Not True
Here is the offending email:
Continue reading “Debunker: Oliver North Prophesies Osama Bin Laden”
Old Tweak
Re-posting from a year ago.
One Thanksgiving, when I was in my early teens, one of my Grandfather’s neighbors told him that he and his family had named a turkey and started treating it like a pet. As a result they did not have the heart to kill it for their Thanksgiving dinner. He offered it to my Grandpa. My Grandpa saw this as a great opportunity to teach us grandkids about how it used to be.
We went over to the neighbor’s yard where my Grandpa set out a block to chop on and dropped a hatchet next to the block. He told me to go into the coop and grab the turkey. There he was, “Old Tweak” was his name. With a couple of my brothers we cornered him and I grabbed his legs. I dragged him out to my grandpa who was waiting with a board in his hands. He smacked Old Tweak with the board and the bird’s eyes seemed to roll around like a dazed cartoon character. While he was stunned Grandpa told me to slap Old Tweak’s head down on the block and he handed the hatchet to my brother. I was hoping to be the one to do the chopping but I had been assigned leg holding duty. I was told to not let go at all. My brother took aim and wound up for the chop. He brought the hatchet down and chopped most of the neck. There was still a piece of skin attached. Blood was shooting out like crazy. I had always heard about something running around like a chicken with its head cut off, but had never actually seen a chicken (or related bird) running around with its head cut off. I let go of the legs. I didn’t think it could actually run anywhere, since it was lying down, but would rather just kick it’s legs a bit.
I tell you now Old Tweak acted like he still had his head attached. He stood up, with a blood fountain spewing forth and his head dangling to his side, and made a run for it. My younger brothers took off after the turkey. They chased him around for about a minute then Old Tweak dropped to the turf. One of my brothers scooted towards our main course and then poked it with a stick. Upon being poked Old Tweak jumped back up and seemed to charge at Jared like a villain in a horror movie. This chase didn’t last long and Old Tweak dropped down again and kicked his legs around for a bit. Oddly enough everyone had some blood on them except for me, the person who let Tweak go. We put our future meal on the back of Grandpas truck and drove it down the street to clean it.
Cleaning a turkey is about the most unappetizing thing you can do. We dunked the bird into warm water, which was to help us pull feathers, but that made it smell like wet dog. Then, since Old Tweak was not a white turkey he had little black marks where his feathers used to be, which did not look very delicious. This all occurred the day before Thanksgiving which gave us plenty of time to forget the smell and be in the mood to eat turkey the next day. My assessment is that buying pre-slaughtered turkey is much more appetizing than the way they did it in the old days. But the old way of doing things is a lot more exciting and made for a Thanksgiving I will never forget.
Thanksgiving History
I often have the opportunity to listen to a person I know who always repeats facts that he thinks are blowing your mind. He truly believes that he is destroying your entire worldview with each new fact. When in reality, you have either already heard it and been unimpressed or it is just not true. Around Thanksgiving, this individual loves to tell me about how Thanksgiving was started by Abraham Lincoln for a victory in a battle in the Civil War and before that there was no Thanksgiving. He claims that Thanksgiving has nothing to do with the first commonly recognized Thanksgiving and other Thanksgiving events.
I try to explain to this person that in 1777 George Washington declared a national day of Thanksgiving after winning the battle of Saratoga and that, even before then, many people had a feast of Thanksgiving for good harvests. Native Americans had been doing it for a long time. Lincoln did implement the annual holiday of Thanksgiving after hearing about the need for such a day from Sarah Hale, the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. She had been writing to U.S. Presidents since 1846 asking them to implement an official national day of Thanksgiving, much like one that many people celebrated on their own after a good harvest which had been going on for years. Abe Lincoln thought this would help the country heal during the Civil War and in 1863 he instituted the official Thanksgiving holiday on the last Thursday of November. Just because a government creates a holiday for something it does not mean that it never existed before then. Here is the official proclamation from Lincoln:
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battle-field, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
If this person wants to be more technical then Thanksgiving as we celebrate it wasn’t implemented until 1941 when congress set the holiday at the fourth Thursday in November after a short stint at the third Thursday to help the economy with a longer shopping season. As always mission unaccomplished, my mind is not blown.
Announcing My Candidacy for the 4th District of Utah
I would like to take this opportunity to officially announce my candidacy for the 4th congressional district in Utah. This is an exciting moment for me and I hope to represent the 4th district well.
Since the district has received 1.1 million dollars from the federal stimulus I feel this duty will be very important to uphold properly and make sure that this money is assigned appropriately within the district. I can tell you that I will do nothing to embarrass the people who live in my district and I will always listen to every single person who lives in the district before I vote on anything. That’s right, every single constituent living in the 4th district of Utah will speak to me personally before every vote. That is a promise you can count on 100%.
