Thanks for invite Dan hope this keeps the BS down
Hank
N8GAV
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
WAKE UP USA. SCREW THE REST OF THE WORLD.
Remember the Marshall Plan where after beating the Nazi's back to the
hell they came from we REBUILT the ungrateful nations of Europe, we
did the same to our previous enemies. And after Nuking Japan TWICE
we rebuilt their nation. NOW both Japan and Germany are world powers
in their own right. And then we keep troops and treasure there to
save their sorry butts in case someone less benevelent wants to
pass along their best.
Look folks...you can look for a long time and not find a country out
there that does NOT OWE the USA for some form of pulling their fat
out of the fire.
Instead of kissing their ass and begging they let us do our own
political thing we SHOULD start COLLECTING what is owed us.
Hell, with interest, if we collected our WW2 Debt we could END
our financial trouble within a freakin year. The interest ALONE
would pay off our debt.
See or hear any offers lately?
IMHO we need to postion orbital nuke platforms over every single
country in the world. And use that for our diplomacy. Screw
the world. Your time to pay US back.
Dan/W4NTI
hell they came from we REBUILT the ungrateful nations of Europe, we
did the same to our previous enemies. And after Nuking Japan TWICE
we rebuilt their nation. NOW both Japan and Germany are world powers
in their own right. And then we keep troops and treasure there to
save their sorry butts in case someone less benevelent wants to
pass along their best.
Look folks...you can look for a long time and not find a country out
there that does NOT OWE the USA for some form of pulling their fat
out of the fire.
Instead of kissing their ass and begging they let us do our own
political thing we SHOULD start COLLECTING what is owed us.
Hell, with interest, if we collected our WW2 Debt we could END
our financial trouble within a freakin year. The interest ALONE
would pay off our debt.
See or hear any offers lately?
IMHO we need to postion orbital nuke platforms over every single
country in the world. And use that for our diplomacy. Screw
the world. Your time to pay US back.
Dan/W4NTI
Can someone explain this to me.
I just heard Karol, VE7KFM, go for 45 minutes with a desertation
about why he thinks 14.275 has gone nuts.
It included the "fact" (according to Karol) that it's all KZ8Os
fault, (previously ND8V), And somehow it includes the events
of 9/11, Crazy people (again according to Karol), K1MAN being
put off the frequency seemingly because he interfered with
KZ8O and "others" Guess that means, anyone that don't agree
with Karol, eh?
Actually it sounded somewhat paranoid and KFM was doing ALL
the talking.
Well, now there is a super loud tape, sounds like a tape of
N1FM and KFM and a guy named George.
Personally I don't see any connection.
What I need help with tho is this, how does all this have
ANYTHING to do with Homosexualitiy, Man on Man sex ? and
pictures in a "bath house".
Again this is all from VE7KFM's mouth.
Dan/W4NTI
about why he thinks 14.275 has gone nuts.
It included the "fact" (according to Karol) that it's all KZ8Os
fault, (previously ND8V), And somehow it includes the events
of 9/11, Crazy people (again according to Karol), K1MAN being
put off the frequency seemingly because he interfered with
KZ8O and "others" Guess that means, anyone that don't agree
with Karol, eh?
Actually it sounded somewhat paranoid and KFM was doing ALL
the talking.
Well, now there is a super loud tape, sounds like a tape of
N1FM and KFM and a guy named George.
Personally I don't see any connection.
What I need help with tho is this, how does all this have
ANYTHING to do with Homosexualitiy, Man on Man sex ? and
pictures in a "bath house".
Again this is all from VE7KFM's mouth.
Dan/W4NTI
R U a LID ?
SO YOU WANT TO BE A LID!
Lid...a term used in amateur radio to denote a poor operator; one who is inept at the practice of the art.
A monumental problem facing amateur radio today is the alarming amount of poor operators filling the air waves. It is the opinion of many that one of the reasons for this is the fact that many of the new operators really have not been advised about proper operating procedures. Too many of the "amateur radio classes" produced today spend very little, if any, time correcting operating procedures. Their major thrust is to teach the code, cram the theory, and fill out a 610 form!
