On Easter, Google Doodle Celebrates Union Leader Cesar Chavez

March 31, 2013 | Filed Under Business, Christianity, Computers, Democrats/Leftists, Easter, Ethics, Google, Government, Corruption, Holiday, Inernet, Liberals, PCism, Progressives, Society/Culture, Technology, Unions, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

This year, March 31 is Easter Day, the day that American Christians celebrate Jesus Christ having risen from the tomb to join his Father in Heaven. But instead of hosting a doodle celebrating that sacred holiday, this March 31, Google is celebrating the birth of famed union activist Cesar Chavez.

Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927 and is most well known for organizing south western farm workers into unions in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. In 1962, Chavez co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) with fellow activist Dolores Huerta. By 1972, the NFWA had merged with another union to become the United Farm Workers union (UFW).

Under Chavez, the UFW constantly used violence, threats, and strong arm tactics to coerce workers into joining the union and the FBI often investigated Chavez for ties to the Communist Party.

So on this March 31, Google has chosen to celebrate the life of a union activist instead of the Risen Christ with its “doodle.”

A Google “doodle” is a cartoon graphic celebrating a day of historical interest. The doodle is placed on the search engine’s main landing page just above the search field. Doodles are often whimsical and animated.

Google’s most recent doodles include Bangladesh Independence Day, Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro’s 167th Birthday (Portugal), Persian New Year, St. Patrick’s Day, Hungary National Day, Russian scientist Vladimir Vernadsky’s 150th Birthday, and Women’s Day.
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Happy Easter 2013

March 30, 2013 | Filed Under Easter, Holiday, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

As we take the day off to be with our families, we here at Publius Forum wish you and yours a very happy Easter Sunday.

6 “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
–Matthew 28: 6-10 NIV

Happy New Year 2013

January 1, 2013 | Filed Under Holiday, New Years, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

Thanks for making 2012 a great year for Publius Forum. I am looking forward to serving you in 2013 and beyond.

2012 saw me get more involved than ever with the Breitbart Group, of course. I was sort of in the running to become more involved just before Andrew passed from a heart attack in March (in fact, I had seen Andrew only a few weeks previous at CPAC). Not long after he passed we settled on terms and I was able to take a larger role at Breitbart.com. It looks like this new year will deepen that relationship further.

In fact, there is an outside possibility that my work at Breitbart might interfere with this website — both contractually and time-wise.

In any case, I hope you and yours had a great — and safe — New Years Eve night and we wish you a Happy New Year.

Warner Todd Huston
Owner and editor of www.PubliusForum.com

Merry Christmas 2012: A Light Unto All Mankind

December 24, 2012 | Filed Under Christianity, Christmas, Holiday, Religion, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Merry Christmas, 2011

“And unto you a child is born.” With that promise Earth was given the promise of a light unto all men, a light that will lead us to our salvation if only we choose to accept that path.

Even if you are not a Christian, even if you’re not especially religious, if you claim another religion or none at all, the path that Christ walked when he was born into this world is a path from which we all can all learn. It is one worthy of study and acceptance even if only as an example of a way to live. Christ’s path is, indeed, a philosophy worthy of consideration for it is one based on service to your fellows, love for all, and a suppression of one’s selfishness in order to pursue a higher calling.

What could be a better path, even for the non-religious?

So, as we celebrate this Christmas Day, the day meant to memorialize the birth of Christ, and as we head into 2013 let us all strive to work harder to be of service to our fellows. Let us engage in those random acts of kindness that makes everyone’s lives so much more fulfilling — not to mention easier. Let us remember to say thanks to those who have done something for us and let us offer our own works for others without expecting immediate repayment.

Let’s try and leave this place a bit better off than when we came in.

I want to thank each and every one of you for having been such wonderfully loyal readers and for you folks that have only been recent visitors, may you find a home here for the upcoming days. We hope to give you a Christmas gift that never stops giving here at Publius Forum.

May God Bless you all and enjoy the day with your family and friends.

