J. D. Pendry

J. D. Pendry

I managed another uneventful stealth trip into Northern Virginia this weekend. I infiltrated and ex-filtrated unscathed, although my fire engine red pickup truck did break the first rule of camouflage, which is to blend in with your surroundings. It would have been better had I been driving an SUV of the Lexus, Mercedes, or BMW varieties lacking the highway salt that covered my truck or any other evidence that it had ever touched actual dirt and with a cell phone in one hand, offering the commuter salute with the other and steering with my knees.

Since I first lived in the Northern Virginia, DC Metro area in 1992, there has been continuous highway construction especially around malfunction junction. If you are not familiar with the DC Beltway, malfunction junction is where I-395, I-495 and I-95 merge into a spaghetti bowl of on and off ramps. Right where all three merged, on ramps crossed exit ramps and mixed with road rage at 70 miles per hour. I am happy to report that in 2008, I saw no evidence of construction in malfunction junction. Exit ramps and on ramps do not cross so much as they once did, but there is more traffic so the odds of getting clobbered by a cell phone talking bird flipping driver is still high.

My bride and I make the trip periodically. We go there to acquire items we like that are not readily available here in Wild and Wonderful. Now for the gentleman that likes to call me a bigot because I believe that people who want to immigrate here should do it legally, learn English and our laws, I need to share a tiny bit of my private life. My bride of 35 years is Korean and a naturalized United States citizen. Please spare me the tolerance emails.

That aside, as you travel the Northern Virginia DC suburbs, you find rather large enclaves of immigrants. For example, there are many Korean owned businesses ranging from bookstores and restaurants to supermarkets all with apparently good business. I notice each time we are there, however, that the customer base is largely immigrant as are the employees. It is not uncommon to enter a Korean restaurant or grocery store and find that many of the workers are Hispanic immigrants. It is human nature to want to be where the people, language and customs are familiar to you and the problems are shared ones. These businesses located right outside the United States capital undoubtedly make significant contributions to the local economy. Still I wonder, as I eat like a pig at our favorite restaurants or while pushing the grocery cart behind my wife in the supermarket and at other shops, what kind of stampede would I cause by yelling ICE. This is not a small issue for our country and it cannot be solved with partisan political rhetoric.

With our mission completed and the pickup truck filled with stores, the wife and I headed for the hills. There I was, cruising through the Shenandoah Valley on Interstate 81. The road was dry so I had the cruise control set near the speed limit. The satellite radio was playing classic country. The sky was blue. The sun was shining. My seat was ever so slightly reclined. I was wearing my Thundering Herd baseball cap to honor those five Marshall players that are on Super Bowl rosters. Cruising along there and listening to Merle Haggard I was thinking that I was not yet in Redneck Heaven, but I had to be getting doggoned close. That is when I had to confront one of life’s annoying little realities - that being that you must expect people to do some dang dumb things and then never know quite why they did them.

I moved over into the fast lane to let a young woman driving one of those odd looking little cars merge onto the highway. It was purple. After I passed, I dutifully signaled my intention and drifted back into the right lane and went back to enjoying the music, the sunshine and the comforting sounds coming from my snoozing wife over in the shotgun seat. I glanced up and saw something strange. Through the rearview mirror, I could only see a portion of the top of the little purple car. For those of you who have not driven a vehicle such as a pickup truck that sits up higher than the average car this means that she was tailgating me so closely that she could have reached out and wiped the highway salt off of my taillights. No reason for her to be there that I could tell, since the passing lane was clear and I after all was traveling very near the speed limit. Suddenly, she darted into the left lane and shot around me as if I were sitting up on blocks. I honestly didn’t think one of those little biddy cars could go that fast. Just as suddenly, she cut back in front of me and then slowed. She slowed slower than me actually, which caused me to have to pass again rather than switch off the cruise control. We played this game several more times until she finally floored her windup toy, belched out cloud of global warming pollutants and disappeared over the horizon. I certainly do not know why. Maybe it was my truck. Or my Army Retired license plate. Maybe it was Al Gore. Who the heck knows?

