“Merry Christmas”

by John Alexander Madison
December 21, 2009

In order to be 100% politically correct this winter holiday season I send my best wishes to you and your families for a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year. There I said it: MERRY CHRISTMAS, MERRY CHRISTMAS, MERRY CHRISTMAS! Shout it from the roofs tops as we celebrate the birth of Jesus across this great Christian nation and most countries around the world.

A Christian nation? It seems all too many people are asking nowadays “Is America a Christian nation?” Let there be no doubt about it…America is a Christian nation and anyone with just the slightest bit of intellectual honesty will agree.

That is not to say secular progressives, radical left-wing liberals, atheists (those who reject the idea that deities exist), and others are trying to change that. But it is indisputable; our great nation was founded on Christian principles which are quite clear after only the briefest exposure to the Bible, our Constitution, and our Founding Fathers.

Is America a Christian Nation? Many people, today, don't think so. The truth is, however, that our great nation was founded on principles that are found all throughout the Bible. Author and historian David Barton highlights our Christian heritage in an ‘eye opening message’ at In Touch Ministries Online. Check out his presentation at www.intouch.org. It is well worth a listen.

When speaking of our Founding Fathers many refer to the signers of the three primary, foundational documents of the United States of America: The Declaration of Independence (1776), the Articles of Confederation (ratified in 1781), and the Constitution of the United States (1789). There were 118 different signers of these documents, some of whom signed more than one of these documents.

Others who may be considered “founding fathers” are those who attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787, those who served as Senators in the First Federal Congress (1789-1791), and those who served as Representatives in the First Federal Congress.

One source (www.adherents.com) lists 175 Founding Fathers with their religious affiliations as follows: 88 Episcopalian/Anglican; 30 Presbyterian; 27 Congregationalists; and 30 others as Quakers, Dutch or German Reformed, Lutheran, Catholic, Huguenot, Unitarian, Methodist, and Calvinist. That looks like a lot of Christians to me.

Christianity is a set of beliefs, a way of life, and a community of people. Those who wish to celebrate Christmas will do so. However, Christians and non-Christians alike not going to work on December 25 are off due to it being Christmas. Schools are closed on December 25 because it is Christmas. That’s the way it is and that’s the way it will always be, the birth of Jesus is celebrated on December 25. No government can take that away from Christians.

Of course, many school districts across America refuse to acknowledge our nation’s Christian heritage or the fact that they have a Christmas holiday before and after December 25. They prefer to call it a winter holiday. But they are not fooling anyone, are they? They cannot take the celebration of Christmas away from Christians. Their actions are nothing more than political correctness gone awry.

Political correctness is a creation of the liberal left. Attempts by extremist liberals to do away with all references to Christianity offend, by last count, over one billion people worldwide. They can only succeed if we let them.

EPILOGUE
We’ve all seen the inscription on many crosses “INRI.” That is an acronym of the Latin inscription:

IESVS•NAZARENVS•REX•IVDÆORVM (Jesus Nazarenus, Rex Judaeorum), which translates in English as "Jesus the Nazarene (or Jesus of Nazareth), King of the Jews."

Merry Christmas TO ALL…and to all a good night!

The Fascist Octopus has sung its Swan Song, the Jackboot is thrown into the Melting Pot.[1]

By

ROBERT HARKINS J.D.

If you have read this far, you know that the “English language is in a bad way. While the O’Bama Administration, true to Chicago politics, is shredding truth and pitching falsehoods, its invention of euphemisms has transformed language into Rapp-beat Art. Americans are already wary of the government euphemisms Revenue Enhancement, Resources, and Investment. They prefer instead the honest word “Tax.” When government engages in Revenue Enhancement, or when it is marauding for Resources, that is, as it seeks new ways to pillage your paycheck money for government Investment, it uses the state’s police power to take it from you. When Presidents Bill Clinton and Baraq O’Bama decided to impose new taxes, they explained that they would ask Americans to pay their fair share. Ask! How could they describe the imposition of the state’s police power as a mere request. If the Presidents had merely requested additional taxes many of us might have politely declined.

Chief Supreme Court Justice John Marshall, shortly after the drafting of the American Constitution, wrote that, “The power to tax, involves the power to destroy.” Two centuries later, Americans must bear witness to the destruction wrought by the unrestrained imposition of the Police Power to run up obscene deficits— taxes imposed over and above taxes taken directly from American wealth— to borrow, print, spend, steal and squander so much of America’s wealth that indebted generations unborn will not possess the wealth to pay it down.

Virtually all Americans are privy to the government’s bastardization of words. A degree in English is not necessary to understand that the invention of the euphemisms, Overseas Contingency Operation and Man made Disaster is intended to obscure the fact of Islamic Jihadist Terrorism, the terrorist suicide bombing and slaughter of innocent, defenseless men, women and children. It is past time to repudiate the government’s destruction of clarity in words. The late journalist and author, George Orwell explains that if we embrace the discipline of oral and written clarity we will avoid the mental vices of government language. We will,

…think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers.

Orwell did not live to hear shouted at Americans vacuous slogans such as Yes we can but he warned against the easy acceptance of political language.

Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different. Statements like… The Soviet press is the freest in the world,… are almost always made with intent to deceive. Other words used in variable meanings, in most cases more or less dishonestly, are: class, totalitarian, science, progressive, reactionary, bourgeois, equality.

