So it’s the beginning of a new year.  So what?  It’s just a number.

We have similar changes of numbers every 30 or 31 days (except for 1, yes, I realize that).  Why not celebrate “New Month’s Day”?  Why don’t all the drunken imbeciles go out every 4½ weeks and get bombed out of their skulls again?  Usually they look for excuses to booze it up.  Why not “New Month’s Eve”?

Come on, it’s just a number on a piece of paper.  The changing of seasons has more significance than some arbitrary calendar date.  Why not celebrate the autumnal equinox or the summer solstice with a long holiday?

Now, I appreciate a day or two off of work.  Everyone does.

Say!!!  There’s something else to help kill the economy, Mr. Messiah-elect.  Why doesn’t the federal government mandate monthly holidays at the beginning of each month?  Look at the popular sentiment that would generate!  But, of course, ignore the aftereffects of such an economic hit on business!

I really don’t see any value in this “celebration”.

Other than the food, of course!

You know, that seems like such an inadequate thing to say.

This time of year has become so inundated with the greed and selfishness that is increasingly escaping from the corrupt human nature.  And the forced secularization of our culture continues in open warfare against Christianity and all of its traditions, standards, and beliefs.

Yet the incredible, undeniable truth still exists:

God Himself took on human form in order to pay the unpayable debt that we all owe.

And then He told us that we could have the receipt if we would only ask for it.

Perhaps that’s part of the reason for the animosity towards the simple message of eternal salvation:  mankind is just too proud to admit that maybe something can be done FOR him instead of BY him.

Jesus came.  That is fact.  Jesus lived and was cruelly murdered (talk about torture!).  Jesus rose from the dead.  Jesus is alive today.  Jesus will someday come back.

These are undeniable truths.  And they all started in a feed trough in a backwoods town in Judaea over 2,000 years ago.

Merry Christmas, indeed.

Thank you, Lord.

Yes, I have finally found the quick way to lose weight.

All you have to do is get deathly sick and spend approximately 30 hours in a hotel bathroom puking up everything you’ve eaten for the last month while simultaneously excreting what seems to be gallons of fluid from your posterior.

Live through all that and . . .

**POOF**

There go 14 pounds.

Something tells me that a) the weight WILL come back; and b) this concept is not necessarily marketable for a profit.

At least it’s over now. Except for my family members, who are already showing signs that I have shared the “wealth” with them.

Sometimes you hope your kids don’t follow in your footsteps. This is one of them.

It’s that time of year: the unique American holiday in which we pause to be thankful.

And to stuff our faces with all sorts of wonderful food in the presence of family and friends.  But that’s not the point.

Thankfulness is something that is woefully lacking today.  I must confess that I too am guilty of complaining about life more than appreciating those things that I have.  Perhaps this will serve to slightly reduce the debt I owe.

I am most thankful that there is a God Who loves me (and every other human being, regardless of race, nationality, ability, or heritage).  I am thankful that He has provided a clear, simple way for forgiveness of sin and eternal joy in His presence after this earthly life ends.  I thank Him that He can call me His child through faith in the free gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.

I thank God for the life He has provided for me.  Yes, it seems miserable at times, but I am truly blessed beyond description or explanation.  In no particular order, I am indescribably thankful because:

• I have a loving wife (29-1/2 years now) who is beautiful, intelligent, and more talented than she will admit or realize.
• I have four children (two are now adults) who are a source of pride in their achievements and possibilities.
• I have a good job that allows me a lot of freedom to learn new skills and be involved in the “cutting edge” of technology in our industry while providing me a good income so that I can maintain my family.
• I have a good church where I can worship God and fellowship with others, and where I can use the meager talents that God has loaned me to try in some tiny way to serve Him and His people.
• I live in a country in which I have no real fear of persecution for my beliefs.  This country allows me to pursue my goals and to reap rewards for success.  I am allowed to express my opinions publicly with no fear of official reprimand or repercussions.
• I have a wealth of knowledge and information available to me that a few years ago would have required long hours of research and study to obtain.
• I own a home, several vehicles, several computers, good clothes, and many other possessions that would be impossible to enjoy in another country.
• I have a godly heritage that has passed truth to me from generations past.

Many (maybe that should be “most”) times I am less than grateful for all of this.  For that I beg forgiveness.

I really am blessed beyond all measure.

Thank you, Lord.

Yes, I know that title has been used a a title for something else.