Merry Christmas and, if you don’t visit again before the end of the year, may you have a Happy New Year

Yours,

Warner Todd Huston
Publisher, PubliusForum.com

NORAD: The Story of Tracking Santa Klaus

December 24, 2012 | Filed Under Christmas, Holiday, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Alright, kids, NORAD is once again tracking Santa’s progress across the world this Christmas season. If you kiddies want to find out where Santa is right this very minute, have mom and dad help you dial 1-877-446-6723 or visit NORAD’s Santa tracking website: http://www.noradsanta.org/en/.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been tracking Santa since 1955, and it all started by accident.

It is sort of a cute story, really, but what started NORAD’s Santa tracking effort was a 1955 Sears department store advertisement from Colorado Springs — where NORAD is based — that informed kids that they could call Santa on the phone. Unfortunately for the Sears promotion, the newspaper printed the wrong phone number and by sheer accident that number happened to take callers to the military installation’s switch board.

When dozens of calls from little kids started coming into what was then called the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center, the officer in command, Colonel Harry Shoup, told his operators to go ahead and tell kids what they wanted to hear. He also ordered to tell kids that they were tracking Santa across the world with their radar installation.

Colonel Shoup passed away in 2009 and upon his passing NORAD created a little video of the good Colonel reciting that first Santa phone call.

Today, NORAD enlists the aid of volunteers to staff the phones and operate the website (http://www.noradsanta.org/en/) to handle the thousands of requests from the kids.

The Kwanzaa Con: A Fake Holiday Created by a Rapist and Torturer

December 21, 2012 | Filed Under Africa, Anti-Americanism, Christmas, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Ethics, Family, Holiday, Journalism, Kwanzaa, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Progressives, Race, Sex Offenders/Rape, Warner Todd Huston | 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Every year I post a piece on the troubled truth about Kwanzaa. This year will be no exception. Note that some of the newspaper articles I quote are several years old and may no longer be online.

Kwanzaa, the purported “African” holiday celebrated only in the United States, is the ultimate politically correct holiday. It is little observed, even by our African American community, of course, but those that do celebrate it are wholly unaware that the faux holiday was created by a man with a very troubled past. For Kwanzaa’s creator, Maulana Karenga, has a violent criminal record, is a racist, and even a rapist.

Each year, with the onset of Christmas, we are treated to another gauzy, fluff piece about how great Kwanzaa is by yet another PC spewing columnist. This year, among many others, we find aggrandizement such as that in The Telegraph from Macon, Georgia with, “Annual Kwanzaa celebrations highlight arts, community and history,” and the Dallas Morning News with its titled,”Look forward to Kwanzaa celebrations with storytelling, music and more.” We even find such helpful sites as TeacherPlanet.com’s, “Kwanzaa Resources for Teachers.” Yes, the world is filled with celebratory lionization of Kwanzaa.

Several years ago, the Houston Chronicle got in the act with a piece by Leslie Casimir titled “Learning about Kwanzaa from the holiday’s creator.” This one, though, was a bit off the usual track of the how-great-is-Kwanzaa theme because this particular piece celebrated the inventor of the faux holiday, Maulana Karenga, himself. So, instead of merely celebrating the manufactured holiday, Casimir amazingly made a hero of the rapist, race monger and violent thug who created it! To Casimir, Kwanzaa creator “Maulana Karenga” was a hero.
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Slate: If You Like The White Turkey Meat, You Are A Racist

November 29, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Government, Holiday, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Progressives, Race, Slate, Thanksgiving, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

You can’t even eat turkey on Thanksgiving without being called a racist by our friends on the extreme left side of the aisle in America today, especially if you prefer the white meat over the dark.

Just before Thanksgiving last week, the liberal site Slate dredged up a 2010 piece claiming that the reason Americans love the white meat on a turkey is because we are all racists.

The rant written by Ron Rosenbaum is a great example of all that is wrong with the race baiting left in America these days. It is a sad example that literally everything under the sun is just another excuse for the far left to cry racism.

But before Rosenbaum goes into how turkey meat is racist, he prefaced his turkey talk with a digression on white bread, that one-time most favorite American sandwich bread. Rosenbaum says that white bread was once “regarded as the peak of social refinement by the new middle class.”

