Maybe I will count my blessings now.

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Maybe I will count my Blessings now. They are the Crowd among which my grumblings hide.

The Christ that is Christmas; the Family that has made me and the Family that is of me; the Country that is the ready bounty of liberty; the Dignity that is the labors of my mind and hand; the People who have sacrificed for mine and me; the Wise who instruct me; and the Enterprise that sustains me. Blessings. Counted.

The Memories that I keep. Counted, as acquired. Blessings.

My senses. Blessings, such as they are. Counted.

Home: The pantry, the well, the walls, the warmth, the comfort, the wire, the dog, my socks, my hats, the love, and the longing to be here when I am not. Counted. Here. Blessings.

Thanksgiving at Christmas. This morning. Today. Blessings. Counted. Counting…

~tdv

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Image found at http://www.thoughtsfromaconservativemom.com/2012/12/a-world-in-need-of-a-savior/

I Give Up

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I give up. Most everybody has given in, fore they chanced the giving up. Why do you think zombies are so popular? Rectangles, shimmering rectangles, you know what for, they say. Reality TV takes the place of reality in me.

Have you ever been around somebody who does something wrong in your mind, dishonest, or recommends you do likewise, where you have the strength to keep your principles and say no, but are too weak to criticize them? Just let it go? Guilt follows? Yeah, me neither.

Can’t stand people who make decisions for me, unless I ask them to. Yet then, if they make decisions for me of the sort that I didn’t ask them to make, they are worse. It is your call, but only it. Understand? Elsewise, leave me be. Understand?

If someone gave me a dollar, first I gave them my time. If someone gives me their time, and he does not take my dollar, he is likely a friend, unless the time he gave me was spent wasting my time. People who demand dollars without the exchange of time, are thieves, unless they have been wronged, then they are seeking justice; but as they define justice as other than justice, and blame the blameless, they are still thieves.

I give up. Right ain’t right. All the good folks keep their tongue, while the lowlifes never shut up their public cackling. All you ever see. Rectangles, shimmering, through cracks. Fun at times, even instructive, but please God, put them on a timer.

Waaaah. Keep crying. Works for babes, and the last time it worked for me, I was a babe, and since, I just got uglier. Actually, since I’ve no recall of it, and judging by my current features alone, it is a good bet that I was an ugly babe, and all my crying got me then was a kick. I will ask Mom. Kick me.

President George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

SubConch

I’m sharing this with you all, with hopes that your families and yourselves, might find the blessings upon which to be grateful to our God, on this Thanksgiving Day.

This writing by our 1st President is intriguing, as it goes to the character, the perspective, the reverence, the very nature of this man, of these men, that founded our great nation.

President George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation was penned at the request of Congress, who resolved that “he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a Constitution of government for their safety and happiness.”

Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, which was to be published in papers nationwide, was enclosed in his Circular to the Governors of the States with…

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Obamacare: Guess We Can’t Keep Our Pharmacist, Either

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…at least for some drugs… until some further notice…

I don’t know about you all, but my family has a close and enduring and trusting relationship with our pharmacist. It is akin even to the bond we have with our doctors, who likewise we have regular interaction.

Today, when dropping off a routine prescription, our local pharmacist hesitated, saying momentarily, that they may not be able to fill one of them, while internally determining firstly if they had enough left in stock, and secondly the amount of money they’d have to ‘eat’ in the transaction. You see, as yet another consequence of the so-called ‘law’ named Obamacare, the wholesale cost of a wide range of drugs has necessarily skyrocketed.

What this means to our pharmacist of course is that it costs them more to buy the drugs, and in this case, 400% more (in other cases a greater deal more). And since this drug costs them more, they must in turn charge us more for it.

Then here is the deal. Our insurance plan (and the plans of many others), for the time being, and until and if then, some undetermined time, will only reimburse our pharmacist for this drug at the rate they were paying prior to the insane overnight spike in the cost of this drug. As a result, our pharmacist can no longer afford to sell us this drug (taking a loss), and must send us packing, toward the closest big-chain drug store, who might better be able to afford to absorb the loss.

Frankly, I am incensed at this. We Americans were promised that we could keep our health plans, that we could keep our doctors, should the Affordable Care Act become law. For millions of us, and for millions more to come, the promises are proven nothing more than hollow, malicious, manipulative lies. And now, apparently, neither can we keep our pharmacists.

Now I’ve not done research whatever into this situation, having only spoken to our pharmacist, and then taken to my pen in protest, but aside from the obvious and blatant affront to our liberty by the federal government that this represents, this pharmaceutical gouge reeks of backroom deals between fat-assed lobbyist nobles and fat-assed power-hungry politicians. This is tyranny.

