November 22, 1963 … by Alan Caruba

November 22, 1963

By Alan Caruba

I doubt that most Americans will recall that, forty-five years ago, on November 22, 1963, the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Clearly, part of the reason is that a lot of Americans have been born since then, but the other part of the reason is that, according to a newly released study, most Americans simply have not been successfully taught American history or civics since the 1960s. They have no real knowledge, facts, dates, events, to call upon.

That is no accident. There has been a deliberate effort to “dumb down” Americans to a point where they literally do not know how their government came to be and what its guiding principles, embodied in the U.S. Constitution, permits, proscribes, and limits.

Assassination is the ultimate act of treason. It renders the entire electoral process null and void despite the rule of succession that elevates the vice president to the position of chief executive. Only once in our history, the accession of Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency, has an assassination produced a President of truly great stature.

I recall hearing the news of JFK’s assassination. I was working in Miami at the time, a callow youth of 26, well educated, but lacking any real insight to the event. Two other things happened that day. Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the new President and I quit my job and returned home. Shortly after, I became a journalist.

What would follow in fairly short order would be the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy while campaigning in Los Angeles against a first full term for Johnson and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At that point, the nation was engulfed in the turmoil of the Civil Rights movement and, with the election of Johnson, would find itself mired in the Vietnam War. The streets of Washington, D.C. would fill, time and again, with Americans protesting that war.

Johnson would decide not to run for a second term. The nation would elect Richard M. Nixon twice, only to see him disgrace the office with the Watergate scandal and become the first President to resign.

In a very real way, all of these events began on November 22, 1963.

I was struck by the adulation, the exuberance of the huge crowds that turned out during President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign. It reminded me a great deal of the same response the then-youngest President, John F. Kennedy, engendered. Rumors would circulate after his election that the Chicago machine, led by then-Mayor Richard J. Daley, had stuffed the ballot boxes to ensure his victory.

The reason it is essential to know something of the history of the nation is the ability to draw lessons from it. As popular as JFK was, he quickly blundered into the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, having won office in 1960. This was redeemed only by the standoff with the Soviets that forced them to withdraw their missiles from Cuba in 1962. A year later, JFK was dead; the victim of what some have said was an extraordinary feat of marksmanship attributed to Lee Harvey Oswald, a leftist malcontent.

The election of Barack Obama has been hailed as historic and, as the first Afro-American President, it surely qualifies, but history has a relentless repetition to it.

I am not suggesting the President Obama will fall to an assassin’s bullet, but I am suggesting that whoever holds the office of President will determine whether America continues to lead the world economically, militarily, culturally, and—yes—physically. If 9/11 was just a taste of what the Islamofascists have in mind for us, we are surely as threatened today as ever in history. Taking a longer view, we need to be mindful of the military buildup in China.

That is why it is essential to pay attention to Obama’s expressed views on homeland security and defense issues. President Ronald Reagan said that there was no evidence in all of human history that a nation was attacked because it was too strong. Even the ancient Romans knew that truth. “Si vis pacem, para bellum.” If you want peace, plan for war.

That’s why, as we commemorate the loss of John F. Kennedy to an assassin’s bullet, we need also to ask why an Arizona Governor, Janet Napolitano, is being considered for Director of Homeland Security. If she could not or would not defend the border of her State with Mexico against illegal aliens and drug smugglers, why should we expect her to do this and more for the entire nation?

President-elect Obama is already on record saying, “I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear systems.” It can be argued that nuclear weapons have deterred a fourth world war and conflicts between nations that possess them.

Leaving America defenseless or at least greatly weakened in a dangerous world is a suicidal policy.

It is said that Obama sees himself as some kind of national and international “transformative” figure. History will write the final chapter on that.

 

Alan Caruba writes a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. Every week, he posts a column on the website of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com.

 

After America… Who Will Lead The World?

By J. D. Longstreet

 

November 4^th, 2008, will likely go down in the history books as the day America gave up her world leadership role and became another “has been” nation.

 

About two years ago when I first began to look seriously at this fellow named Obama, I recognized his overt socialism immediately.  It wasn’t difficult.  It was right there for everyone to see… if one wished to see it.  But it now seems that millions of Americans are perfectly fine with assisting in the suicide of America by accepting his message of socialism, the destroyer of nations.

