Holiday

History - Holiday - Memorial Day - Military - Warner Todd Huston

Memorial Day 2012: THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…

May 27, 2012 by

-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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Memorial Day 2012: THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…”

Civil War - History - Holiday - Memorial Day - Military - Warner Todd Huston

The Beginnings of Memorial Day

May 27, 2012 by

-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.

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The Beginnings of Memorial Day”

Easter - Holiday - Warner Todd Huston

Happy Easter, 2012

April 8, 2012 by

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

Christianity - Christmas - Frederick Meekins - Religion

Christmas Irritants Pervasive

January 29, 2012 by

-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 Irritants Pervasive”

Anti-Americanism - Christmas - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Frederick Meekins - Government - Holiday - Liberals - PCism - Society/Culture - Western Civilization

Christmas Billboards Point In The Culture War’s Direction

January 14, 2012 by

-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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Christmas Billboards Point In The Culture War’s Direction”

Anti-Americanism - Christmas - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Frederick Meekins - Holiday - Liberals - PCism - Society/Culture - Western Civilization

Leftist Factions Co-opt Rather Than Abolish Holidays

December 28, 2011 by

-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.
Continue reading “

Leftist Factions Co-opt Rather Than Abolish Holidays”

Anti-Americanism - Christmas - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Holiday - Journalism - KKK - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Race - Warner Todd Huston

The Kwanzaa Con: Created by a Rapist and Torturer

December 26, 2011 by 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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The Kwanzaa Con: Created by a Rapist and Torturer”

Christmas - Holiday - Warner Todd Huston

Merry Christmas to You and Yours

December 25, 2011 by 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

Children - Christmas - Holiday - Warner Todd Huston

NORAD’s Tracking Santa Started By Accident in 1955

December 24, 2011 by

-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.

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NORAD’s Tracking Santa Started By Accident in 1955″

Christmas - Frank Salvato - Holiday

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

December 24, 2011 by

-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.

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I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”

Anti-Americanism - Christmas - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Frederick Meekins - Government - Holiday - Liberals - PCism - Society/Culture - Western Civilization

Leftist Factions Co-opt Rather Than Abolish Holidays

December 22, 2011 by

-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.
Continue reading “

Leftist Factions Co-opt Rather Than Abolish Holidays”

Capitalism - Communism - Europe - Founders - History - Holiday - Liberals - Nanny State - Socialism - Thanksgiving - Warner Todd Huston

Thanksgiving Story: Why There Are No Communist Pilgrims

November 24, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

With as Euroized as Democrats and their supporters in our miseducation establishment have become these days, one shouldn’t be surprised to learn that one of the important lessons of Plymouth Colony — popularly known as the Pilgrims — is practically unknown in our schools today. We are all familiar with the bountiful Thanksgiving meal shared between the Pilgrims and the Indians, but less well known is how the Pilgrims turned away from their experiment in the communist-styled social policy upon which they built their fledgling, New World colony.

That’s right, the Pilgrims repudiated communism in 1623. No wonder the principles of communism never got a foothold here until recently when the Democrat Party began to shift away from American principles and toward the more socialistic ideas of Europe’s social democrats.

You see, when the emigres from England via Holland got to the New World and they established their new colony, Governor William Bradford and his fellow leaders decided to follow what they thought was the ideal Christian society. It was a version of the later communist ideal of “from each according to his ability to each according to his need.
It certainly seemed like a good idea, right? The whole of the colony would work for the benefit of the whole of the denizens therein. What could be more selfless? What could be more equitable and, well, Christian?
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Thanksgiving Story: Why There Are No Communist Pilgrims”

Nancy Salvato - Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving

November 24, 2011 by

-By Nancy Salvato

Looking at the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia Beach coast, I occasionally see US Navy ships on the horizon, F-18 Hornets flying in formation, the Coast Guard helicopter overhead, and porpoise darting in and out of the waves; it’s just a part of the scenery. Having lived in Glenview, Illinois, in the years prior to the naval base closing, and outside Annapolis, Maryland, for a year, I’m very used to seeing our men and women in uniform and experiencing a military presence where I reside. What changes for me is a deeper appreciation for the job our military performs and for the freedom we cannot take for granted.

