday—being observed by 96 percent of Americans and almost all nations, even atheistic ones (Sheler, p. 56)—is because of economic factors (see "How Christmas Grew").
Christmas evaluated
We cannot escape that Christmas is rooted in ancient customs and religious practices that had nothing to do with Christianity and the Bible. Tom Flynn summarizes the issue: "An enormous number of traditions we now associate with Christmas have their roots in pre-Christian pagan religious traditions. Some of these have social, sexual, or cosmological connotations that might lead educated, culturally sensitive moderns to discard the traditions once they have understood their roots more clearly" (p. 19).
Originally envisioned as a way to ease converts' transition from heathen worship to Christianity, in more recent years the holiday's observance has been driven by economic forces. The Encyclopaedia Britannica observes that the traditional Christian holidays have "undergone a process of striking desacralization and—especially Christmas—commercialization. The Christological foundation of Christmas was replaced by the myth of Santa Claus" (15th edition, Macropaedia, Vol. 4, p. 499, "Christianity").
Even with its failings, Christmas remains an entrenched tradition. Although some recognize the intrinsic paganism of the holiday, they believe people are free to establish their own days of worship. Others cling to the naïve and biblically insupportable belief that paganism's most popular celebrations have been won over by Christianity and therefore are acceptable to God.
Human reasoning aside, we need to consider God's opinion about such celebrations. We need to look into God's Word to see how He views mixing pagan practices and customs with worshipping Him.

Good News: Food Stamp Use Soaring; Stigma Gone

A very interesting post from www.redstate.com. For more interesting stories like this one subscribe to this blog here.

Good News: Food Stamp Use Soaring; Stigma Gone
Good News if You're Building a Social Democracy, Anyway
Posted by Brian Faughnan (Profile)

Update: The Times piece quoted here skates too quickly over the questions of how one qualifies for food stamps, and what requirements are imposed on recipients (particularly with regard to work). Put briefly, most food stamp recipients appear to be required to work, but waivers exist, some still receive benefits without working, and (of course) fraud dilutes the requirements. Check out the comment section for clarifications.
I suppose this is just a testament to how well Obama’s economic recovery plan is going: 1 in 8 Americans is now on food stamps - and 1 in 4 children are. I remember the bad old days of the Bush economy, when millions of Americans were forced to rely on private sector jobs to pay for their food.
Those benighted days are past: now more and more Americans get their food money from Uncle Sam. And who knows - the way things are going, someday soon we all may wind up on the dole:
It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.
Virtually all have incomes near or below the federal poverty line, but their eclectic ranks testify to the range of people struggling with basic needs. They include single mothers and married couples, the newly jobless and the chronically poor, longtime recipients of welfare checks and workers whose reduced hours or slender wages leave pantries bare…
From the ailing resorts of the Florida Keys to Alaskan villages along the Bering Sea, the program is now expanding at a pace of about 20,000 people a day.
At the rate we’re going, 16 million more people will be on food stamps by the end of Barack Obama’s first term. And don’t worry: the Obama White House is doing its best to make sure that happens:
Although the program is growing at a record rate, the federal official who oversees it would like it to grow even faster.
“I think the response of the program has been tremendous,” said Kevin Concannon, an under secretary of agriculture, “but we’re mindful that there are another 15, 16 million who could benefit.”
Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is disgusting. The measure of a successful administration will be how many Americans don’t rely on food stamps, not how many more can be added to the rolls. It’s stunning that the program would be overseen by someone with so poor an understanding of priorities.
Furthermore, the federal government is making a mistake by imposing no work requirements on receipt of this assistance. Because money is fungible, there is little difference between food stamps (or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - SNAP) and welfare. While it should be available for those whose subsistence depends on it, it is appropriate to protect the taxpayer interest by imposing a work requirement on those who are able to work.
Indeed, the New York Times even notes that the program has lax requirements:
So far, few elected officials have objected to the program’s growth. Almost 90 percent of beneficiaries nationwide live below the poverty line (about $22,000 a year for a family of four). But a minor tempest hit Ohio’s Warren County after a woman drove to the food stamp office in a Mercedes-Benz and word spread that she owned a $300,000 home loan-free. Since Ohio ignores the value of houses and cars, she qualified.
Congress is spending tens of billions of dollars annually on this program, and increasing funds dramatically - even as its rate of use is at an all-time high. Is it too much to ask that wealthy Americans not be able to take advantage of loopholes to steal from the taxpayers?
Update: Check out Mickey Kaus’s take on this, as well.
Cross-posted to TheConservatives.com

NO GITMO TERRORISTS IN AMERICA!

An interesting article from www.moveamericaforward.org. You can get more interesting articles like this by subscribing to this blog here.

