But the older I get, the more I appreciate Thanksgiving. It’s getting to the point where I almost look forward to it more. I’m now one of those annoying people who criticizes the rush to Christmas with the “it’s not even Thanksgiving yet” line.

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older and, really, there’s nothing left to get me that I can’t get for myself. Gifts just don’t matter as much as they used to.

Maybe it’s because for the last few years I’ve been all wrapped up in politics. The stock and trade of politics is a steady stream of complaints. Complaints about absolutely everything. Complaints about Palin, complaints about the economy, complaints about Obama, rinse, repeat… The rule is that you should never be happy or satisfied ever. Never ever.

So maybe now I treasure the idea of one day out of the year, just one day, when we can all stop focusing on what’s going wrong, and be thankful for what’s going right.

The national holiday that we celebrate annually was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln and was due largely to the work of a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale.

Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, wrote a letter to Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have the “day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival.” She explained, “You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution.”

Prior to this, each state scheduled its own Thanksgiving holiday at different times, mainly in New England and other Northern states. President Lincoln responded to Mrs. Hale’s request immediately, unlike several of his predecessors, who ignored her petitions altogether. In her letter to Lincoln she mentioned that she had been advocating a national thanksgiving date for 15 years as the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book.

Reportedly, the proclamation was written by William Seward, the Secretary of State responsible for buying Alaska from Russia.

Lincoln’s proclamation, 1863:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

I grew up listening to Patch the Pirate kid stuff. One of their songs is called “The Gratitude Attitude.” It’s supposed to be sung by a turkey and an eagle who are competing for the honor of being the guest of honor at the dinner. (Like I said, kid stuff.) Of course the turkey gets that honor and the eagle is placated by being named the national bird. Anyway, it’s a fun song. You can listen here.

I leave you with these. Happy Thanksgiving.

Then maybe five months ago I realized that I never actually watch my million cable channels, so why keep paying for them? And I got rid of my television. Not the physical set, just the cable box and thus all the programming. No news, no really terrible shows. The few shows worth watching I can get online. Heaven.

I have no idea what’s going on in the world. Okay, I have some. But it’s mostly what I glean from my conservative co-workers. Can’t really say I actually care about any of it though. Something happened in Mongolia? That’s nice. The economy’s in the crapper and we’re all going to die? Cool.

Apathy, man. Try it. It’s awesome.

I’m being sucked back in slowly by the Paul Ryan pick. Wisconsin represent! We rock this cycle.

What else have I been up to? Well, I’ll admit that I’ve watched a few eps of Bristol’s show out of morbid curiosity. And, yeah. Hm. Interesting. I probably shouldn’t comment further on that.

I’ve been watching these guys. Blimey Cow. Awesome –

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“Give us this day our daily internet validation.”

And the other day I checked out that new Stars Earn Stripes show. Gotta say, I love it. I did initially watch cause I was curious about the Todd aspect, but I’d watch it regardless. This is what television should be like. A little more substance and a little less Jersey Shore. I was kind of blown away by how much the celebrities go out of their way to pay respect to the military.

I was literally shocked when I saw people complaining that it trivialized war. What planet are you from that that’s what you got from this?

Anyway, I highly recommend it:

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Okay, folks. Headed back down my rabbit hole. Just thought I’d pop my head up and say hi. Back to living the good life where I ignore politics and don’t do anything. Bye.

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And here are some pics from KWHL’s website:
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I ran across an email that reminded me of a story that happened during the Wayne Anthony Ross fight. (For any non-Palin obsessed person reading this, Palin nominated some guy for AG and her opponents went ape-s***.)

From the Juneau Empire. April 21, 2009:

At her first news conference after the Legislature voted 35-23 to reject Wayne Anthony Ross as attorney general, Palin said the defeat was due to “deliberate misrepresentation” of Ross’ statements.

“A great problem was public lies were told about Mr. Ross,” she said.