White bread fell from grace, Rosenbaum says, because “white bread” itself became an epithet — as in “that is so white bread” — and because nutritionists decided it was not a healthy food choice.
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University Prof: Thanksgiving is a Nazi Holiday

November 24, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Ethics, Founders, Government, Corruption, History, Liberals, Progressives, Thanksgiving, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s become a tradition on every holiday that somewhere in the country a taxpayer supported university professor will come forth to trash one of our American traditions and this holiday season we were treated to a claim that Thanksgiving is really just a celebration of “genocide” created by “Nazis.”

A long-time, extreme left-winger named Robert Jensen, a taxpayer supported journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin, felt Thanksgiving eve was the perfect time to unleash his latest anti-American screed on the radical website Alternet. Titled “No Thanks for Thanksgiving,” Jensen claimed that this most gentle of holidays is really nothing but a celebration of genocide sponsored by Americans who are little different than Nazis.

To Jensen, Thanksgiving isn’t a day to give thanks for what we have, it isn’t a spiritual day to reflect on one’s good fortune, it is instead a “white-supremacist holiday” that would be better spent in a “day of mourning” for the “genocide” evil whites perpetrated against America’s native people.
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Happy Thanksgiving 2012

November 22, 2012 | Filed Under Holiday, Thanksgiving, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

We take the rest of the day off to be with family and friends. But, please do take some time to look over our past work in the archives. In the meantime, God bless you and have a Happy Thanksgiving and see you tomorrow. And we are thankful for your readership.

What We Are Thankful For

November 22, 2012 | Filed Under Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Business, Capitalism, Declaration of Independence, Democracy, Founders, Government, History, Holiday, James Madison, Jobs, John Adams, Revolutionary War, Sam Adams, Slavery, Thanksgiving, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Like most conservatives, I felt Election Day was the end of the United States of America. I am not convinced going forward that it isn’t, either. But on this day of giving thanks for what we do have, it would be a mistake not to be grateful for the things with which we have, in our good fortune, been blessed. There are things that we should and must be thankful for.

What are those things? What should we be thankful for? Well, certainly there are all manner of things we should be thankful for as individuals. Our loved ones, friends, perhaps our health and good fortunes. But, as a nation, there are many things to be thankful for, even if those things seem fleeting. Granted, there are many things other than what I list below that we should be thankful for. I have no intention of claiming this list is comprehensive.

So, first and foremost, as a nation we should be thankful for our founders’ vision of a nation created on the premise of self-government, freedom and liberty.
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Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation

November 22, 2012 | Filed Under Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, History, Holiday, Thanksgiving, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation:

The year that is drawing toward 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 can not 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 theater of military conflict, while that theater 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 defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our 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 battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
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There’d Be No Thanksgiving Without the Profit Motive

November 22, 2012 | Filed Under Business, Capitalism, Economy/Finances, Ethics, Free Trade, Holiday, Jobs, Thanksgiving, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Lawrence W. Reed

“The worst crime against working people,” so said Samuel Gompers, “is a company which fails to operate at a profit.”

Gompers, of course, is known by the history books as the father of the labor union movement in America. He was founder of the American Federation of Labor. It may seem incongruous for such an important labor figure to say such a thing about profit, but Gompers appreciated something back then that perhaps a few of today’s labor leaders don’t. An economy without profit is an economy in deep, deep depression.

Profit and the self-interest motive behind it were under relentless attack not so long ago. The radicalism of the 1960s was dead set against them, laying most of society’s ills at the feet of greedy, profit-hungry and selfish capitalists. Anti-profit sentiment was even more popular in Europe and Africa, where it helped boost the socialist agenda and a wave of nationalizations.

In more recent years, however, a better understanding of profit has taken hold in surprising places. Communist China started implementing it in the late 1970s as an incentive for moribund state industries and previously prohibited private enterprise. And in my files is an English translation of an article that appeared in a most unlikely place. Here’s a key excerpt:
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236 Independence Days and Counting, But What Does it all Mean?

