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Posts Tagged ‘Thanksgiving’
Carry The Torch of Liberty With A Heart of Thanksgiving
Posted by M. C. on November 28, 2023
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A Thanksgiving Feast Awaits You
Posted by M. C. on November 23, 2023
It’s just too delicious…
https://qolrm.substack.com/p/a-thanksgiving-feast-awaits-you
Circa 1960
Now well-ensconced in my eighth decade, I can recall many memorable Thanksgiving dinners, more than a few cooked up lovingly by yours truly. The best and most memorable, however, were rooted in the 1960s.
My father had moved the family out to Mill Valley, California, just north of the Golden Gate, in the gentle shadow of Mt. Tamalpais, so he could pursue his career as a baseball writer in the luminous shadow of the great Willie Mays. He covered the Giants for the Examiner, first at Seals Stadium in the Mission District, then — a couple of years later — at Candlestick Park in South San Francisco, perhaps history’s worst place to watch history’s greatest ballplayer.
In the offseason Dad worked as the Examiner’s Entertainment Editor, and it was in this capacity that he encountered Bob Grison, a great San Francisco restauranteur, proprietor and founder of Grison’s Steak and Chop House, all mahogany, white linen, and brass upholstery tacks, with an easy elegance that fit my father’s pedestrian ballpark sensibilities like an old brown shoe.
Everything about Grison’s — including the standard menu…
…was timeless, and it was here my family dined each Thanksgiving for several years in the early 1960s…
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How Much Longer Will Thanksgiving be a National Holiday?
Posted by M. C. on November 26, 2022
Perhaps we do need a replacement–a replacement of all white liberals and all white Woke leftists. Certainly, civil liberty and civility have no future in their hands.
This is a legitimate question. According to the New York Times’ 1619 Project, according to what is taught in US universities and public schools, and according to what the American left and those influenced by them believe, to celebrate Thanksgiving is to celebrate the racism of white supremacy. As this belief is growing and not shrinking, how much longer before Thanksgiving becomes a day of atonement for racist sins?
Erasing national holidays is a way of erasing a culture. As Thanksgiving grows increasingly offensive to people of color, as Easter, once a Christian celebration of the Resurrection, disappears into baskets of candy for children, and as the celebration of Christmas is increasingly confined to the home, the three major holidays in the United States rot away, leaving the culture unsupported by public celebrations.
It is the total failure of the American intellectual class not to see this.
The same cultural deracination or dissolution is occurring in Great Britain. A recent poll found that almost half of young British see their country as “structurally racist,” and think their country was founded on racism. 38 percent want Churchill’s statue removed from Parliament Square. Six in ten school graduates say they were taught critical race theory. British youth are also showing growing alienation from free speech, with 29 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds saying that JK Rowling should be dropped by her publishers because of her views toward transgendered people. It was left to an immigrant-invader, Dr Samir Shah, to stand up for British values such as free speech, tolerance, debate, and democracy: What British schools are teaching, she said, “runs against many Enlightenment values,” leading to a “world in which tolerance is being replaced by intolerance and a fear of speaking one’s mind.”
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: 1619 Project, structurally racist, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment »
Thanksgiving 2021 – LewRockwell LewRockwell.com
Posted by M. C. on November 25, 2021
What if, on Thanksgiving Day, we are most grateful that we are free creatures made in God’s image and likeness?
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/11/andrew-p-napolitano/thanksgiving-2021/
“Government requires make-believe. Make believe that the king is divine, make believe that he can do no wrong or make believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God. Make believe that the people have a voice or make believe that the representatives of the people are the people. Make believe that governors are the servants of the people. Make believe that all men are created equal or make believe that they are not.”
— Edmund S. Morgan (1916-2013)
What if the government’s true goal is to perpetuate its own power? What if the real levers of governmental power are pulled by agents and diplomats and by bureaucrats and central bankers behind the scenes? What if they stay in power no matter who is elected president or which political party controls either house of Congress?
What if the frequent public displays of adversity between Republicans and Democrats are just a facade? What if both major political parties agree on the transcendental issues of our day?
What if the leadership of both political parties believes that our rights are not natural to our humanity but instead are gifts from the government? What if those leaders believe the government that gives gifts to the people can take those gifts away?
What if the leadership of both parties gives only lip service to Thomas Jefferson’s assertions in the Declaration of Independence that all persons “are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” and that when the government assaults our natural rights, we can “alter or abolish” it?
