"Results Speak Louder than Slogans" Victor Davis Hanson

I'm a fan of Victor Davis Hanson, although I don't always agree with him. In this video, we parted company when he began talking about the Civil War, but that's a topic for another post. On the whole, I find him a trustworthy historian with clear insight. If you want to understand the future, you need to understand the past. But, like Big Brother in 1984, the servants of deceit are destroying and rewriting the past. When they tear down statues of the Founding Fathers and deface and burn historic buildings, you know they hate our heritage. What they want to erect in their place is a utopia of evil. 

How Many More Centennials Will Be Celebrated in the U.S.?

Alaric escorts the Christian treasures of Rome to safety at Saint Peter's Basilica
during the Gothic sack of AD 410. 

The United States prepares to celebrate 250 years of existence. [See the White House announcement.] Drag out the flags and bunting and decorate the house! But is the primary song to be sung, Happy Birthday, or will it be a Dies Irae for our funeral? 

Historical Misrepresentation: How Many "Heroes" Were Really Villains...?

...and how many villains were really heroes? These are serious questions. As they say, the winners write the history. So always look at the reports from biased contemporaries with a jaundiced eye. Politicians who win don't make trustworthy critics of their political enemies. Neither do the losers for that matter. A little time is necessary to evaluate the real impact of movers and shakers. 

Let Catholic History Be Your Teacher. Develop a Catholic Memory!

One of my blog readers sent me this quote from Fulton Sheen about history: 

The English never seem to remember history; the Irish never forget it; the Russians never admit it; the Japanese never make it; and the Americans never learn it.

The importance of knowing history is lost on many people. But is there any greater teacher? Think of the Old Testament filled with the history of the Israelites. Think of God telling them to celebrate the Passover every year. In other words, never forget what the Lord did bringing them out of the slavery of Egypt. And today, thousands of years after that event, Passover is still a major feast for the Jews.

Are Your Sources Trustworthy? Remember, The Winners Write History...

...at least in the short term. Things generally begin to be sorted out looking backwards several generations later. 

That is certainly the case with the Lincoln cult, i.e. the "church of Lincoln." He was a great man in many ways. He was also a self-serving pragmatist, the highest paid lawyer in the country who argued for "Massah" in his one and only case involving slavery. Thomas DiLorenzo has several books showing the other side of Lincoln which is not a pretty picture.

I was a Lincoln worshiper as a teenager and still have the report I did in high school. But I no longer look at him as a secular saint who "ended slavery" with his Emancipation Proclamation. He did no such thing. The only slaves freed by that document were those in the South, slaves over which Lincoln had no control. He simply, in pragmatic fashion, hoped to stir up a slave insurrection. In view of the bloody revolts in Haiti and Ned Turner's Rebellion, where entire families were wiped out like the genocide in Rwanda, Lincoln apparently had no concern about the possibility he would stir up genocide against southern families. 

Idiocy and Ignorance on the Left

The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The Battle of Cable Street 1936 between the fascists
and a coalition of anarchists, Zionists, and Commies.

When I left a comment on Mark Shea's blog the other day responding to his usual attack on anyone who supported Trump in the election, especially pro-life Catholics, I expected the Nazi name-calling to begin. It did. But I at least gave Shea's supporters the benefit of the doubt about their intelligence.

Not any more.

The clincher was the person who defended the Communists as "our allies" during World War II. Is she so abysmally ignorant that she doesn't know that Communist murders make the Nazis look like Girl Scouts? In the Ukraine alone, Stalin murdered by starvation 7-10 million people. And that doesn't include the gulags. Add the murders of Mao in China, Castro in Cuba, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, not to mention the Communist governments in Africa and South America -- we're talking about a range of murders in the many tens of millions. Does saying that make me a Nazi defender? Don't be ridiculous!

Never Forget: Do Your Children Know What Happened on D-Day?

Today is the anniversary of the D-day invasion of France to begin retaking Western Europe from Hitler's Nazi troops. Do your children and grandchildren know what happened on this day in 1944? Probably not. So be sure to tell them.

War is hell. Pray for peace and for all our men and women serving in harm's way. And pray for those in leadership, especially those who think of our men and women as no more than cannon fodder for their political ambition. God have mercy on them.

And, finally, thank you, Lord, that Daddy survived the war to parent his first child and nine more and to raise them for Christ.