July 4, 2012 | Filed Under 1st Amendment, Congress, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Founders, History, Holiday, Independence Day, Thomas Jefferson, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Today America enjoys the celebration of 236 years of existence as a nation by noting the day we declared our independence from our Mother nation, England. Sadly, that celebration has, for too many, become the “July Fourth” holiday, a day of picnics, rote parades, “white sales,” and for some a day off work. Of course, we should not and don’t celebrate any “July Fourth.” We celebrate Independence Day, the day we formally separated from our parent nation and took those first unsure steps into the world as a nation of our own.

So, what is this Independence Day all about? Well, for one thing we celebrate the gifts that our Creator have given us. That’s right, our Founding Fathers started this nation celebrating the gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and those natural rights given to us by God, rights that no man can tax away from us, rights no man can legitimately take by force.

Contrary to the God averse America we have stumbled into, the Declaration mentions God, the Creator, or the divine multiple times and the Founders rested their entire claim of liberty and freedom on the claim that no government can legitimately take away the natural rights that mankind should and must enjoy.

The fact is the Founders did not want a nation free from religion (there is no such founding principle as a “wall of separation” as many think of it today, but that is another story for another day). This is not a Godless nation, but a nation based on Christian ideals.

Secondly, the Declaration of Independence is also a list of the wrongs and slights that England perpetrated against us. In the list of crimes against us that the English Crown and Parliament perpetrated against us is detailed many of the rights that free men must enjoy to truly be free men. This list of slights is not just stuffy old history but are timeless principles which should guide all men even today.

And lastly, to that “all men” point just noted. Our Founders did not write a Declaration that only pertained to their situation in their focused pint in history. Instead they wrote a document to inspire every people to take up freedom and liberty as their own. The Declaration of Independence is not just a document for America. It is one that should inspire all men everywhere to throw off the shackles of government imposed slavery. It is a document that is not just for the nascent American people, but one that insists, “all men 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.”

The Declaration of Independence is for humanity. Not just America.

And so that is also our charge. Freedom is a cause for all men, not just Americans. The United States should not shrink from the charge to aid and encourage freedom and liberty for all men.

Please take a minute to read the entire Declaration below and re-famliarize yourself with our founding ideals.
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Freedom: Fighting for the Future

July 4, 2012 | Filed Under Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Holiday, Independence Day, Military, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

Veterans understand that they must bring that knowledge and that perspective to bear in a much wider fight, one that will require a commitment, focus, and sustained effort unlike any seen previously. They must carry with on the same mission they accepted while in uniform — defending freedom.

Video courtesy of Concerned Veterans for America.

Thank You Veterans

May 28, 2012 | Filed Under Holiday, Memorial Day, Mitt Romney, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

Mitt Romney’s message for the day…

“It’s time for us to come together and to carry our message across this country, we’re restoring those principles that made America the great nation that it is …. We’re going to keep America strong, and worthy of the great sacrifice of America’s veterans and those young men and women who put their lives on the line for us even today.”

Happy Memorial Day, 2012

May 28, 2012 | Filed Under Holiday, Memorial Day, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

As we take the day off to celebrate Memorial Day, we wish you and your family a great day.

MSNBC Liberal Chris Hayes ‘Uncomfortable’ Calling Our Troops ‘Heroes’

May 27, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Holiday, Journalism, Liberals, Media Bias, Memorial Day, Military, MSNBC, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

After a morning in remembrance of our fallen troops and an afternoon firing up the gas grill to burn up a mess of burgers, hot dogs, and brats for my family as we observe what has become a traditional American Memorial day meal (Some of us in my household are working tomorrow, so we had our meal today), I find that MSNBC is observing this holiday in true liberal* fashion: denigrating our troops.

True to that liberal penchant of discounting the brave men and women that serve in our nation’s armed forces, I introduce to you a lowly personage named Chris Hayes, a left-wing MSNBC host whose show “Up” airs on the weekend.

This weekend Hayes felt compelled to warn everyone that calling our troops “heroes” is something that should make us all “uncomfortable.”