It is easy to be a lid, it must be, there are so many of them. If you are already a lid, read on. you may find some new "lid-isms." If you are not yet a full-fledged lid, you may learn some new material for your next transmissions.
Probably the most popular is "QRZ the frequency." Nobody can be quite sure what the exact meaning of this is. The ARRL Handbook lists QRZ as a CW "shorthand" signal meaning "Who is calling me?" On phone it may mean something else, although I can't imagine a frequency calling someone! I even heard a W5 utter "QRZ the channel!" Now this guy is a chief lid. The frequency was silent for a while (Probably as most good operators were in a state of shock) and then a signal from afar responded, "This is the channel and I wasn't calling you!"
I think "QRZ the channel" and "QRZ the frequency" are real winners. Use them a lot. You'll chase the good, experienced hams out of their gourds.
Actually, the use of "Q" signals on phone is in itself a true "lid-ism." The "Q" signals were devised by high speed CW operators as a form of "shorthand" in order to speed up their transmissions. What use they have on phone is questionable, as in many cases you can say the actual meaning just as fast. In many cases they cause more confusion than if you would have said the actual meaning. Then you get the real lid who comes off with "QRM-Mary or QRN-Nancy?" Good heavens, why didn't he just say he had interference?
Now, you must be ready with this one at a moment's notice: "HI." Never, ever, laugh if you find something funny. Say "HI" or even better "HI-HI." It doesn't really take the place of laughter, but it tells the other operators that you know how to laugh on CW.
Another one. Always give your callsign phonetically when operating on phone, especially when conditions are good and signals are clear. It's another small way to take up valuable air time without really adding any intelligence to a conversation. To cut a fine line, it is not legal to identify your station by saying "Whiskey Five Victor Sierra Romeo." If your call is issued W5VSR, the identification is "This is W5VSR." If copy is difficult and for clarification, then, "This is W5VSR. Whiskey Five Victor Sierra Romeo." So continue your lid-ism and show how clever you can be with ridiculous phonetics. A good friend of mine is W5BS; he has a lot of self-restraint!!
Are you interested in DX? Put these on your DX lid list, "CQ Dog X-Ray." jazz it up a little by saying, impressively "CQ Dog X-Ray, beaming Asia." Not only does that improve your antenna's directionality, but it lets everyone hearing you think you have a beam, whether you do or not.
The number one, all time lid award of the century goes to those great DX operators who listen down on one frequency in the foreign part of the band and transmit up in the American phone band without ever listening on the transmitting frequency to see if it was clear. Of course, you must use two processors, in tandem, mike gain wide open, and drive your three 8877 final tubes with an SB-220 while bellering forth, "CQ Dog X-Ray" for five continuous minutes, before listening. This is the way to attract lots of attention. Lots of it!
Next on the list is the subject of "Break." I do believe that we inherited that one from the CBers. Just find a comfortable roundtable in progress, and say "Break" or better "Break-Break" or best "Breaker-Breaker." Don't give any calls; neither the station you hear nor your own. Don't listeh for a few minutes first to find out if you can hear all of the stations in the roundtable. Just break in and disrupt everything. If that doesn't work, start tuning up your rig on that frequency. After all, aren't the frequencies there for all to enjoy?
Here are some quickies: Say "Go" or "Come back" or "C'mon, Good Buddy," instead of "Over" if you think you must say anything at all to let the other operator know you are ready to listen to him. Don't forget the all time Broderick Crawford "10-4" or better "That's a big 10-4."
It is a shame the F.C.C. no longer requires us to indicate portable operation. They have taken away another opportunity for the lid-ism---"This is Whiskey Five Very Strong Radio, Port Five." I just typed this on my port typewriter!
RESULTS GUARANTEED!!
Did you ever hear a phone operator who sounds like he's operating from a dungeon? Maybe he is, but even without a dungeon you can get the same effect by turning up your mike gain and holding your Golden Eagle D-104 at least one foot, better at two, from your face. Never close talk a mike. Disc Jockeys never do and they are "cool." When you are on the air, you are "cool" too, so you do the same. Communications microphones are designed to be close talked. Keep that mike gain at a minimum level. That way you won't be transmitting the voices of your wife and kids screaming five rooms away. Of course, to be a super lid in the audio department, do use a "power mike" driving a processor. Everybody knows that the engineers who designed your transmitter purposely made it short on mike gain.
