THANKSGIVING, A CURIOUS HOLIDAY ?

On the fourth Thursday of November we celebrate the national and legal holiday of Thanksgiving. On this day, many of us gorge ourselves with food, football, family, shopping, parades, and maybe some thanking. But, exactly who are we thanking and why ?

A very early Thanksgiving occurred near Berkley Plantation Virginia in December of 1619 when Captain John Woodlief safely landed after a terrible Atlantic passage. In his declaration he stated, "wee ordaine that the day our ships arrivall at the place assigned for plantacon  (plantation or place of planting) in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God."  

Later, in 1621 the Pilgrims conducted a three day feast of Thanksgiving with 90 Indians to celebrate their first good harvest. Earlier possible "thanksgiving" celebrations were held by the Spaniards, and by Jamestown Virginia settlers in 1610.  During the Revolutionary war days of "thanksgiving" were observed in 1777 and 1789. In 1863 President Lincoln issued a proclamation inviting all Americans to "... observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of "thanksgiving" to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens." On December 26th, 1941, the United States Congress made Thanksgiving  a law.

I believe the observances were thanking a Deity for something. The earliest holidays marked survival and having food to eat. During the Revolutionary and Civil War, the days of  "thanksgiving" were ordered to recognize a new Constitution and military victories. Lincoln was thankful that after several decisive Union military victories the terrible "War Between the States" might be drawing to a close, and he wanted a special day to possibly join all the citizens together. Franklin Roosevelt and his Congress were still pulling out of the Depression, and reeling from the disaster of Pearl Harbor when they made Thanksgiving a law. Their motives were to hopefully draw some positive out of bad times, and by law  remind citizens to be thankful on a legally recognized holiday..

Nowadays in my opinion, a lot of folks are not thanking God so much. It seems fewer people are thanking anybody and more people are demanding more free stuff. Despite all the jabbering and mucking about by our government, a lot of people are demanding governments provide their sustenance, all their daily necessities and even luxuries of life. 

Curiously, a local minister declared that his most recent free Thanksgiving dinner was a great success because several more thousand people gathered this year for the free meal than over the prior year. Is an increase in poverty or people needing or demanding free food a mark of progress ? Should anyone take joy or pride in the fact that more people are drifting about in a fog of poverty and require constant assistance or is the endless cycle of giving the real meaning of Thanksgiving ?  

What has caused the great shift from personal responsibility to a society of able bodied people demanding something for nothing. ?  When the federal government takes more and more tax payer funds for social warfare programs, that will never end poverty, is that a Thanksgiving message or an  example of pandering and virtue signaling to buy votes ? Should self reliance and it's  rewards be a more recognized historic lesson of our Thanksgiving day tradition and celebration ? Should charity remain the work of churches and non government agencies sponsored by millions of charitable minded citizens ?  Or,  is charity the business of politicians and their unelected bureaucrats ? 

As demonstrated by our ancestors, should we not be thankful that our hard work coupled with some divine help give us this holiday ? A curious day and season  to consume dangerous portions of food, shopping and couch football viewing ? Maybe between portions and naps we should think about the real meaning of Thanksgiving or maybe not. 

OUR SHAMEFUL FOREIGN POLICY

Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Susan Rice, and their colleagues have been miserable representatives of our best national interests in foreign affairs. Putin bullies obama in Syria and the Ukraine and the presidents team folds and retreats while denying the existence of a cold war. We foolishly lift tough economic sanctions from Iran and get empty words and no cessation in the development of their nuclear weapons program. At a time when the sanctions were beginning to pressure Iran, the United States backs off and potentially opens the mid east to further nuclear development by rouge nations. Obama has failed in Afghanistan and will cut and run on the threats from their corrupt leadership despite the blood and gains made by of our armed forces.

Kerry, obama, and their left wing media puppets will fill our ears with a lot of propaganda about our talks and agreements being major diplomatic breakthroughs, but more often than not they are not. Again we show an inability to play "big boy" diplomacy and continue the dangerous obama foreign policy ploy of following from behind. Kerry, Clinton, and obama have consistently allowed the likes of Putin, Assad, and Kim to steer our foreign policy. Assad and his murderous regime live on as over 100000 Syrians have died in a civil war. The obama Administration stands idly by while this modern Holocaust continues. Our adversaries threaten and then make empty promises to behave, and like fools our leadership swallows their lies. In the last six years the United States has shed it's role as an  international leader to become an international weakling.