As congressman for the 4th district I will insure that everyone in the 4th district has health care, Lamborghinis, missile defense systems, groceries paid for, new vending machines, less homework and a 100% clean environment. I will create or save jobs for everyone in the entire district.
If you support my run for the 4th congressional district in Utah let me know of your support in the comments below.
My Response to Jon Stewart’s Question
Jon Stewart recently interviewed Lou Dobbs and asked him a very good question that deserves a much better answer than what Dobbs was capable of giving.
Mr. Stewart posed this thought:
“People have apparently lost their minds. There seems to be a panic that we have lost the fabric of our society and I’m having trouble getting a handle on what has happened that is so drastic that people would think it’s tyranny or fascism or Hitler-esque or Stalin-esque or any of those things that…uh uh.”
Dobbs’ reply was weak and does not properly capture the true answer to Stewart’s excellent question.
For starters, it could be the exorbitant amount of money that has recently been spent by the government that will almost surely turn us into the Weimar Republic part 2. Watch this video and understand one thing that is “drastic” that would cause “panic”:
This video doesn’t even include the new unconstitutional health care plan and he still gets to 174 mph. As was pointed out in the video, that is adequate reason to freak out. Where the national debt sits now we could take all the money that every Fortune 500 company made in profit last year and not be able to pay off the current debt in 140 years of doing that. With the pedal to the metal on spending we have a real problem.
Next up is the personal beliefs and associations of the new leader. Contrary to what people said during the campaign your associations do matter. It is the old “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future” bit. When the man sits in a church with a leader spewing hateful anti-American and anti-Semitic type stuff for 20 years, he is either an idiot, or deaf or he agrees with it. To think that the crazy Jeremiah Wright waited for when Obama was gone to go off is just stupid. I can see it now: “Is Barack here? No. OK good, cause let me tell you about how America Sucks and is crawling with those damn Jews.” It isn’t just Wright either the Ayers thing is still a viable issue and I do not buy the whole “He is just some guy around the neighborhood” defense. Especially when you find out that Valerie Jarrett’s and Bill Ayers’ parents were good friends. Obama claims Jarrett is like family and Valerie and Ayers have connections since the time they were childhood playpals. Then you have all the nutjobs that have been selected for positions. There is the large group of upstanding, honest, hard-working Americans who evaded their taxes in key positions. Then you have the population control people, the media controllers, the communist and Maoist types. These things are all concerning to someone who doesn’t want to live under such a government. Obama himself said of his time in school, “I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students, the foreign students, the Chicanos, the Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk rock performance poets” He has also said he wants to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.” Americans don’t want to change the fundamentals of the country, they want the politics and the politicians to fundamentally transform, but not into Marxists. I think those are reasons enough for people to panic.
Stewart seems to be viewing things with partisan eyes and seems to believe that the people who are stirred up are just out to get Obama. He has a short memory for how low Bush’s approval was and all the hullabaloo from back then. The truth of it is that the changes to America and the ignoring of the Constitution started a long time ago and have happened so gradually that people didn’t notice much. Things have happened recently that have made many Americans go back and look into what exactly is off. Many people may have read the Constitution for the first time in their lives and now understand that they have been getting ripped off. They may understand more now that States and individuals should have a much bigger role than the federal government. Stewart misunderstands the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. (Watch segment 3 of his Dobbs interview) He thinks that “All men are created equal” = You must help everyone through government control. It is completely devoid of any logic to believe such a thing. The only role of government is to protect fundamental rights. A fundamental right is something that can be claimed without forcing or requiring anyone else to do something. (More on that another day)
When speaking of getting back to fundamental rights and smaller government Stewart states:
“That is, in some ways, idealistic flattery. You know when you watch kind of the stump speech of like a Sarah Palin who will say, you know, ‘It’s time we got government out of our lives and lowered taxes and increased freedom’ We’ve been sold that. That was the 8 years of the Bush administration. ‘I’m gonna lower your taxes I’m gonna bring freedom’ and that was disastrous for us.”
It is amazing to me that anyone thinks that George W. Bush brought us smaller government which failed us. The lowering of taxes had nothing to do with the housing collapse. Smaller government, lower taxes, less intrusion and more freedom are not just idealistic flattery they’re real things that we must get back to. The central government is much too powerful and has taken powers that were never theirs to take. In doing so they have taken power from states and individuals. People today just don’t notice how much trouble the government causes. All of societies problems can be traced back to two things; morals and government. Who prevents real competition in health insurance and then invents a new way to bring health insurance competition? Who makes too many hoops and waiting to become a citizen or limits the number of guest workers and makes it fairly difficult to be a guest worker and stirs people up to fight about illegal immigrants? Who gives married people special treatment over unmarried people, thus not treating them equally and then watches the fight over a word which some see as giving them new rights when redefined? ‘Government’ is the answer to all these questions which means government is not the answer to any of our problems, but the limiting of it is the solution that is needed and many people are finally seeing why the founders of our nation concluded that same thing.