NO GITMO TERRORISTS IN AMERICA! MICHIGAN RESIDENTS FIGHTING BACK AGAINST LEAKED OBAMA PLAN TO BRING TERRORISTS TO THEIR COMMUNITY
In Standish, Mich., site of a nearly vacant prison, residents are beginning to realize that the Obama Administration is serious about bringing terrorists to the United States, where they will quickly achieve the rights that should be reserved ONLY for Americans and those legally here. Jennifer Granholm, the governor of Michigan, fears for her political life. She has been desperately seeking an alternative to the Obama plan, such as California or Pennsylvania sending prisoners to the Standish correctional facility. With recent news that California can’t afford to pay the costs of housing their inmates in Michigan, the governor is running out of ideas. Fortunately, residents of Standish are starting to recognize that it isn’t worth the risk of bringing more than 230 of the most dangerous Islamic radicals in the world to a small town that could be potentially vulnerable. Not only will these Islamic extremists try to recruit from within the prison population, think of the undesirable elements that will come to town to be close to these murderous cut-throats.In Standish, Mich., restaurant owner David Munson is organizing a community forum to oppose the potential transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the local prison, which is facing budget cuts and likely to shut it down. "We don't want the Guantanamo people there," he told FOXNews.com. "And we felt like the situation was moving way too quickly to bring the Guantanamo people here."
FOX NEWS Obama is trying to shove Gitmo on America without listening to the opposition from the American people, just like he did with the bailouts, the take-over of the auto industry, the trillion dollars of wasteful spending and now his health insurance bill that would lead to a complete federalization of medicine. Too fast, no accountability, no communication with stakeholders, like the American people who might be under attack, and no consideration of the danger posed by these detainees. We can choose to put our own national security at risk, or we can continue to hold the terrorists at Gitmo, where an ideal facility has been built that abides by all international laws and is tailor-made for the purpose of housing these evil terrorists. The choice seems obvious: If it’s not BROKEN, don’t try to FIX IT! The only reason Obama has for doing this is to appease his fringe left-wing constituency, which would like to see the terrorists go free, and to reassure weak-kneed European governments that America would rather be an appeaser than a strong leader. But we cannot do it alone. We need your support so we can keep the fight going before it is too late and terrorists are literally on your doorstep.
Move America Forward is fighting to keep GITMO where it belongs, IN GITMO! We do not want GITMO in AMERICA, make a contribution today to keep the terrorists out of the U.S.! The FOX article says that the organizer of today’s town hall meeting was an early supporter of bringing the terrorists over to Standish, but after talking to Representative Pete Hoekstra, he changed his mind.Hoekstra, he said, told him the presence of Gitmo detainees could endanger the lives of prison guards and their families as well as the entire community, which would become the target of jihadists.Earlier this week, Hoekstra said that Obama’s administration has been making wild claims to the locals, trying to sell them on the idea that they will reap massive economic benefits from housing the terrorists. His stimulus plan has already been proven to be a failure, just a big waste of taxpayer money. Now he is trying to bamboozle Americans into thinking it is good for the economy to have terrorists in our country.Last week, the Michigan Republican sent letters to Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, asking them to allow him to lead a delegation of state officials and media to the Guantánamo prison to gain a better understanding of associated risks. But he said he hasn’t heard back from either of them. “I’m getting a little frustrated with the administration,” Hoekstra said. “They’re making all kinds of promises and ‘commitments’ to local officials that they’re not willing to share with Members of Congress. I think it’s flat out wrong.”
Michigan Messenger
Stories We're Tracking
FEDS VISIT STANDISH: Recounting Details of Visit
Today on MAF's Blog
UPDATE: Standish businessman David Munson leads attack on Gitmo Plan
,CLICK HERE FOR A WEB-BASED VERSION.

Legal Immigration—The Bigger Obamacare Problem

An interesting post from http://www.vdare.com/ about LEGAL immigration's problems in Obamacare! You can subscribe to this post here for more stories like this!

National Data, By Edwin S. Rubenstein
Legal Immigration—The Bigger Obamacare Problem