Most of the time I can go about my life following a routine that includes working on the Constitutional Literacy curriculum for our BasicsProject.org website, writing articles about the relevance of our Fundamental Law, taking my daily constitutional along the beach, and performing the chores that demand my attention, but never far from these distractions is the daily reminder that there are men and women who have dedicated themselves to our security; who have placed their lives in harm’s way to protect this absolutely ordinary life I am privileged to lead.

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On Thanksgiving”

9/11 - Anti-Americanism - Business - Capitalism - Chicago - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - History - Illinois - Independence Day - Islam - Islamofascism - Liberals - Religion - Senate - Sharia - Society/Culture - Terrorism - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Chicago: Two Anti-American Conferences Held on Independence Day

July 5, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

While patriotic Chicagoans attended parades, BBQs and otherwise celebrated our Independence Day holiday — and while Democrats stayed home and brooded — two of the most anti-American ideologies imaginable met to plot their revenge on the USA.

Not only did representatives of these two ideologies meet, but they met in the same town, on the same dates, and right across the street from each other. How’s that for kismet?

Over the July Fourth weekend, radical Islamists met at the Rosemont Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois for their 48th Annual Islamic Society of North America Convention. Over the same days the Socialism 2011 conference met across the street at the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Conference Center.

Both groups plan to destroy what is currently the USA and replace it with their own particular un-American idea of what should be.
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Chicago: Two Anti-American Conferences Held on Independence Day”

Constitution - Declaration of Independence - History - Holiday - Independence Day - Patriotism - Revolutionary War - Warner Todd Huston

Happy Independence Day, 2011

July 4, 2011 by

Click Here >>236 Independence Days and Counting, But What Does it all Mean?, is my 2012 Independence Day post. Thanks for stopping by.

We are taking this grand holiday off from blogging to celebrate the birth of our wonderful country and the freedoms from which we’ve all benefited. And around here it’s Independence Day NOT “July 4th.” We don’t celebrate a number we celebrate an event, one of the most glorious events in human history: the birth of our nation.

Have a wonderful holiday, thanks for being a loyal Publius Forum reader and God Bless America.

The Publius management

Anti-Americanism - Constitution - Declaration of Independence - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Founders - History - Independence Day - Liberals - Patriotism - Warner Todd Huston

Harvard Study: Patriotism Doesn’t Appeal to Democrats

July 3, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times recently reported something that has been conventional wisdom with conservatives for close to 30 years, now. Democrats hate patriotism. It’s been a matter of faith for quite a while but now comes Harvard to help substantiate that little factoid.

For the L.A. Times, Andrew Malcolm sarcastically makes his way through the Harvard study pointing out that it seems that only conservatives, Republicans, or people that lean toward those views find the celebration of Independence Day a joyous occasion. Democrats and leftists, on the other hand, are not too fired up about all that “July Fourth red-white-and-blue stuff.”

Apparently the study finds…

If you’re into the national holiday by age 18, you are 2% more likely to identify as a Republican, 4% more likely to vote that way and 3% more likely to make political donations.

The study found a lot of other things, of course, but the upshot is that if you are a Democrat or you lean left of center then you aren’t too likely to attend patriotic celebrations. It also finds that people that do attend patriotic events will be more likely to vote against left-wingism.
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Harvard Study: Patriotism Doesn’t Appeal to Democrats”

Abortion - Anti-Americanism - Declaration of Independence - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - History - Illinois - Independence Day - Liberals - Rights - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Pro-Life Group Thrown Out of Illinois July 4th Parade By Jaycees

July 2, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently, when no one was looking, the Jaycees became a pro-Infanticide group. I wonder about this because the United States Junior Chamber Jaycees has thrown the Palatine Area Catholics Respect Life Group out of the Palatine, Illinois July Fourth parade, preventing them from participating in this year’s celebration.

The Jaycees claim that they have done so because the pro-life group has an “offensive” photo on the banner they planned to carry in the procession. Following is a photo of the banner as seen on the local Patch story:

“They decided that an unborn baby is too offensive,” said Martin Kelley, co-founder of Palatine Area Catholics Respect Life. “It’s an ultrasound photo. It’s not a picture of an aborted baby.”