Palin declined to say whose lies undermined Ross, citing the blogosphere and e-mails from members of the public.

[...]

The one example she cited was “he being engaged in a machine gun shoot on somebody’s property down in Seward, and there were witnesses to such a thing, and he’d never been there,” she said. “That’s just one example.”

Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, is a former assistant attorney general who led the fight against Ross on the floor of the Legislature. He questioned whether anyone had heard the Seward machine gun allegation at the time.

“I don’t believe I knew anything about that, and it certainly never came up in floor debate,” French said.

A Google search of news and blogs turned up no relevant mentions of Wayne Anthony Ross, Seward and machine guns prior to the vote.

Well, Shannyn Moore jumped all over it:

“A great problem was public lies were told about Mr. Ross,” Palin told the Juneau Empire.

The one example she cited was “he being engaged in a machine gun shoot on somebody’s property down in Seward, and there were witnesses to such a thing, and he’d never been there,” she said. “That’s just one example.”

It is true the Alaska blogosphere was rabid about the nomination of Wayne Anthony Ross. The example she cited DOES NOT EXIST.

Palin was referring to a fundraiser held by Congressman Don Young last August in Seward, Alaska. It was the second such fundraiser that included machine guns, targets, dry bombs, turkey, potato salad and s’mores. A Seward resident mentioned the swans in the swamp not being quite the same. Wayne Anthony Ross’s name was not mentioned. This allegation was never brought up during the judiciary process.

And then she goes orgasmic over just how wonderful her little group of “hate Palin” buddies are.

Well, in the email dump this surfaced. It’s an email from a Russ Maddox to [LEGISLATORS] (which I assume means he had a list of legislators he was sending it to). It accuses Wayne Anthony Ross (WAR) of taking part in this machine gun turkey shoot incident. It’s quite long, so I’ll just post part of it:

In September 2006 there was an event in Seward that featured WAR and his machine-gun club on private property in a residential area in Seward. There were machine guns aimed on exploding targets with shipyard toxic waste as a backstop very close to families and pets with no forewarning. There were many neighbors enraged by the risks of machine guns and explosives posed in our neighborhood for hours and hours. They were asked to stop by neighbors, but did not. They cited their second amendment rights. However by Alaska statute it became an illegal nuisance as soon as they were asked and declined to stop.

In 2008 the neighbor again hosted a machine gun turkey shoot but this time instead of featuring Wayne Ross, Don Young was the guest of honor. WAR (and DY) exhibited a severe lack of judgement and by claiming their rights usurped ours certainly does not offer any confidence that he would properly interpret the law as AG. Please deny his confirmation. http://dorenelorenz.blogspot.com/2005/09/remember-that-right-to-bear-arms-thing.html Dorene Lorenz removed WAR’s photos from her website, but the public comments are still there and there are witnesses that WAR was indeed present and the guest of honor.

Well, there you go. An email with the aforementioned accusation sent to “Legislators,” whoever they were, and a link to a blog post. The blog by the way is an Alaskan blog, but really has nothing to do with this case. This dude was just using it. The author of the post actually shows up in the email chain and says it’s a lie.

Wayne Anthony Ross replied to Mike Hawker:

Mr. Maddox is mistaken. I have never attended any machine gun shoot in Seward in September 2006 or at any other time. The only machine gun shoot I ever attended in which there were pyrotechnics was in Anderson about ten years ago. To my knowledge, no complaints arose during that shoot.

I have seen the Alaska Machinegun Association shoot their firearms on one occasion at the Birchwood shooting park when we had the NRA Board here in September 2005. No explosives were used and no 2nd Amendment issues were raised by anyone.

The only other time I can recall seeing AMA members shoot their firearms is during the demonstxations they put on at Birchwood during Youth Shooting Appreciation Day in June of each year. No explosives are used during such demonstrations. That shooting program emphasizes firearms safety and introduces Alaskan youths to the shooting sports.