Health care a divisive issue? No way. Not when you ask the right questions.Fully 80 percent of Americans say they don’t want illegal aliens to be covered by government subsidized health insurance. A Rasmussen Poll shows only 11 percent supported it. A full 70% said that it would be a dealbreaker.
Even the Wall Street Journal’s Miriam Jordan, winner of VDARE.COM’s 2008 Worst Immigration Reporter Award, has been compelled to acknowledge the issue’s power: [Illegal Immigration Enters the Health-Care Debate In California, Funding Is at Stake for a Clinic That Treats Patients No Matter Their Status; An Issue 'No One Wants to Touch', August 15, 2009].
To quote Washington Watcher on VDARE.com: "Not wanting to be completely at odds with the American people, when Barack Obama was asked by Katie Couric if he thought illegal aliens should be covered, he first said 'no'".
But then he weaseled out:“First of all, I’d like to create a situation where we’re dealing with illegal immigration, so that we don’t have illegal immigrants [VDARE.COM note: i.e. amnesty them]. And we’ve got legal residents or citizens who are eligible for the plan. And I want a comprehensive immigration plan that creates a pathway to achieve that.”
(VDARE.COM emphasis.) Note Obama’s implication: legal immigrants are welcome to whatever health care benefits are available.
But here’s the problem: the long-term budget crisis is essentially a health care crisis—and neither crisis can be resolved without curbing legal immigration.
Two recent reports present the basic facts.
First, the Congressional Budget Office's latest long-term budget forecast estimates that federal spending for Medicare and Medicaid alone will rise from 5.3% of the Gross Domestic Product this year to 6.4% in 2020 and 10% in 2035.According to the CBO, and rather surprisingly, most of this growth is accounted for by increased spending per beneficiary as a result of improved techniques, rather than the aging of the population.
Second, a Pew Foundation study (see table below) finds that new (post-2005) immigrants and their U.S.-born children and grandchildren will account for 82 percent of U.S. population growth through mid-century.
The 1990 immigration law supposedly "capped" legal immigration at 700,000 people a year. Yet, for technical reasons, there have been only two years in which legal immigration has been below that level since 1990.
In 2006, 2007, and 2008 the number of people granted permanent resident status was 1,266,129; 1,052,417; and 1,107,126, respectively.
These totals comprise the largest influx of legal immigrants since the post-IRCA amnesty spike of the early 1990s—which reflected the 1986 amnestying of illegal aliens already here.Let’s be cock-eyed optimists and assume illegal immigration is halted entirely (but the illegal stock here is not deported, and their children are still treated as anchor babies). That would leave native-born Americans, plus new legal immigrants and their U.S.-born descendants, to increase the health care rolls. Under that scenario, the immigrant-related share of U.S. population growth declines—but only to a still-astonishing 78 percent:
U.S. Population Growth With/withoutIllegal Immigration,
2005-2050
Status quo
Zero illegal immigration (b) Total 142.4 mil. 113.mil.
Native 25.4mil. 25.mil.
Foreign-born (a) 117.0 mil. 88.0 mil.
Foreign-born 82% 78%as % of total
a. Includes U.S.-born descendants. b. Assumes illegals account for one-quarter of foreign-born population growth under status quo.Source: Jeffrey Passel and D'Vera Cohen, "U.S. Population Projections: 2005-2050",Pew Hispanic Center, February 11, 2008. PDF (Status quo)
Health care is more than just a federal budget issue. It burdens the entire economy, as evidenced by the fact that total spending on health care—Medicare, Medicaid and all other public and private spending—has doubled over the last 30 years, to a current level of about 16% of GDP. By mid-century CBO estimates that this percentage will reach 37 percent of GDP.
In other words, 21 percent of 2050’s GDP will be needed just to accommodate the increase in health care costs between now and then. In today’s economy, that translates to an added $3.0 trillion of health care expenses.
How much of the increase will be due to legal immigration? There are many moving parts to any such estimate. New immigrants are younger than natives, but they also have more children. It’s not at all clear that their fertility rates will fall to that of natives. And new immigrants eventually become old immigrants.
We can cut through the complexity by sticking to the basics.
If legal immigrants’ impact on health care equals their projected impact on population growth, they will account for 78 percent of the rise in such costs between now and 2050. Under this scenario 16.4 percent (78 percent of 21 percent) of GDP in 2050 will be needed just to cover the rise in health care costs caused by new (post-2005) legal immigration. (This includes not only caring for the new immigrants, but for their US-born children and grandchildren.)
In today’s economy that’s the equivalent of $2.3 trillion in added spending. By comparison, the federal budget deficit for FY2009 is estimated to be $1.8 trillion.
If you cut that in half, say, because new immigrants are younger than native-born Americans, the excess burden imposed on the American taxpayer falls—but only to 8.2 percent of 2050 GDP.In today’s economy, that translates into immigrants causing $1.2 trillion in added spending—equivalent to two-thirds of the projected deficit.
These are gross amounts. And, of course, as immigration enthusiasts constantly remind us, immigrants pay taxes too.
But not as much—federal health care, and government programs of all sorts, are still a net transfer to them.
One reason for this: because immigrants earn less, they pay less tax. In 2008, Median weekly earnings of immigrant workers were 20% below native-born Americans—and 24.5 percent below earnings of white non-Hispanic native-born American whites ($595/wk for immigrants vs. $744/wk for all native-born Americans and $788/wk. for native whites.) Foreign-born males earned 27 percent less than their native-born American counterparts.
And as immigrants get older, they seem to fall further behind natives. In 2008, for example, median earnings of foreign-born workers age 16 to 24 were 89.1 percent of the earnings of native-born workers in that age bracket. Among workers aged 55 to 64, immigrants earned only 77.9 percent of natives in that age bracket earned.
Another snapshot of greater immigrant dependency: Medicaid recipiency rates. Medicaid, the federal government’s health program aimed at the poor, is a pure transfer payment, unlike Medicare—there are no payroll tax contributions from recipients. In 2007, recipiency rates were:
24.4%: all immigrants
28.1% Hispanic immigrants
14.7%: all natives
11.5%: non-Hispanic white natives
Obviously, if immigrants are in the U.S. legally, it will be very difficult to deny them services extended to the native-born. But this inevitably means that U.S. taxpayers will be subsidizing the legal immigrant presence.
It’s a painful paradox. It’s one reason Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate and clearly the outstanding economist of the twentieth century, told Peter Brimelow in one of their interviews in Forbes Magazine "It's just obvious that you can't have free immigration and a welfare state." [Forbes Magazine, December 29, 1997].
There is only one way to stop Obamacare from being yet another transfer program forcing American taxpayers to subsidize immigrants: an immediate and permanent immigration moratorium.
Edwin S. Rubenstein (email him) is President of ESR Research Economic Consultants in Indianapolis.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Why Give Thanks on Thanksgiving Day?


An interesting article from http://www.wnponline.org/ to read as you prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday. You can get the booklet here and subscribe to this blog for more stories like this here. and for more in-depth reading on Thanksgiving's history click here