Lastly, when giving your name, refer to it as your "Handle." It's folksy. And be sure to say, "The handle here is Beaver." That's liddier than just plain, "My name is Beaver." It also helps to punctuate your remarks with "By golly" whenever possible and remember whenever in a large roundtable, especially on a VHF repeater, give each and every call sign in the group complete with phonetics when IDing. Also don't forget to add "For ID" after your callsign.
There are many other ways to be a lid, but I feel confident that if more operators were to take a look at this disaster from the lighter side, perhaps we'll all see just how ridiculous most of the phone operation on the ham bands is today. Phone conversation should really not take on a much different atmosphere from talking to your friends on the telephone. Do you say "Over" or "Break" or the worst "Come back" when you are on the telephone? Well then, why do so many do it on the amateur bands? All of that is ever so redundant on a repeater system where most have "End-of-transmission" beep tones; and of course, there is usually a squelch burst ahead of that, so you actually ended up with a fellow ending his sentence with "Come back".... followed by a squelch burst followed by the repeater's beep and in many cases the repeater carrier dropping. You have just four indications that it's your turn! QSL?
Let's all pay more attention to this problem and see if we can help "Clean up" our operations and put amateur radio operations back up to the more professional nature that it enjoyed before many poor habits of the CB band crept up on us.
This article appeared in the September, 1978, Ham Radio Horizons, entitled "So You Want To Be a Lid!," by A.J. "Buddy" Massa, W5VSR.
Lid...a term used in amateur radio to denote a poor operator; one who is inept at the practice of the art.
A monumental problem facing amateur radio today is the alarming amount of poor operators filling the air waves. It is the opinion of many that one of the reasons for this is the fact that many of the new operators really have not been advised about proper operating procedures. Too many of the "amateur radio classes" produced today spend very little, if any, time correcting operating procedures. Their major thrust is to teach the code, cram the theory, and fill out a 610 form!
It is easy to be a lid, it must be, there are so many of them. If you are already a lid, read on. you may find some new "lid-isms." If you are not yet a full-fledged lid, you may learn some new material for your next transmissions.
Probably the most popular is "QRZ the frequency." Nobody can be quite sure what the exact meaning of this is. The ARRL Handbook lists QRZ as a CW "shorthand" signal meaning "Who is calling me?" On phone it may mean something else, although I can't imagine a frequency calling someone! I even heard a W5 utter "QRZ the channel!" Now this guy is a chief lid. The frequency was silent for a while (Probably as most good operators were in a state of shock) and then a signal from afar responded, "This is the channel and I wasn't calling you!"
I think "QRZ the channel" and "QRZ the frequency" are real winners. Use them a lot. You'll chase the good, experienced hams out of their gourds.
Actually, the use of "Q" signals on phone is in itself a true "lid-ism." The "Q" signals were devised by high speed CW operators as a form of "shorthand" in order to speed up their transmissions. What use they have on phone is questionable, as in many cases you can say the actual meaning just as fast. In many cases they cause more confusion than if you would have said the actual meaning. Then you get the real lid who comes off with "QRM-Mary or QRN-Nancy?" Good heavens, why didn't he just say he had interference?
Now, you must be ready with this one at a moment's notice: "HI." Never, ever, laugh if you find something funny. Say "HI" or even better "HI-HI." It doesn't really take the place of laughter, but it tells the other operators that you know how to laugh on CW.
Another one. Always give your callsign phonetically when operating on phone, especially when conditions are good and signals are clear. It's another small way to take up valuable air time without really adding any intelligence to a conversation. To cut a fine line, it is not legal to identify your station by saying "Whiskey Five Victor Sierra Romeo." If your call is issued W5VSR, the identification is "This is W5VSR." If copy is difficult and for clarification, then, "This is W5VSR. Whiskey Five Victor Sierra Romeo." So continue your lid-ism and show how clever you can be with ridiculous phonetics. A good friend of mine is W5BS; he has a lot of self-restraint!!