Perhaps you and Mr. Maddox would please distribute this to the same people as Mr. Maddox’s original comments were distributed. Thanks.

Wayne Anthony Ross

The President of the Alaska Machine Gun Association (which sounds like an awesome association) weighs in:

To begin with, this “Turkey Shoot” event was NOT sponsored by the AMGA, (nor Mr. Ross), in any way! A few members were invited to attend by the homeowner, and they attended on their own. I didn’t even know it had happened until months later. This event was put on my the Homeowner, the Lorenz family. WAR had no control over the event, and to my knowledge does not even know the Lorenz family, According to the AMGA members who attended, WAR was not even THERE.

[...]

Want to hear something funny?, WAR had been invited to join the AMGA previously, he wasn’t a member at the time. He didn’t become a member of the AMGA until 2008! He is President of the Alaska Gun Collectors Association, (AGCA), NOT AMGA!

The press conference in which Palin cited this as an example of the lies told about Mr. Ross took place on April 19, 2009. The Juneau Empire article was published April 21st. The comments by Mr. French claiming that he had heard nothing of this example are either a lie on his part, or he doesn’t check his email. Because Mike Hawker sent the following to a whole bunch of legislators, including Mr. French, on April 15th:

Fellow Legislators, I seldom engage in broadcast e-mail politics, nor do I invest myself in confirmation battles. These are personal decisions to be made by each of us. However, the e-mail I recently received from a Russ Maddox alleging Wayne Ross was involved in unsafe firearms activity in Seward was known by me to be so totally untrue that I am compelled to set the record straight by proving you testimony from the parties alleged to be involved in the activity.

Wayne A. Ross is the governor’s Attorney General designate, awaiting confirmation. Dave Arieno is the current president of the Alaska Machine Gun (Collectors) Association, an organization that I co-founded quite a number of years ago to put a good face on this esoteric corner of firearms collecting and sport shooting. Dorene M. Lorenz is the Seward resident who was alleged by Mr. Maddox to have sponsored the event in question.

The following e-mail thread reads in time-sequence from the bottom up and contains communications I received yesterday. The original e-mail from Mr. Maddox was unsolicited. The e-mails from Mr. Ross, Mr. Arieno and Ms. Lorenz were provided in response to my direct questions. This e-mail thread totally debunks the irresponsible and untrue allegations proffered by Mr. Maddox. I hope you will seek and consider the truth and only the truth in your evaluation of Mr. Ross. The actions of Mr. Maddox and others in this process have been despicable.

Thank you,

Mike Hawker

Palin’s remarks on the 19th. She mentions lies told on blogs or in emails. She uses the machine gun example as it was probably on the top of her head. She assumed it was in public as it was circulating in private:

I remember this because at the time, I went looking for the machine gun thing and couldn’t find anything on it. I wondered where it had come from. Now I know.

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I can kind of sympathize. When I went to school in Florida the foliage didn’t seem quite right. I think I said to my friends at one point, “I don’t like the grass down here.” And the leaves of the plants felt like they were made of rubber. I like my Wisconsin trees.

Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds;

That Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint;

That all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to extend it by its influence on reason alone; [...]

We the General Assembly of Virginia do enact that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

Here you have an illustration of true separation of church and state. Note that it is not a separation of God from government, for it’s logic support beam is that “Almighty God hath created the mind free” and therefore it should be free. No one shall be forced to support a religion they do not believe in, etc…

Basically they wanted to get away from the European model where being Anglican or Catholic or whatever was so wrapped up into politics. They wanted you to be free to worship according to the dictates of your own conscience, or to not worship at all. So there is no religious test to run for office, etc…

To that end they established no religion. However, this did not mean that you could never mention God in the public square. To say that it did is to take away freedom of speech and religion. Extremists have redefined the separation of church and state to mean things like you can’t bring a Bible into school.