Is there an American graduate from high school or college who has not read a paragraph similar to that Orwell composes here to explain how modern writing can shrive even from a poem in Ecclesiastes, its clear and elegant meaning? “Now that I have made this catalogue of swindles and perversions, let me give another example of the kind of writing that they lead to….

I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Here it is in modern English:

Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

Governments use metaphors to obscure meaning and intention. The President told Americans that everybody has to have some skin in the game. Interesting, but just what did the President mean? Orwell, warns that when a politician uses metaphors, “…it can be taken as certain that [he] is not seeing a mental image of the objects he is naming; in other words he is not really thinking.” [Where, for example, is there meaning in the title of this column]?

Indeed, when listening to politicians, Orwell admitted, as we Americans might also admit, to “…a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy…. A speaker who uses that kind of phraseology has gone some distance toward turning himself into a machine. The appropriate noises are coming out of his larynx, but his brain is not involved, as it would be if he were choosing his words for himself. If the speech he is making is one that he is accustomed to make over and over again, he may be almost unconscious of what he is saying…. And this reduced state of consciousness, if not indispensable, is at any rate favourable to political conformity….”

What then are Americans to do? Well, writes Orwell, remember that, “In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics’. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.” Therefore, “If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy.” And remember that, “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind….” One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one's own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase [like Overseas Contingency Operations]— or other lump of verbal refuse — into the dustbin where it belongs.”

What is to be done? Americans must insist on facts. They must not be mute and passive to the Administration’s passing of pure wind, however solid in appearance. Americans must jeer loudly at euphemisms that demean truth and plain, clear words. When necessary, Americans should call a speech for what it is: verbal refuse. And finally, when the Administration, its senators, congressman, and talking heads hand you wordy trash, hand it back with this:

The Fascist Octopus has sung its Swan Song,

The Jackboot is thrown into the Melting Pot.

What do you think?

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1. Title and references are taken from George Orwell’s essay, Politics and the English Language. Available on the Internet.

“You Can Tell a Person’s Character (or lack thereof) by the Company They Keep”

by John Alexander Madison
December 14, 2009

There is no denying it. When the discussion rolls around to the greatest golfers of all time, the top ten ranking may go something like this: Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Walter Hagan and Gene Sarazan. If you know anything about golf you'll find it hard to argue these players belong in the top ten. And, if you are good at math, you will notice only nine golfers are listed. Who is missing? Coming in number one or two on just about anybody’s list would be a fellow by the name of Eldrick Tont. He was born on December 30, 1975 in Cypress, California. Through his parents ancestry he is one-quarter Chinese, one-quarter Thai, one-quarter African American, one-eight Native American, and one-eight Dutch…and a Buddist.

At age 33, Eldrick Tont’s records include 71 PGA tour wins, including 14 majors, and 57 other championship wins. Without a doubt he will forever be included on any list of the world’s greatest golfers…he is and always will be a great golf champion.

There are other lists
Another list includes President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (D, MA), President William Jefferson Clinton (D, AR), Governor Elliot Spitzer (D, NY), Senator John Edwards (D, NC), Governor Marshall Clement “Mark” Sanford (R, SC), Governor Jim McGreevey (D, NJ), Pastor Ted Haggard (New Life Church, CO), Kobe Bryant (NBA), Michael Jordan (NBA), David Beckham (MLS), Donald Trump, Brad Pitt (Actor), Prince Charles (Prince of Wales), Amy Winehouse (singer), David Letterman (television host), Gordon Ramsay (television chef)…and, not to be forgotten, Eldrick Tont. They all cheated on their spouses and they are all guilty of infidelity. By any honest assessment they are all cads.

Dictionary.com defines a “cad” as “an ill-bred man, especially one who behaves in a dishonorable or irresponsible way toward women.” Ms. Winehouse, more properly I suppose, is a wannabee cad or a “cad-ette” having admitted to an extra-marital affair in her divorce proceedings.

An historical perspective
In the context of a list of all-time greatest golfers, Eldrick Tont is in great company. In the context of a list of all-time cads, Eldrick Tont is in great company.

Regarding the expression “You Can Tell a Person’s Character by the Company They Keep” I’ve modified it a bit, adding “You Can Tell a Person’s Character (or lack thereof) by the Company They Keep.”

Character is defined as “the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person…moral or ethical quality.” By all accounts, Eldrick Tont lacks good character. Who would have known?

EPILOGUE
Eldrick Tont, of course, was born Eldrick Tont Woods, a/k/a Tiger Woods.

Left in the awake of Eldrick’s selfish behavior is the permanent damage which has been inflicted upon his loving wife Elin Nordegrin, her daughter Sam Alexis, her son Charlie Axel, and Swedish golfer, Jesper Parnevik who introduced Elin to Tiger. Reacting to Tiger’s recently disclosed infidelity Parnevik said "I hope she uses a driver next time instead of a 3-iron." I suspect many will agree.

When it’s all said and done….Tiger Woods will be known as the first professional athlete in the world to earn over one billion dollars; he will be known as one of the best golfers ever; and he will be known as a man of bad character, a serial cad.

The Seventh Commandment reads: Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)