In an inordinately inarticulate way, here is what he said about our troops this weekend:

Thinking today and observing Memorial Day, that’ll be happening tomorrow. Just talked with Lt. Col. Steve Burke [sic, actually Beck], who was a casualty officer with the Marines and had to tell people [inaudible]. Um, I, I, ah, back sorry, um, I think it’s interesting because I think it is very difficult to talk about the war dead and the fallen without invoking valor, without invoking the words “heroes.” Um, and, ah, ah, why do I feel so comfortable [sic] about the word “hero”? I feel comfortable, ah, uncomfortable, about the word because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war. Um, and, I don’t want to obviously desecrate or disrespect memory of anyone that’s fallen, and obviously there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism: hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers and things like that. But it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic. But maybe I’m wrong about that.

(Thanks Newsbusters for the transcript)

This is typical of the hatred that liberals have for our troops.
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Memorial Day 2012: THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…

May 27, 2012 | Filed Under History, Holiday, Memorial Day, Military, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

For Memorial Day, I don’t usually post much, preferring to dedicate the day to memorializing our troops. To do that this year, I am going to share this story about the mettle of our troops. What follows are excerpts from remarks by Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis on November 13, 2010. Kelly’s son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, 29, had been killed in action four days earlier in Sangin, in southern Afghanistan, while leading his platoon on a combat patrol:

Giving Thanks for Our Warriors

“Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when men and women of character step forward to look danger and adversity straight in the eye, refusing to blink, or give ground, even to their own deaths… No, they are not victims but are warriors, your warriors, and warriors are never victims regardless of how and where they fall. Death, or fear of death, has no power over them. Their paths are paved by sacrifice, sacrifices they gladly make… for you….

“Two years ago when I was the commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 ‘The Walking Dead,’ and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi… Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines… Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle-class white kid from Long Island. They were from two completely different worlds… But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
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The Beginnings of Memorial Day

May 27, 2012 | Filed Under Civil War, History, Holiday, Memorial Day, Military, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few years after the Civil War as the nation started upon its long road toward reconciliation, rebuilding, and healing the wife of one of the war’s union generals noticed the touching devotion of Confederate widows, wives and their children as each year they came together to place flowers and little flags at the graves of their fallen. Mary Simmerson Cunningham Logan was so moved by the devotion she witnessed that she urged her husband, Illinois General John A. “Blackjack” Logan, to look into creating what was to become Memorial Day.

General Logan was a Senator from Illinois and eventually became a candidate for Vice President on the 1884 Republican ticket, losing to Grover Cleveland and another Illinoisan, Vice President Adlai Stevenson. But before all that Logan was instrumental in creating Decoration Day, the celebration of the nation’s war dead that eventually became Memorial Day.

The following is the general order that Logan issued in 1868.

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

Happy Easter, 2012

April 8, 2012 | Filed Under Easter, Holiday, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

As we take the day off to be with our families, we here at Publius Forum wish you and yours a very happy Easter Sunday.

“He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.”
– Matthew 28: 6-10 KJV

Christmas Irritants Pervasive

January 29, 2012 | Filed Under Christianity, Christmas, Frederick Meekins, Religion | Comments Off

-By Frederick Meekins

Use to be during the Christmas season in modern America, if the individual wanted a little buzz during the holidays, they would slip a bit of something into their eggnog. Now, all you have to do to feel that surge of agitated surliness is to turn on the news or read about those turning themselves into the hind quarters of the species the Holy Family rode into Bethlehem in order to pay the assessed tax (an existential financial matter it seems fewer and fewer could possibly relate to).

If you think it is only secularists making an overall nuisance of themselves, you are in for a bigger disappointment than finding a lump of coal in your stocking Christmas morning.

For better or worse, the Internet is widespread enough that most are aware that there is nothing in the Bible compelling believers to participate in the celebration of the birth of Christ even though His miraculous arrival is documented in the pages of Scripture and that many of the trappings such as decorations and related customs now imbedded with meanings symbolizing the spiritually profound account have (to invoke a word of sectarian irony) less than kosher origins.