What if the leadership of both parties quietly dismisses those ideas as Jefferson’s outdated musings? What if Jefferson’s words have been enacted into federal law that all in government have sworn to uphold?
What if the leadership of both political parties believes that the constitutional requirement of due process somehow permits mothers to hire doctors to kill babies in their wombs, out of fear or convenience? What if the leadership of both political parties believes that the president may lawfully kill any foreigner out of fear, because due process is an inconvenience?
What if the last four presidents — two from each political party — have used high-tech drones to kill innocent people in foreign lands with which America was not at war and claimed that they did so legally, relying not on a declaration of war from Congress but on erroneous and secret arguments that claim American presidents can kill with impunity?
What if the Constitution requires a congressional declaration of war or due process whenever the government wants anyone’s life, liberty or property, whether convenient or not, and whether the person is American or not? What if due process means a fair jury trial, not a secretly ordered killing?
What if most members of Congress from both political parties believe in perpetual war and perpetual debt? What if the political class believes that war is the health of the state? What if the leadership of that class wants war so as to induce the loyalty of its base, open the pocketbooks of the taxpayers and gain the compliance of the voters? What if the political class uses war to enrich its benefactors? What if the government has been paying for war by increasing its debt?
What if the $28 trillion current federal government debt has been caused by borrowing to pay for wars and false prosperity? What if the federal government collects about $4 trillion annually but spends about $6.8 trillion? What if the feds borrow money to pay $500 billion in interest annually?
What if it is insane to borrow money to pay interest on borrowed money? What if American taxpayers are still paying interest on debts incurred by Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and every post-World War II president?
What if the banks have borrowed the money that they lend? What if they can’t pay it back? What if the stock market is soaring on money borrowed at artificially low interest rates?
What if the government demands transparency from us but declines to be transparent to us? What if government leaders assert the make-believe that they work for us but recognize silently that we work for the government?
What if the federal government has access to all our electronic communications, bank accounts, medical and legal records, and utility and credit card bills? What if the government knows more about us than we know about it?
What if the federal government stays in power by bribing the states with cash, the rich with bailouts, the middle class with tax cuts and the poor with welfare?
What if the government thinks the Constitution is make-believe and doesn’t apply in bad times? What if it thinks it can cure disease by forcing experimental drugs on the healthy? What if it mocks the Bill of Rights?
What if the government the Founding Fathers gave us needed our permission to do nearly everything? What if today we need the government’s permission to do nearly anything?
What if, on Thanksgiving Day, our gratitude is not to the government that assaults our freedoms and steals our wealth but to God, who gave us our freedoms and our ability to earn wealth?
What if, on Thanksgiving Day, our gratitude is for life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the exercise of free will and human reason? What if these are integral to our humanity despite the government’s assaults on them?
What if the Thanksgiving holiday has become a four-day oasis from a fractious government that is blind to the consequences of its borrowing, killing and assaults on freedom?
What if, on Thanksgiving Day, we are most grateful that we are free creatures made in God’s image and likeness?
What if, on Thanksgiving Day, we begin altering or abolishing the government, make-believe or not?
Happy Thanksgiving.
Andrew P. Napolitano [send him mail], a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. Judge Napolitano has written nine books on the U.S. Constitution. The most recent is Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Lethal Threat to American Liberty. To find out more about Judge Napolitano and to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit creators.com.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Founding Fathers, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment »
Penn State Stadium But family Thanksgiving and Christmas are waiting for government approval.
Posted by M. C. on October 6, 2021
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Christmas, Penn State, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment »
Why Chesterton Despised Thanksgiving Day | Intellectual Takeout
Posted by M. C. on November 30, 2020
Chesterton, to put it mildly, was not a fan of Puritanism in any of its guises. Theologically, Puritanism is rooted in Calvinism, and the determinism of Calvinistic predestination was anathema to Chesterton. But at issue here is another aspect of Puritanism, namely the temptation of Puritans, then and now, to promote—and enforce—prohibitions.
Oh well, you say, those prohibition-minded Puritans are long gone. Not so, countered Chesterton, who could point to the brief success of the movement to prohibit the sale of alcohol in America.
https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/why-chesterton-despised-thanksgiving-day/
Did you know that England also has a Thanksgiving Day? Well, actually it doesn’t. But G. K. Chesterton did propose such a day for his England. And therein lies a tale, or at least a few thoughts for a Thanksgiving Day conversation.