So, how is an ultrasound photo of an in utero infant “offensive”? This isn’t a gruesome photo of an aborted fetus like many pro-life groups use to shock viewers — if it were I might agree with the claim that it is an offensive display. This is simply a live baby in the womb captured through the wonders of modern technology.
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Pro-Life Group Thrown Out of Illinois July 4th Parade By Jaycees”

Air Force - Army - Civil War - Coast Guard - Cold War - Congress - Conservatives - DuPage County - GOP - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Korean War - Marines - Memorial Day - Military - National Guard - Navy - Peter Roskam - Republicans - Revolutionary War - Warner Todd Huston - WWI - WWII

U.S. Rep. Roskam Marches in Wheaton Memorial Day Parade

May 30, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Memorial Day Parade, Wheaton, Ill– Illinois Congressman Peter Roskam (R, 6th District) walked in the Wheaton Memorial Day Parade to some applause and ended the exercise by speaking to those assembled at the Wheaton Cemetery to commemorate those that have served us in peace and war and those who gave their last full measure so that we could remain the last best hope of the world.

The weather could not have been better as the parade stepped off this morning. The skies were clear and Summer temperatures had finally arrived. As the route rolled on the heat did tend to rise, though. Still, compared to the dismal weather we’ve seen the last few months, this Memorial Day was a welcome respite.

Rep. Roskam had a group of about fifty supporters march with him and I joined them to document the event. As we walked the distance from downtown Wheaton to the Wheaton Cemetery it was obvious that the congressman had many fans along the route. There were surprised smiles and a healthy amount of applause as the congressman and his lovely wife led the contingent.
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U.S. Rep. Roskam Marches in Wheaton Memorial Day Parade”

Europe - France - Germany - History - Memorial Day - Warner Todd Huston - WWII

The Story of Stars and Stripes Honor Flight – Documentary Trailer

May 30, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Freethink Media brings us a teaser for their film, “Honor Flight” which will be out this coming November. The film depicts the efforts of HonorFlight.org to help as many WWII Vets to get to Washington D.C. to see the WWII memorial as possible — at no cost to the vets — before it is to late.

We are losing thousands of these veterans ever year and time is fast running out for The Greatest Generation. They are about to pass into history forever.

If you’d like to donate to help HonorFlight.org shuttle these living heroes to D.C., do contact them and do so. They could use all the help you can give them.

Here is the HonorFlight.org Facebook page.
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The Story of Stars and Stripes Honor Flight – Documentary Trailer”

9/11 - Afghanistan - Air Force - Army - Coast Guard - Foreign Countries - Holiday - Iraq - Marines - Memorial Day - Military - National Guard - Navy - Security/Safety - Warner Todd Huston

Memorial Day 2011: THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…

May 30, 2011 by

-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.
Continue reading “

Memorial Day 2011: THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…”

Easter - Holiday - Warner Todd Huston

Happy Easter, 2011

April 24, 2011 by

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 - Holiday - Warner Todd Huston

Merry Christmas to All…

December 25, 2010 by

Merry Christmas, 2010

“And unto you a child is born.” With that promise we lowly humans were 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 2010 ends we prepare to welcome in 2011 it would behoove us all to reflect on that promise. In fact, even if you are not a religious sort, even if you believe in another religion or none, the path that Christ was born into this world to reveal to us all 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 amongst us?

So, as we celebrate the day to memorialize the birth of Christ this Christmas Day and as we head into 2011 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. Let us remember to say thanks to those who have done something for us and let us offer our own efforts to 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

Christmas - Holiday - Kwanzaa - Liberals - PCism - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Holiday Reminder: Kwanzaa Was Created by a Rapist and Torturer

December 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Every year I post a pre-Christmas piece on the farce that is Kwanzaa. This year will be no exception. Note, some of the newspaper articles I quote are several years old so some 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 newspaper columnist. This year, among many others, we find aggrandizement such as that in the Journal & Courier of Lafayette, Indiana, “Kwanzaa encourages unity, reflection,” and the Dayton Beach News-Journal with its titled, “Kwanzaa observers return to deep culinary roots .” 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.
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Holiday Reminder: Kwanzaa Was Created by a Rapist and Torturer”