We know we are not going to keep our health plans, we know that our health costs are going to be more expensive (my premiums have risen 82% since the PPACA was passed), we know we are not going to keep our doctors, we know we are not going to keep our full-time jobs, and now, we can guess that we can’t keep our pharmacists, either.

We could also say we won’t get to keep our country, if we had not lost that a good time ago.

Elections have consequences, and thanks to you, my family and millions of other families are being harmed, millions more are set to see their harm, and ultimately, so too will you be harmed. And do not for a minute think that obamacare is the end of it.

~tdv, pissed

Which History to Trust: A Dad’s Dilemma

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One of our kids is beginning high school this year, and it is my charge to select or construct the curriculum for history in our home school. As well, it is for me to oversee this portion of her education in the coming years.

I do not take this responsibility lightly, which is the reason for this letter, posted both publicly, and privately to people whom I respect.

It is my hope that you might offer some guidance in this endeavor, that my child and I may avoid wasted investments of time, energies, and cash in history books and/or programs whose sole purpose is to manipulate history to dovetail with an anti-American agenda, which to me defines itself as anywhere to the left of our founders, counter to the principled Unanimous Declaration, and at odds with the original intent of our Constitution.

What I’d like to offer my daughter is a solid foundation in honest history, in its proper context; something that she can build upon throughout her life, and that will protect her from being taken in by the spinners and string pullers.

Which history to trust, that’s my dilemma… (getting her interest is a whole ‘nother problem :] )

If you could share your experience with trustworthy sources of American and World History, or your knowledge of any reliable curriculum or structured reading lists, or if you have any other advice to offer (other than sending our kid to public school), we would be grateful in hearing it.

Please comment on the post, or send a note to subconch@gmail.com ~Thanks

Identify with Independence Day

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Heard somebody recently point out that Independence Day has come to be the only holiday commonly referred to by its date, rather than by its occasion. This truth reminds us of how subtle and progressive changes in the use of language can readily leave behind original meaning.
July 4th is a day of the month; Independence Day marks the greatest leap for human liberty in the history of man, and the courageous underpinnings of the greatest nation on earth.
And let us not forget Providence, without which our independence might never have been won, or our liberty continued, to this day.
Identify with Independence Day, and read The Declaration of Independence. Then… light the grill, have a cold one, and watch the skies light up.

Still here, but not so much… here.

Just wanted to drop a note to those of you who happen by from time to time, or at least to you who used to.

I am still here, but not so much here, which is to say that I breathe, and that I live, and that as a consequence of the latter in recent months, I’ve not had the energies to do much else than live… and work… which is a good thing, of course.

I’ve many ideas for articles, many started and in various stages of completion. As soon as the flood waters of life recede a bit, I will eagerly take to my pen again.

You might also catch the fleeting tweet if you are inclined so. Thanks again for the visits.

~tdv

 

Taking All Comers

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Taking All Comers
by Ted Vaughan (subconch)
~Originally published in American Thinker, 04.29.2013

Back in June of 2012, President Barack Hussein Obama, through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced that his administration would be circumventing the Congress, and thereby the U.S. Constitution, by unilaterally implementing elements of the DREAM Act, a legislative proposal dealing with minor aliens which repeatedly failed to become law.  When the memorandum was issued, Obama was campaigning for re-election in November. 

In case we forgot how it works around here, Congress makes laws pursuant to the Constitution, and more specifically, Congress has the sole power “To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.”  The President oversees the execution of laws made by Congress.

And is it not enough, with the responsibility for carrying laws into effect, for enforcing them, that the executive needs to encroach upon the authority and duties of legislators?  Is it not enough that he has the power to veto legislation presented him by the Congress during his term?  Is it not enough that the President commands the greatest military power on earth when Congress calls it?  Is it not enough that he has, in concurrence with the Senate, the power to make treaties, and to appoint Supreme Court judges, ambassadors, and other officers?  Is it not enough that the President has the power to pardon offenses against the United States? Is all of this power not enough, that he ought to take on the mantle of lawmaker as well?

Apparently not, as Obama’s DHS, calling their actions (or inactions) an “exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” peeled off an estimated 800,000 certain illegal aliens for exemption from current immigration law.  They halted the deportations of these certain illegals, or granted deference to them when encountered, and ordered the establishment of a “clear and efficient process” for determining their eligibility for this newfound legal status and authorize them to work in this country.

“Certain” illegals were defined in the DHS memo, almost verbatim from DREAM Act language, thus: Under age 16 when they came here, and had been here at least five years, and were under age 30, and were in school or were high school grads or equivalent or had served in the military, and weren’t criminals (forgetting of course that they had to have committed fraud to enter the latter institutions).