Why Give Thanks on Thanksgiving Day?
A commentary by Jerold W Aust Good News magazine Senior Writer, Mobile, Alabama
In a modern world filled with fast cars, fast money, fast foods and more—all lavished so liberally on the self—why consider a national occasion to pause and give thanks? Is it really that important? If it is, whom should we thank—and for what?
The North American 'Thanksgiving Day' was likely first held in Newfoundland in 1578 by an English minister named Woolfall, then in Virginia in 1607 and then again in Plymouth in 1620. These days of thanksgiving—held currently in Canada on the second Monday in October and in the U.S. on the fourth Thursday of November—are officially designated national occasions for giving thanks to God.
America 's first president George Washington proclaimed Thanksgiving Day in 1789; and the sixteenth U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln reaffirmed it in 1863. Since then it has been an official U.S. holiday. But how well do North Americans observe their days of thanksgiving? For that matter, how common is it for people around the world to take special time to give thanks to their Creator for providing the physical blessings they enjoy? Unfortunately, expressing thanks seems to be a diminishing custom.
Giving thanks is mentioned in the Bible at least 140 times. The word praise, which is similar in meaning to thanksgiving, is used many more times in Scripture. Praise means to appreciate, to prize—to consider precious, worthy of honor and/or thanksgiving. The Bible is replete with occasions of thanksgiving and praise, from Moses to Malachi, from Jesus to John's epistles. The Bible is also the source of early North American customs for celebrating occasions of thanksgiving.
The insightful words of Abraham Lincoln should resonate with all nations today: "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" (Lincoln's papers, Library of America series, Volume 2, pp. 520-521).
God's sobering thanksgiving instructions to ancient Israel are applicable to all human beings. After all, He is the Creator of all human life.
Perhaps Mr. Lincoln drew on the scriptural passage: "Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.
"Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.
"You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 8:11-20, New International Version).
The whole idea of giving thanks turns on at least two great spiritual principles. First, a great God created and sustains life on earth and provides the abundance of resources that most people now tend to take for granted. Second, the vanity of human nature leads human beings to want to take credit for producing all they enjoy, leading them to ignore, or even forget, the real Source of their existence and blessings.


God blesses those who humbly acknowledge and serve Him and, at times for His own purposes, some of their distant descendants. So it is with the English speaking North American nations. To learn why they received greater blessings than most other nations, request or download now our free booklet: The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy.


Related Resources
Thanksgiving Day: More Than Just Being ThankfulAmericans celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday every November. Perhaps this is the appropriate season to wonder if there is a difference between being thankful and giving thanks.
Why Give Thanks?What is thankfulness and to whom should it be given? Are we truly grateful for our blessings? Should a nation give thanks?

The Sacrifice of ThanksgivingWhat is the origin of the Thanksgiving holiday? What biblical lessons should we learn from it?
An American Thanksgiving Every year Americans gather on the fourth Thursday of November to give thanks for a land of plenty and a year of blessings. What if Americans truly gave thanks to God for their blessings? Could it make a difference for the future?
Thanksgiving: A Timeless LessonAre we aware of the true source of blessings and wealth?

ReverseTheVote.org ***BUMPED***

A very interesting post from www.hughhewitt.com about Democrats who are in districts that voted for McCain in 2008 and are therefore vulnerable if they vote with their party on health care, as the article says, and likely immigration, if that comes up. You can keep up on this by subscribing to this blog here

ReverseTheVote.org
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt
The National Republican Congressional Committee has launched exactly the right tool --a website collecting money for the GOP nominees who are running against the 24 most vulnerable Democrats who voted for Nancy Pelosi's version of Obamacare. NRCC chair Pete Sessions announced the web site on my show today.Dig deep and send a message these 24 Democrats will definitely receive. We need at least three of them to rethink their positions before Obamacare comes back for a final vote.For more research see his previous article here

Thanksgiving Reading - Populist Right Rising In The "Age of Obama"
















A timely post by Pat Buchanan about how the Right is galvanizing in spite of, or maybe because of, our President with recommended reading material for Thanksgiving and beyond!!! You can click the links in the post to buy them or go here http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/69594056&referer=brief_results to get them from your closest library!!!
See also http://brianleesblog.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html for more reading recommendations and for more interesting articles like this, click here to follow this blog!!