 

I’m an old codger, in my late sixties, and I have seen socialism as an enemy of the United States and what, back in my day, we called Americanism. Americanism is simply defined as democratic capitalism.

 

When I was in the US military we were taught to fight socialism. We trained to meet the socialists on the field of battle. There was no question that Americanism and socialism could not exist on the same globe without conflict, and, we rightly assumed, armed conflict.

 

Months ago, as I began to write about the dangers of socialism to America, (and how the Democratic Party has become a sort of Socialist/Democratic party) I was stunned when they, the democrats, did not refute it. I had expected democrats to deny any connection to socialism.  But they didn’t.  It was then that it struck me… they don’t deny it because they can’t.  They have become socialist! They have embraced socialism.

 

Back in 1935, or so, FDR, a democrat, introduced Socialism to America with his New Deal. America has never been able to extricate itself from the New Deal.  It is still with us today.

 

As hard as it is to fathom, there are millions of Americans today educated in America’s public schools who have no idea what socialism is.  As the democrat party controls our public school system, the courses taught are favorable to socialism. American “scholars” are not taught that socialism is a cancer, which will eat away the core of a capitalist nation by simply removing any desire of the citizens to advance their station in life.  It squashes all ambition to live better, to make more money, to manufacture better goods, to offer better services, to do/say/produce anything in which one could exhibit pride either in themselves or their country. 

 

How can this be?  Well, socialism demands the end of private enterprise. Under socialism there would be no small businesses, no Mom and Pop stores, no entrepreneurs. Socialism demands the redistribution of wealth.  That means taking the money you earned and giving it to those who did not earn it. Socialism demands that all wealth in a nation, and that includes yours, will be controlled by the government. In other words, you will own nothing — not even your own money.  The government owns everything and everyone is given only what it takes for that person to survive.  Socialism celebrates the lack of an upper class and a lower class.  Under socialism there is only one class.  And in THAT class all people suffer equally.

 

It would seem that America has made the decision to turn it’s back on everything good the forbearers made and sacrificed to give us… an America, unique in all the world and in all the world’s history.  What, then, is America about to do?  America is about to join the mediocrity of the remainder of the world.   No longer desirous of the leadership role, no longer willing to do the heavy lifting required by freedom, America has decided to join the pack of “has been” nations now embarrassed by their past glory years.

 

If I am right, and I am convinced that I am, tomorrow will begin the” Post-America” period in world history. Which leads to the burning question, at least for me.  That question is:  after America, who will lead the world?    

 

J. D. Longstreet

 

 

    

His Finger on Armageddon

His Finger on Armageddon

By: J. D. Longstreet

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On the off chance that you have not noticed… there is a religious fanatic in charge of Iran. The even more troubling problem is… he has his finger on the button, which could trigger Armageddon.

I speak, of course, of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran. I should say the “Islamic Republic” of Iran.

I find myself in the group believing Iran will have a deliverable A-Bomb much sooner than our Intelligence community has told us. I think it wise to assume that in a matter of months, Iran will have nuclear weapons. Iran already has the delivery vehicles for those Nukes. Ahmadinejad has told us the target… Israel. In a few, blinding seconds, the state of Israel will cease to exist.

Ahmadinejad apparently believes it is his duty in life to prepare the way for the 12th Imam. To understand how Ahmadinejad’s belief can be fatal for Israel, it is necessary to understand, at least a little, about what he believes. Then it will become clear.

Well, in Christianity we have the return of Christ, often referred to as the “Second Coming of Christ”. In Shi’ite Islam they have the return of the 12th Imam. Ahmadinejad has said, openly, the 12th Imam will return within two years.

As with the Second Coming of Christ the event (Return of the 12th Imam) will be associated with a number of tribulations and lots of turmoil including great death… and great destruction.
In an article over at The Telegraph.Co.Uk titled: “Will the 12th Imam cause war with Iran”? Con Coughlin says the following:

“For those unacquainted with the more obscure tenets of Islamic theology, the 12th Imam is held by devout Shi’ite Muslims to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed who went into “occlusion” in the ninth century at the age of five and hasn’t been seen since.

The Hidden Imam, as he is also known by his followers, will only return after a period of cosmic chaos, war and bloodshed – what Christians call the Apocalypse – and then lead the world into an era of universal peace.