I was again enjoying the music and the surroundings as I moved out into the passing lane to go around an 18-wheeler that was chugging along. That is when the truck driver, who was moving considerably slower than me and as you may recall I was traveling very near the speed limit, reinforced to me that there are a percentage of people who should be in occupations other than the one they have. I was about a car length behind the truck, the one that was traveling considerably slower that I was, when the driver made an abrupt lane change in front of me. Needless to say, I stood momentarily on the brake pedal and offered some kind words to the truck driver.

Eventually, the truck moved back over and I got back to listening to Merle Haggard and Conway Twitty. I’m still not sure if it was the rapid deceleration or my oral expression of appreciation for the trucker’s driving skills, but I think one of those woke the wife. For some unexplainable reason, she reached over and tapped the radio present button tuned to the rock and roll oldies channel. I’m not sure if it was her tiring of Merle and Conway or of my singing along with them that caused it. Rock and roll is here to stay blasted from the radio and for some unexplainable reason that flower child picture of the Clintons that is making it around the Internet popped into my mind. Along with it was Obama with a large Afro hairdo and sunglasses – or was it Jimi Hendrix? Then I wondered if any of those youthful indiscretions might have included a taste of Purple Haze.

Purple Haze was in my brain,
lately things don’t seem the same,
actin’ funny but I don’t know why
’scuse me while I kiss the sky

That’s when I deactivated the cruise control and mashed the gas pedal. If I could get home soon enough, there would be some time left in the weekend to work on the bunker.

Copyright © J D Pendry, 2008, All Rights Reserved

J. D. Pendry

It is unfortunate, but I believe Frances Quarles’ verse accurately describes the attitude of too many Americans. I also believe that if it we rewrote it to read, “Our God and Soldiers we alike adore, in times of political campaigns and not before…” it would hold even more meaning for today.

Most Americans, above 80 percent according to various surveys, believe in God and claim the Christian faith. When poll driven people vie for the leadership of our country, it is not surprising that we receive a healthy helping of their professions of faith. I saw an interesting combination of words in my reading this week. Phony religiosity. I caused images to pop into my mind of our collection of Presidential candidates. Not one in particular, but instead, the entire collection. Especially those that we are told to believe have the best chance of making it to the Whitehouse.

We have one candidate who’s Christianity has been heralded by some as his most valuable attribute. That is fine. That is an important attribute from my perspective, but I do have a problem with using it as part of the political campaign. Saying that I am a presidential candidate and also a Christian is quite different from saying that I’m a Christian who is running to be president. That means you are running on an identity more than on your total qualifications for the job. That is not good. It is not unlike saying I am an African American or a woman who is running for president and implying that the identity is reason enough to get my vote.

We have one candidate that belongs to a church who’s Pastor and leader recently recognized Louis Farrakhan with a lifetime achievement award. This is the leader of the Nation of Islam who is an anti-Semite, racist, bigot. We are counseled now that this is the pastor of his church not the candidate himself and that we should not tie the thoughts and actions of one to the other. I think I would call that faulty logic. The pastor leads the church and as such speaks for its membership. Christianity and the hatred and bigotry preached for years by Farrakhan are not compatible. The candidate either embraces the direction of his church or he does not.

We have one candidate that tells us that her faith got her through the hard times. Google “Clinton faith” and you’ll find the story headline on every news link. What is unfortunate is the documented, undisputed, vulgar and abusive behavior [profanity alert] attributed to her. This is hardly the behavior of one with strong faith in God. Maybe she has since repented.

We have one candidate that is having his religion used against him by some. I do not share his theological beliefs, but I’ve seen nothing that convinces me that he is out to change us into a nation of Mormons just as John Kennedy was not out to convert us all to Catholicism. His faith and politics did once allow him to support abortion, but now he seems to have experienced an epiphany. Maybe so.

That is just a glance at some of the so-called top tier, but all of them and some more than others, have highlighted a degree of religious faith to appeal to voters. Study the character of the candidates and what they do rather than what they say if a candidate’s faith is indeed important to you. As for the candidates, they would do well to etch in their minds that “the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts.”