Incidentally, discretion is a matter of independent judgment, based on extenuating, individual, isolated circumstances.  Obama and the DHS may be making an independent judgment with respect to existing immigration law, but to then ignore the law where it applies to certain hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants is not discretion, it is lawlessness.

Anyway, in August of 2012, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), acting at the discretion and as a subsidiary of Obama’s DHS, began processing applications from certain illegal immigrants to verify their new legality under the newly established “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA) extralegal program.

After seven plus months running, the latest monthly report on the DACA process is out, courtesy of the USCIS portal, revealed by this recent story from the Washington Times.

99.5%!  That’s the approval ratio of applications processed thru March 31 2013.  Total applications processed: 269,693; Total approvals: 268,361; Total denials: 1,377.

24K gold is barely this pure.

Our government found a mere 0.5% potentiality for fraud or ill intent within a population of 270,000 foreigners here illegally?  Where can you find that level of integrity among any group of humans?

But we are consoled in the above mentioned Times piece that DHS expects the approval ratio to drop, to be fair, and “Indeed, the approval rate already has dropped from 99.8 percent just a month ago.”  Really… that’s what they say.  Furthermore, we are assured in the article by an immigration integrity consultant (retired head of USCIS fraud branch) that advanced analytical predictive technology is being employed to stop any potential fraud, since interviewing all these certain illegals in person is not an option.

This is a “clear and efficient process”, you see, implemented by executive algorithms of multicultural perfection.  And this may serve as a model for future grants of amnesty.

Continuing with the DACA report, it also tallies the applicants’ countries of origin.  The majority are Hispanic countries (Mexican, Central & South American), and within our hemisphere, including Caribbean.

Interestingly, approvals totaling 10,319 originate from the other side of the planet, like South Korea (5,476), the Philippines (2,370), India (1,750), and Pakistan (723).  It makes one wonder how these blocs might be inclined to vote here in the U.S., or if any got the memo that their counterparts were getting a free ride.

The report cleverly lists “Top Countries of Origin”, so as to justify leaving out the nationality of 1,918 approved applicants.  268,361 Cumulative Total Approved, minus 266,443 Approved-to-Date by Country (add them up yourself), equals 1,918 of undisclosed origin.  At least this information is not readily available on the USCIS site.  Wouldn’t you like to know where the 1,918 are from?  Canada, maybe?

Suddenly, inexplicably, thoughts come to mind of certain Chechen immigrants radicalized as Islamic terrorist bombers; 26 yr. old green card holder Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and 19 yr. old “U.S. citizen” Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, naturalized September 11, 2012.

These two barbarians murdered and maimed innocent Americans… and both were here legally, sanctioned by the same system that clearly and efficiently takes all comers, as a matter of political course.  No doubt these monsters would have been welcomed among the aforementioned 99.5%, had they been in that pool.

Who among the pure 270,000 DACA recipients will plant the next bomb, or rape the next child, or beat and rob the next unsuspecting American?

It is beyond reprehensible that the Executive Branch of our government would assume for itself unconstitutional powers for the sake of political expediency and favor, if that is the whole of their motive. And it is unforgivable that they would then execute those usurped powers in a manner now proven to be too perfectly irresponsible to claim incompetence.

Rock-n-Roll for the American Soul – Madison Rising

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Okay, maybe it’s just Rock, but without the -n-Roll, I wouldn’t have the title, now would I? Besides, my lack of currentness ought to excuse whatever inaccuracy in this regard.

I came across the American patriot band Madison Rising (hat tip: jonolan), and refreshed, decided to share them with you here, and encourage you to likewise share. Even as you might be disinclined to the particular harmonic energies, surely there are some, let’s say “less ripened”, among you who would find their appreciation for it.

Rock American.

From their site:

Madison Rising brings great rock music back to the forefront of popular culture. With songs ranging from the guitar heavy opening track “Right To Bear,” to the hauntingly epic sounds of “Honk If You Want Peace,” to the beautiful violins of “Hallowed Ground,” it is clear that this band is on a mission to not only make great music, but also send a message that American culture is alive and well.

Enjoy… and Please Share:

NC Stands for Religious Liberty – Press Lies, Belittles – Nothing New

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Alas, it is nothing new that slander, propaganda, and the ridicule of large swaths of the American body of people passes for “news” these days. Sometimes though, it just gets under the skin, you know, even if you are aware that it’s meant to get under your skin. The New York Daily News gives us one recent example in its attack on Christians, The U.S. Constitution, and North Carolina state legislators.