I just spent a week in Chicago for the packaging machinery trade show.  Outside of the McCormick Place exhibition center, there were reminders of the local hero everywhere.  The drug store on the corner of Michigan Avenue near the Water Tower (I wonder how much the rent for that place is?) had a big sign on the revolving door exclaiming “Obama Stuff is Here!!”.  And there were hats, shirts, scarves, plates, signs, banners, and all sorts of other merchandise promoting the President-elect.

But the telling moment came on Saturday afternoon the 8th while sitting at a restaurant for lunch.  An elderly couple sat at the table next to us, and the server, a young black male, was apparently asked about his feelings regarding the election.  I cannot quote him exactly, but it was something like this:

“I was at the park Tuesday night, and it was really exciting!  I have never paid a lot of attention to stuff like this, but I think that Obama will be able to help things.  This is his chance!”

The encouraging thought that occurred to me is this:  Here is a young man who has a good job and is apparently doing well for himself.  I wish him the best success for his future.  But by his own admission he had never given much thought to politics.  Now he has a reason to pay attention.  With his intelligence, maybe he (and many more like him) will notice the results of some of the disastrous policies that are being proposed by the Democrats and begin thinking hard about his own political positions.  This can only help the conservative movement grow as these newcomers to the scene realize that they have been snookered for all of these years by those who only wish to maintain their own power on the backs of the less fortunate (that they have kept that way for this particular purpose).

So, maybe there is hope after all.

If we survive long enough.

Here is the official, non-elitist, conservative, I-know-what-I’m-talking-about, tweezle.net analysis of the reasons that Republicans lost in 2008.

1).  They fielded a flawed candidate.  McCain made it clear long ago that he has no friends among those who claim authentic conservatism.  The McCain-Feingold (so-called) Campaign Finance Reform (look where THAT got us!), the amnesty for illegals, the “gang of 14″ that set the table for a feast of liberal activist judges in the next few years, and a number of other initiatives that McCain either sponsored or vocally supported were not forgotten by the common person out in worthless fly-over country (like Alabama).  It was impossible during the primaries to really support the man, unless you were already one of the party elites.  His long friendship with the media also hurt him, since “journalists” had long ago abandoned any pretense of impartiality.  It was difficult to make a case about Obama’s questionable associations when McCain’s were similarly questionable (not to the same degree of radicalism, mind you, but in the principle of suspicious behavior).  McCain could not excite the entire country as someone like a Thompson or Huckabee or Romney could have.

2).  They waged a flawed campaign.  There was never any unifying response to any stimulus from the other side.  The “Country First” slogan was great, but it was little utilized (at least to my recollection).  There were issues galore that could have been easily appropriated and broadcast as ads or (*gasp!*) talking points.  Things Obama and Biden said, things their supporters said, the past questionable associations of Obama, his checkered and little-known past, his seldom-reported voting record in the Illinois and US Senates, and many other examples exist of things that could have been exploited successfully.  The “Joe the Plumber” incident was probably the greatest moment of the campaign.  If they had treated other issues with the same amount of intensity and coverage, many minds may have been changed.

3).  They relied on flawed supporters.  These were the usual suspects that look down their noses at the unwashed masses anywhere in the country except the Northeast Corridor.  This was exemplified by their treatment of Governor Palin.  She did nothing wrong, but she was excoriated mercilessly simply because she was not “one of them”.  The vitriol continues days after the election is over. She was an outsider, and that’s ultimately why many well-known names abandoned the McCain bus.  They wanted to avoid soiling their doilies with the mud and guts that that Alaskan hillbilly would have tracked into their upscale condos.  These writers and commentators who deliberately sabotaged their own party because of their elite snobbery should be either tarred and feathered, run out of town on a rail, have their “pansy-of-the-month” subscription canceled, or a mixture of any or all of the above.

4). They listened to the “conventional wisdom”. This “knowledge” of “how things are done” has proven to be totally devoid of worth. The “bipartisanship” that the other side speaks of is not “bi’ at all, but totally one-sided. When they are in power, conservatives are to abandon principle and follow their lead. When they are in the minority, conservatives are to back away and listen to them, not “shoving ideology down their throats”. The average citizen, the church-going faithful, the dirty-handed serfs are to be feared, not listened to or considered worthy of anything but contempt (see Sarah Palin for an example). My opinions, expressed here on the blog page that I pay for and maintain, are worthless blatherings of some type of deranged individual. What do I know? I am to be feared or ignored, just like anyone else that does not have the “blue blood” that REAL Republicans have.

Those are 4 brief thoughts.  The conclusion of the matter, to me, is that we either need a drastic shakeup in the makeup of the Republican party, or we need a new, strong, fundamentally conservative party that is fearless in standing up for principles of morality, open and ethical government, the rule of law as embodied in the Constitution, and the freedoms granted to us by God and secured for us by the protections (NOT limitations) of a freely and honestly elected government.