Soldiers and Veterans are a different matter. The politicians view them from the leanings of their political ideologies. If asked directly, all of them will tell you what great people Soldiers and Veterans are and how much they support them, but just as with their religious affirmations their actions regarding support for Soldiers and Veterans do not always match with their rhetoric? They will all insist that our Soldiers get what they need to succeed in their politically assigned missions and then some of them will act just the opposite of what they say. Some will tell us how the war and our neglect has turned Veterans, according to the New York Times, in to homeless, drug addicted, murderers. What they won’t ever share are the facts about veterans that show that as a group compared to their counterparts, Veterans are better educated, have higher median incomes and lower unemployment rates. The facts do not support the ideology they hope to sell.

Finally, all of the politicians appealing to the heart strings of America will lament about the poor job that the agencies tasked with delivering benefits to Veterans are doing implying always that it is the fault of the actions of one political party or the other. It is always a popular item for their political campaigns, especially during a conflict. What they never tell Americans is that these administrative agencies struggle at best to “administer” the laws, regulations and bureaucracy created by politicians of all persuasions. No, it cannot ever be the fault of a politician.

After election, both alike requited, our God’s forgotten, and our Soldiers slighted… Count on it.

Copyright © JD Pendry 2008 All Rights Reserved.

J. D. Pendry

I was just perusing one of my favorite books, Reagan, In His Own Hand. It is a collection of essays, as the title implies, written by President Reagan. What President Reagan had and demonstrated with his writing, that I find rare in many of today’s politicians, is vision. He was able to see the impact that today’s political choices will have on tomorrow. He was a popular president because of that and because he believed government should make an effort to stay out of our lives and our wallets as much as possible. It is another philosophy that appears foreign to most politicians

Here in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia, we have been governed by a Democratic political majority for as long as I can remember. In every measurable category that you can imagine, we are ranked 49th or 50th of 50 states. We will not improve in any significant area until we improve our number 50 ranking for business climate, meaning of course that if you were looking to start a business you would be better served to pick one of the other 49 states. It is politics that got us where we are and politics that keeps us there. Our state provides coal that helps provide more than 50 percent of the electric power in our country. If we had politicians with vision, we would also have coal to liquid fuel plants around the state providing clean burning fuel for vehicles and aircraft, jobs for our people and revenue for our state. Instead of policies that attract businesses (less regulation, less taxes, better infrastructure and tort reform) and maximizes the benefit we may get from coal (our plentiful natural resource that is equal to the oil reserves of Kuwait) our legislators believe it is better to run our state from lottery tickets, gambling and taxes. In a state with the nation’s second lowest per capita income, each citizen pays yearly personal property tax on his vehicles, which is above and beyond the sales tax paid at purchase. We even pay sales tax on food. Wal-Mart has become our largest employer. We are the example of what happens when politicians, who lack vision, institute and perpetuate the types of policies President Reagan opposed.

I don’t know if you have paid much attention to H.R. 6:

‘‘An Act to reduce our Nation’s dependency on foreign oil by investing in clean, renewable, and alternative energy resources, promoting new emerging energy technologies, developing greater efficiency, and creating a Strategic Energy Efficiency and Renewables Reserve to invest in alternative energy, and for other purposes’’

I have no idea what it said either except that this part “creating a Strategic Energy Efficiency and Renewables Reserve to invest in alternative energy, and for other purposes” sounds like a tax doesn’t it? I don’t pretend to channel President Reagan as too many politicians do, but from reading his thoughts it is difficult for me to believe that he would support some parts of this legislation that was signed into law by President Bush.

This is legislation that devotes an entire section to light bulbs. No, that is not a typo. Your tax dollars pay the salaries of politicians who hope to make us energy independent by regulating light bulbs. Do you feel like you are getting your money’s worth? Eventually, they want to ban incandescent bulbs.

What perfectly safe and efficient product will they choose next to ban? Have you ever made a cost comparison between incandescent light bulbs and compact fluorescent ones? Do you reckon that it will matter to the millionaires who passed this legislation that the cost of light bulbs will eventually triple for us consumers? I know, it is just light bulbs, but it will matter to some people and when you follow policies such as this one to their logical end, you end up with legislation such as that proposed in California where the government wants to remotely control thermostats inside private homes. What follows that? Mandates for types and amounts of insulation, types of windows, roofs… Government needs to get out of our homes and remain so.

