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Christmas Cheer vs. Atheist Blear
By Arnold Ahlert (bio)


“At the time of the winter solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is just myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”–sign posted by atheists at the Illinois state capitol Christmas display.

Contrary to many folks, when I see something like this, it isn’t the debate regarding free speech or freedom of religion that comes to mind. No doubt many Americans don’t like the idea that a Christmas display can be tainted, but the First Amendment protects everyone, even atheists.

What strikes me is the supreme pettiness of people whose chief ambition is to rain on other peoples’ parade. For these small-minded, smug Americans, nothing must be left unmolested by their self-anointed “superiority.”

“Let reason prevail?” How about reasonableness instead? How about respect for those “unenlightened” Americans who “cling” to the notion that there is something greater and more and enduring than the self and this lifetime?

You know what really “hardens hearts and enslaves minds?” A completely unnecessary display of mean-spiritedness designed to “offset” peace on earth and goodwill towards men.

I feel truly sorry for the children of such people. It must be a real bummer to find out–long before everyone else’s children do–that there’s no Santa Claus, no tooth fairy, no pixie dust or anything else that conflicts with “our natural world,” and that life itself is just a one-and-out slog to eternal oblivion. Unless, of course, one succumbs to “myth and superstition.”

Sadly, there will always be people who can’t be happy unless they’re unhappy–or making someone else miserable. It is who they are, and a season like this truly annoys them. The greatness of America is that millions of us are willing to defend their right to be heard, even as we despise their need to annoy and belittle those who are filled with something far greater than insipid intellectualism.

It is beyond me how someone can look at the wonder and complexity of this life and come to the conclusion that every bit of it is a rudderless accident–with the one apparent exception being the ability of atheists to perceive it as such. Such an obvious contradiction would give some people second thoughts, or a sense of hesitation at least. But no. Atheists dismiss thousands of years of metaphysical “indulgence” by every culture that has ever existed as a character flaw inherent to the species. One which must be “cured” by conquering force of reason.

Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll take my myths and superstitions–I prefer the term “hope”– and run with them. And for all the “misguided” souls who stand with me, a simple message: Merry Christmas!


source: http://politicalmavens.com/

An anniversary to observe
By William Katz (bio)

December 16th is the 65th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive. On December 16th, 1944, Nazi Germany, only months away from defeat, launched a surprise attack on Allied troops on the western front, hoping to drive a wedge in our line and ultimately wreck the Allied advance into Germany. The German attack, after bitter fighting, failed.

The Battle of the Bulge lasted a bit more than five weeks. The United States lost 19,000 men. We were a nation of about 138 million at the time. Today the United States has a population of approximately 305 million. Put in proportion to today’s population, the Battle of the Bulge cost the lives of more than 40,000 American soldiers. It was, for us, the costliest engagement of World War II.

I mention the casualty figures to emphasize what we endured in the Second World War. Obviously, every life is precious. To the family that receives a knock on the door from an officer bearing the worst news from Iraq or Afghanistan, there is no such thing as “low casualties.” But the next time you hear one of those whining anchors on CNN talking about our “war-weary” nation, think back to 1944, and the cost of just one five-week battle. The nation at Christmas in 1944 had a right to be war-weary. Unless we are part of a military family today, we have no such right.


source: http://politicalmavens.com/

Friend or foe
By Rachel Raskin-Zrihen (bio)

The voice on the other end of the phone, said “You will do exactly as I say if you ever want to see your son alive again.”

The plot of a movie of the week? A mystery novel?

Nope.
This is what the official “government” of Hamas said publically about the young Israeli man kidnapped in a deadly sneak attack and held captive for the past three years.
And even as the unrepentant kidnapper/killers continue making demands, they held a press conference to publically “blame Israel” for the fact that they still hold Gilad Schalit –an innocent man — against his will. The kidnappers are demanding the release of hundreds of terrorist killers in exchange.

The Associated Press story starts by reporting, as a statement of fact, “Israeli intransigence caused a breakdown in negotiations to release an Israeli soldier held by the militant Palestinian group Hamas, its leader said Tuesday.”

It then goes on to say that, “speaking in the Iranian capital of Tehran, Khaled Mashaal said the Israelis have no choice but to free the Palestinian prisoners Hamas wants if it ever wants to see Sgt. Gilad Schalit again.” (emphasis mine)

The defiant words of a cowardly criminal.
It seems to me the only thing separating these kidnappers from the garden variety is their willingness to take the spotlight instead of remaining in the shadows. And it’s obvious to me that the reason they feel comfortable doing this is because much of the world seems to be comfortable with the Palestinians as violent criminals and the Jews as eternal victims.
They are not, evidently, OK with the Jews as self defenders, or we would not now be hearing arguments in the United Nations about war crimes trials against the Israelis for finally striking back to put an end to eight years – read that again so it sinks in – eight years of constant rocket attacks against Israel’s cities by Hamas.

The Israelis will eventually hand over some enormous number of homicidal maniacs in exchange for Schalit, and it will be anyone’s guess if the poor kid is returned alive or not. This wouldn’t be the first time Israel has exchanged live terrorists for dead Jews.

Yet, they really have no choice, because the idea of leaving that poor, innocent kid in the hands of such monsters is emotionally killing everyone in the country and all people of conscience everywhere.
So, as rockets explode in Jewish towns in Israel and anti-Semitic incidents rise worldwide, the Muslim-heavy United Nations demands war crimes trials against Israelis for defending themselves, a British law is being cynically used to harass and intimidate Jews.
For some time now, Palestinians and their supporters, have found way to abuse a British law called “universal jurisdiction,” AP reports.
Lawyers working with Palestinian activists have tried to get several senior Israeli civilian and military leaders arrested using this law – which AP describes as an “ill-defined legal concept” that allows judges to issue arrest warrants for visiting officials accused of war crimes in a foreign conflict.
AP reports the fanatics’ latest target is Tzipi Livni, Israel’s former foreign minister and current opposition leader.