While it is not always in the interest of the United States to be the world's police force it is our business to use our economic and military  power as a lever in creating a world favorable to our national interests. Just as Putin, China, and "little" Kim seem ready to ramp up the "cold war" the obama puppet Hagel is bloviating about great reductions in our military expenditures !

If you want the truth of how the obama Administration is screwing up our role as an international power broker, listen to Benjamin Netanyahu  or FOX News. If you want a heavy dose of excuses, hippie rhetoric, and lies tune in to any number of obama apologists nightly featured on the likes of MSNBC, PBS, CNN or read the printed propaganda in the New York Times, LA Times or Washington Post.  At times it is difficult to ascertain if their latest incompetence is intentional or an attempt to shift the headlines from the obamacare debacle or the wasted triilions squandered in bailouts.

For patriots and those who never drank the liberal kool aid of obama mania we must endure a few more years of a most inexperienced and left wing president. The obama Administration has driven us farther away from our "exceptionalism" in international leadership and national economic good health than any president since the timid reign of Jimmy Carter.  

MAJOR POLITICAL CHANGES ?

Of late, massive dysfunction has become the chief product of our federal government. The government of Washington DC is failing miserably in all it's duties from writing and passing a national budget, conducting political business within the rules of the Constitution, managing foreign affairs, or spending the PEOPLES money with restraint. The big  wigs of Capital Hill, The White House, and The Supreme Court have proven incredibly incompetent and more committed to ideologies than the best interests of the people.

The Republican and Democratic political parties have become so star struck with the power and awe of public office they routinely prostitute themselves to lobbyists, unions, big donors, and the major media-entertainment outlets. They unashamedly sell their souls and principles for re election donations, and thereafter puppet their donors causes. It appears the chief aspiration of most politicians is to gather enough money, sponsors, and political pals necessary to get re elected for decades. And nepotism has again become fashionable in the nations capital. Public office should not be the birth right of every Kennedy, Bush, Clinton or Obama family member coming of age. Washington DC has become a bastion of elites who exempt themselves from many of the laws pushed on overtaxed citizens. The nobles of DC enjoy superior pay, perks, political favors, job security, job benefits, and promotional opportunities while the majority of other Americans struggle with family budgets, job security, health care insurance, and lives filled with government intrusion.

This coalition of DC tyrants has a very active base of brainless voters and illegal aliens who surrendered their personal dignity many years ago in exchange for government handouts. From the early parts of the twentieth century social progressives decided it was their sacred duty to guide the "great unwashed" to a better life by stealing (over taxing) from the citizens who produced the wealth of the nation.  To accomplish this lofty goal the elitist "do gooders" convinced the national government to sponsor an alphabet soup of social programs. All of this socialism was billed to the productive working classes in the form of taxes and fees. From rewarding unwed mothers with money, handing out free telephones, providing free government housing, free condoms, printing billions of poorly policed food stamps, building government bureaucracies to mismanage education and health care, to smothering the free market with asinine regulations, the government of Washington has almost destroyed the greatest economy and society in the history of the planet.

However, I am not talking about social security recipients who suffered years and years of involuntary automatic payroll deductions. Nor, am I talking of those unfortunate citizens deprived of the necessary physical or intellectual abilities to maintain gainful employment. Finally, I exempt, members of our military and public safety sectors who deserve whatever pensions or disability payments they earned in service to their country and community. These groups deserve government stipends because they paid into the system with their hard work, natural disabilities, or job related injuries and disabilities.

The scourge of our nation has been a crooked political class giving away the nations wealth to greedy unions and able bodied lazy people in return for their votes. The biggest problem is in the mega urban areas teeming with unions and politicians who believe their mandate is to tax the rich and provide the unworthy a lifetime dole in exchange for a guaranteed vote. If this pattern is not changed America will soon erupt in a full on civil war because workers have become alert and angry over the injustices. The few remaining wealth producers have become weary of politicians using their money to buy votes from the lazy.