Chesterton’s thoughts on thanksgiving with a small “t” are not at issue here. But they are important. He thought that a sense of gratitude was crucial for human happiness. For him, that sense should begin with thanks for this world and one’s very existence in it. Even in his darkest days, days of unbelief that were touched with thoughts of suicide, Chesterton always held on to some sense of belief—and his life—by “one thin thread of thanks.”
But his thoughts about an official Thanksgiving Day for England were more directly tied to the origins of the first thanksgiving feast in the New World and its perpetrators, the American Puritans.
Chesterton, to put it mildly, was not a fan of Puritanism in any of its guises. Theologically, Puritanism is rooted in Calvinism, and the determinism of Calvinistic predestination was anathema to Chesterton. But at issue here is another aspect of Puritanism, namely the temptation of Puritans, then and now, to promote—and enforce—prohibitions.
Oh well, you say, those prohibition-minded Puritans are long gone. Not so, countered Chesterton, who could point to the brief success of the movement to prohibit the sale of alcohol in America.
Oh well, you respond, that foray into prohibitionism has been thoroughly discredited and is now nearly a century behind us. Maybe so. But during the heyday of the 18th amendment Chesterton was on hand to point to the follies—and dangers—of the prohibitionist mind set. He was also on hand to ask us to remember to thank God for “beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them.”
Today Chesterton’s words remain on hand to remind us that there are links between the Puritan mind of the 17th century and what he has termed the “Modern Mind.” It is a cast of mind that still “cries aloud with a voice of thunder” that there are always things that must be “forbidden.”
This cry could come from prohibitionists declaring that “there must be no wine.” Or it could come from pacifists who insist that “there must be no war.” Or from communists who stipulate that “there must be no private property.” Or from the “secularist” who decrees that “there must be no religious worship.”
All of these prohibitionists, and more besides, remain determined to ride roughshod over Chesterton’s “ordinary man.” That would be the “ordinary man” who had a right to live—and order—his own life as he saw fit. Those rights included the right to “judge about his own health,” the right to “bring up children to the best of his ability,” and the right to “rule other animals within reason” among many other ordinary rights.
In sum, G. K. Chesterton was far from convinced that Puritanism was dead and gone. In fact, it was all too alive in the “Modern Mind.” That was the mind that could not accept what Chesterton regarded as the “Catholic doctrine that human life is a battle.” More often than not, these are the battles that one fights with oneself, which is to say battles that should be fought without benefit of official—and officious—prohibitions.
Having come to the United States twice while the 18th amendment held legal sway, Chesterton experienced a direct encounter with this version of prohibitionism. Teetotaler that he wasn’t, G. K. Chesterton had reason to object to the powers of prohibitionist thinking over the modern American mind (even if he occasionally benefited from home brew in professors’ homes while lecturing at Notre Dame in the fall of 1930).
When back home in England, Chesterton’s objections gave way to thanks. That would be thankfulness that his country had not taken a similar step. In fact, it was this very sense of thankfulness that led him to propose a Thanksgiving Day for England. It would be a day to “celebrate the departure of those dour Puritans, the Pilgrim fathers.” Once here, they gave thanks and feasted (probably without beer or burgundy).
But if Chesterton is right, they also left their mark on America and the modern American mind, a mark that had lingered here long after their departure not just from England, but from this world.
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Dr. John C. “Chuck” Chalberg writes from Bloomington, Minnesota.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Calvinism, G. K. Chesterton, Prohibition, Puritans, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment »
Doug Casey on the COVID Restrictions and the “Great Reset”
Posted by M. C. on November 27, 2020
Doug Casey: There’s not much question about it. First, let me draw your attention to an important fundamental: the type of people who go into government. It doesn’t matter if it’s national, state, county, or city government.
They’re the kind of people who think they know what’s best for others and like bossing them around. They see the virus as a great opportunity to make themselves important and to cement themselves in power. They want to deconstruct America. The phrase “build back better” is being used not just by people in the new Biden regime but by people all over the world.
https://internationalman.com/articles/doug-casey-on-the-covid-restrictions-and-the-great-reset/
by Doug Casey
International Man: Thanksgiving and the holiday season are here. The COVID hysteria has justified a new wave of government restrictions.
Many governors and mayors are ordering citizens to “stay at home” and cancel their traditional plans.
Is this a “new normal” in which local officials feel emboldened to dictate more and more of what people can do in their own homes?
Doug Casey: There’s not much question about it. First, let me draw your attention to an important fundamental: the type of people who go into government. It doesn’t matter if it’s national, state, county, or city government.