AP's June 6, 1944 Dispatch

News Flash: Bill Bolling Drops out of Race for Virginia Governor

Bill Bolling pulled out of Virginia's GOP race for governor today leaving Ken Cuccinelli as Virginia's favorite son and likely nominee. The party will choose its candidate at a convention next May 18th to be held in Richmond, VA. Now is the time for all freedom loving, small government conservatives to get behind Ken and give him a boost as he heads against like Democrat opponent Terry McAuliffe. The contrast between these too couldn't be greater. Please sign up to be a delegate and while you're at it how about making a donation to Ken's campaign chest. Read more at Richard Viguerie's website. 

Let us commit to turning Virginia back into a red state where voters resemble Virginia's founders like Patrick Henry and George Mason. Both Patrick Henry and George Mason opposed the Constitution because they believed it gave too much power to the federal government. They led the fight against the federalists and were primary authors of the anti-federalist papers. (Did you ever hear of those? If not, that just illustrates once more that history is written by the winners.) In retrospect, they were prophets. It was these two statesmen who demanded that the federalists include a Bill of Rights in the Constitution. They had no illusions about the nature of man and they firmly believed in the natural rights of the individual against the state. Read more about these two great men here. And if you're a Virginian, join me and many others in Richmond on may 18th. Remember Patrick Henry's address to the Virginia Convention which caused his fellow delegates to cry, "To arms! To arms!":

The battle, sir [Convention President Peyton Randolph], is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest.

Memories of World War II for Memorial Day

My dad graduated from the Naval Academy, class of 1940. He married my mom in September of 1941 and they both travelled to his duty station at Pearl Harbor. On that fateful morning in December when the Japanese attacked, Daddy was asleep in the forward area of the U.S.S. Detroit, a light cruiser. But I'll let him describe what happened. This is taken from an article in the Baltimore News American, December 6, 1981, Pearl Harbor 40 years ago: They were there :

'I was firing a rifle at the planes'

Ray Schneider, 64, lives in Elkridge now; he has 10 children and 23 grandchildren ("too much shore duty"). He retired from the Navy in 1975 as a rear admiral, his last assignment being commander of all naval electronics systems. He was graduated sixth in the 1940 class at the U.S. Naval Academy, and later earned a masters degree in aeronautical engineering. His wife is a substitute teacher; he is a gunsmith and gun dealer, and travels, reads and writes.

That Sunday morning in 1941, Ensign Ray Schneider's ship was tied up at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. After a nap, Schneider planned to go to Honolulu. There, he would meet his wife, whom he had married that September, and together they would go to mass. "I was supposed to have watch until 8 a.m., but about 6 a.m. I asked a bright, young ensign, who was clean and sober, if he'd finish my watch for me. He accepted and I went to my sack. The next thing I knew I heard this awful explosion, and I jumped up, still in my under wear. There was no time to dress. I ran up on deck and the entire area was being swarmed upon; the boat behind us was burning. I could see the Utah going upside down. The two airfields were full of flame and smoke. You got the impression all was not well.

"I was in my Skivvies, barefoot, and the first thing I had to do was cut down the canvas awnings that were blocking the guns. I sent a sailor down to the butcher shop and we cut the canvas down with cutlery, but that cleared out nine antiaircraft guns. Someone blew the lock off the ammunition storage locker with a .45, the ammo came up, but we couldn't find the fuse setters. Finally, we started the guns and we must have thrown a thousand shells into the air and didn't hit a thing. I was chastised for being a little wasteful. But I'm convinced there never was a bombing of Honolulu, it was our antiaircraft fire.

"The scene was such I was firing a rifle at the planes, still in my skivvies. Hardly a dramatic impression, but that's the way it was. I stepped on a hot shell during the attack and ran to my room for my shoes. After that I went to bed, oh, six months with my shoes on. I didn't want to go into combat again in my bare feet.

"It's very strange, the things that happen. There were two torpedoes fired at us, but they went in the mud. But they were headed for the forward area, where I was sleeping. If they would have hit, I would have been gone. Before we cast off, the gunnery officer told me I wasn't wearing my tin hat. Now here I was, nothing but my underwear and shoes with a rifle, and he's asking about my following regulations. We steamed out and chased Japs for a while. Later, I was on the thin edge of. the battle of Midway, then they sent me to Alaska.

"I'm a member of this Pearl Harbor survivors gang, but I'm going to be in Ohio Monday to take care of some personal business. Of course I'll notice it. I'm an old-fashioned military professional. I didn't like war; what's so glamorous about fighting in your underwear? But that's how I earned my pay. In retrospect, all the young officers of the fleet were absolutely convinced we were going into conflict with Japan. I studied Japan at the academy, and I was of the opinion sitting on my 22-year-old-cruiser at Pearl, the Japanese were superior to us. I wasn't surprised at first when we didn't win so well. Once I got out of the Pacific, we started to win."