Populist Right Rising In The "Age of Obama"
By Patrick J. Buchanan
What happened to the Age of Obama?Glancing over the New York Times Book Review Sunday, one finds three of the top four non-fiction best-sellers were written by conservatives—columnist Michelle Malkin, talk-show host Mark Levin and Fox News contributor Dick Morris.
At No. 10, in its 40th week on the list, is Bill O'Reilly's memoir.
No. 1 best-seller in paperback Glenn Beck's Common Sense.
Moreover, the altarpiece of the transformational presidency, universal health insurance, is on life support, as huge crowds pour into town hall meetings to denounce it. Responding to the protests, the Obamaites have dumped the end-of-life counselors (aka "Death Panels") and declared the government option expendable.
But what are we to make of these "evil-mongers" of Harry Reid's depiction, these "mobs" of "thugs" organized by K Street lobbyists and "right-wing extremists" who engage in "un-American" activity at town hall meetings? Surely, all Americans must detest them.To the contrary. According to a Pew poll, by 61 percent to 34 percent, Americans think the protesters are behaving properly. Gallup found that by 34 percent to 21 percent Americans identify with them. For these folks at the town hall meetings are not overprivileged Ivy League brats seizing campus buildings and holding the dean hostage. They look and talk just like them.What President Obama is losing is not the far right but the center of the country. Nor is this the first time liberals have misread America.
During the 1968 Democratic convention, liberals sided with the antiwar demonstrators in Grant Park. And the country sided with the Chicago cops who went into the park and gave them a good thrashing.
In 1969, the national press was writing that President Nixon must yield to the hundreds of thousands ringing the White House. Nixon went on national TV to call on the Silent Majority to stand by him.
They did, for four years.
One recalls Sen. Ed Muskie blurting out, after being crushed in the Florida primary by George Wallace, that he didn't know there were that many racists in Florida. That was the end of Ed. And in the fall, the Floridians flooded to Nixon, who did not insult them.
After Nixon rolled up his 49-state triumph, Pauline Kael, movie critic at the New Yorker, is said to have expressed disbelief: "I don't know how Nixon won. No one I know voted for him."
George H.W. Bush never saw the rebellion of 1992 coming and watched Ross Perot waltz off with a third of his 1988 voters.
The anger in Middle America today looks much like what erupted in the NAFTA debate of 1993 and the amnesty debate of 2007.
The difference: Republican leaders stood with Washington then, for NAFTA and amnesty. This time, the party leaders are with the people, and should do the people's will.
Seven months into the Age of Obama, the GOP has been given an opportunity to regain the allegiance of the voters John McCain lost with his embrace of NAFTA and amnesty, and his dash to Washington to convince Republicans to give Hank Paulson $700 billion to bail out Wall Street.For these protesters are not so much being drawn to the GOP as being driven to it. The manic assaults by Democrats and liberal commentators and columnists on the protesters as "un-American," "birthers," "racists," "mobs" and "evil-mongers" has enraged and united them and cost Obama much of his support in Middle America
Does the left not realize that, while four in five Republicans say the protesters are behaving appropriately, 64 percent of moderates and 40 percent of Democrats agree with those Republicans?
We are also learning that Republicans have not been hurt by their opposition to the stimulus bill or cap-and-trade. The country has come to agree with the GOP.Nor was the party hurt when, by four to one, its senators voted against Ms. Affirmative Action, Sonia Sotomayor.
Nor was it hurt by standing with Sgt. Crowley when Obama rushed to denounce the Cambridge cop for acting "stupidly" in arresting the Harvard professor who got in his face. Obama's support among Africans-Americans remains solid. His support among the white working and middle class is sinking.Increasingly, Obama is being perceived as a man of the left and Republicans as the bulwark against a lurch to the left. Democrats may denounce Republicans as the Party of "No"—but the nation seems to be saying "Yes" to the Party of "No."
In his new memoir, "Encounters," conservative scholar Dr. Paul Gottfried writes of a 1993 gathering, hosted by this writer, where libertarian legend Murray Rothbard, columnist Sam Francis and that founding father of postwar conservatism, Dr. Russell Kirk, went at it over the role of the populist right in the conservative movement.
Though they vehemently disagreed, each man represented an essential element of a center-right coalition. As for the protesters, surely Thomas Jefferson was more right than Harry Reid, when he wrote to James Madison, "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical."
Patrick J. Buchanan needs no introduction to VDARE.COM readers; his book State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, can be ordered from Amazon.com.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

An American Thanksgiving


An interesting article from http://www.wnponline.org/ to read as you prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday. You can get the booklet here and subscribe to this blog for more stories like this here. and for more in-depth reading on Thanksgiving's history click here


An American Thanksgiving
Every year Americans gather on the fourth Thursday of November to give thanks for a land of plenty and a year of blessings. What if Americans truly gave thanks to God for their blessings? Could it make a difference for the future?
by Darris McNeely
Last month my wife and I made a trip to Canada and spent a week with friends in Newfoundland. As we were leaving, Canada was about to celebrate its national day of Thanksgiving. Theirs falls a little more than a month before we celebrate ours in the United States. I felt like staying over another day just to celebrate with our friends, but home called me back.
I have always been in love with the American Thanksgiving. As the fall season comes to a close and a nation gathers for a celebratory meal with family and friends, the romantic within me is unleashed. For a day I can imagine a land and its people turning their faces to God—all in their own way acknowledging something larger, more expansive, than the narrow confines of daily life.
Sometime in my youth I saw an old Currier and Ives engraving of a New England farmhouse with smoke curling out of its chimney. Lights were on inside, and people were arriving in buggies all laden down with baskets of food. Was it a homecoming? Were children coming home to Grandma's house?
I would put myself into that picture and desire the same for my family. For a time in my youth we did go to Grandma's home on Thanksgiving and gather with our large family of cousins, aunts and uncles for a day of feasting. My wife and I have tried through the years to keep this tradition going in our growing family by gathering with our parents and bringing along the children and grandchildren. It gets harder as the years go by, but we make every effort to gather on this day.
History and hope
The origins of the day are well known. The first year in the new world for pilgrim settlers in New England was rough, and they gathered with Native Americans to have a meal and give thanks. Later, it became customary for nearly every U.S. president to call for an annual day of thanksgiving. The proclamations began with George Washington. But it was during Franklin Roosevelt's second term that the fourth Thursday in November was fixed as the national day of Thanksgiving.
Today Thanksgiving remains popular as a holiday of traditional foods, family gatherings and football. This marvelous day of collective family and national bonding hints of an underlying spirituality even though secularism is making inroads into the character of the people. Ironically, the popularity of the day is in part because it is a national rather than a religious day of Thanksgiving. This is not lost on many observers.
That the day is still so popular throughout the nation is a sign of hope. There is a remnant within the land who recognize there is something more to America than just being one large consumer for the world's goods. Materialism alone, some understand, does not satisfy the deepest human needs for meaning and purpose in life.
Reflecting on the year
It has been a tough year for the world's economy. In the United States, upwards of one third of the wealth has been wiped off the books. Housing prices have plummeted, the stock market has lost billions of dollars of value, and the retirement accounts of the aging baby boomers were turned upside down. And while the entire system did not collapse and the market did make some modest gains, there is a sense of unease about the future. Those who stop to consider have a sense that things will not be the same going forward, but they do not know just what to expect.
Like many of you, I look at my financial statements each month and see the erosion. It is as if I have put my money into bags with holes. It fell right through and has disappeared, never to be found again.
We are living a perfect example of God's words through the prophet Haggai: "You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes" (Haggai 1:6).
This Thanksgiving, like last, offers an opportunity to reflect that the good times may not last forever. The signs of the times tell us there are other nations and peoples who sense America has been weakened and are circling like predators desiring to seize the moment and wrestle her power, might and strength away for their own use.
Many say that great powers rise and fall and that America is declining along the natural way of nations. The time has come, they say, for America to exit the stage and give way for others on the ascent.
God's blessing
There is one thing wrong with this picture. The power and wealth America has held during its history is not something that was gained by its own exceptional abilities. The great national blessings celebrated each year at Thanksgiving were granted by God through a series of promises and blessings that stretch back in time to the biblical patriarch Abraham.
America's position in the world for more than 200 years is due more to the faithful promises of God than to anything done through its national experience. The wealth and power from God will not flow to others in the same way. It cannot be taken as the great nation stumbles.
The biblical details behind this key of understanding are told in our booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. It is worth reading, especially at this season of Thanksgiving. For those who want to open a window of revealed understanding, it offers another dimension to world history. Your love for God and for America will be magnified through this booklet.
America is exceptional because God made her so. It is wealthy beyond any other empire in history because God prepared this land in advance and gave it to the descendants of Abraham in fulfillment of His pledge.
Its liberty and freedom are rooted in a biblical ethic well understood by the founding fathers. Imbedded in a unique form of governance, it has spread this freedom to many places throughout the world. Where the American and British form of law and economics were planted, people prospered, more than under any previous system. When the day comes that this influence is removed from the world, a different form of power will arise. The results will not be the same.
How stands the land?
On this American Thanksgiving, what do we see as we look out across the broad land?
We see a people searching for a way forward during a time of growing doubt and uncertainty. In 10 years, will America still hold its present role as the guarantor of freedom for a growing global economy, or will other powers rise to eclipse this long-held role? Will Americans enjoy the world's highest standard of living, or will increasing national debt cripple the nation beyond recovery?
It is time we Americans consider our ways, bend our knees to the God of heaven and confess we need a new beginning and a new heart. It is time we take a fresh look at the Bible and seek a new national character forged in righteousness and humility. Before He completely removes His hand of blessing, it is time to seek God with our whole heart.
God will hear the prayer of one who is chastened and sincerely seeking Him. He can hear your prayer. He is closer than you think.
Use this year's Thanksgiving season to consider a new and better understanding of the God who has blessed this great land. Lift your hands and your heart in grateful thanks for what you have and ask this God to reveal Himself to you. WNP