It’s another measure of the worlds’ growing acceptance of blatant anti-Semitism (call it anti-Zionism or Chaimyankle, anti-Semitism is what it is.)

But, at least some Brits have noticed and recognized the problem

A.P. reports that Eugene Rogan, director of the Middle East Center at England’s Oxford University, said “the demands of global diplomacy required leaders to be able to travel abroad without facing arrest threats.”

Sonya Sceats, an international law expert at a London think tank, said “the Livni arrest threat throws into bold relief how much ambiguity exists in Britain’s laws on universal jurisdiction.”

The story notes that in 1998 Spain and Britain jointly pioneered the law by arresting former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. British authorities kept Pinochet under house arrest in London until releasing him on humanitarian grounds in 2000, the story notes.
Pro-Palestinian activists in Britain hope to capture Israeli officials this way.

“We cannot talk tough on terrorism and be weak on war crimes,” one pro-Palestinian activist said. “Parties in Israel must realize there is a consequence to their behavior. For decades they’ve violated Security Council resolutions and international law with little or no consequence.”

A hilarious comment begging a discussion of who’s defying what international laws. I guess constant rocket attacks and suicide bomb attacks against unarmed civilians aren’t war crimes.
The good news is that Britain reportedly pledged, following the Livni event, to reform the law, stating that it could one day pose a threat to Barack Obama or Vladimir Putin (it is evidently not enough that it’s a threat to Jewish leaders right now, but never mind.) And some experts suggested that were the targets someone other than Israelis, the law would have been eliminated by now.
I also notice that no one ever mentions arresting the leadership of the various Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah or the PLO, who travel freely despite having hands dripping with the blood of innocent Jews and other westerners, and I don’t know why not.
However, AP reports that Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced that Britain would no longer tolerate legal harassment of Israeli officials in this fashion. Maybe in some other fashion, it will be OK, but not in this one.
Nevertheless, Miliband said the misguided law must be reviewed and reformed and that “the British government was determined that arrest threats against visitors of Livni’s stature would not happen again.”

He called Israel “a strategic partner and a close friend of the United Kingdom. We are determined to protect and develop these ties. Israeli leaders – like leaders from other countries – must be able to visit and have a proper dialogue with the British government.”

It’s about time.


source: http://politicalmavens.com/

I agree with your views. America does need to change. But i find it hard to believe that you are not an adult.

"obedient political zombie"
Gosh, that one's new!
I've been called a lot of things in my life, but nothing so nice as that.
I said in my first post (which i posted all by myself!) That i was going to keep updating you on "the real issues in America" I also did not fail to mention that I am still a child.
That being said, I do not pretend to have delusions that my voice is the only one that's right, or even right at all for that matter. And though it flatters me that you show such interest in what i have to say, it is also a request that i am not prepared to grant.
I am young, Ignorant, and let's face it, not grammatically correct in the least.
I have respect for the people i have quoted here, and agree with them on the previous posts, I believe this is sufficient for now.
It hurts that you believe i have no original thought's of my own, but there is nothing I am prepared to do about that.
I will, however, give you one thought that is all mine:
I find it very hard to believe that someone who appears to have less education in the Language Arts than myself is a college student. (the red lines mean you spelled the word incorrectly)
I support Good Grammar.

Bravo, Yuuki. I applaud you. There is a stunning shortage of this kind of brilliant honesty in this world today, and most of those people who possess it tend to shove it backstage. A salute is in order. Thank you for being a level headed person who knows what is truly important in the world these days. Your intellect is refreshing, to say the least. ^^

Recently, I've been reading up on the American Revolution, It's made me feel awfully patriotic, which is why I've chosen to 'Get back on the wagon' so to speak.

I found this upon reading about the battles at Lexington and Concord. A brief history lesson for anyone not familiar with this:

...."General Gage was in charge of the British army that was occupying Boston. In April of 1775, he sent 700 soldiers at night to the towns of Lexington and Concord. He wanted to destroy the supplies at those towns and hoped to capture the colonial leaders(The Massachusetts assembly was meeting illegally at Concord and the British wanted its leaders captured), but his men were being watched closely by the Sons of Liberty.
The Sons of Liberty knew the British were going to march, they just didn't know which way they would go, across land or by sea across the harbor. They arranged for someone to watch and put a signal in the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston. The signal was one lantern if the soldiers were going by land or two if by sea. When the two lamps were put up in the steeple, two men rode hard out of Boston on fast horses to warn the patriots at Lexington and Concord. Paul Revere became the most famous of the two riders because Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a stirring poem about his desperate ride to warn his countrymen. Revere was stopped at Lexington, but the other rider reached Concord in time."....


Paul Revere's Ride (The Landlord's Tale)

"Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in 'Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light, --
One, if by land, and two, if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said, "Good night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street,
Wanders and watches with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry-chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade, --
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town,
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night-encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay, --
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride,
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle-girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry-tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! As he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns!

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet:
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.

He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders, that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the c**k,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled, --
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farm-yard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm, --
A cry of defiance and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed
And the midnight message of Paul Revere."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

I hope you enjoyed this inspiring poem as much as I did, and Also hope this encourages you to learn more about The American Revolution, our fight for freedom. I believe it is important to know where you come from, so that maybe, history will not repeat itself. The American Revolution in an inspiring tale of how our Nation came to be independent. Reading about it, I can't help but feel that America is indeed worth fighting for. Don't let politics screw with your head, this is Our Country. Our home. And no one can take that away from us without our say so.