Rumours abound of Mr Ahmadinejad’s devotion to the 12th Imam, and last year it was reported that he had persuaded his cabinet to sign a “contract” pledging themselves to work for his return.

Another example of his messianic tendencies surfaced after 108 people were killed in an aircraft crash in Teheran. Mr Ahmadinejad praised the victims, saying: “What is important is that they have shown the way to martyrdom which we must follow.”

We urge you to read the entire article at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/09/28/do2804.xml

Why is this suddenly so troubling? Well, frankly, with the Islamic belief in Martyrdom so prevalent, and the associated eternal bliss expected, as a result, the religious nut, in Iran, with his finger on the button, becomes a very real threat.

Besides the above, a time of political chaos will set the stage for the 12th Imam’s, or Madhi’s, return. At least, the Shi’ite Moslems believe that it will.

Remember, Ahmadinejad is the man who stated, publicly, “Israel should be wiped from the map”. This is the man who has made huge donations (in the millions of dollars) to a shrine, which is said to contain the well from which the 12th Imam is to re-emerge into the world.

It is also believed the “Mahdi” will have a deputy, something of a forerunner (remember John the Baptist), who will prepare the world for the “Mahdi’s” return. Suppose someone thought himself to be that deputy and desired to bring about the chaos needed for the Mahdi’s return and… suppose, further, the self-described deputy had nuclear weapons to assist him in his quest for chaos.

Granted, there is a whole lot of supposing going on here, but… what if???

Would it not behoove those expecting to be on the receiving end of those missiles to intercede on the side of sanity and remove Mr. Ahmadinejad’s means of inflicting his end goal of chaos and the return of the Mahdi?

One of the few things we have learned, from watching these Middle Eastern hotheads, is that when they threaten something dire, they, almost, always deliver.

You can bet that if this old, gentile, Southern American boy is considering all this… then the Israelis are WAY ahead of me.

Here is a question to think about: Does anyone believe if the Iranians were to pull off a successful nuclear attack on Israel they would stop there… or would they continue their march of conquest to Europe? Huh?

J. D. Longstreet

Filed under:

conservative+Iran+Bomb+Israel+US+Armageddon

The Obama/Osama October Surprises?

Obama’s October Surprise & Osama’s October Surprise!

By:  J. D. Longstreet

You might want t read the title to this piece again.  Yep!  It’s a double whammy!  At least one of these “surprises” is a little difficult to believe.  That would be the Obama October surprise.

 

See, there is this e-mail flitting around, out on the ether, that Obama has an October surprise up his sleeve.  The rumor has it that sometime in the first week, or so, of October, Joe Biden, Obama’s Vice-Presidential candidate, will announce that he is stepping down, due to health reasons, and the rumor has it that Obama will immediately replace Biden with Hillary.  For obvious reasons that has a lot of people concerned.

 

I don’t put much stock in it, though.  I mean, step back and look closely at it and it looks awfully, well… dumb!  But, then again, dumb things have been known to happen in political campaigns.  The manipulation of voters would be just SO obvious, don’t you think?

 

My friend, and fellow blogger, Texas Fred, has written a piece about it that we recommend to you.  You’ll find it at:

 

http://texasfred.net/archives/2318

 

If Senator Biden did, in fact, step down from the candidacy for Vice-President, due to health reasons, would he not also be compelled to step down from his candidacy as Senator from Delaware?  Wouldn’t he owe that to his party, especially in Delaware?  No, I’m just not buying into this one.

 

Now, on to the second October Surprise:  The Osama October surprise.  The New York Sun is running a story that Osama is planning a number of overseas operations timed to influence the November elections in the US.

 

It is reported that back during that weekend, which separated the Democratic and Republican conventions, our US military intelligence agencies, and civilian intelligence agencies, picked up a number of messages from Osama’s Al Qaeda leadership instructing local cells to be ready for “imminent instructions”.  These messages have been reported to have been intercepted from multiple channels… some from couriers and some electronic messages, and some other unidentified methods of communication. You can read the article By Eli Lake, a staff reporter of the Sun, at:

 

http://www.nysun.com/foreign/spies-warn-that-al-qaeda-aims-for-october-surprise/86326

 

You may recall that Al Qaeda did something very like this in 2004, in Spain, by blowing up Madrid commuter trains just three days before the elections there and the Socialists Workers Party was voted into power in Spain. You may also recall the recorded messages Osama released the week of the US elections, also in 2004, in which he warned of dire consequences if President Bush was re-elected.  And, of course, there is the suicide bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, just a few days ago, which would tend to lend credence to Al Qaeda’s threats.  The Sun reports that the lobby of that particular hotel has been used as a meeting place for CIA officers and Pakistanis who felt it not wise to be observed meeting at the US Embassy there in Islamabad.