However, for the most part, Christians on either side of the divide have established a kind of amicable truce where for the most part about the worst that they do to their counterparts is to look down their noses at one another and snicker how peculiar or inconsistent the ones on the side of the debate opposite their own happen to be.
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Christmas Billboards Point In The Culture War’s Direction

January 14, 2012 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Christmas, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Frederick Meekins, Government, Government, Corruption, Holiday, Liberals, PCism, Society/Culture, Western Civilization | Comments Off

-By Frederick Meekins

Christmas is the time of year when the thoughts of most Americans grow to be at their most devout. It is increasingly the time of year that the avowed despisers of the Almighty are at their most disrespectful.

Before now, the most culturally embarrassing thing to come out of the wastelands of the Garden State was likely Snooki and her Jersey Shore compatriots. However, it now seems even their debauched escapades have been surpassed in terms of deliberately thumbing one’s nose at God.

For decades, one municipality there has draped across a main street a banner reading that horrible bit of wordplay “Keep Christ In Christmas”. As has become customary, leftist subversives have stepped forward insisting that the banner be taken down to placate one or two discombobulated by the message.
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Happy New Year 2012

January 1, 2012 | Filed Under Holiday, New Years | 2 Comments

Thanks for making 2011 a great year for Publius Forum. We here are all looking forward to serving you in 2012 and beyond.

Hope you and yours had a great — and safe — night last night and we wish you a Happy New Year.

Warner Todd Huston
Owner and editor of www.PubliusForum.com

Leftist Factions Co-opt Rather Than Abolish Holidays

December 28, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Christmas, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Frederick Meekins, Holiday, Liberals, PCism, Society/Culture, Western Civilization | Comments Off

-By Frederick Meekins

For about the past two decades, those to the left side of the sociopolitical spectrum have made such a fuss over their hostility towards traditional American holidays and celebrations that the arising disputations have themselves become an anticipated aspect of the close of each year. It was claimed such festivities promote values so vile that these sentiments must be expunged from the civic calendar and the very names seldom mentioned for fear of irrevocably harming those not participating for whatever the reason.

Though not always cognizant of the epic spiritual and philosophical struggle taking place all around them, Americans can be a remarkably stubborn and independent lot. As such, a number sympathetic to the process of communalization have realized that they might be more successful in accomplishing their goals through a subdued gradualism rather than through sudden revolutionary upheaval.

The first of the remembrances of the waning year subverted by manipulative social engineers is Thanksgiving. This holiday is despised for a number of common liberal reasons.

For starters, it is argued that Thanksgiving is racist because of the hostilities that eventually erupted between Americans of European origins and the American Indians. However, such criticism fails to recognize that, at the time of the first Thanksgiving Feast, these distinct groups were at accord with one another over the blessings shared amidst hardships and struggle.
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The Kwanzaa Con: Created by a Rapist and Torturer

December 26, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Christmas, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Holiday, Journalism, KKK, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Race, Warner Todd Huston | 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Every year I post a piece on the troubled history of Kwanzaa. This year will be no exception. Note that some of the newspaper articles I quote are several years old and may no longer be online.

Each year, with the onset of Christmas, we are treated to another gauzy, fluff piece about how great Kwanzaa is by yet another PC spewing columnist. This year, among many others, we find aggrandizement such as that in The Record from New Jersey with, “Kwanzaa sheds light on pride, heritage; Celebration of African-American culture spreads,” and the Huffintgon Post with its titled, “Kwanzaa Detroit 2011: Events Celebrate Holiday’s 7 Values .” We even find such helpful sites as TeacherPlanet.com’s, “Kwanzaa Resources for Teachers.” Yes, the world is filled with celebratory lionization of Kwanzaa.

Several years ago, the Houston Chronicle got in the act with a piece by Leslie Casimir titled “Learning about Kwanzaa from the holiday’s creator.” This one, though, was a bit off the usual track of the how-great-is-Kwanzaa theme because this particular piece celebrated the inventor of the faux holiday, Maulana Karenga, himself. So, instead of merely celebrating this manufactured holiday Casimir amazingly made a hero of the rapist, race monger and violent thug who created it! To Casimir, Kwanzaa creator “Maulana Karenga” was a hero.

