PajamaHadin

“Happy Holidays”, or even the parody “Happy RamaHannuKwansMas”, is more acceptable than “Merry Christmas” if you believe those who strive to take everything Christian out of celebrations surrounding December 25^th (is that P.C. enough for you?). They would have us extract nativity scenes, songs mentioning Jesus or any other religious themes, and be left with nothing but Santa Claus and songs about Rudolph.

They might even wish that you could be fined or thrown in jail for proclaiming, singing, or depicting in a school, workplace, city hall, local parade, or any other public arena that the birth of Jesus Christ was God coming to earth as a man. If people were thrown in jail for such a thing, however, they would be in good company. For so it was with Santa Claus, the real Saint Nicholas that is!

“A vast multitude was imprisoned in every place,” wrote an eyewitness. “The prisons — prepared for murderers and robbers — were filled with bishops, priests, and deacons … so there was no longer room for those condemned of crimes.”

(Source: Eusebius, Church History, VIII, 6, 9.)

You’d hardly expect to find old St. Nick in jail. But St. Nicholas is more than a children’s Christmas legend. He was flesh and blood, a prisoner for Christ, bishop of the Mediterranean city of Myra.

In A.D. 303, the Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered a brutal persecution of all Christians. Those suspected of following the Lord were ordered to sacrifice to pagan gods. Nicholas and thousands of others refused.

Ministers, bishops, and lay people were dragged to prison. Savage tortures were unleashed on Christians all over the empire. Believers were fed to wild animals. Some were forced to fight gladiators for their lives while bloodthirsty crowds screamed for their death. Women suffered dehumanizing torment. Saints were beaten senseless, others set aflame while still alive.

Yet persecution couldn’t stamp out Christianity. Rather it spread. Third Century leader Tertullian observed, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

Those who survived Diocletian’s torture chambers were called “saints” or “confessors” by the people, because they didn’t forsake their confession that Jesus Christ is Lord. Nicholas was one of these.

Finally, after years of imprisonment, the iron doors swung open and Bishop Nicholas walked out, freed by decree of the new Emperor Constantine. As he entered his city once more, his people flocked about him. “Nicholas! Confessor!” they shouted. “Saint Nicholas has come home.”

St. Nicholas as a teenager

As a teen-ager, Nicholas’ humility was already evident. He had heard about a family destitute and starving. The father had no money for food, much less the dowry needed to marry off his three daughters. He was ready to send his oldest girl into the streets to earn a living as a prostitute.

Under the cover of night, Nicholas threw a bag of gold coins through the window of their humble dwelling. In the morning the father discovered the gold. How he rejoiced: his family was saved, his daughter’s honor preserved, and a dowry for her marriage secured. Some time after, Nicholas secretly provided a dowry for the second daughter. Still later for the third.

But on the third occasion, the girls’ father stood watching. As soon as the bag of gold thudded on the floor, he chased after the lad till he caught him. Nicholas was mortified to be discovered in this act of charity. He made the father promise not to tell anyone who had helped his family. Then Nicholas forsook his wealth to answer a call to the ministry.

St. Nicholas becomes a Bishop

At the nearby city of Myra a bishop supervised all the churches of the region. When the bishop died, the bishops and ministers from other cities and villages — Nicholas among them — gathered to choose a successor.
Nicholas was in the habit of rising very early and going to the church to pray. This morning an aged minister awaited him in the sanctuary. “Who are you, my son?” he asked.

“Nicholas the sinner,” the young minister replied. “And I am your servant.”

“Come with me,” the old priest directed. Nicholas followed him to a room where the bishops had assembled. The elderly minister addressed the gathering. “I had a vision that the first one to enter the church in the morning should be the new bishop of Myra. Here is that man: Nicholas.”
Indeed they did choose him as bishop. Nicholas was destined to lead his congregation through the worst tribulation in history.

Saint Nicholas and Santa Claus

St. Nick of yuletide fame still carries faint reminders of this ancient man of God. The color of his outfit recollects the red of bishop’s robes. “Making a list, checking it twice,” probably recalls the old saint’s lectures to children about good behavior. Gifts secretly brought on Christmas eve bring to mind his humble generosity to the three daughters.

Yet if he were alive today, this saint would humbly deflect attention from himself. No fur-trimmed hat and coat, no reindeer and sleigh or North Pole workshop. As he did in life centuries ago, Bishop Nicholas would point people to his Master.

“I am Nicholas, a sinner,” the old saint would say. “Nicholas, servant of Christ Jesus.”

The True Meaning of Christmas

Among the plethora of seasonal programs on television, in movies, at the theater, and so on, you will hear that the meaning of Christmas - or the holidays, or the season - is all about giving, family and, in some of its more enlightened expressions, love.  The problem is that many of these are only half right in their focus.  That is because their focus is man-centered.  Christmas really is about these things, but it is first about

• God’s giving,
• God’s family
• and God’s love.

