Oh to be Thankful

Today was supposed to be the warm-fuzzy 'things I'm thankful for' blog but events in the news have a way of intruding into the plans of mice and men. The MSM (mainstream media) is trying its best to ignore the growing scandal that is going to rock the scientific world to its core. It appears that a hacker hit the mother lode that reveals ongoing manipulation of climate data, discarding of data conflicting with Anthropomorphic (man caused) Global Warming conclusions, and a conspiracy to keep papers refuting AGW out of the peer review process. It is still too early to tell how far this reaches but it may actually impact the validity of the infamous 'hockey stick' graph that is used to silence critics of AGW and reveals that data from the Medieval Warm Period (in which the earth's average temperature was higher than 1998 the 'warmest year on record') was marginalized in order to push the AGW agenda forward. In other words the whole Global Warming bit is a HOAX!

Here is the article in the UK Telegraph for those of you interested in more details:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/

Now I'm not going to crow that this is the end of AGW as some will. The powermongers and money greedy are not going to just let it die. Expect even more backlashes from the eco-freaks as they circle the wagons and insist even more loudly that they are right.

So, on to thankfulness. We are so wealthy as a society that we have forgotten what it actually means to be thankful or grateful. Oh, we can talk a good line about the things we're thankful for but how often do we actually stop to fully appreciate what we have? I have so much that I don't even know how to appreciate them. I have books by the hundreds and baseball cards by the thousands. I have so many things that most of them were looked at for a moment and plopped away on a shelf or in a closet. Between Mrs. C and I, we have filled most of the empty space in the house.

It reminds me of historian Simon Schama's book "The Embarrassment of Riches". The book examines the Dutch trade empire from the perspective of their middle class. At the time the Dutch were VERY Protestant and VERY devout. Their trade empire made most of the Dutch very rich within the span of a generation. This created a serious conundrum for them. As good Protestants they whole heartedly believed in what we call the "Christian work ethic". But now, many not only did not have to work for their wealth they were inundated with it. Unlike Americans who are excited to conspicuously consume, the Dutch were embarrassed by their sudden wealth. Schama describes how many would try to get rid of the money by buying up as much as possible and then...hiding it. Middle class Dutch households would literally be bursting with goods. Books were popular but many a proper house would have hundreds of sets of table linens - many never used. They would buy stacks and stacks of chinaware only to shove them into hutches also never to be used. Pottery, books, bedding, and the like filled every corner of Dutch houses and they would go on working as proper Christians were supposed to only to grow even wealthier and have to hide that (a horrible circle I'm sure!). In the end, the sudden wealth went as fast as it came and in its wake it left the Dutch much less religious and much less industrious.

I am very thankful for our great wealth. Even the poorest Americans are rich by the standards of most of the population of the rest of the world. No American can probably even imagine having to live on $20 per month but billions do.

One day Mrs. C asked me what I thought would most amaze Medieval people about us. Most of my thoughts would take up an entire blog of its own but my first answer was 'how much food we have'. I then quickly amended it to 'how much food we waste'. Most Americans throw out as much food as people in the Third World have every year. As we sit down to gorge ourselves tomorrow please take a moment to be truly TRULY thankful for the sheer abundance of food that we have.

Before the family comes tomorrow, before the feasting begins, before the noise of the football games drowns out your thoughts go someplace quiet just for five minutes; heck, you can probably do this exercise in the shower. Just take that time for a little introspection. If you don't believe in God, I'd strongly recommend taking the time to open your mind to Him. Think about what we have to be thankful for and then THANK HIM for it. I am thankful for having so much that I cannot even organize it all. I am thankful for reasonably good health. I am thankful that I was born an American with so many rights, so much wealth, and so little burden. I am thankful for the abundance and variety of food I have. I am thankful for my family from my very supportive parents and best friend brother to my two remaining grandparents to my many aunts, uncles, and cousins, to an extended family out of all proportion (great aunts/uncles, second cousins, cousins removed x times, and all of their families).