New Section: Check These Out
I just thought I would point out a newly added section on the site that contains links to things I have found interesting. It is right over there on the right hand side. I pick the cream of the crop and put it over there. If it is in that section you know it is worth checking out.
So That’s What That Was
Last night as I went to bed just after midnight I thought for a second that I saw what looked like a giant flashlight shining through one of my windows and onto the floor. I thought, “That was strange, car headlights usually show up on the ceiling. The angle on that was from above.” Then I remembered how tired I was and laid down to sleep.
Well come this morning I find out what it was:
Video Courtesy of KSL.com
I wish I had seen it directly cause that’s pretty cool. It would have been cooler if I was outside at the time and near where it landed, after which it would give me meteor superpowers.
It’s Not Even Shark Week
This is a picture of a ten foot great white shark. Imagine the monster that took that big chunk out of it.
Continue reading “It’s Not Even Shark Week”
Hannity….Oh Boy
I am on record with several people as being one who can’t really stomach Sean Hannity. Not for the usual reasons like me being a communist or a baby killer, but because I have seen him do some misleading and/or nitpicky things. I complained about him in 2008 when he brought up Obama’s mortgage rate that was slightly lower than the average rate at the time as though it is impossible to buy down a rate. If you want to make Obama look scary just show his own words to people. There is no need to make up stuff about mortgages. He also has always been an extremely loyal party man for the Republicans. George W. could do no wrong from what I ever saw coming from Hannity. If someone is wrong they are wrong regardless of party affiliation and I don’t see that attitude from Hannity. Then, you get something like this:
To be fair to Hannity, he may not have known that his crew was using this deceptive editing. Regardless of his knowledge beforehand, it made a worthy cause that he appeared to endorse look stupid because of a pointless deception. He did offer an apology for the creative editing…
…but I still personally believe he is too much of a party man and a nitpicker in some cases. I will not however stoop to the level that most Hannity dis-likers go to and call him names and use other ad hominem attacks that are so prevalent from leftists. I could be wrong about him because I don’t follow him much but, I will simply state that I am not a big fan.
I Agree With Elton
I have never really been a fan of Elton John. Some of his older music is decent but overall his sound has not struck a chord with me. Add to that the crazy fashion sense and it was secured that I would not be a fan. He has done duets and accompaniments with every one from Eminem to Leann Rimes. A few years ago when I heard about another group featuring Mr. John I joked that he was going to soon work with Alice in Chains, which has now happened.
Mr. John recently stated that he thinks Proposition 8 in California was asking too much:
“I don’t want to be married. I’m very happy with a civil partnership. If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership. The word ‘marriage,’ I think, puts a lot of people off. You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships.”
Many people who are ignorant to the real situation behind Proposition 8 think that by having it passed that homosexual people were denied equal treatment with heterosexual people. This could not be further from the truth. Homosexual people already have the ability to form domestic partnerships in California which allow them the same treatment by government as married people. So what was lost with Proposition 8? The word ‘marriage’ was the only thing on the table. If marriage were to be declared a civil right then religious institutions would have been forced to participate in activities that go against their beliefs because otherwise they are denying someone their civil right. That is a clear violation of the first amendment which we could discuss in greater detail later. The battle over the word ‘marriage’ is as silly, to me, as battling over the word ‘heterosexual’. It has a clear definition and origin as being between a man and woman. Where, in principle, procreation is impossible, marriage is also impossible. I always imagine homosexuals protesting the fact that they are not referred to as ‘heterosexual’.
There are two more important issues than the definition of the word, which underlie this issue. First is the issue of government treating people in different circumstances differently. All citizens in good standing should be treated equally in the eyes of the government. Allowing married couples to have tax breaks and other benefits while denying them to others is wrong. This line of thinking should be extended beyond just people who have a sexual partner, over to single people as well. It is unjust discrimination to charge single people at a higher tax rate because they are loners, picky or ugly. The government began treating married couples in such a way because nuclear families are good for society, which leads me to the second underlying issue. Marriage and families are essential to having a thriving, civilized society. Although redefining ‘marriage’ would distort it’s importance, there are much bigger problems to worry about in regards to marriage such as improper treatment of spouses and children and divorce. I have a special disdain in my heart for abuse of children and women. Disloyalty to family and breaking of vows is another despicable act that has a negative effect on society. Failures in marriage and family pose a much more dire threat to society than the definition of words.
Sir Elton John is reasonable and classy in his view on the word ‘marriage’. He is also correct that he has the freedom to choose how to live his own life and has the right to equal treatment under the government. Once again by butting in where it didn’t belong government has created more problems. This issue has served to distract and promote disunity amongst people who should all be concerned and fighting for individual freedoms and keeping government limited.