With Unemployment Near Ten Percent, Giffords Seeks Importation of More Cheap Foreign Labor

A very timely post from www.fairus.org about an attempt to expand the number of immigrants now! Keep reading more posts like this by subsribing to this blog here

With Unemployment Near Ten Percent, Giffords Seeks Importation of More Cheap Foreign Labor
FAIR has learned that – with unemployment at its highest rate in more than 25 years – Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) is prepared to introduce legislation that would double the number of visas available annually for foreign workers under the H-1B visa program. The H-1B visa program allows employers to bring foreign workers to the United States to work in specialty occupations that require “the theoretical and practical application of a body of specialized knowledge and a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent in the specific specialty.” (Department of Labor).Giffords has not yet formally introduced her H-1B legislation, but sources indicate that it will be similar to a bill that Giffords sponsored in the previous Congress. That legislation, entitled “The InnovationEmployment Act,” would have: Doubled the H-1B visa cap from its current level of 65,000 a year to 130,000 a year;Increased the H-1B cap to 180,000 in the years 2010 to 2015 if the 130,000 cap was reached in the previous year; andEliminated the cap – currently at 20,000 – on H-1B visas issued to foreign graduate students attending U.S. colleges and studying science, technology and related fields. (H.R. 5630, March 13, 2008).In spite of lobbying by big business special interests seeking easier access to cheap foreign labor – including Microsoft (See Computerworld, October 20, 2008) – the Giffords bill was buried in committee and never received any significant consideration. (H.R. 5630 – All Actions).Giffords’ decision to renew her pursuit of a massive increase in the importation of cheap foreign labor amid the current economic recession is curious, to say the least. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nationwide unemployment rate is now at a 26-year high of 9.8 percent. (Reuters, October 2, 2009; Bureau of Labor Statistics, October 2, 2009). Nevertheless, Giffords and others are continuing to seek to utilize the H-1B program to displace American workers with cheap foreign labor.Last week, in fact, the Shreveport Times in Louisiana reported that the Caddo Parrish School Board had “agreed to pay $1,660 to each Filipino teacher recruited by Universal Placement International to apply for each teacher’s H-1B visa.” Caddo Parish has hired 43 teachers on H-1B visas “for difficult-to-fill positions.” Caddo’s agreement to pay $1,660 per teacher has come about as a result of a complaint filed by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers on behalf of more than 200 Filipino teachers working in several parishes throughout the state. The complaint was filed against Universal Placement International, alleging that this recruiting company had “charged teachers an exorbitant amount of money, about $15,000, to secure a teaching position in the United States and proper documentation. Once they arrived, teachers then were charged 10 percent of their monthly income.” (Shreveport Times, October 21, 2009).Government studies have also indicated that the H-1B visa program is highly susceptible to fraud. (H-1B Benefit Fraud & Compliance Assessment, September 2008). In fact, on October 16, 2009, the federal government announced that it had arrested a California-based immigration lawyer and his business partners who had allegedly “set[] up nearly a dozen shell companies to file fraudulent employment visa petitions on behalf of their clients.” According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), “[m]any of the petitions were for H-1B visas,” and “the aliens named in those visa applications [allegedly] never worked for the defendants or the fictitious companies.” The group then allegedly sold the H-1B visas to immigrants seeking to come to the United States for prices ranging from $6,000 to over $50,000. ICE claims that the lawyer and his partners then used the illegal proceeds to purchase empty cemetery plots to hide the funds. (ICE Press Release, October 16, 2009). High rates of fraud and technical violations within the H-1B visa program have prompted Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) to introduce legislation with the stated goal of “reform[ing] and reduc[ing] fraud and abuse” in the H-1B program. (S.887, April 23, 2009).