 

My opinion on Al Qaeda’s threats is that should they carry them out, they will most certainly aid the McCain camp and not the Obama camp.  But, then again, those people live in holes in the ground in some remote god forsaken wasteland far removed from the reality of the certain backlash such actions by them would cause and the danger it would bring to their continued existence. 

 

That said… if I had to choose which of the two rumored October surprises to put my money on, it would be on the Osama October surprise.  I just don’t buy the rumor of Biden stepping down.  THAT would be a Godsend to the Republicans.

 

J. D. Longstreet

 

 

 

US Bunker Busters make Stopover in Israel on way to Iran.

USDOD Approves Sale of Bunker-Busters to Israel
Is Permission to overfly Iraq next?

By: J. D. Longstreet

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Well, well, well. Who applied the pressure to the Pentagon to let Israel have these guided-missile” bombs? The last we heard, just a few days ago, was that the US was dragging it’s feet on the sale of these missiles to Israel. My, oh my, how things change… and so quickly, too.

The sale to Israel is pending Congressional approval, but nobody thinks that will be a problem.

The JPost (Jerusalem Post) is reporting that Israel has ordered 1000 of these precision bunker busters. You’ll find the entire article at:

www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221142470441&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

Would you care to hazard a guess as to what use these GPS guided missiles will be used for? No, really?

The folks over at the Iran Almanac have taken notice. See the article at:

http://www.iranalmanac.com/news/lastnews.php?newsid=8484

See, Israel, has told the world if has no interest in taking a defensive “Wait and See” position on the promised attack by Iran, but instead will use preemption in order to stop an attack from Iran in the first place. You can see this report at:

www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219913194872&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Israel simply cannot survive an atomic “First Strike” by Iran. They just are not physically large enough to absorb it. So, they do not have what some seem to think is the luxury of sitting back and allowing themselves to be “hit” first in a display of “good sportsmanship”. Ain’t gonna happen. It cannot be allowed to happen.

So far as we have been able to determine the US has not yet granted Israel permission to use Iraqi airspace to reach Iran with their fighter/bomber aircraft. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened…it simply means we don’t know. When it does, I expect we will hear a howl go up from  the new Iraqi government. Unless a bit of subterfuge is used… a little slight of hand, shall we say, we can expect those squeals of injured Iraqi pride to sound loud and clear and be amplified by the left wing media in this country and around the world… and you can bet, from the UN.

Some in Israel and in the US government are calling for more and stronger sanctions on Iran. Yeah, it’s the rose-colored glasses thing, again. People with their feet planted firmly on terra firma already know that more sanctions will not deter Iran. They are on what they see as a Holy Mission. That is the eradication of Israel… and… the United States, the little Satan and the BIG Satan! Sanctions will work on Iran about as well as they worked on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. We all know how that eventually turned out. Iran’s Ahmadinejad said, just a few days ago: “Let them put sanctions on us. We are a very strong nation.” The Iranian president went on to say that many around the world would come to Iran’s defense in case of a US strike. (To Ahmadinejad,  an Israeli attack is the same thing as an American attack.)

As I look back over the events of the past few weeks, I have to wonder if the Russian incursion into the sovereign state of Georgia keyed this move by the US to supply Israel with the missiles it would need to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and thwart so much of the Russian supplied material both in Iran’s nuclear facilities and in Iran’s arsenal. Is the US prepared to give Russia a taste of it’s own medicine? Why, if Iran’s Russian arsenal holds up against Israeli/America tactics and armament as well as the Iraqi’s Russian supplied weapons did, well, that would be more humiliation on the Russian armament makers.

Ahhhh. International intrigue. Ain’t it grand?