I PROPOSE SOME REALLY BIG CHANGES TO SAVE AMERICA :

 1.  Do not re elect ANY incumbents to the Senate or House of Representatives in 2014 or 2016.
 2.  Adopt immediate legislation to establish term limits for all legislators, supreme court justices, and                   members of the executive branch to only one term of six years. Skip a cycle before any re election.
 3.  Adopt a  pay plan for all legislators which bases pay on the achievement of clearly defined goals in                 legislative and budgetary matters, eg. pass a balanced budget by the end of the FY or forfeit 1% of your       pay for each weeks delay, etc.
 4.  Require the three branches of the federal government to pass no laws, proclamations, or rulings unless          they apply equally to all citizens, including themselves and all government employees.
 5. Increase our military forces and construct a totally secure perimeter at our southern borders. Allow no           more illegal aliens into the country and fairly adjudicate the cases of those already in country.
 6. Establish a standing permanent committee of non government executives to review all federal government      agencies to insure they have a legitimate mission that serves the population at reasonable costs.
 7. Prohibit any former POTUS, congressperson or Supreme Court Justice from any lobbyist group                    involved in federal contracts.
 8. Close Washington DC as the working capital of the United States. Maintain DC as a free National                 Museum. However, allow the Pentagon to remain the nations military headquarters.
 9. Move the working capital of the nation to cities in "fly over" country. Cities such as St. Louis, Kansas            City or Omaha. Perhaps designate separate cities as headquarters for each branch of the government.
10.Reduce the number and length of holidays for presidents and legislators and require their families move to       the new capital city as their chief residence during the six year term.
11 Close the IRS and institute a less complicated and fair system of taxing citizens and companies.
12. Shut down the Department of Education and divide all its funding and resources                                             proportionately to the management of the State and US Territory Departments of Education.
13. Prohibit and disband unions in every agency, department or branch of the federal government that relies        on taxpayer funding.

I am confident there are many other initiatives worthy of consideration to effect a reform to our nations government. Whether the new political parties are called, "Chickens", "Constitutionalists", "Tea Party Americans", "Whigs", "Libertarians", "Goths", or "Cougars", we must part ways with the do nothing political clubs of Democrats and Republicans. Over the last few decades these parties have divided our citizens, wasted trillions of dollars, and abandoned the common sense and fairness provided by our Constitution.
    

OBAMA PROMOTED POVERTY

Since early in the twentieth century social progressives have determined that government intervention is the only way to save mankind. The idea of these elitists, then and now, is that men are too stupid to manage their own lives.

Universal taxation in 1913 gave the federal government a scheme to legally take money from businesses and citizens to fund whatever plans it deemed important to lift mankind from it's misery. A good example was the The Volstead Act which forbade the consumption or production of booze. This was considered a sure way to save citizens from moral ruin.

More significantly, the federal government squeezed itself into the market place by beating down capitalists, supporting unions, and enacting law after law which affected businesses from Wall Street to Main Street. Paper money replaced gold and silver as the measure of value, and the printing presses of Washington DC went crazy. More and more schemes of social engineering became federal laws especially during the Franklin Roosevelt years. These temporary measures of social engineering and welfare became etched in stone. Taxpayer funding escalated throughout the mid and late decades of the twentieth century because segments of the federal government are dedicated to providing minimal living standards for those who want a lifetime of dependence.

Political opportunists of every party and rank have long popularized the notion that the differences between the rich and poor were unfair and immoral. Their solution was big government was the only  solution. This theme has proven the greatest magnet for votes ever conceived. Whichever candidate promises the most "free" stuff usually gets elected and re elected. According to many government experts the cure for all social ills has been trillions upon trillions of tax payer dollars spent on programs administered by federal agencies staffed with legions of bureaucrats. When specific plans fail to garner results the political solution is always to spend even more money, hire more bureaucrats and invent new programs. Those who question the spending disease of more failed schemes and wasted taxpayer funding are usually denounced as racists, haters of little children, handicapped, and the elderly.

Despite what all the social and political planners might preach and think, people are pretty damn smart. When it became crystal clear that individuals and families could get "free" food, shelter, medical help, telephones,and spending money from  the government without working everything changed. In the last hundred years the traditional role of churches, families, and charities has diminished. In too many instances the government has become the family, church, and charity for  many ABLE BODIED citizens who have decided a life of welfare is better than working. Like a DNA marker we have generation upon generation of ABLE BODIED families who have existed off  government handouts.

Elitists and so called intellectuals in politics, academia, and the media continue to insist that BIG GOVERNMENT is the solution to all that ails our nation. They tell us that capitalism is the root of evil even though it is the primary creator of jobs, a healthy economy, and tax revenues. Politicians from Wilson to Obama have preached class warfare, and it has worked. More and more citizens cast their lives on government poverty programs. Also, of note is the fact that American poverty is really not poverty when compared to what poor looks like in other nations of the world.