New England Frontier - A Thanksgiving Primer


I wanted to send you information about this book which might be a good book to read before thanksgiving. It tries to give a fair, but accurate account of the times of the pilgrims. Anyway, let me know if you have any comments about it. You can get the book from Amazon by clicking on their link below or from the library by clicking on the worldcat link below. You can also subscribe to this blog for more interesting stories like this by clicking here.






8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

The Early, Early Show

ByBomojaz (South Central PA, USA) A sensitive and sensible look at English-Indian relations in New England, 1620-1675. Vaughan attempts to dispel a number of myths (myths that have only intensified over time), by demonstrating that: 1) The Puritans did not push the New England Indians off their land. Indians owned and sold their land. 2) The Puritans did not deplete the food source of the natives. Game did decrease as more and more English settled in, but Indians were agricultural and grew most of their food. 3) The Puritans did not upset the Indians' economic pattern by underpaying them for goods and services. The tools Indians received from the English as payment for furs and land, for instance, were highly prized. 4) The Puritans did not kill off the Indians in a series of military actions. Warring tribes probably caused as many Indian deaths as the English, and the immediate causes of the Pequot War and King Philip's War were complicated and emerged from both sides. 5) Indians were not mistreated out of hand by the English in legal cases; for example, the death penalty for murder applied to all, regardless of race. Indians were frequently compensated for damaged property caused by the colonists' livestock. 6) The Puritans were not indifferent to the physical, moral, and spiritual well-being of the Indians. Puritans did not even regard the natives as a different race, but rather as white men with different features caused by their environment and "debased" by the Devil. Like themselves, they viewed the Indian as a creature fallen from Grace, and worthy of salvation. I am not expert enough to know exactly on which side of these "myths" the truth actually lies, though I suspect Vaughan is more correct than not. The political incorrectness of his views, however, seem fairly obvious and would probably receive little consideration today or be dismissed out of hand. This would be unfortunate, however, for much of what Vaughan has to say seems fair and reasonable. For all that, it's an interesting book, well written, and, in a provocative way that older historical works often are, a breath of fresh air.
Tribes and Colonies By"guiscard"
(Toms River, NJ United States)
In 1620 the English Puritans settled in the region they called New England. There they met the natives, the Indians. This book explains how the Puritans and Indians related with each other until 1675. Vaughan demonstrates that the Puritans did not exploit the Indians as often believed but dealt fairly with them. He neither denigrates nor whitewashes either the Puritans or the Indians, but is fair to both sides.Vaughan describes the Indians, their beliefs and customs, and what they thought of the Puritans. Vaughan also portrays the beliefs and customs of the Puritans and their attitudes towards the Indians. Vaughan recounts how the Puritans and the Indians allied together to destroy the aggressive Pequot tribe in the Pequot war in 1637.Vaughan sketches the trade between Puritans and Indians, at first trading furs for items and later for wampum. Then he describes how the Puritans tried to fit the Indians fairly into their legal system. Finally he recounts the Puritans attempts to convert the Indians to Christianity.This is an excellent account, based on extensive primary and secondary sources, of the little known period before King Philips attack on the Puritans changed how the colonists and the Indians saw each other.

Monday, November 23, 2009

What's Ahead for America?


An interesting article from http://www.wnponline.org/ to read as you prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday. You can get the booklet here and subscribe to this blog for more stories like this here.