I’ll get to that, but first, some background.

Mar. 13, 2013: ACLU-NCLF files federal lawsuit (Lund, et al. v. Rowan County) seeking a judgment that the Rowan County Board of Commissioners practice of opening their meetings with Christian prayer violates the US and NC Constitutions, and therefore seeking to ban the practice.

Mar. 19, 2013: Rowan County Board of Commissioners votes unanimously to fight the lawsuit after a public meeting, which of course, opened with a prayer. Nearby Forsyth Co., NC lost a similar court battle that lasted 5 years and cost $280,000, culminating in a decision which prompted nearly two dozen NC communities to stop prayer in government meetings.

Apr. 01, 2013: General Assembly of North Carolina passes House Joint Resolution (H.J.R. 494), proclaiming (introducing) “The Rowan County, NC, Defense of Religion Act of 2013”. The NC General Assembly in this resolution, both generally and with respect to religion, is asserting state sovereignty, “declaring that the State of North Carolina does not recognize the authority of federal judicial opinions arising from the exertion of powers not granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States”.

US Constitution, Amendment I:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

US Constitution, Amendment X:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

NC Constitution, Article I, § 13: Religious Liberty:

All persons have a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences, and no human authority shall, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience.

NC Constitution, Article IX, § 1: Education Encouraged

Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools, libraries, and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

…and then, from charlatans and propagandists at the New York Daily News we get this:

Headline: Let us pray! North Carolina lawmakers propose bill that challenges U.S. Constitution
The ‘Defense of Religion Act’ would allow prayer in public institutions, including schools. Opponents say it would overturn a long line of U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

Let us Pray!”??? Does this not ring of condescension and ridicule? “Oh look, the stupid little rednecks want to pray.” Demeaning, snobbish, elitist, disgusting.

Challenges U.S. Constitution”??? This is a flat out LIE. The resolution honors the Constitution, and challenges the authority of the federal government where it dishonors the Constitution.

And don’t you just love it how people, when it suits them, hold up Supreme Court precedent as beyond reproach. The fact is that the Court has gotten it wrong before in their rulings, and will again, and nobody is above criticism or censure in our system.

Washington's bound copy of the Acts of the First Congress

Washington’s bound copy of the Acts of the First Congress

The Daily News article is adorned with an image of George Washington’s beautifully bound copy of the “Acts of the First Congress” encased in glass. Beneath the image reads the caption: “The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights proclaims a separation between church and state. The new bill would specifically allow the County Commission of Rowan County, about an hour north of Charlotte, to continue opening its meetings with Christian prayers.”

The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights” implies theses are divided entities, which is misleading, and to what end I don’t know. But what follows is another blatant falsehood, the assertion that the Constitution “proclaims a separation between church and state”. Read the 1st Amendment above, and find that proclamation.

The United States Congress may not “establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience.” was James Madison’s interpretation of this clause when discussed in the House of Representatives Aug. 15, 1789. In other words, the 1st Amendment is about protection from federal religious coercion.

Speaking of the U.S. House, it has opened its proceedings with prayer since the beginning, and still does to this day. To suddenly allege this practice is and always was unconstitutional is absolute drivel.

The story concludes with the following quotes:

From the ACLU: (the bill’s sponsors) “fundamentally misunderstand constitutional law and the principle of the separation of powers that dates back to the founding of this country.”

From a “legal scholar”: “They basically want to ensure that a long line of U.S. Supreme Court rulings have no validity either here in Rowan County or here in the entire state. They’re basing it on — to put it mildly — discredited legal theory that the states can deny the power of the federal government within their jurisdiction.”

No Constitutional provision forbids prayer in public institutions, and any federal laws or rulings to that effect are invalid and unconstitutional inventions. States are among the separate powers that date back to founding of this country, so far back in fact that they predate and even created the powers of the federal government. And where states deny specific power to a federal government adrift of its Constitutional bounds, it’s not “legal theory”, it’s duty.

Finally, and since the NY Daily News saw fit to display with prominence President Washington’s book because hey, it looks cool and official and says “President” on it and people would never doubt a story with that picture, I leave with this:

George Washington, in his 1796 Farewell Address:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Tell us again, you who seek to bastardize our principled founding and rip out the heart of our Christian heritage, how it is that your mythical separation of church and state ought to be considered as a valid “interpretation” of Constitutional protections of liberty; tell us again how there is no place amidst government for religion and morality; tell us again that hayseed states have no right to defend themselves against an overbearing, increasingly tyrannical and centralized federal government; tell us, so we at least know that dishonor has a name.

~tdv

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