Christians sometimes go overboard with the whole “there is no separation of church and state!” thing. Of course there is. The church shouldn’t run the state and the state shouldn’t run the church. They have different functions. Personally, I’m against government money going to faith-based institutions. I was always taught that government money = government control, and the church should stay far away from that. I also believe that the state is a corrupting influence and the more married the church is to it, the more corrupt the church becomes. At some point it ceases to be about carrying out the commands of Christ and becomes about politics and power. It leads to horrors being done in His name.

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Part I:

The philosophers of the eighteenth century explained the gradual decay of religious faith in a very simple manner. Religious zeal, said they, must necessarily fail, the more generally liberty is established and knowledge diffused. Unfortunately, facts are by no means in accordance with their theory. There are certain populations in Europe whose unbelief is only equalled by their ignorance and their debasement, whilst in America one of the freest and most enlightened nations in the world fulfils all the outward duties of religious fervor.

Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there the more did I perceive the great political consequences resulting from this state of things, to which I was unaccustomed. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom pursuing courses diametrically opposed to each other; but in America I found that they were intimately united, and that they reigned in common over the same country.

[...]

As a member of the Roman Catholic Church I was more particularly brought into contact with several of its priests, with whom I became intimately acquainted. To each of these men I expressed my astonishment and I explained my doubts; I found that they differed upon matters of detail alone; and that they mainly attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country to the separation of Church and State. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not meet with a single individual, of the clergy or of the laity, who was not of the same opinion upon this point.

[...]

As long as a religion rests upon those sentiments which are the consolation of all affliction, it may attract the affections of mankind. But if it be mixed up with the bitter passions of the world, it may be constrained to defend allies whom its interests, and not the principle of love, have given to it; or to repel as antagonists men who are still attached to its own spirit, however opposed they may be to the powers to which it is allied. The Church cannot share the temporal power of the State without being the object of a portion of that animosity which the latter excites.

[...]

The unbelievers of Europe attack the Christians as their political opponents, rather than as their religious adversaries; they hate the Christian religion as the opinion of a party, much more than as an error of belief; and they reject the clergy less because they are the representatives of the Divinity than because they are the allies of authority.

In Europe, Christianity has been intimately united to the powers of the earth. Those powers are now in decay, and it is, as it were, buried under their ruins. The living body of religion has been bound down to the dead corpse of superannuated polity: cut but the bonds which restrain it, and that which is alive will rise once more. I know not what could restore the Christian Church of Europe to the energy of its earlier days; that power belongs to God alone; but it may be the effect of human policy to leave the faith in the full exercise of the strength which it still retains.

[...]

In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the whole world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America; and there can be no greater proof of its utility, and of its conformity to human nature, than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.

I have remarked that the members of the American clergy in general, without even excepting those who do not admit religious liberty, are all in favor of civil freedom; but they do not support any particular political system. They keep aloof from parties and from public affairs. In the United States religion exercises but little influence upon the laws and upon the details of public opinion, but it directs the manners of the community, and by regulating domestic life it regulates the State.

April 3, 2009

Sharon Leighow:

I got nowhere I talked with the assistant news director at KTVA. Told him the headline was inflammatory- implicated the governor. He said he stands by the story and said “no offense, but she’s not the only Palin around.” He said the headline may or may not run again – he doesn’t know.

Mike Ross refuses to change Rhonda’s stimulus story until he sees the transcript of the initial press conference. I am sending him the audio of the presser and ALL of the press releases we have done on this.

Palin:

My sisters should sue their tabloid ass.

Heather called them because she’s getting calls- they stand by their “story” and lectured her about “if you’d have LISTENED you’d hear we didn’t mention the governor”. Then ktva did a story tonight reporting “Levi Johnston said he and Bristol practice safe sex, most of the time”.

When has a teen’s sex life EVER been reported on in the news? Never have I heard a celebrity, a criminal, anyone’s sex life reported as a hard news story. This is insane.