What's Ahead for America?
Sensing a weakness of will, hostile nations appear to be ganging up on America. Some consider the United States a second-rate power. What are some of the specific problems, internationally and domestically, and how will they affect America's future?
by John Ross Schroeder
Late last year Harvard historian Niall Ferguson labeled America as "the nation that fell to earth." In terms of dwindling domestic and international support, the war in Iraq is gradually becoming another Vietnam. In addition, what is currently occurring elsewhere on the international stage highlights the overall problem.
What are the Russians up to?
Recently Russia's President Vladimir Putin traveled to Tehran, where he declared that no other country should interfere militarily or politically in the affairs of the five Caspian bloc nations. Some observers understand this as a clear warning that the United States should not carry out any military action against Iran.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been invited to Moscow for further talks. Only a short time ago the Iranian president was allowed to vent his anger against America inside its own borders, during a visit to the UN headquarters in New York City. As U.S. News and World Report editor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman observed, "Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to America to stick his thumb in our eye and deliver a sanitized version of 'Death to America and the Holocaust Never Occurred'" (Oct. 8, 2007, emphasis added throughout).
Russian aid to Iran is nothing short of astonishing. For instance, it is a massive supplier of arms to Tehran, including a $700 million air-defense system.
Naturally both Russia and Iran oppose the eastward movement of NATO. Iran is counting on both Russia and China to oppose any future rounds on sanctions from the UN Security Council.
According to The Guardian, a resurgent Sino-Russian political embrace is already well under way: "Moscow and Beijing are closer now than in the Communist period…They have frustrated Western hopes for sanctions or other tough action on disputes ranging from Burma and Darfur to Iran. They are blocking a solution on Kosovo" (Jonathan Steele, "The Sino-Russian Embrace Leaves the U.S. Out in the Cold," Oct. 12, 2007). Russo/American tensions are clearly on the rise, alarmingly so.
On another issue, Russia is not budging on the American plan for missile defenses in Eastern Europe. A communiqué to USA Today (Oct. 26, 2007) quotes Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying, "We are sticking to our position." The report continued: "The United States says its plan is aimed at Iran. Russia says Iran is years away from being a threat and the U.S. plan undermines Russian military strategies."
Robert Kagan is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He recently analyzed threats to world peace by writing:
"Many hoped the end of the Cold War might herald a genuinely new era in human development. But those expectations proved misplaced. China has not liberalised, but has shored up its autocratic government. Russia has turned from imperfect liberalism decisively towards autocracy… It is folly to expect China to help undermine a brutal regime in Khartoum [Sudan] or to be surprised if Russia rattles its sabre at pro-western democratic governments near its border" ("The World Divides…and Democracy Is at Bay," The Sunday Times, Sept. 2, 2007).
The Turkish conundrum
Turkey, a longtime American ally, is on the point of hindering American plans and intentions in Iraq. A large-scale Turkish incursion into northern Iraq to thwart Kurdish rebels may be imminent. Turkish jets have already attacked Kurdish bases from the air (The Daily Telegraph, Oct. 25, 2007). Clearly any large-scale attack would complicate Washington's plans in this strife-torn country.
At this crucial time of policy differences between the United States and Turkey, the Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives tried to formally condemn the World War I-era massacre of Armenians by Turks as genocide. However valid the facts may be, the time is highly inopportune. So President George W. Bush has asked the House to think again, and the measure failed. These are not the easiest days for American diplomacy.
A fraying Anglo-American alliance
Another disturbing setback has been a cooling of the normally stable Anglo-American alliance. Gordon Brown is no Tony Blair. The new prime minister is not seen as fully supporting America in the same way.
Increasingly Britain is being sucked into Europe with more concessions of British sovereignty now in the offing should the new EU treaty be approved. As it stands now, the British people will apparently be denied a referendum. Yet only an independent Britain can fully stand shoulder to shoulder with America as new and more deadly challenges to Western civilization present themselves in the months and years ahead.
In 1940 Winston Churchill warned that unless the English-speaking countries triumphed over Nazism, the world would "sink into a new dark age." How much more would this be the case if the West should utterly fail in its war on terrorism?
America and Britain eventually prevailed in two 20th-century world wars. Our own century is not without its own civilizational showdowns. Albeit in different ways, recent trends show America and Britain are gradually being boxed into a corner and that should deeply concern us all.
Most do not understand the crucial importance of the origins of the English-speaking peoples around the world. The historic and prophetic implications will yet prove to be enormous. To understand just how, request or download our free booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy.
We've looked at the international front. Now consider briefly what is happening on the American domestic scene.
America becoming a second-rate power?
Alan Webber is founding editor of the business magazine Fast Company. On a recent business trip to Europe he heard some disturbing thoughts about the United States. At one gathering in Austria the comments came in the form of laments. "You used to be such a great country…What happened to the great idea that once defined America?"
Consider Mr. Webber's personal comment on America, looking at the country from afar: "You realize how far the United States has drifted from its promise, how large the gap is between what we profess and what we do…how diminished our economic superiority has become; and how worn our once impeccable image has become."
The dollar is currently viewed as a second-rate currency in Europe. The euro is looked at as towering over the once vaunted American dollar. Alan Webber asked: "Is there a point where diminished prestige actually becomes diminished economic leadership?"
Summing up, he concluded: "In America, it's business as usual. We've simply learned to accept our way of life, rather than confronting the reality of our decline. Maybe that's what happens to once-rich, once-powerful superpowers as they gradually decline. They lose track of their own standards" ("From Afar, America Resembles a 2nd-Rate Power, USA Today, Oct. 19, 2007).
Confronting the decline of American values
We are all familiar with the length and breadth of the United States (the Atlantic to the Pacific), its fabled strength in diversity, the capacity of one section of the country to come to the aid of another and an awesome ability to bounce back from adversity. Witness the America of the '40s and '50s and briefly even in the '80s. For a brief period after 9/11, moral standards actually improved.
What is disturbing is the persistence of serious moral problems: abortion, pornography, adultery, a growing gay movement and out-of-control personal debt—to name just a few.
In response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech, one reader wrote to a major newsweekly: "Why does it perplex us when these violent eruptions take place? One needs only to channel surf the television any night of the week to see show after show dealing with murder, rape, stalkers, violence toward police, gangs, war and domestic violence" ("Nation in Mourning," Time, Nov. 9, 2007).
America doesn't want the Ten Commandments in its schools or in its public buildings. Yet these laws are the master key to a much-needed moral revival. Summing up God's spiritual law, as revealed in the Bible, they reflect love for both God and neighbor.


You need our free booklet, simply titled The Ten Commandments. This publication shows how we break all 10 in ways we don't even realize anymore. You can obtain your free copy by mail or view it on the Internet at www.ucg.org/booklets . WNP