They’re the kind of people who think they know what’s best for others and like bossing them around. They see the virus as a great opportunity to make themselves important and to cement themselves in power. They want to deconstruct America. The phrase “build back better” is being used not just by people in the new Biden regime but by people all over the world.
These people see the COVID hysteria as an excuse for a “Great Reset.” They don’t describe exactly what the elements of the Great Reset might be, but they’re hitting the same notes sung by the people that go to the World Economic Forum in Davos. They’re promoting a great change in the world at large and America in particular.
It appears the world is ready for it; however, it’s for the same reasons that Biden won the election. I listed six factors why I thought Biden would win in our interview a couple of months ago: the virus hysteria, a pending economic collapse, negative demographics, the moral collapse of the old order, and the Deep State, and, of course, cheating—which was critical in the short term. There’s no question that stormy times are ahead.
We’re headed for a great leap forward—to borrow a phrase from Mao—in State power. Much higher taxes, much higher inflation, much more regulation, a big drop in the general standard of living, and a fair measure of social chaos.
International Man: Among the most extreme examples of this dystopian power trip is from California’s governor Gavin Newsom.
Recently, he issued a list of nine mandatory requirements for Thanksgiving social gatherings. The ridiculous list includes things like “no more than three households” at Thanksgiving, mandatory masks at all times except when eating, and no shared family-style dishes for guests.
Has the COVID hysteria generated a serious new political threat to individual freedoms?
Doug Casey: It seems like the world is mimicking the dystopian movie, V for Vendetta, in which a virus played a major role.
If it’s not this virus, which is trivial for everyone except very old or very sick people, there will be another virus. In addition to the seasonal flu, about every decade, there’s something new—Hong Kong flu, Asian flu, swine flu, bird flu, SARS… all of them about as deadly as COVID, and none of them even remotely comparable to the Spanish flu of 1918. None of them, even the Spanish flu, had serious economic consequences. This flu is only serious because of the hysteria surrounding it.
Consequences? Testing will be mandatory, and you’ll need a health passport. At some point that may include being chipped, like your dog. What shocks me is that the average person is all for it. Everybody is a “Karen” today. They shame people who don’t wear their masks, despite the fact that masks are of little or no value. Masks, social distancing, lockdowns, and non-gathering are doing immense damage to society at every level—health-wise, socially, and financially. This nonsense is rupturing the social fabric everywhere. That’s extremely dangerous.
The fact is that people are looking for guidance from the government—not independent scientists, who are being “canceled” and de-platformed. This is more serious than the hysteria that started with 9/11, which is ongoing. The COVID hysteria can best be compared to the Salem Witch Trials, the Orson Wells Martian Invasion Hoax, or an end-of-the-world prediction in a religious cult.
International Man: California’s Governor Newsom was recently busted at one of that state’s fanciest restaurants for breaking the exact rules he imposed on everyone else.
When asked to comment, he said it was “an error in judgment.”
What’s your take on politicians like Newsom and others who are revealing that the lockdowns are “for thee and not for me”?
Doug Casey: I don’t think there’s a cure for it. You’ve got to remember that California has elected insane politicians for decades now—one after another after another, each one worse than the one before. Why should that trend change? The voters are clearly getting what they want.
In fact, the trend is accelerating towards more authoritarian leaders at every level. Fear is ruling the public psyche. And when people are afraid—whether of the virus, economic turbulence, a foreign or domestic enemy, or a hundred other things—they want “strong leadership.” Elected politicians have become an elected aristocracy, a new ruling class. And they like it.
The best thing that can happen to California is that it breaks up into several states.
Southern California around Los Angeles is one culture; San Francisco and Oakland are another culture. In the far north—places like Humboldt, Trinity, Siskiyou counties—are totally different cultures again. The farming areas are yet another culture. There’s absolutely no reason for California to be one state. Dividing it would be a way of limiting the damage.
But that’s not going to happen for a lot of reasons. Of course, as I’ve pointed out before, the best thing that can happen to the United States at this point is to break up into several different countries.
Politicians like Gavin Newsom live in their own silos. They’re like medieval royalty. They don’t know and don’t really care what the little people do as long as the little people pay their taxes and do what they’re told.
The plebs are so indoctrinated and browbeaten that they’re happy to pay their taxes and follow orders. They’re told it’s the cost of civilization when it’s actually a sign of how uncivilized the world is becoming, and how different the US is from the ideas that once made America unique. I don’t see any solution because trends stay in motion until they reach a crisis point.