I am also very thankful for my wonderful wife. Amazingly she not only tolerates this blog but actually supports it. She doesn't play jealousy games (something I am not equipped to play nor would I be able to tolerate) when I ogle Natalie Portman, Kiera Knightley, Michelle Trachtenberg, and a whole host of 'flavor of the month' actresses/celebrities (so you know, I don't get jealous of her celebrity passions either). She tolerates my moods and insecurities. She knows and accepts that I will only assimilate about 1/4 of the things she tells me and will make sure my attention is focused if she wants to tell me something important. At this time in my life, I can't imagine another woman tolerating me (I think I'm difficult to live with but I've been living with me for 40 years now) so every day she's still here I'm that much more amazed.

I hope you all find the time to be truly thankful for the many fold blessings of your life tomorrow and of equal importance, I hope you know to Whom those thanks should be given.

Have a truly Happy and Safe Thanksgiving.

Yelling at the TV

We all have an image of ourselves in our mind that often air-brushes out some of the imperfections and I am no different. However, one of the problems with self-awareness is that we are also aware of our imperfections. I tend to see myself as a decent Christian man even in the face of advocating the nuclear pulverization of Islamic cities and their inhabitants yesterday. In that case, I can reasonably separate what I believe as a Christian and the necessities of fighting a generational war against someone who MADE THEIRSELF my mortal enemy.

One of my worse failings though is my mouth. I am a bit of a cusser (I'm also a smart-a## but that's a different issue). I learned it in a public university! In spite of my loose usage of certain words, I have used the f-word sparingly as it is simply too vulgar for me. I also have actively chosen not to curse in any way that invokes the Almighty or his Son. In addition, due to changes I want to make in my life, I have been trying to keep from arbitrarily tossing cuss words into my everyday conversation; which is increasingly difficult in a steadily coarsening society. Unfortunately, I find myself firing off a few of my arbitrary strings of profanity while yelling at the television.

Just this past weekend, I was reduced to the NFL on NBC for 'entertainment' and found myself shouting for someone to roughly insert a pole of some sort in a certain orifice belonging to Keith Olberman (this on the heels of him being called KO for the umpteenth time in five minutes). I may have also referred to his genitalia as a wild field grass. When watching Fox News (or ANY news), I often find myself yelling at the liberal talking head, often referring to them as a vulgarism for a part of the female anatomy - and so you know, that vulgarism does not begin with the letter 'c' (and now we know why I blog instead of being a talking head). I yell at coaches and managers for making poor play choices while watching college football and MLB - although that doesn't always involve cussing. I yell at "Bones" when they push PC/leftist crap into the plot (e.g. Angela trying to 'save' a pig from being breakfast meat; everyone being too obsequious to the Muslim intern (they trashed a Christian's beliefs in the same episode)). The NBC channels turning their logos green for 'green week'. The ever-present logos in the bottom right corner (I KNOW WHICH *%$^%$##%# CHANNEL I'M WATCHING!!!). One of my personal favorites is watching science shows about the beginning of the universe/solar system/earth where they contradict what they just said in a previous segment of the same show/the previous show/or last week. A few weeks ago, a geologist announced that between 2.5 to 12 times the water in the oceans exists locked in the earth's crust and mantle; at which point I turned to Mrs. C and said "He just confirmed that Noah's flood was possible". OK, that didn't involve cussing but I still yell at the scientists who go miles out of their way to create a theory that denies the existence of God. Anyone ever hear of Ockham's Razor?

However the other night I had a real problem while watching the tail end of a history of Thanksgiving program on the PC "History" Channel. Granted they were talking about how the holiday has become a political brier patch and showing footage of the people of Plymouth doing their annual parade out to Plymouth Rock and being disrupted by civilization hating 'native' Americans. Then the show broke to a sound bite from one of the moron-dians whining about European colonization (you know because we're going to reverse that). It is so easy to sympathize with the plight of someone sitting in a comfortable room, wearing well made and reasonably new clothing (that looked higher end), who gets a check from the US Government every month simply for existing, and can ignore a fair number of governement regulations that European Americans ignore at their peril. I guess the wheel, written language, horses, and gunpowder weren't enough of a trade for him. Funny, it makes you pretty popular when you give another civilization those things in Sid Meier's Civilization games.