Are you interested in DX? Put these on your DX lid list, "CQ Dog X-Ray." jazz it up a little by saying, impressively "CQ Dog X-Ray, beaming Asia." Not only does that improve your antenna's directionality, but it lets everyone hearing you think you have a beam, whether you do or not.
The number one, all time lid award of the century goes to those great DX operators who listen down on one frequency in the foreign part of the band and transmit up in the American phone band without ever listening on the transmitting frequency to see if it was clear. Of course, you must use two processors, in tandem, mike gain wide open, and drive your three 8877 final tubes with an SB-220 while bellering forth, "CQ Dog X-Ray" for five continuous minutes, before listening. This is the way to attract lots of attention. Lots of it!
Next on the list is the subject of "Break." I do believe that we inherited that one from the CBers. Just find a comfortable roundtable in progress, and say "Break" or better "Break-Break" or best "Breaker-Breaker." Don't give any calls; neither the station you hear nor your own. Don't listeh for a few minutes first to find out if you can hear all of the stations in the roundtable. Just break in and disrupt everything. If that doesn't work, start tuning up your rig on that frequency. After all, aren't the frequencies there for all to enjoy?
Here are some quickies: Say "Go" or "Come back" or "C'mon, Good Buddy," instead of "Over" if you think you must say anything at all to let the other operator know you are ready to listen to him. Don't forget the all time Broderick Crawford "10-4" or better "That's a big 10-4."
It is a shame the F.C.C. no longer requires us to indicate portable operation. They have taken away another opportunity for the lid-ism---"This is Whiskey Five Very Strong Radio, Port Five." I just typed this on my port typewriter!
RESULTS GUARANTEED!!
Did you ever hear a phone operator who sounds like he's operating from a dungeon? Maybe he is, but even without a dungeon you can get the same effect by turning up your mike gain and holding your Golden Eagle D-104 at least one foot, better at two, from your face. Never close talk a mike. Disc Jockeys never do and they are "cool." When you are on the air, you are "cool" too, so you do the same. Communications microphones are designed to be close talked. Keep that mike gain at a minimum level. That way you won't be transmitting the voices of your wife and kids screaming five rooms away. Of course, to be a super lid in the audio department, do use a "power mike" driving a processor. Everybody knows that the engineers who designed your transmitter purposely made it short on mike gain.
Lastly, when giving your name, refer to it as your "Handle." It's folksy. And be sure to say, "The handle here is Beaver." That's liddier than just plain, "My name is Beaver." It also helps to punctuate your remarks with "By golly" whenever possible and remember whenever in a large roundtable, especially on a VHF repeater, give each and every call sign in the group complete with phonetics when IDing. Also don't forget to add "For ID" after your callsign.
There are many other ways to be a lid, but I feel confident that if more operators were to take a look at this disaster from the lighter side, perhaps we'll all see just how ridiculous most of the phone operation on the ham bands is today. Phone conversation should really not take on a much different atmosphere from talking to your friends on the telephone. Do you say "Over" or "Break" or the worst "Come back" when you are on the telephone? Well then, why do so many do it on the amateur bands? All of that is ever so redundant on a repeater system where most have "End-of-transmission" beep tones; and of course, there is usually a squelch burst ahead of that, so you actually ended up with a fellow ending his sentence with "Come back".... followed by a squelch burst followed by the repeater's beep and in many cases the repeater carrier dropping. You have just four indications that it's your turn! QSL?
Let's all pay more attention to this problem and see if we can help "Clean up" our operations and put amateur radio operations back up to the more professional nature that it enjoyed before many poor habits of the CB band crept up on us.
This article appeared in the September, 1978, Ham Radio Horizons, entitled "So You Want To Be a Lid!," by A.J. "Buddy" Massa, W5VSR.
So, you think the Dems are peacenicks, eh?
Subj: John Glenn (DEMOCRAT) Said This:
I'm sure someone of an opposite political bent may rebut this. However, it
is an interesting take that none of the main stream press seems to have
addressed.