All I can say is it's a good thing those torpedoes missed the ship that day. My mom was pregnant with the first child, my oldest brother Ray, and had the torpedo connected, the other nine of us would have been aborted before conception. Thank you, Daddy, for your faithfulness to your country and to your family. On this Memorial Day please pray for my dad who died in 1985 and for my mom who followed him in 2002. They're buried at the Naval Academy. They and all our veterans and their families deserve our sincere thanks, especially those like our Vietnam vets who were so unjustly treated when they returned so physically and emotionally wounded from the horrors of war. God forgive us if we fail to show gratitude to those willing to lay down their lives for others.

ACLU Targets National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer and who can deny that our poor country needs lots of those? President Obama declined to participate, but media outlets say he'll sign a proclamation. It's after noon and I'm still waiting. Maybe he'll get a-round-tuit before the day is over. On the other hand, maybe the president's foot-dragging indicates support for the ACLU's effort to get the day pitched into oblivion. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) which filed an amicus brief, describe the ACLU's case saying, "Sadly, this lawsuit - brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a Wisconsin-based organization - is another twisted legal attempt to remove prayer from public life. It specifically challenges the constitutionality of a 1988 federal law giving the President the authority to designate the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer....There is no constitutional crisis here. We are hopeful that the court will take the only action appropriate in this case and DISMISS this lawsuit."

You can read the amicus brief here and visit the ACLJ resource page on prayer here.

Formal government declarations of prayer are as old as the American Republic. George Washington declared the first National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789. But the National Day of prayer began even earlier. John Jay, President of the Continental Congress signed this proclamation in 1779 during the American Revolutionary War begging for God's intervention:

PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, in just Punishment of our manifold Transgressions, it hath pleased the Supreme Disposer of all Events to visit these United States with a calamitous War, through which his Divine Providence hath hitherto in a wonderful Manner conducted us, so that we might acknowledge that the Race is not to the Swift, nor the Battle to the Strong: AND WHEREAS, notwithstanding the Chastisements received and Benefits bestowed, too few have been sufficiently awakened to a Sense of their Guilt, or warmed with Gratitude, or taught to amend their Lives and turn from their Sins, that so he might turn his Wrath: AND WHEREAS, from a Consciousness of what we have merited at his Hands, and an Apprehension that the Malevolence of our disappointed Enemies, like the Incredulity of Pharaoh, may be used as the Scourge of Omnipotence to vindicate his slighted Majesty, there is Reason to fear that he may permit much of our Land to become the Prey of the Spoiler, our Borders to be ravaged, and our Habitations destroyed:

RESOLVED

THAT it be recommended to the several States to appoint the First Thursday in May next to be a Day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer to Almighty God, that he will be pleased to avert those impending Calamities which we have but too well deserved: That he will grant us his Grace to repent of our Sins, and amend our Lives according to his Holy Word: That he will continue that wonderful Protection which hath led us through the Paths of Danger and Distress: That he will be a Husband to the Widow, and a Father to the fatherless Children, who weep over the Barbarities of a Savage Enemy: That he will grant us Patience in Suffering, and Fortitude in Adversity: That he will inspire us with Humility, Moderation, and Gratitude in prosperous Circumstances: That he will give Wisdom to our Councils, Firmness to our Resolutions, and Victory to our Arms: That he will bless the Labours of the Husbandman, and pour forth Abundance, so that we may enjoy the Fruits of the Earth in due Season: That he will cause Union, Harmony, and mutual Confidence to prevail throughout these States: That he will bestow on our great Ally all those Blessings which may enable him to be gloriously instrumental in protecting the Rights of Mankind, and promoting the Happiness of his Subjects: That he will bountifully continue his paternal Care to the Commander in Chief, and the Officers and Soldiers of the United States: That he will grant the Blessings of Peace to all contending Nations, Freedom to those who are in Bondage, and Comfort to the Afflicted: That he will diffuse Useful Knowledge, extend the Influence of True Religion, and give us that Peace of Mind which the World cannot give: That he will be our Shield in the Day of Battle, our Comforter in the Hour of Death, and our kind Parent and merciful Judge through Time and through Eternity.

Done in CONGRESS, this Twentieth Day of March, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Nine, and in the Third Year of our Independence.
JOHN JAY, President.
Attest. CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.

Prayer is the lifeblood of this Christian nation. Share this document with others. We could hardly do better than to read, ponder, and pray as did our forefathers.