Falling into near fits of apoplexy by the time they broke for a commercial, instead of relief I got shoved over the edge by the first ad. In pushing its next show, America before Columbus, I was put in a conundrum as I tried to laugh and suffer a facial tic at the same time. Images from America before Columbus flashed by as the narrator blabbed his PC script when a small group of Indians rode...RODE...onto center screen...ON HORSEBACK!!! Now I will accept that the images had no context with them so it could have been part of the tease but I am 100% sure that America before Columbus did not...DID NOT...have horses! Fortunately, a giggle won out but I did back up and make Mrs. Crusader tell me what was wrong with the commercial (she got it right too!).

I didn't watch America before Columbus.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for that blemish on my self perception. It and several other things I see as personal failings keep my already oversized ego somewhat in check!

On Sheik-y Ground

Politics hasn't been the center of the RC's attention for the last week which explains the distinct lack of postings. Besides its been a bit slow lately with regard to business inside the Beltway (which is usually a good thing for the American people). Granted the Senate is still haggling over just how much debt they will saddle our progeny with but that's about as interesting as watching Harry Reid speak...oh yeah, been there done that.

Another reason not to post is because I'm not sure I could control the foul language clogging up my head at the decision by the Obama Administration to try Khalid Sheik Muhammed and his cronies in a civilian court. Make no mistake even though Atty. General Holder is claiming that this was his decision alone, he could not have gotten the prisoners remanded to his custody without the cooperation of the Secretary of Defense and my guess is that Gates wouldn't do that unless the president ordered it. This is all a scam on the American people so that WHEN these trials blow up Holder will be the fall guy and Obummer can do the plausible deniability dance.

Of course they don't really care. This already has blown up since the five have already plead not guilty in order to turn the trial into a political statement. I expect that sometime next year, after this trial has distracted us from what the Kenyan Katastrophe is doing behind the scenes to stomp on the remains of the Republic, Holder will resign 'in disgrace' and end up in the far left Center for American Progress or some similar organization where he will continue to make bad policy for America. The terrorists and their allies in the Middle East will have gotten an open platform to bash American foreign policy and probably a hung jury. Then they will be returned to the custody of the Defense Department since the president has already announced that they won't be released even if they fail to be convicted. And we will be back where we started but our enemies will wrongly be shown that there is nothing just in our justice system.

Now if I remember my Geneva Convention correctly, spies and 'irregulars' (enemy combatants that do not wear a uniform that identifies them as a military member of a nation) can be detained indefinitely, interrogated (that includes enhanced), and summarily executed. This is precisely what should be done with KSM and the other four. A show trial will only serve our enemies both foreign and domestic which is a violation of the oath that Obastard took less than a year ago. But when you don't believe in the Constitution why defend it in the first place?

My friends, this IS and always has been a war on Islam. It should never have been described as anything else because Islam is at war with us. Islam has only two options: the Dar al Islam and the Dar al Harb. The Dar al Islam is all people or lands that have submitted to the will of Allah. The Dar al Harb (literally House of Death) is all people and lands that have not submitted to Allah. Those of us in the Dar al Harb have three options as far as the Koran is concerned: conversion, slavery, or death. Obastard and his cronies seem willing to take us into slavery (Dhimmi-tude) or conversion.

I would like the fourth option: resistance. In a sane world, KSM and the others would be marched out in front of a firing squad, have their mouths and noses stuffed with pork fat (pork is unclean to Muslims and those contaminated by it cannot enter 'Paradise'), and be executed. Of course in a sane world, we would have nuked Damascus, Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Baghdad, and Tehran on 09/12/01. But that would have been too 'uncivilized'. We would have killed millions of 'innocents'. We would have saved thousands of American lives. We would have scared Islam back into the shadows for ten generations. We are at war; we have been since the 7th century AD. That we refuse to fight the war to win it means we have already lost.