IT MIGHT BE A GOOD IDEA TO KEEP THIS CIRCULATING!
John Glenn (DEMOCRAT) said this ----- It should make us all think a little:
There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city
of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one
American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq .
When some claim that President Bush shouldn't have started this war, tell
them the following :
FDR (DEMOCRAT) led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us; Japan
did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives
were lost ... an average of 112,500 per year.
Truman (DEMOCRAT) finished that war and started one in Korea . North Korea
never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost .. an average of
18,334 per year.
John F. Kennedy (DEMOCRAT) started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam
never attacked us.
Johnson (DEMOCRAT) turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000
lives were lost ... an average of 5,800 per year.
Clinton (DEMOCRAT) went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent.
Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter
three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple
occasions..
This one is a fact
that makes me mad as h*ll.
In the years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated two
countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in
Libya, Iran, and, North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a
terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people. And the Democrats are
complaining about how long the war is taking.
But Wait, There's more.
It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno (DEMOCRAT) to take
the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation
We've been looking for evidence for chemical weapons in
Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton (DEMOCRAT) to find the Rose
law firm billing records.
It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy
the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police
after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick.
It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida
!!!
Our
Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military morale is high!
The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts.
But Wait ..There's more!
JOHN GLENN (on the Senate floor - January 26, 2004)
Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do
for a living. This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard
Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive impromptu
speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and
women in the armed services do what they do for a living.
This IS a typical, though sad, example of what some who have
never served think of the military.
Senator Metzenbaum (speaking to Senator Glenn):
'How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?'
Senator Glenn (D-Ohio): 'I served 23 years in the United States Marine
Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by
anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space program. It
wasn't my checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was not a
nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to
the bank. I ask you to go with me, as I went the other day . .. to a
veteran's hospital and
look those men ... with their mangled bodies ... in the eye, and tell THEM
they didn't hold a job!
You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the
widows and orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee .. and you
look those kids in the eye and tell them that their DAD'S didn't hold a real
job.
You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery
, where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch
those waving flags You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you
have the gall to tell ME that those people didn't have a job?
What about Metzenbaum? For those who don't remember During W.W.II, Howard
Metzenbaum was an attorney representing the Communist Party in the USA .
Now he's a Senator!
If you can
read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English thank a
Veteran.
It might not be a bad idea to keep this circulating. I AM
I'm sure someone of an opposite political bent may rebut this. However, it
is an interesting take that none of the main stream press seems to have
addressed.
IT MIGHT BE A GOOD IDEA TO KEEP THIS CIRCULATING!
John Glenn (DEMOCRAT) said this ----- It should make us all think a little:
There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq in January. In the fair city
of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one
American city, about as deadly as the entire war-torn country of Iraq .
When some claim that President Bush shouldn't have started this war, tell
them the following :
FDR (DEMOCRAT) led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us; Japan
did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives
were lost ... an average of 112,500 per year.
Truman (DEMOCRAT) finished that war and started one in Korea . North Korea
never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost .. an average of
18,334 per year.
John F. Kennedy (DEMOCRAT) started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam
never attacked us.
Johnson (DEMOCRAT) turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000
lives were lost ... an average of 5,800 per year.
Clinton (DEMOCRAT) went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent.
Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter
three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple
occasions..
This one is a fact
that makes me mad as h*ll.
In the years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated two
countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida, put nuclear inspectors in
Libya, Iran, and, North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a
terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people. And the Democrats are
complaining about how long the war is taking.
But Wait, There's more.
It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno (DEMOCRAT) to take
the Branch Davidian compound. That was a 51-day operation
We've been looking for evidence for chemical weapons in
Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton (DEMOCRAT) to find the Rose
law firm billing records.
It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy
the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police
after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick.
It took less time to take Iraq than it took to count the votes in Florida
!!!
Our
Commander-In-Chief is doing a GREAT JOB! The Military morale is high!
The biased media hopes we are too ignorant to realize the facts.
But Wait ..There's more!