Another thing that H.R. 6 does is raise the mileage standards for vehicles. Eventually, all vehicles rolling off the assembly line will have to get 35 miles per gallon of gasoline. What happens, when we arrive at the date when all vehicles have to meet those standards? Gas hog tax or as they now call it, a carbon offset, for those of us still driving old vehicles because we cannot afford to replace them with new ones? Isn’t that the logical progression? The people who dream up these things fail to look down the road because, well, they can afford to pay a carbon off set tax for their fleets of large vehicles and private jets. The rest of us will have the choice of coughing up the tax no matter what they name it, or driving one of these jewels.

I perused H.R. 6 until I started dozing. I will wager that no Congressman or woman who voted for this nor the President who signed it, thoroughly read and studied it or took a look down the road. It looks to my untrained eye like this is well short of the Manhattan project that we need to make us truly energy independent. Instead, it gives us French fry grease and applies the Jimmy Carter approach to solving our nation’s energy problems. Put on a sweater and turn down your thermostat – and get new light bulbs damn it. You will be comforted to know, however, that Section 1101 establishes the Office of Climate Change and Environment. Ooh, now I feel really energy independent. Don’t you?

Copyright © 2008 J D Pendry All Rights Reserved

J. D Pendry

“A sick society must think much about politics, as a sick man must think much about his digestion.” – C. S. Lewis

I should be watching the football game, but this probably won’t take me very long. I will be back in the recliner, which is near the fireplace that is making its contribution to global warming and in front of the wide screen LCD high definition television with digital surround sound in my comfortable family room lit by halogen tracked lighting somewhere about mid way through the second quarter. In the meantime, I thought I would summarize for you how I see the never ending political campaign for the Presidency of the United States of America and the professional politicians seeking the job.

We have a rock star, or so described by a fawning media. John Fitzgerald Kennedy is reincarnated I’m told. For at least the past 8 years, it has been a recurring theme that our serving President would be much better if he was a better communicator, in other words if he could make a better speech. Well, the media ordained rock star makes a great speech - one that is delivered with different accents depending on the audience present. The message? Change? Hope? Change to what? Hope for what? Much style, little substance. Give any actor in Hollywood a good script and he or she will deliver the same moving performance. Is that enough to qualify one to lead the free world?

We have one who is trying hard to show he’s the calm Statesman instead of the angry old man he has allowed to show through at times in the past. He is a war veteran who has sacrificed much for our country and would likely keep the focus on our national security and on our war against the Islamic Fascists. That is important to me, but… He is giving himself credit for the surge strategy that is succeeding in Iraq. He was critical of the Secretary of Defense and insisted that we needed more Soldiers on the ground in Iraq, but I don’t think I can concede credit to him for an on the ground strategy that is a bit more involved than just increasing the number of troops. He is also against tax cuts. He co-authored the illegal immigrant amnesty bill and the campaign finance reform bill that restricts our right to free speech.

We have one populist that insists that he is going to save the country by taking on corporate greed as it is the root of all of our problems. He is going to punish them when he gets to Pennsylvania Avenue. I always find this amusing. Economics 101 teaches us that free markets grow and flourish because individuals seek wealth. They seek wealth by creating things that others need or desire and then selling it to them. Look around the room you are sitting in. Choose any product in the room. How many people have jobs because someone – seeking wealth - had the idea to provide that product for you? Everyone involved from providing raw materials to manufacturing, marketing, transporting and selling that one product gained some measure of wealth. It is wealth that also runs our nation in the form of tax revenues. Now if you are wealthy and have become so by suing others for money you did not earn, then all of that is probably foreign to you.

