Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

By William Teach December 25, 2013 – 7:46 am

Every Christmas, after the presents are opened and breakfast is being made, I read this first in the paper (ye olde parental units get an actual paper, and they live in NJ). It is a Christmas classic that has always touched my soul. While some people outside of the Tri-State area have heard of it, rarely do papers outside of the NY-NJ-Conn area see it in print, and it always surprises me when I run across someone who has not ever heard the first line. I humbly bring it to you, and hope it touches you as much as it touches me:

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Editorial Page, New York Sun, 1897

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

And a Merry Christmas from deep down in my heart to all my friends and visitors out there.

If you would like to know the background on the letter, you can go to the 2004 posting of this.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

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“Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”

By William Teach December 24, 2013 – 9:19 pm

Luke 2: 8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field , keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo , the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid . 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold , I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes , lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying , 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

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If All You See…

By William Teach December 24, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is a Christmas Holiday Winter Festival tree that could be made extinct by climate change, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Proof Positive, with a post on the phony budget deal.

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Nancy Pelosi On Obamacare: “It’s going to be a glorious thing”

By William Teach December 24, 2013 – 11:44 am

Someone’s obviously been hitting the Bacardi 151 eggnog a bit early. Either that or she’s been hitting the mescaline again (via Hot Air)

(CNS News) House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says December has been a “great month” for Obamacare sign-ups, and she said things will only get betteras more people enroll.

“It’s worth the trouble. It’s going to be a glorious thing,” Pelosi told a conference call on Monday.

“It’s about life, a healthier life, liberty, the freedom to pursue our happiness. It honors the vows of our founders. A person can follow his or her passion and not be chained by a policy, so they could start a business, be self-employed, change jobs. It’s a very, very exciting thing. And it’s about wellness and prevention. It’s about the health of America, not just the health care for Americans.

“So we’re very proud of it, and our enthusiasm for it … strengthens our determination to make sure it works.”

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Here’s A Handy Dandy Warmist Survival Guide For Christmas Climate Change Discussions

By William Teach December 24, 2013 – 8:38 am

We’re almost to Climate Christmas, folks, just today and tomorrow

Survival Guide For Climate Change Debates

When extended family gets together over the holidays, dinner conversations can sometimes be awkward — such as when your uncle from South Carolina talks politics with your niece from the Bay Area. When thorny questions about climate change arise over your Christmas ham, we’ve got you covered!

Mostly because Warmists/Liberals need talking points, being sheeple and unable to think for themselves.

1. Is carbon dioxide actually bad for you?

No. Carbon dioxide is what we humans (and all animals) breathe out. It is essential for plant life. But carbon dioxide has been in a specific concentration in our atmosphere — within the range of 170 to 300 parts per million — for 800,000 years. Suddenly, in the brief couple hundred years since the industrial revolution, that concentration has shot up. This is largely due to our burning fossil fuels for energy. Our atmosphere now contains 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide. Although carbon dioxide itself is not bad for us, too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to global warming — and that, my friends, is most certainly bad for all of us.

So, it’s not bad for us (kudos to writer Molly Rauch for constantly calling it carbon dioxide, rather than the unscientific “carbon”), but because it might get warm it’s bad for us. Despite Mankind, and life, typically doing better in warmth than cold. And roughly 90% of the last million years was a glacial period. How would life do as glaciers roll down from the Arctic?

2. How can carbon dioxide be called “pollution” if we breathe it out every day?

Pollution is a process that makes any aspect of our environment — our land, air, water, or homes — dirty, unsafe or unsuitable. Scientists are united in their understanding that our unprecedented and ever-rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide are already causing life-threatening changes to our climate. Carbon dioxide emissions are making our planet unsafe for us and, most importantly, our children.

Good thing rising CO2 levels have essentially done away with warming over the last 17 years. Because an increase of 1.4F over 160 years is “life threatening”.

3. What is President Obama’s Climate Plan and will it actually help?

Nope, stopping there, you’re welcome to head over to the HuffPost if you want, and see the answer to #3 and the others. If you, dear Climate Realist, want to answer the Warmists during our Christmas gatherings, simply ask the Warmists if they plan on giving up fossil fuels themselves, and make their own lives carbon neutral. The typical answer will be along the lines of “it’s not about me, it’s about all of us”, along with other deflections as to why they refuse to practice what they preach.

PS: Do you know what Obama’s plan is? Jacking up the cost of living for Everyone Else while taking long fossil fueled flights to Hawaii. This is the man with the highest carbon footprint in the world.

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Army Officer: Don’t Say Christmas

By William Teach December 24, 2013 – 8:02 am

The political Left has spent a long time infiltrating and taking control of many segments of the nation, such as education, government bureaucracies, Hollywood, and unions. Now they’re working heavily to take over the military and work their Progressive magic. And saying Christmas? Brother, that’s just wrong. Here’s Todd Starnes reporting

(Fox News) Two weeks ago, a routine meeting was held at the Mississippi base with various leaders of the 158th Infantry Brigade. During the meeting, they discussed an upcoming Christmas football tournament. The equal opportunity officer immediately objected to the usage of the word “Christmas.”

“Our equal opportunity representative stopped the briefing and told us that we can’t say Christmas,” the soldier told me. “Almost the entire room blew up. Everybody was frustrated. The equal opportunity rep told our commander that not everyone celebrates Christmas and we couldn’t say Christmas celebration. It had to be holiday celebration.”