And as government plans on poverty, mass education, obamacare, etc., etc., continue to fail one thing sure as sunrise will be politicians telling the citizens that the SOLUTION is more money,  agencies, and bureaucrats.

MY PLASTIC ILLUMINATED SIFTER SPATULA THINGY.

In order to supplement my meager retirement earnings, I have taken to the invention of amazingly helpful household items. Behold, my first entry - the Plastic Illuminated Sifter Spatula Device #1.

This handy invention is versatile in the completion of many household chores. Additionally, with a fixed light, chores can be completed in the event of a power failure or in the subdued lighting of a romantic evening. I have listed just a few of the possible uses, but I am sure there are many more uses.

1. Use it as a Pasta Strainer.
2. Use it to sift for buried gold nuggets, Rolex watches, coins, and rings on your next beach holiday.
3. Use it as a spatula to turn pancakes or hash browns in your skillet.
4. Use it to scoop poop from your kitty's litter box.
5. Use it to smack pong balls if you have misplaced your pong paddle.
6. Use it to serve single servings of potatoes, meat chunks, carrots, and onions from your pot roast pan.
7. Use it to deliver a gentle fanny slap to any naughty children or pets.
8. Use it as a personal back scratch for yourself or the pleasure of your significant other.
9. Use it to serve up ice cubes if your ice tongs can not be found.
10. Use it to swat troublesome flying and crawling insects while picnicking.

And, remember with the convenient and powerful light all these functions and more can be performed at night. I will soon apply for US patent rights to this marvelous bit of technology. Foreign investments are encouraged.

For expedited ordering use the code PISSD #1, and send along cash or coin of $ 20 dollars (US) and 30 dollars (US) for shipping and handling

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MY obamacare DREAM SCHEME

It's hard to believe, but last night I had a dream about Obamacare.  And, the most amazing part is that it was a very pleasant dream.

First in my slumbering fantasy, I remember Peggy and I being hired as government workers employed to speed up the application process for people enrolling in the new health care plans. Senior citizens were tapped to fill the thousands of temporary jobs. I do not clearly remember the qualifications for employment, but when the interviewers realized we knew our multiplication tables that seemed to secure our positions. Our part time salaries were generous, and high enough for me to consider buying a Porsche even though Peggy thought a Porsche was a stupid car for an old man.

The government used a fleet of  luxury mini bus limousines to pick up everyone at their homes, and provided a free breakfast drive through service at our favorite fast food places. By the time we arrived at work it was time for our mid morning break followed by our late morning pause, and shortly thereafter it was lunchtime. The afternoon also provided breaks for snacks, restroom visits, and pill taking. There were thousands of seniors at our job site in a space equivalent to a huge concert hall divided into hundreds of cubicles. There were no child care facilities because no one had kids, but there was a day care service for our domestic pets. We were allowed to bring a pet, and we brought along Tinkerbelle. Every animal had a trained personal pet sitter provided "gratis" by the government. In the evening our limousine would return us home with a few stops to pick up groceries, laundry, or pet supplies.

The specifics of the job involved staring at a monitor and watching numbers scroll down a large screen. We had to stop the scrolling, and call a supervisor if we saw anything other than a number. Typically, if a letter or smiley face popped up that was sufficient reason to alert a supervisor. I am not sure why this was important, but there was a lot of scrambling and shouting by leaders when a non number character appeared on any ones computer.  Now, just about every worker had an overseer, and each of those bosses had a boss. There were more supervisors than workers. Needless to say, the job was incredibly boring and drifting off to sleep was very easy to do. However, no one was ever disciplined for snoozing.

Unfortunately, I was fired from this wonderful job because I argued with a boss that an "E" was not a backwards "3" and should not be classified as a number. It was forbidden to argue with a boss. Many people were fired each day which is a departure from the common concept of government employees being immune to sacking. At any rate, those of us fired were entitled to a series of free seminars sponsored by our previous employer. The block of instructions were entitled, "How to Win Lawsuits Against the Government If You are Fired".

Well, I attended all the classes;  got an "A", hired a lawyer, got a ridiculously large settlement, and purchased a sleek and incredibly fast Porsche over the objections of Peggy.

WOW WHAT A DREAM !!!