We have an accomplished, wealthy businessman and former Governor. He is not breaking through even though he appears to have all of the right positions. Some of those positions are relatively new for him however, and they are important ones like abortion. He comes across as too well crafted for most I am afraid. That causes people, deserved or not, to question his genuineness and that could be his downfall. Maybe we are not ready for someone who appears to have all of the right answers. He speaks well, looks good, appears smart and has a solid family life. Whether that will carry him or not, who knows?

We have one that that has lived in the Whitehouse already. She is being upstaged by the so-called JFK reincarnation. She is a socialist and doesn’t camouflage it very well. She has promised more entitlements than all of your tax dollars could ever afford, but that is the least of her problems. With a personality that often comes across as screeching and angry, she is hard to like. That, along with the potential first-dude is a problem for her. Unless something devastating surfaces about her opponents, which would not be out of character for her campaign, she is done. So look for eye-gouging to begin shortly.

We have a Baptist Preacher. I like Baptist Preachers, being a Baptist myself. Being a good Christian is not in and of itself enough to qualify one to be the proprietor of the Whitehouse. One of the worst Presidents in history rode his evangelical credentials into the Oval Office. He was a Southern Baptist too. This one is personable, likable and makes a great speech. I never met a Preacher that could not talk well. He has some questions to answer about his history of raising taxes as a Governor, pardoning a record number of criminals and some of his positions on illegal immigrants. Interesting how the best speech makers are the top contenders isn’t it?

We have an ex-mayor who leads us to believe that he would relentlessly pursue the terrorists. He has a record of reducing taxes and crime and demonstrated leadership in dealing with a manmade catastrophe. Unfortunately, he also supports gun control, abortion, same sex civil unions and has some potential moral issues of his own.

We have an actor with a supposed conservative record, but who can also put you to sleep with one look. He is done I am afraid.

We had a couple of good ones that never broke through.

We also have a UFO watcher, an isolationist and a few sprayed on hair-dos that we need to be able to thank for their comedic contributions and send home. And, there is the looming billionaire mayor who is considering an attempted purchase of the Whitehouse.

Concerned? Me? Whatever gave you that idea? We are in great shape. Well, it is the third quarter. After the game, I’ll be in the back yard working on the bunker. I have to get satellite TV in there.

Copyright © J D Pendry 2008 All Rights Reserved

J. D. Pendry

I’m a drive-thru fan. If I pull into the gas station and there is no card reader on the pump, I will pull through and go on to the next station. I fear I have bought into the quick and convenient society we have built for ourselves here in the Free United States. We have people hoping to be President who were raised in the generation that saw serious social issues dealt with during 30 minute situation comedies. Not serious problems to a morally relative society, just a demonstration for us abnormal people of how normal it actually is to be homosexual or an unwed mother. Serial murderers and white collar criminals were caught and convicted in an hour, probably prosecuted by a future Presidential candidate. The truly serious problems, those having global impact, we’re solved by Hollywood and that usually required at least a full 90 minutes. Ships in 24 hours, that’s us and you don’t even have to leave the couch.

Sorry to travel off on a tangent there, but it happens to me when I take three weeks off. So, back to my drive-thru addiction. I always use the drive-thru teller or ATM machines at the bank. Worried about the coming global currency? I don’t know why you should be, the new global currency is a plastic card with a number on it.

I was forced recently to disembark from my F-150 to conduct some bank business inside the actual bank. I docked my bright red, full-sized 4X4 with a V8 engine and adorned with U.S. Army Retired license plates in the first available slot that was, as it happened, beside of a shiny black Toyota Prius. On the back of the Prius were an anti-Bush Sticker, an End This War Sticker, and several different environmental ones. My first thought, believe it or not, was what kind of a knot head would put bumper stickers directly on the vehicle’s paint? I returned after completing my transaction to see the occupant of the Prius sitting in her car perusing one of the free real estate guides that you can pick up at the bank entrance. I can’t explain why I did it, but my first reaction was to stop and look down the shotgun side of my truck to see if there were any scratches on it. There wasn’t this time. The Prius’ occupant looked at me over the top of her black-rimmed reading glasses. She had short hair, a peaked face and a brow furrowed into what might be a permanent scowl or maybe it was just a scowl reserved for people like me who are pro-military, anti-environment, uneducated pick-up truck driving rednecks or at least we are so perceived. I am certain that she would have looked down her nose at me if it were not for the fact that the pilot’s chair of my truck was several feet above her pop can on wheels.