The soldier said there was a brief, but heated discussion about political correctness. At one point, the equal opportunity representative tried to deflect the criticism by pointing out it was the Army’s rules – not hers.

“She said an individual can say Christmas, but as an organization in the Army you can’t say Christmas,” the soldier told me.

There is no actual rule that forbids saying the word “Christmas”, but hardcore liberals are very upset over the use of the word, especially in Government (though these same hardcores are thrilled to get a paid day off or holiday pay if they have to work for Christmas, plus all the presents). This is these Progressive (fascist) morons pushing their “separation between church and state”, a fictional constitutional decree deriving from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson, which the moron left equates as The Law.

Furthermore, the mention of religion in public makes Progressives uncomfortable, and anything that makes them uncomfortable Must Be Banned. Finally, progressives want the State to be the religious deity, not Jesus or any other religious icon.

Mass. State Rep Alan Silvia , a Democrat no less, has a few thoughts on the issue of people being offended or made uncomfortable about the mention of Christmas

I have never been very good at being politically correct. Ask my friends. So I will continue to wish people Merry Christmas and when I do it won’t be out of disrespect to others beliefs or to offend people; it will be because it is one of the many freedoms we have that brave men and women generously sacrificed to preserve. And shame on anyone who attempts to take that freedom away.

Good for you, Alan, good for you.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Team Obama Really Doesn’t Want A Judge Ruling On Constitutionality Of NSA Spying Programs

By William Teach December 23, 2013 – 2:37 pm

Team Obama asserts that the need for intelligence overrides that pesky Constitutional thingy

(Venture Beat) The White House filed papers late Friday to stop a federal judge from deciding whether the warrantless surveillance operations were legal or not.

The government said that, despite leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, full disclosure of the surveillance data would put government secrets at risk. Divulging these secrets in a court would cause “extremely grave damage to the national security of the United States,” wrote James Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, in the filing.

The government can use its state secrets privilege to block information from being used in a court, and the Justice Department has asked the federal judge, Jeffrey S. White of the Northern District of California, to dismiss the case without ruling on whether the programs violated the First or Fourth Amendments of the Constitution. White had earlier ordered the government to evaluate how the disclosurs by Snowden had affected its earlier assertions of state secrets.

There you go: government secrets are more important than the Rights of US citizens. Yes, there is a need for secret programs. But they should be in accordance with our Constitution, and these NSA programs are simply sweeping up information on US citizens without warrants and without knowing what is being done with the information.

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If All You See…

By William Teach December 23, 2013 – 1:00 pm

…is giant snow which is only caused by too much heat, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Lonely Conservative, with a post noting that tolerance and acceptance are no longer enough for Liberals.

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Toronto Ice Storm Blamed On “Climate Change”

By William Teach December 23, 2013 – 11:52 am

I blame you, dear reader, for purchasing a non-carbon friendly Christmas Winter Festival tree

(Treehugger) The second climate disaster of the year hit Toronto, Canada, yesterday as an ice storm took down thousands of trees and powerlines, leaving roads blocked and 300,000 customers and up to a million people without power in freezing weather. The head of the local power utility says that it is the worst they have ever seen.

Got that? A massive ice storm, the worst they’ve seen, and it’s being blamed on “climate change”. And, yeah, the rest of the unhinged screed really does continue the blamestorming.

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Think Progress Offers Its Climate Grinches Of 2013 Who Are “Stealing Christmas Warmth”

By William Teach December 23, 2013 – 7:24 am

Continuing the 25 Days Of Climate Christmas

2013′s Climate Grinches — Stealing Christmas Warmth And Putting It Into The Atmosphere

Climate change is the most pressing challenge of our time, yet meaningful action to address this global threat seems increasingly elusive. What’s standing in the way? There are numerous individuals, organizations, and corporations that actively work to obstruct attempts to cut our carbon emissions, advance clean energy, and prepare communities for the devastating impacts of climate change. Here is a list of just a few of these thwarters who stood out in 2013.

If it’s the most pressing challenge, why do so few Warmists practice what they preach? If they aren’t giving up their own use of fossil fuels, air conditioners, hairspray, ice makers, washing machines and dryers, installing solar and wind on their property, only buying local, and unplugging every appliance when not in use, among other measures, then they are part of the problem, not part of “meaningful action”.

Anyhow, the Climate Grinches named are

  • Tony Abbott
  • Stephen Harper
  • Rupert Murdoch
  • Rex Tillerson
  • The Koch Brothers
  • House Committee on Science, Space and Technology
  • American Legislative Exchange Council
  • Joseph Bast, President and Co-founder of the Heartland Institute
  • The U.S. Chamber of Commerce
  • Bjorn Lomborg

You’re welcome read why at the link. The blurb about Lomborg is amusing

Recently Lomborg wrote an editorial in the UK Times that asserts that, “global warming has mostly been a net benefit so far” and will be for decades. So while Lomborg does not deny that climate change is happening, he might be considered a confusionist, as Climate Progress’ Joe Romm recently labeled him. With Lomborg holding such a high perch from which to espouse his confusing — and even confounding — views, the potential negative impact he could have on combating climate change stands to be tall.

A “confusionist”. Warmists do not like what Lomborg has to say because he speaks without hysteria, unlike Warmists, and notes that Mankind is doing pretty well during the Modern Warm Period, regardless of the cause. He notes that Mankind tends to do better during the warm periods than during the cool periods. And “climate change” is all about gloom and doom, the better to make sure that Government is increasingly put in charge of people’s lives and the private sector.

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