JOHN GLENN (on the Senate floor - January 26, 2004)
Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do
for a living. This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard
Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive impromptu
speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and
women in the armed services do what they do for a living.
This IS a typical, though sad, example of what some who have
never served think of the military.
Senator Metzenbaum (speaking to Senator Glenn):
'How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?'
Senator Glenn (D-Ohio): 'I served 23 years in the United States Marine
Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by
anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space program. It
wasn't my checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was not a
nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to
the bank. I ask you to go with me, as I went the other day . .. to a
veteran's hospital and
look those men ... with their mangled bodies ... in the eye, and tell THEM
they didn't hold a job!
You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the
widows and orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee .. and you
look those kids in the eye and tell them that their DAD'S didn't hold a real
job.
You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery
, where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch
those waving flags You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you
have the gall to tell ME that those people didn't have a job?
What about Metzenbaum? For those who don't remember During W.W.II, Howard
Metzenbaum was an attorney representing the Communist Party in the USA .
Now he's a Senator!
If you can
read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English thank a
Veteran.
It might not be a bad idea to keep this circulating. I AM
Sunday, October 19, 2008
DID YA KNOW
TODAY IN 1781 GENERAL CORNWALLIS SURRENDERED TO
THE FLEDGLING CONTINENTAL ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA?
MOST OF YOU PROBABLY DON'T. AS LONG AS YOU HAVE
YOUR BIG MAC'S YOUR HAPPY, EH?
Dan/W4NTI
THE FLEDGLING CONTINENTAL ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA?
MOST OF YOU PROBABLY DON'T. AS LONG AS YOU HAVE
YOUR BIG MAC'S YOUR HAPPY, EH?
Dan/W4NTI
Something to think about.
"The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men." —Samuel Adams
In his Inaugural Address on 20 January, 1961, President John F. Kennedy closed his remarks with these famous words: "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
With those words, JFK, considered by many to be the most exemplary leader of the Democrat Party in the 20th Century, asked Americans to put country first, a bedrock principle of the Party until the last few decades.
However today, the current slate of Democrats have turned Jack Kennedy's national challenge on end, essentially proclaiming, "ask what your country can do for you, not what you can do for your country."
In 1963, Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and said for all to hear, "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Has his dream been realized, or have Democrat leaders divided us up into constituency groups, where we are judged by all manner of ethnicity and special interests rather than the individual and national character King envisioned?
Kennedy and King had it right, but the Democrat Party has squandered their great legacy, and betrayed us, moreover enslaving many Americans as dependant wards of the state.
This is not the Democrat Party envisioned by Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Harry Truman, much less its founder, Thomas Jefferson, who would not recognize even the most vestigial elements of his once-noble Party. (This dramatic transition is evident in the Democrat Party Platforms from Kennedy to Obama.)
When asked why he left the Democrat Party, perhaps the most famous of former Democrats said, "I did not leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me." That was Ronald Reagan, who earned the respect and support of an enormous number of Democrats during his presidency. His observation, "the Party left me," has never been more true than today.
For several months, we have heard and observed two presidential candidates, centrist Republican John McCain and liberal Democrat Barack Obama. It should by now, be obvious to all of us who put our country first, which of these candidates possess the high qualities of a statesman, and the prerequisite moral and civic virtues for an American president.
Unfortunately, too many of my fellow Americans have difficulty distinguishing these qualities.
Every four years, at the peak of presidential election cycles, we're told by the talkingheads and the party hacks that "this election is the most important in our lifetimes." This time, however, they may be right. These are indeed perilous times.
Our nation is facing crises on several critical fronts, including an historic economic disaster, the resolution of which will require the steady hand of a statesman in possession of outstanding character — character that has been honed over his lifetime, character that is proven consistent with our nation's legacy of liberty and equality.