So, here we are in another year of never ending political campaigns. Politics, if it hasn’t always been, is now one of our Nation’s major industries if not the major industry. Ask the unions. Politics, or opining about it, have made some people quite wealthy. Ask Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. Ask the big names in the blogosphere. Ask the guy who made the silly bumper stickers plastered all over the back of the Prius.

The Prius lady and I will have to select our Presidential contenders this year so that they can compete for the world’s greatest political prize. We are not likely to make a similar choice. I don’t know what criteria she’ll apply in making her choice. It doesn’t matter frankly, because any of her likely choices in my opinion are dangerous for our country and I am certain she has the same view of my likely pick. I can only be concerned about the criteria I apply to making my selection.

My criteria are not too complicated. I’m interested in what the candidate values. What he or she values based on their actions and not their words. Unfortunate for candidates, it is their past actions that are demonstrative of their character and not their now poll driven words. Unfortunate for us, self included, our quick and convenient society would rather have someone tell us about the candidates rather than scrutinizing them ourselves.

Does your candidate tell you that he/she values life, but is pro-choice? Sorry, but pro-choice is not the opposite of pro-life. Does your candidate value service or does he/she only desire the power of the Presidency? Answer that by looking at how long each candidate has actively, continuously pursued the Oval Office. Does you candidate value individual rights? Where does he/she stand on gun control? Does your candidate value our national sovereignty? What has he/she said or done about immigration, border security and true energy independence? Is your candidate strong on national security? What positions has he/she taken in the war against the terrorists in particular the Iraq front? What has his/her positions been on the size, strength, equipping and funding of our military services? …

Every voting aged American holds one share of stock in our political industry. Make the wrong choice with it and you may not like the dividend it pays.

Have a great new year.

Copyright © 2008 J D Pendry All Rights Reserved

J.D. Pendry

I don’t know about you, but listening to polticians and the people who still like to curse at me for something I wrote more than 18 months ago are making it difficult for me to get into the spirit. I’ve decided that I’ll not let that collection be the Grinch that steals my Christmas. I’ll be taking a break from now until after the New Year. This time of year, there are things more important on which to focus than politics and politicians. Take some time off from the Internet and news. Focus on your blessings, your family and your health - physical and spiritual. It just might be the boost that you need. Light a candle for the members of the United States Armed Forces who courageously serve us around the world.

Here’s my Christmas Card to you all. I hope to see you back here in the New Year. - JD

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2: 8-12 NIV

Sometimes, I pull my wool hat down over my ears and go for a walk. Moving out of the neighborhood, I get the courtesy bark from the neighbor’s dog, a curious examination from a couple of squirrels and am nearly trampled by a rampaging buck in rut. He smells a doe somewhere, he just ain’t too sure about where. He disappeared into the tree line at a full gallop, so excited he probably ran into a tree and knocked himself out. The leaves are gone from the trees. The air is a little crisp, but for a few flurries, we’ve seen no snow. Houses and lawns are decorated for the season, some a bit overdone. Christmas cards are going out and coming in. The new Christmas movies are out. I’ve seen none destined to be classics like It’s A Wonderful Life, which we’ll watch for the bazillionth time. For the next few months, we’ll wonder if the angel got his wings whenever we hear a bell. We worry some about presents. What we might get, what we’ll give. The thought that used to go into them doesn’t always now. Getting something homemade is practically unheard of. Now, we savor the warmth of the plastic gift card we receive and worry if we spent enough money on the gifts we gave.