A crisis is coming, and at that point, anything can happen. Generally speaking, when you have a crisis due to bad times, things usually get worse, because the most aggressive liars and power-grabbers take control. So, I’m not terribly optimistic about the near-term future.
Editor’s Note: There’s no question the elite are eager to promote policies like negative interest rates, the abolition of cash and more. These trends are in motion, and are accelerating at a rapid rate.
It’s all shaping up to be a world-class disaster…
That’s exactly why New York Times bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released an urgent new report with Doug’s top 7 predictions—including how to survive and thrive in turbulent times. Click here to download the free PDF now.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Covid restrictions, Great Reset, new normal, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment »
Lockdowns Destroy What Makes Us Human
Posted by M. C. on November 27, 2020
There is no denying that during a pandemic there will be a need to alter one’s behavior, but just as no state bureaucrat can successfully plan the economy, no public health official is capable of centrally planning a response for hundreds of millions of people who are all in different conditions of life, with different material and spiritual needs.
Central health planning. That should be a scary thought.
While GMU economist Tyler Cowen may have dismissed the idea of more pandemic lockdowns as being “a straw man” and saying that the extreme measures that started in March of this year “are now behind us,” it seems that governors and other politicians around the country have failed to get the message. More and more states have begun to once again impose ruinous lockdowns. The media and Twitter are filled with self-righteous scolds shrieking about the impending doom of families gathering together for Thanksgiving. CNN host Jake Tapper suggested that “Christmas is probably not gonna be possible.”
If such people had their way, everyone would remain under veritable house arrest and not see anyone else for months or even years, as the duration of such onerous impositions has gone from “fifteen days to slow the spread” to months or even years into the future. That such ideas are even being considered demonstrates just how out of touch with human reality much of our “expert” class and their hordes of lemming-like followers are.
Things have not changed much from when I addressed some of the disastrous unintended material consequences of lockdowns in April of this year. However, as 2020 has dragged on, it has made clear that at least some of the lockdown logic is rooted in a fundamentally flawed and relatively recent conception of human nature.
Nearly every culture and religion throughout human history has held that humans are both material and spiritual beings. However, living in the secular age as we do, the material aspect of our existence has supplanted the spiritual to such an extent that it is barely recognized to exist.
Russell Kirk goes so far as to claim that the dividing line in contemporary politics hinges on this difference in understanding, stating that “on one side of that line are all those men and women who fancy that the temporal order is the only order, and that material needs are their only needs, and that they may do as they like with the human patrimony. On the other side of that line are all those people who recognize an enduring moral order in the universe, a constant human nature, and high duties toward the order spiritual and the order temporal.”
A purely material outlook on human existence will of course lead to certain policy prescriptions, especially in the face of a pandemic. To deny the spiritual existence of man is to deny the possibility of life after death—only the void of annihilation awaits. From this perspective, it makes sense that one might conclude that earthly life must continue on at any cost—that no tradeoff is too high to put off the coming oblivion.
In contrast, those who retain a more traditional conception of human nature, no matter the specific religion or creed to which they belong, can easily see an entire world of costs to lockdowns that those with a purely materialist perspective are not even capable of understanding.
Humans are social beings. Our very existence and development as human persons rests upon this social nature. Social contract thinkers like Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau may fantasize about a solitary human existence, but all evidence from feral or isolated children indicates that without other humans a solitary individual would swiftly perish, not to mention fail to develop self-awareness or the ability to think and speak with language.
Some personalist scholars, such as political theorist David Walsh, argue that our entire conception of self can only be formed in relation to other persons. In contrast to Descartes’s famous line that “I think, therefore I am” a personalist would argue that we are not even capable of understanding the existence of “I” until we have first understood the existence of an “I” in others. Much like we can never truly see our own face, but only the faces of others, which in turn allows us to understand our own unseen face, we cannot become aware of ourselves until we find ourselves in the context of others, and through them recognize the mutual nature of our interior lives that makes us persons.
Many religions, in some form or another, speak of the interconnectedness of the world and of people and of the illusion of separation. While most often associated with Eastern religions such as Buddhism, this spiritual unity is not foreign to Christianity and the West. Indeed, the Christian Trinity is understood to be one God in three persons. Jesus Christ references this unity in the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John when he prays “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you…that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.”
Leaving the specific religious implications aside, humans have recognized for millennia that when persons gather together we enter into one another on a spiritual level through the recognition of our mutual personhood. However, this spiritual unity that is so essential to our very existence as human persons does not occur in a vacuum, but rather in the context in which we gather in the material world.