J. D. Longstreet

Human Life Begins at Conception

Human Life Begins at Conception

 

We Americans have to re-evaluate the way we look upon abortion.   With an average of 1.3 million babies a year, in America alone, being denied their God given right to life as a result of abortion, surely it has scarred the very soul of this great country.

 

Kathleen Parker has written an article entitled “Pope Pelosi at the Gate, Life with the Speaker”.  In her insightful article she writes the following:   

 

“In his new book, Embryo

, Robert P. George, a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton and a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics and co-author Christopher Tollefsen, associate professor of philosophy at the University of South Carolina, left religion behind and set out to establish the embryo’s personhood by reviewing all the major scientific works on human embryogenesis and early intrauterine development.Included was American medicine’s most prominent human embryology text,

The Developing Human, whose authors are not imprecise on the matter of life: “Human development begins at fertilization when a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoon) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to produce a single cell — a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.” In other words, human life begins at conception”. (From an article by Kathleen Parker titled: “Pope Pelosi at the Gate, Life with the Speaker”.)  You’ll find it at: (From an article by Kathleen Parker titled: “Pope Pelosi at the Gate, Life with the Speaker”.)  You’ll find it at:

 

 

 

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MGRhNTY1M2VjYmIzNTQwODgxYzFhMGVlZmYyNmJmMDI=  

 

 

The argument over abortion still rages.  It has exceeded the boundaries of common sense.  Abortion is the killing of another human being.  In my opinion,  it is homicide. To attempt to choose a time, any time, after conception, to kill a child is ludicrous to the “nth” degree.  Killing is killing.  Abortion is the killing of an innocent, defenseless, human being who poses no threat to his fellow human beings.

 

I have liberal friends who ask me how I can support capital punishment and yet be so solidly against abortion?  The answer is simple.  Innocence. INNOCENCE!

 

Add to the above my belief in the tenents of the Christian faith. It is extremely difficult for me to believe that a practicing Christian can support abortion. As a result, I totally agree with the some of the bishops of the Catholic Church expressing their belief that Catholics supporting abortion should not receive communion. I must tell you that as a pastor, preacher or priest, I would be inclined to not even offer communion to a member of my parish if I knew, to a certainty, that that person supported abortion.

 

Abortion is the shedding of innocent blood. By some people’s standards that makes me a “fanatic”.  That’s fine.  I can live with that.

 

What value do we Americans place on a human life?  Not much apparently… at least, not as much as we used to.  For instance… in 1996 there were 1.37 million abortions in the US. That’s 3,700 abortions a day. We have learned that women who refer to themselves as Protestants have 37.4% of all abortions in the U.S.; Catholic women have for 31.3%, Jewish women have for 1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as “Born-again/Evangelical”.  You’ll find this and much more information on who is having abortions in the United States at “The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform” at:

 

http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html

 

 I checked several sources and the average, seemingly agreed upon, for the number of abortions per year in the United States is 1.3 million.  That is year after year.  And we dare to call ourselves a “Christian” nation?

 

Can a society that kills it’s young endure… and if so…  for how long? Had we not better consider the consequences to us as a people, indeed, as humans, of what has become, at least to some degree, infanticide?

 

The “killing of innocents”, which is what abortion is, is a gruesome sign of a decadent society, an evil society. It is the murder of the unborn child, unborn children.  By allowing abortion in our nation are we not polluting the land with the blood of innocent unborn children? Can any of us, man, woman, or child, not be stained by this national abomination?

 

I had not intended to become “preachy” when writing this piece, but it is a difficult thing to remain dispassionate when speaking of taking the lives of unborn children.

 

It is my opinion that we Americans need, desperately, to step back and reevaluate our approach to abortion in this country.  The cost (never allow yourself to believe that there isn’t a cost to a nation for killing her young) will be more than we can bear.  And we are not prepared for it. Nobody is prepared.  No country is ever prepared for the punishment for supporting the continuation of an abomination on its soil.

 

Slavery is oftimes referred to as the original sin of America.  I submit to you, that as bad as slavery was, it cannot hold a candle to the evil of murdering 1.3 million unborn children every year in America.

 

There WILL be a reckoning.  There always is. Are we, as a nation, as individuals, ready to suffer the consequences of the evil we are perpetrating every day on the innocent unborn children conceived and then stripped of the right to life granted them by God?  Well, are we?

 

J. D. Longstreet