God showed His love by giving His Son so that by trusting in Him alone (His substitutionary death and resurrection) for the forgiveness of our sins, we can become adopted sons and daughters into God’s family.  One of the responses to the love God has shown us, as He gives us a new heart and His Spirit dwells in us, is that we have love for one another.  God’s Spirit, not just warm, fuzzy feelings,  is the real spirit of Christmas resulting in: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.

To their credit, the focus of much of the aforementioned programming highlights one or more of these things as virtuous.  The only problem is that many of these programs do so without mentioning the only genuine, lasting and reliable source of these virtues - God, Himself.

Thanks be to God, that He has loved us so by giving us His Son as a sacrifice for us that we might be adopted into His family, receive a new heart and be enabled by His Spirit to live lives full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!

“Posterity! you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”

- John Adams letter to his wife Abigail Adams, 26 April 1777.

Have we made good use of that freedom?

Ignorance in the area of the foundational principles that undergird our freedoms as well as in the area of civic literacy in general are serious threats to our liberty.  Ignorance in these areas make for a population that can be easily manipulated and deceived - an open door to oppression and tyranny.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a conservative non-profit group, surveyed 2,508 Americans about their knowledge of America’s founding principles, political history, international relations and the free market.

More than 1,700 people – about 70 per cent – failed the test:

The results reveal that Americans are alarmingly uninformed about our Constitution, the basic functions of our government, the key texts of our national history, and economic principles.

• Less than half can name all three branches of the government.
• Only 21% know that the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” comes from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
• Although Congress has voted twice in the last eight years to approve foreign wars, only 53% know that the power to declare war belongs to Congress. Almost 40% incorrectly believe it belongs to the president.
• Only 55% know that Congress shares authority over U.S. foreign policy with the president. Almost a quarter incorrectly believe Congress shares this power with the United Nations.
• Only 27% know the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States.
• Less than one in five know that the phrase “a wall of separation” between church and state comes from a letter by Thomas Jefferson. Almost half incorrectly believe it can be found in the Constitution.

The American citizenry has in many ways been dumbed down and become complacent.  We’ve become more vulnerable to the manipulative speeches of politicians more interested in increasing their power than expanding our freedom.  When we have become so intellectually anemic that our ability to carefully think through the issues is almost nonexistent, those who would deceive us don’t even have to be very clever.  When we have become so ignorant that we believe as true whatever is popular or spoon-fed to us from sources we’ve never even thought to verify, manipulating us becomes child’s play.

Why should we be surprised at the corruption and ineptitude that plagues those whom we have put into office?  Why should we be surprised at how the consequences now plague us all?  Such consequences are why ignorance, complacency, vice and poor thinking are threats to our liberty.

Without a remedy for these, we will not, we cannot, make good use of the freedom that has been preserved for us.

HJR 8 was introduced in the Ohio House on Dec. 3. It was up for a vote on Wednesday Dec 10, but was successfully curtailed - for now. If passed, Ohio would have been considered the 33rd state to call for a Convention. Only 34 States are needed.

Many states already have a standing call for a Constitutional Convention.

Harold Thomas at The Ohio Republic warns:

Article V of the Constitution does not specify any procedure for electing or appointing the members of the Convention, nor does it provide any limits on the Convention’s power, once convened. In other words, there is nothing to prevent a new Constitutional Convention from scrapping our existing Constitution and introducing something else, such as this horror, suggested in 1974.

VIDEO: Beware Article V: Message to State Legislatures
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/wa…
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/wa…
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/wa…
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/wa…

Division Street has a great post on the Op-Ed that Axelrod wrote in the Tribune in 2005 arguing in favor of patronage.

The democratic process is often messy. Diverse constituencies fight fiercely for their priorities. Their elected representatives use the influence they have to meet those needs, including sometimes the exchange of favors - consideration for jobs being just one.

. . .

How do presidents, governors and mayors govern without the ability to help those upon whom they are counting to support their programs? Is this a prescription for reform, or gridlock?

It is the meshing of often-conflicting interests through the political process, using the levers of power afforded to elected officials, that has characterized our experiment in democracy for the last 229 years. And, it has worked reasonably well.

From Fox News:

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald on Tuesday accused Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich of participating in a “political corruption crime spree” that was a blatant effort to sell the state’s U.S. Senate seat in the latest “pay-to-play” scheme in Illinois politics.

From the Associated Press:

The 51-year-old Democrat was also accused of engaging in pay-to-play politics — that is, doling out jobs, contracts and appointments in return for campaign contributions.

“We were in the middle of a corruption crime spree, and we wanted to stop it,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said, calling the charges against Blagojevich “a truly new low.” He added: “The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.”