That reformed Democrat, Ronald Reagan, wrote, "The character that takes command in moments of crucial choices has already been determined by a thousand other choices made earlier in seemingly unimportant moments. It has been determined by all the 'little' choices of years past — by all those times when the voice of conscience was at war with the voice of temptation, [which was] whispering the lie that 'it really doesn't matter.' It has been determined by all the day-to-day decisions made when life seemed easy and crises seemed far away — the decision that, piece by piece, bit by bit, developed habits of discipline or of laziness; habits of self-sacrifice or self-indulgence; habits of duty and honor and integrity — or dishonor and shame."
For the first and final word on the necessary character traits the next president should possess, let's return to our foundation, our Founders, those who risked all to proclaim our individual rights and responsibilities as ordained by God, and outlined them in our Declaration of Independence and its subordinate exposition, our Republic's Constitution.
Our Founders wrote at length about character, both of those who seek high office (or, rather, those that high office seeks), and those who elect them. Here are but a few excerpts in their own words.
John Adams: "Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. ... If we suffer [the minds of young people] to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives. ... We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. ... We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections."
Samuel Adams: "Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters. ... If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation. ... [N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. ... No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders. ... Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual — or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country. ... Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness."
Thomas Jefferson: "It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution. ... If a nation expects to be ignorant — and free — in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. ... The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail. ... An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens."
George Washington: "No compact among men ... can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other. ...[A] good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted [early in life] are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous. ... The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world. ...[W]here is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths...? Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness — these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens."
At the end of the Revolution, when our Founders were endeavoring "to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity," Founding brothers Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and our Constitution's author, James Madison, wrote The Federalist Papers, its most authentic and comprehensive explication.
In Federalist No. 1, Hamilton warned, "Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants."
Sound familiar?
In No. 10, Madison cautions, "Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm," and insisted in No. 57, "The aim of every political Constitution is or ought to be first to obtain for rulers, men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous, whilst they continue to hold their public trust."
Madison's Supreme Court nominee, Justice Joseph Story, wrote, "Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them."
The Founders thus warned of the perils posed by the candidate who lacks political courage; the candidate who tells us everything we want to hear.
In November 1800, John Adams, in his fourth year as president, wrote to his wife Abigail, "I Pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on this house, and on ALL that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof!"
We should all pray likewise, now, today, this minute.
As Adams understood, "A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."
Almost two centuries later, Ronald Reagan reiterated, "Freedom is ... never more than one generation away from extinction. Every generation has to learn how to protect and defend it, or it's gone and gone for a long, long time."
So, what of the current generation of voters, and the two presidential candidates?
On 4 November, one of these candidates will receive a majority of electoral votes, and in January, be seated as our next president. But for sure, this election is much more than a referendum on the two candidates; it is a referendum on the ability of Americans to discern between one candidate who possesses the character and integrity of a statesman, which the office of president requires, and one who does not.
At this pivotal moment in our nation's history, let's hope that a majority of us have sufficient courage and character to make that distinction, and vote on what we know rather than how we feel.
Let's put country first.
For more information on the character of the presidential candidates, link to The McCain record and The Obama record.
Please forward these insights to your family, friends and associates.
In his Inaugural Address on 20 January, 1961, President John F. Kennedy closed his remarks with these famous words: "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
With those words, JFK, considered by many to be the most exemplary leader of the Democrat Party in the 20th Century, asked Americans to put country first, a bedrock principle of the Party until the last few decades.
However today, the current slate of Democrats have turned Jack Kennedy's national challenge on end, essentially proclaiming, "ask what your country can do for you, not what you can do for your country."
In 1963, Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and said for all to hear, "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Has his dream been realized, or have Democrat leaders divided us up into constituency groups, where we are judged by all manner of ethnicity and special interests rather than the individual and national character King envisioned?
Kennedy and King had it right, but the Democrat Party has squandered their great legacy, and betrayed us, moreover enslaving many Americans as dependant wards of the state.
This is not the Democrat Party envisioned by Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Harry Truman, much less its founder, Thomas Jefferson, who would not recognize even the most vestigial elements of his once-noble Party. (This dramatic transition is evident in the Democrat Party Platforms from Kennedy to Obama.)
When asked why he left the Democrat Party, perhaps the most famous of former Democrats said, "I did not leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me." That was Ronald Reagan, who earned the respect and support of an enormous number of Democrats during his presidency. His observation, "the Party left me," has never been more true than today.