Humans could acquire all the nutrients we need by imbibing Soylent Green in solitude, but instead, we often turn our meals into ritualistic social occasions. Shared meals not only provide material nourishment but spiritual sustenance as well. Dancing alone in your kitchen is all well and good, but it pales in comparison to experiencing a crowd of thousands moshing at an electronic dance music festival or the pounding feet of a Sufi sect dancing the dhikr. We are fortunate to be able to access great art at the click of a mouse, but watching Swan Lake home alone on YouTube is no substitute for the experience of seeing it live in a crowded hall as every person is moved to tears.
There are few events more brimming with the spiritual unity of the attendees than a wedding, a celebration of the literal unity of two persons as one in the presence of their friends and loved ones with feasting, singing, and dancing.
Yet how many weddings have been canceled or celebrated in private this year thanks to lockdowns? How many shared meals have not been eaten? Dances left undanced, songs left unsung, conversations not had? How many parents and grandparents in nursing homes did not get to see their loved ones before they departed this earth? How many children have suffered in front of a screen alone all day? These are not mere frivolous luxuries that we humans can do without. The dual material and spiritual contexts of our personhood cannot be separated. These contexts of our families and communities are not nice additions to life, they are human life itself.
There is no denying that during a pandemic there will be a need to alter one’s behavior, but just as no state bureaucrat can successfully plan the economy, no public health official is capable of centrally planning a response for hundreds of millions of people who are all in different conditions of life, with different material and spiritual needs.
Every person must decide for himself what the proper course of action is in light of his unique life circumstances. Ripping these decisions from every person and placing them in the hands of public health bureaucrats has yielded disaster.
Suicide rates are up all around the country, in some places as much as 70 percent compared to the same time last year. Military suicides are up 20 percent. Drug overdose deaths are on track to reach an all-time high. The RAND Corporation has found an upswing in heavy drinking this year. The Associated Pressreports on the horrific conditions in nursing homes around the country that may have led to the deaths of tens of thousands of residents in excruciating and horrific circumstances, as their families have been forbidden from caring for them. What’s more, it seems many patients simply withered away, their spirits broken from being locked in veritable solitary confinement with no contact with friends or family for months.
Medical central planning that doesn’t even recognize the spiritual and social aspect of human existence has caused the deaths of untold numbers of people around the country, perhaps more than the virus itself in the long run.
Our vaunted leaders may act like pure materialists when it comes to their dictatorial decrees obliterating society and our very humanity, but on some level they obviously understand the importance of their own spiritual health. Why else would the leaders of California be breaking their own rules to dine at luxurious restaurants or flying to Hawaii for meetings and not be content with takeout and Zoom like the rest of us peasants? But what else can be expected from a system of top-down control?
Humans are both material and spiritual beings. Just as we have material needs that central planners cannot anticipate, so too do we have spiritual needs that can only be filled in a myriad of ways that central planners cannot plan for, especially when they don’t even recognize they are needs at all. When they are not fulfilled, our physical health suffers just as assuredly as if we had a virus. The social and communal aspects of human life, whether a holiday dinner with family, going to church, having a wedding, or even the mundane relations of everyday life are not mere luxuries that can be dispensed with, they are human life itself. People must be free to navigate these difficult times armed with the knowledge of their circumstances that only they possess. Author:
Zachary Yost is a Mises U alum and freelance writer.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Central Planning, lockdowns, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment »
Erie Times E-Edition Article-How to reduce holiday virus risk
Posted by M. C. on November 26, 2020
Wearing face masks as much as possible. Staying 6 feet apart doesn’t do much good when 10 to 25 people gather in a house…
So masks and anti-social distancing apparently don’t work in stores, restaurants, hospitals…
This so control oriented, the controllers can’t keep their stories straight.
“The Public Health Communications Collaborative recommends quarantining from anyone who didn’t attend the meal for 14 days afterward,” Lyon said.
Say What? If someone didn’t attend the meal it was because:
A. They were in fear of infection, not infected.
B. They didn’t want to be around those people.
If anyone were sick they likely would have mentioned it, therefore a government control directive to stay away would hardly be necessary.
https://erietimes-pa-app.newsmemory.com/?publink=3df3a0f30
Some common-sense safety tips for your Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving 2020 is not a typical holiday for many of us. We are alone in our houses with our immediate family, quarantining from our parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.