Unfortunately, it probably won’t happen.  Not in what’s left of my lifetime, anyway.

There are names in American Presidential politics that will always be associated with being losers.

www.werescrewed08.com

A sampling:

Thomas Dewey.

Adlai Stevenson.

Barry Goldwater.

Hubert Humphrey.

Walter Mondale.

Michael Dukakis.

And now, the latest addition to the eternal roll of worthless losers:

JOHN McCAIN.

May he disappear into a worthless, lonely sunset in the Arizona desert. And please take the pseudo-conservative “elites” who either half-heartedly supported him or rejected him (probably because of Governor Palin) with him.

Please. The damage has been done. Go away.

Ecclesiastes 10:2 (ESV)

A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left.

Vote right!

That’s right.  I said, “Vote Democrat!” - but if and ONLY if:

• ◊ You want more government control of your everyday life;
• ◊ You want more government restrictions on business;
• ◊ You want anyone who works hard for his or her entire life to try to improve their conditions and leave an inheritance for their descendants to be punished by confiscating their estate and using it for government payoffs to supporters;
• ◊ You want more radical indoctrination and less education in the school systems nationwide;
• ◊ You have no problems with mandatory sex education for all children in all grade levels of school, from 5-year-old kindergarteners to high school seniors.
• ◊ You want decreased national security because of a weakened military;
• ◊ You want our foreign policy to be based on “love” and understanding” instead of peace through strength;
• ◊ You want an increase in the availability of abortions, with taxpayer money being used to continue to kill the unborn;
• ◊ You want infants born alive from botched abortion attempts to be abandoned to die because it is too much trouble for health care professionals to waste time caring for them;
• ◊ You have no problem with blatant voter fraud;
• ◊ You are not at all bothered by rampant, well-documented financial fraud in the donations to the political campaign;
• ◊ You have no concern with total misrepresentation of the opposing views while your own views are ignored, explained away, or dismissed as “misunderstood”, “misquoted”, or “taken out of context”;
• ◊ You permit and encourage your followers to intimidate and try to silence any critics, up to and including illegal revelation of personal information from supposedly private government records;
• ◊ You have no issues with radical anti-Americanism;
• ◊ You believe that all of America has collective guilt from its founding that must be assuaged with reparations or preferences based entirely on race;
• ◊ You are more concerned with the opinions of the leaders, media, and citizens of foreign countries than you are with the opinions of 50% (or more) of your fellow Americans;
• ◊ You believe that the Constitution of the United States of America is a limiting document that should be ignored or “stretched” in order to create more government authority and restrictions on freedom;
• ◊ You believe that one of the functions of government is to ensure “fairness” economically, including but not limited to the seizure and redistribution of wealth and property by those in power to those they believe are most needy or most worthy;
• ◊ You have the idea that removing money from businesses and families is the best way to “grow” the economy of the United States;
• ◊ You think that “fairness” also includes restrictions on speech, other than that of which you approve;
• ◊ You plan to use the judicial system in this country to implement a moral and ethical agenda which directly contradicts the Judeo-Christian historical framework and the explicitly stated goals of the Founding Fathers of this nation.
• ◊You believe that anything that remotely tarnishes the image of the “perfect” candidate in this Presidential election conclusively proves the innate and irreparable racism of those who dare question anything or anyone connected with the candidate.
• ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

I could (and should) continue, but if you have seen yourself in any one or more of the above points, then vote for the Democrat Party candidate in any and all races on all levels.

As for me, I completely reject all of the above, and I plan to cast my ballot for a straight Republican ticket.  There is no way in good conscience that I can use my vote to support any candidate at any level that in any way is sponsored by or is running under the auspices of the Democrat Party.  There are some excellent candidates locally that I wish I could support, but because of their party affiliation I cannot and I will not.  Not now.  Not ever.

Do you agree with me?  Give me a good reason why not.

And pray that God intervenes to stop the wickedness from proceeding any further.

This election is boiling down to a referendum on the media as much as a vote for a party or a platform.

For months now we have been subjected to the biggest propaganda campaign since, well, you know who 70 years ago.  Truth (some certain truth, that is) is unimportant.  Past relationships don’t matter in some cases.   Past performance is no indicator of future promise, at least so we’re told.

And so it goes.

We have had the Democratic Messiah forced down our collective throats for far too long.  We owe it to our country to reject the preferences of those who say they understand what we want and need better than ourselves.  We must vote AGAINST the media.

That means anyone but the Democrat in almost all cases.

Am I wrong?