For several months, we have heard and observed two presidential candidates, centrist Republican John McCain and liberal Democrat Barack Obama. It should by now, be obvious to all of us who put our country first, which of these candidates possess the high qualities of a statesman, and the prerequisite moral and civic virtues for an American president.
Unfortunately, too many of my fellow Americans have difficulty distinguishing these qualities.
Every four years, at the peak of presidential election cycles, we're told by the talkingheads and the party hacks that "this election is the most important in our lifetimes." This time, however, they may be right. These are indeed perilous times.
Our nation is facing crises on several critical fronts, including an historic economic disaster, the resolution of which will require the steady hand of a statesman in possession of outstanding character — character that has been honed over his lifetime, character that is proven consistent with our nation's legacy of liberty and equality.
That reformed Democrat, Ronald Reagan, wrote, "The character that takes command in moments of crucial choices has already been determined by a thousand other choices made earlier in seemingly unimportant moments. It has been determined by all the 'little' choices of years past — by all those times when the voice of conscience was at war with the voice of temptation, [which was] whispering the lie that 'it really doesn't matter.' It has been determined by all the day-to-day decisions made when life seemed easy and crises seemed far away — the decision that, piece by piece, bit by bit, developed habits of discipline or of laziness; habits of self-sacrifice or self-indulgence; habits of duty and honor and integrity — or dishonor and shame."
For the first and final word on the necessary character traits the next president should possess, let's return to our foundation, our Founders, those who risked all to proclaim our individual rights and responsibilities as ordained by God, and outlined them in our Declaration of Independence and its subordinate exposition, our Republic's Constitution.
Our Founders wrote at length about character, both of those who seek high office (or, rather, those that high office seeks), and those who elect them. Here are but a few excerpts in their own words.
John Adams: "Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. ... If we suffer [the minds of young people] to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives. ... We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. ... We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections."
Samuel Adams: "Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters. ... If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation. ... [N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. ... No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders. ... Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual — or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country. ... Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public liberty and happiness."
Thomas Jefferson: "It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution. ... If a nation expects to be ignorant — and free — in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. ... The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail. ... An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens."
George Washington: "No compact among men ... can be pronounced everlasting and inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchment can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the one side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other. ...[A] good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted [early in life] are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life. It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous. ... The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world. ...[W]here is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths...? Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness — these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens."
At the end of the Revolution, when our Founders were endeavoring "to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity," Founding brothers Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and our Constitution's author, James Madison, wrote The Federalist Papers, its most authentic and comprehensive explication.
In Federalist No. 1, Hamilton warned, "Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants."
Sound familiar?
In No. 10, Madison cautions, "Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm," and insisted in No. 57, "The aim of every political Constitution is or ought to be first to obtain for rulers, men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous, whilst they continue to hold their public trust."
Madison's Supreme Court nominee, Justice Joseph Story, wrote, "Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them."
The Founders thus warned of the perils posed by the candidate who lacks political courage; the candidate who tells us everything we want to hear.
In November 1800, John Adams, in his fourth year as president, wrote to his wife Abigail, "I Pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on this house, and on ALL that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof!"
We should all pray likewise, now, today, this minute.
As Adams understood, "A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."
Almost two centuries later, Ronald Reagan reiterated, "Freedom is ... never more than one generation away from extinction. Every generation has to learn how to protect and defend it, or it's gone and gone for a long, long time."
So, what of the current generation of voters, and the two presidential candidates?
On 4 November, one of these candidates will receive a majority of electoral votes, and in January, be seated as our next president. But for sure, this election is much more than a referendum on the two candidates; it is a referendum on the ability of Americans to discern between one candidate who possesses the character and integrity of a statesman, which the office of president requires, and one who does not.
At this pivotal moment in our nation's history, let's hope that a majority of us have sufficient courage and character to make that distinction, and vote on what we know rather than how we feel.
Let's put country first.
For more information on the character of the presidential candidates, link to The McCain record and The Obama record.
Please forward these insights to your family, friends and associates.
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