But some people are choosing to gather Thursday, as they have for generations, despite the pandemic. You might be reading this article as a household full of people eat breakfast, watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and cook food in the kitchen.
Melissa Lyon, director of the Erie County Department of Health, said she hopes that isn’t the case.
“I strongly discourage that type of gathering this Thanksgiving,” Lyon said Tuesday. “But if you can’t avoid it, there are steps you can take to reduce your risk – though not as much as staying home and spending Thanksgiving with the members of your household.”
How likely is it that your holiday gathering includes someone with COVID-19?
Erie County posted a COVID-19 infection rate last week of 379 cases per 100,000 people.
That means any gathering of 15 county residents has a 29% chance of having at least one person actively infected with the virus, said Howard Nadworny, M.D., a Saint Vincent infectious diseases specialist and adviser to the county health department.
A gathering of 25 county residents has a 44% chance of a person with an active infection, Nadworny added.
“The risk of infection is highest when you gather indoors in close quarters with other people and no one is wearing face masks,” Nadworny said. “That’s why we are so concerned about Thanksgiving.”
Lyon and Nadworny offered suggestions to reduce the risk of infection. They include: Spending as much of the day outdoors as you can. The National Weather Service forecast for Erie on Thursday is for morning rain and a high temperature in the mid-50s.
“Eat outside if you can, maybe use space heaters,” Nadworny said.
“Plan some outdoor activities,” Lyon said. “Go on a hike.”
Wearing face masks as much as possible. Staying 6 feet apart doesn’t do much good when 10 to 25 people gather in a house unless you remain in different rooms, even on different floors.
“Wear your face masks right up until the time you start eating,” Nadworny said. “Then put them back on right after you’re done.”
Don’t eat at one table. Spread everyone out in small groups, preferably by household, Lyon said.
“This isn’t the time for a big table meal,” Lyon said. “Spread people out in different rooms or outdoors, if you can.”
Make the visit shorter than usual. The longer a person spends near someone with COVID19, the more likely they are to get infected, Nadworny said. “We talk about 15 minutes of contact, but that’s not a magic number,” Nadworny said. “Try to limit your time as much as possible, especially if you are indoors.”
Lyon also offered another piece of advice, though she didn’t expect many people to follow it.
“The Public Health Communications Collaborative recommends quarantining from anyone who didn’t attend the meal for 14 days afterward,” Lyon said.
Contact David Bruce at dbruce@timesnews. com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNBruce.
Melissa Lyon, director of the Erie County Department of Health, said there are steps you can take to reduce your risk of COVID-19 if you’re attending a large Thanksgiving celebration.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: holiday virus, Nadworny, Public Health Communications Collaborative, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment »
Thanksgiving: The Forgotten History of America’s Thanksgiving and What It Commemorates | The Daily Bell
Posted by M. C. on November 27, 2019
By Sam Jacobs
Thanksgiving is the oldest national holiday in the United States. However, it’s observation is not a continuous presence in American history. While the celebration of Thanksgiving predates even the founding of the nation, it was proclaimed by George Washington, then ignored by Thomas Jefferson. From then on, it was sporadically observed until Abraham Lincoln, who once again introduced a National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving to the United States.
Indeed, it was Lincoln who set the day as the last Thursday in November. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt changed the day between 1939 and 1941, which was highly controversial. The days were called “Franksgiving.” Roosevelt changed the date because retailers communicated to him through the Retail Dry Goods Association and the Secretary of Commerce, that the late date of Thanksgiving that year (the last day of November) might negatively impact retail sales. It was considered bad form to put up Christmas decorations or put on Christmas sales before Thanksgiving.
If only we still lived in such times.
In 1942, Congress set Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of the month, and here it has stood since then.
The Early Days of Thanksgiving
Harvest feasts date back centuries, with the earliest “thanksgiving” celebrations in the New World dating to the 16th Century with the French and the Spanish. The Commonwealth of Virginia had regular celebrations of this type dating back to 1607. The first permanent settlement, Jamestown, Virginia, had a thanksgiving celebration in the year of its founding, 1610.
Of course, anytime someone says “Thanksgiving,” one immediately thinks of the Pilgrims. “Thanksgiving” as we know it is generally dated back to when the Pilgrims first celebrated it in 1621. This was in response to a successful harvest, however, it was not the first of a consistent celebration. The Pilgrims celebrated this only sporadically.