So does Obama have any involvement in this? Jake Tapper at Political Punch reports (and should be read in its entirety):

Asked what contact he’d had with the governor’s office about his replacement in the Senate, President-elect Obama today said “I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.”

But on November 23, 2008, his senior adviser David Axelrod appeared on Fox News Chicago and said something quite different.

While insisting that the President-elect had not expressed a favorite to replace him, and his inclination was to avoid being a “kingmaker,” Axelrod said, “I know he’s talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.”

Blagojevich has become incredibly unpopular in Illinois.

Coverage of the event abounds:

Read more about Blagojevich’s arrest, the Blagojevich arrest here, or Blagojevich arrested here, the Blagojevich investigation, Illinois governor arrested, Rod Blagojevich arrested.

Read more about how Feds taped Blagojevich.

Read more about Blagojevich, Governor Blagojevich, Blago, Rob Blagojevich, Gov. Blagojevich, Rod Blagojevich, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Blagojevich custody, Blagojevich news.

Read more about Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn, who will likely take over as governor in Blagojevich’s absence. There was reportedly enough evidence for a Blagojevich indictment back in September. More illinois news updates from the Chicago Tribune, WGN News, the State Journal Register.

President-Elect Obama was asked whether the government should be pressuring banks to make loans to businesses with bad prospects, in order to ensure that workers get contractually-guaranteed severance pay and/or avoid layoffs.

Once again, the government is pressuring banks to give risky loans.

From National Review Online:

Today Obama’s ally, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, ordered all state agencies to stop doing business with Bank of America to pressure the company to make the loans. (Say, do any state employees have Bank of America accounts or lines of credit?)

Suppose that Bank of America knuckles under to the threat, and makes a loan to cover the severance pay. The workers get that pay and… Republic Windows and Doors’ plant is still out of business. The workers got what they were owed, but how is Bank of America going to get its loan paid back? The workers ought to get what their contract guarantees, but that’s the responsibility of Republic Windows, not Bank of America.

. . . .

Blagojevich and the protesting workers are arguing that because they took government assistance, Bank of America ought to ignore their judgment of the company’s prospects and make the loan, even though the company is likely to default on that loan… putting Bank of America back into the situation that started the mess and creating the reason they needed the government help in the first place.

(See recent news on Rod Blagojevich)

This is what happens when the people who caused the problem, and who have neither learned from nor changed as a result of their mistakes, are put in charge of solving the problem.

A company should keep its commitments to its employees, but no bank should be forced to take on that responsibility - against its own better fiscal judgment and at the jeopardy of its own commitments to its shareholders. This almost rises to the level of thuggery especially when you consider that many healthy banks were pressured/forced/mandated to take TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) money in the first place, when they didn’t need it.

Such are the strings attached when you take, or are forced to take, this kind of money from the government. There’s no telling what havoc will be wreaked by a “Car Czar”.

SAN DIEGO — An F-18 military jet approaching a Marine base crashed near a busy highway in a densely populated San Diego neighborhood Monday, sparking at least one house fire.

MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian warship will sail through the Panama Canal this week for the first time since World War II, the navy announced Wednesday, pushing ahead with a symbolic projection of Moscow’s power in a traditional U.S. zone of influence.

The destroyer Admiral Chabanenko will arrive Friday at a former U.S. naval base in Panama’s Pacific port of Balboa for a six-day visit after carrying out joint maneuvers with the Venezuelan navy in the Caribbean Sea, navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said in a telephone interview.

More at the source

American teenagers are lying, stealing and cheating more at alarming rates according to a recent study.

The attitudes and conduct of some 29,760 high school students across the United States “doesn’t bode well for the future when these youngsters become the next generation’s politicians and parents, cops and corporate executives, and journalists and generals,” the non-profit Josephson Institute said.

In its 2008 Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth, the Los Angeles-based organization said the teenagers’ responses to questions about lying, stealing and cheating “reveals entrenched habits of dishonesty for the workforce of the future.”

What’s worse is that these teenagers almost view themselves as paragons of virtue:

Some 93 percent of students indicated satisfaction with their own character and ethics, with 77 percent saying that “when it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know.”

A comment from Jonathan Schmock, who played the Chez Quis Maitre D’ in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off seems appropriate here:

“I weep for the future”

Since most instruction and discussion of ethics these days are steeped in ethical relativism and focus on self-esteem, it is no wonder that these are the responses to this survey.

In such a diverse society as ours, it is often very tempting in the midst of competing world views to ease the tension by means of relativizing the competing claims, especially in a climate where political correctness is the only dogma allowed.

Somehow we’ve turned the political truth that “everyone has a right to believe what they want” into the philosophically anemic and morally reckless position that “what everyone wants to believe is right”.

Figuring out where such thinking leads does not take a rocket scientist. Even a Maitre D’ can figure it out.