Casimir waxed all a’glow about how wonderful Karenga was and her column found a gullible parent who, with kid in tow, went to see the man at a local community center.
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Merry Christmas to You and Yours

December 25, 2011 | Filed Under Christmas, Holiday, Warner Todd Huston | 2 Comments

Merry Christmas, 2011

“And unto you a child is born.” With that promise man was given the promise of a light unto all men, a light that will lead us to our salvation if only we choose to accept that path.

As 2011 ends we prepare to welcome in 2012 it would behoove us all to reflect on that promise. In fact, even if you are not the religious sort, even if you claim another religion or none at all, the path that Christ was born into this world to embark upon is for us all to learn from and is one worthy of study and acceptance. Christ’s path is, indeed, a philosophy worthy of consideration for it is one based on service to your fellows, love for all, and a suppression of one’s selfishness in order to pursue a higher calling.

What could be a better path, even for the non-religious among us?

So, as we celebrate this Christmas Day, the day meant to memorialize the birth of Christ, and as we head into 2012 let us all strive to work harder to be of service to our fellows. Let us engage in those random acts of kindness that makes everyone’s lives so much more fulfilling — not to mention easier. Let us remember to say thanks to those who have done something for us and let us offer our own works for others without expecting immediate repayment.

Let’s try and leave this place a bit better off than when we came in.

We want to thank each and every one of you for having been such wonderfully loyal readers and for you folks that have only been a recent visitor, may you find a home here for the upcoming days. We hope to give you a Christmas gift that never stops giving here at Publius Forum.

I’d also like to thank the contributors for sending me their wonderful, insightful works to publish here on the site. You are a big part of Publius Forum and I look forward to the great articles that you’ll be sending in the new year.

May God Bless you all and enjoy the day with your family and friends.

Merry Christmas and may you have a Happy New Year

Yours,

Warner Todd Huston
Publisher, PubliusForum.com

NORAD’s Tracking Santa Started By Accident in 1955

December 24, 2011 | Filed Under Children, Christmas, Holiday, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been tracking Santa since 1955, and it all started by accident.

Colonel Shoup passed away in 2009 and upon his passing NORAD created a little video of the good Colonel reciting that first Santa phone call.

Today, NORAD enlists the aid of volunteers to staff the phones and operate the website (http://www.noradsanta.org/en/) to handle the thousands of requests from the kids.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

December 24, 2011 | Filed Under Christmas, Frank Salvato, Holiday | Comments Off

-By Frank Salvato

I was checking out at a store earlier this week and as the transaction was coming to a close the cashier handed my receipt to me and said, “Happy Holidays!” I looked into her smiling face and asked, “What holiday?” She looked at me with a quizzical look and said, reminiscent of Tiny Tim of A Christmas Carol lore, “Why, Christmas, of course.” With a big grin I said, “Indeed!” We both knew exactly what I meant by both the question and the answer.

It is easy, as we navigate our daily lives, to forget about things that, in the end, are more important than the many lesser and/or trivial things that we elevate to crisis. While the attacks on our nation from nefarious forces, both ensconced in our governmental complex and from abroad, are important issues, and ones we should indeed concern ourselves with, many of us forget to count our blessing each day; we forget to be thankful for all that we have. Even in these trying economic times, there are genuinely more valuable and precious things among our immediate surroundings; things like family, friends and the many things held in common by those who love our country; by those who love life.

The subject matter we address daily on these pages is always of a serious nature; of subjects that present clear and present dangers to freedom, to liberty and to our very unique American way of life. We, as the editor’s, writers and publishers, expect our readers to be more than consumers of the information we provide, we expect you to be advocates for freedom, liberty, fair opportunity for all and for our Charters of Freedom; we expect you to be advocates for honesty and truth; we expect – and we trust that you are – role models for all that you would like our nation and our society to be.

Leftist Factions Co-opt Rather Than Abolish Holidays

December 22, 2011 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Christmas, Democrats/Leftists, Ethics, Frederick Meekins, Government, Holiday, Liberals, PCism, Society/Culture, Western Civilization | Comments Off

-By Frederick Meekins

The first of the remembrances of the waning year subverted by manipulative social engineers is Thanksgiving. This holiday is despised for a number of common liberal reasons.