No one is entirely sure when the Thanksgiving celebration took place. There was a three-day celebration following their harvest, sometime between September 21 and November 11, with the Feast of Michaelmas (September 29) being the most likely date. We do, however, know that all 50 surviving Mayflower passengers were there, as well as 90 Native Americans. The feast was cooked primarily by four women, all of whom were on the Mayflower. Two years later, in 1623, following another boat of colonists arriving, the first civil (not religious) Thanksgiving took place in July.
The Revolution to the Civil War
The day of national Thanksgiving jumped around until the founding of the nation. During the late Colonial period, the Continental Congress merely recommended the day be celebrated by the various colonies. Samuel Adams drafted the first national proclamation, issued in 1777 – something to remember when you tip back one of his beers while watching the game. Revolutionary Commander General George Washington set the date in December of that year to celebrate early revolutionary victories.
In 1789, President George Washington would proclaim November 26, 1789, to be a National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving. This day also provides the roots for America’s National Day of Prayer. In 1795, Thanksgiving was celebrated, again by presidential proclamation, on February 19. President John Adams continued the tradition in 1798 and 1799. The tradition was undone by deist and skeptic President Thomas Jefferson. President James Madison revived the tradition in 1814, but it remained sporadic until the Civil War. Many governors proclaimed celebrations statewide.
In November 1863, however, President Lincoln made the celebration national again. He was inspired by an editorial series written by “Mary Had a Little Lamb” author Sarah Josepha Hale. Secretary of State William H. Seward wrote the proclamation. During this period, traditions were regional and some of the food is decidedly not what we would consider to be traditional Thanksgiving fare today (pigeon pie, for example).
Franksgiving
Franksgiving is one of those things like the court-packing plan that made FDR’s opponents squeal with laughter. FDR’s moving of the date of Thanksgiving caused his opponent in the previous election, Alf Landon, to compare him to Hitler. James Frasier, chairman of the Plymouth, Massachusetts board of selectmen heartily disapproved of the change.
The change caused a number of problems, not least of all holiday travel plans. Football teams around the nation played before empty stadiums because they couldn’t change their schedule. Many games were cancelled. In what is a familiar scenario to anyone who has followed 21st-century politics, Democrats narrowly supported Franksgiving (52 to 48), Republicans widely despised it (79 to 21) and most of America didn’t like it (62 to 38).
All told, 23 states and the District of Columbia recognized the new date, while 22 preferred the traditional date. The remaining three (Colorado, Texas and Mississippi) went with both dates, meaning there was plenty of time off for everyone. In 1940, 32 states and the nation’s capital went with Franksgiving, while the remaining 16 opted for what was called “Republican Thanksgiving.”
A report from the Department of Commerce issued in 1941, found that there was no difference in retail sales due to the day of the month. Indeed, barely more than a third of all retailers even observed Franksgiving. What’s more, only two out of every seven Thanksgivings would fall on a fifth Thursday rather than a fourth. Still, a joint resolution of Congress, signed into law by President Roosevelt, permanently moved the date to the fourth Thursday, where it has stood ever since. Most states concurred, and while revelry was on the back burner thanks to the war, Thanksgiving in its final form took root by 1945.
If you ever find yourself watching the Merrie Melodies cartoon Holiday Highlights, you’ll notice a reference to two different Thanksgivings – one for Republicans and one for Democrats – that will now make sense to you.
Texas was the last state to observe the traditional “last Thursday” Thanksgiving in 1956.
Thanksgiving Haters
While it has its roots in European harvest festivals, there is perhaps no more quintessentially American holiday than Thanksgiving. Americans eat more food this day than they will any other day of the year, including the Fourth of July and Christmas Day. Unsurprisingly, there are people who think that the celebration of Thanksgiving is shameful and should be abandoned.
Both liberal college professors and some Native American activists believe the traditional story of Thanksgiving has been whitewashed by conquerors. They believe in replacing the day with a National Day of Atonement and fasting. Other prominent Native Americans such as Tim Giago, who founded the Native American Journalists Organization, believe that the celebration of Thanksgiving is a synthesis of both European and Native American traditions and is, as such, uniquely American.
The rest of us, however, will enjoy stuffing ourselves with turkey, slipping into a tryptophan coma, and waking up just in time to catch the big game or the parade. Real Americans, as it turns out, would much rather enjoy a day off than complain.
Thanksgiving: The Forgotten History of America’s Thanksgiving and What It Commemorates originally appeared in the Resistance Library at Ammo.com.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Franksgiving, Holiday Highlights, Mayflower, National Day of Prayer, Thanksgiving | Leave a Comment »
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