I can see smoke drifting up lazily from chimneys in the distance and smell the oak wood fires burning in fireplaces and wood stoves. It isn’t there, but my mind tricks me into smelling the spice cake my mother used to bake this time of year. I think about getting a big hunk of it fresh from the oven while it’s still steaming. Nothing tasted quite like that, especially chased with fresh milk or hot chocolate. I walk a little deeper into the woods. Nothing smells quite like the woods this time of year. The dead leaves I kick up while walking have a unique, earthy aroma. A squirrel skitters up the side of a tree right in front of me. He stops, safely out of my reach and watches. I come upon a wild holly bush and stick myself plucking a leaf from it. I make a pinwheel from the stiff holly leaf by putting the sharp points between my thumb and finger and blowing on it just hard enough to make it spin. I think of walking through the hills in the snow with my brother many years ago searching for a Christmas tree. I think about a wild sled run. I find a sturdy oak to lean against, pick a twig from a nearby branch and pluck it between my teeth. I survey the rolling hillside. The houses in the distance are visible only because the trees are naked of leaves. I ponder what might be happening in each. In one, Christmas cookies might be baking. In another, maybe they’re trimming the tree. And yet in another, maybe life isn’t quite as pleasant.

In my mind, the house is dark. Daylight’s not yet broken. My heart is beating slightly faster than normal. It’s Christmas morning. I slowly move the blankets away and begin to tiptoe toward the living room where the Christmas tree is. I step on a creaky floorboard and freeze, eyes wide. I listen, afraid that I might encounter an old elf gentleman and frighten him away. I peek into the kitchen and see that the cookies dutifully left on the table are gone. Then, in the dark, eyes still wide, heart still racing, I approach the tree….

I’m walking along the street in Chicago. A country kid in the city. I’ve never seen so many stores and all of them decked out for the holiday. Some have signs that say Xmas. I wonder why they’d do that. The sky is gray. The city is gray. The wind blows some newspaper down a slush-covered sidewalk. A panhandler begs for money. It doesn’t seem like Christmas. Something is missing, replaced by an X.

The air has chilled some so I flip the collar up on my down vest and I’m on the other side of the world walking a Christmas Eve post. I’m barely 19 years old. Sure, I have plenty of buddies around, but I’d trade it all for five minutes in that kitchen eating Mom’s spice cake. Then I think, because a few of us are willing to be here, many can be there at home. That thought perks me up some as I look into a glistening star filled sky and snug up the GI wool scarf around my neck. The clear night makes it colder. I wish it would cloud up and snow. Silent Night plays in my head.

It’s Christmas Eve. It’s nearing the end of the Church service and we light candles, each of us receiving the flame from the last Advent candle, the Christ candle. As the sanctuary lights dim, we raise our candles and sing Silent Night. There’s an incredible feeling of peace and hope.

Lying in bed, I realize it’s early. I hear something moving around in the other room. Slowly and cautiously at first it seems. Then I hear a rush of pattering feet and a curdling yell – Mom! Dad! Get up! Look what Santa brought! With huge grins and through sleepy eyes we share the joy and amazement.

From my family and I to you and yours. Have a blessed Christmas.

Copyright © 2004, J. D. Pendry

J. D. Pendry

I wish a Merry Christmas to you and yours. I pray that our Men and Women serving around the world and their families receive the Christmas gift of peace.

I’m sorry, but I do not offer season’s greetings or wishes for happy holidays or some other generic greeting in hopes of not offending you because you choose not to acknowledge the true reason for the season. There will soon be a Nativity Scene in my front yard. Except for scattering some lights about and putting fake greenery on the porch rail, that is the extent of my exterior Christmas decorations. Christmas is for the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child, a gift to humankind. If you do not accept that, then my prayer is that someday you will.

Do you know why the day following Thanksgiving Day is called black Friday? It’s the first day that retailers across our country and much of the globe begin to show a profit for the year. Ponder that for a minute. Many millions of dollars in merchandise is sold during a span of a few weeks. It is merchandise that many people were employed to make. It is a season for intense manufacturing, marketing, buying and selling that no politician, business man or economist could have ever conceived and made work. Hundred dollar barrels of oil cannot take down our economy, but without Christmas I think it tanks. That’s just an observation from an old country boy from up the holler about the material gift given to our society for acknowledging the birth of Christ. You will likely get a much different view from an ACLU lawyer. Or, maybe you have a different view as well. I assure you, some who do have already scrolled down to the unsubscribe link. I wish them a Merry Christmas too.

Many people celebrate Christmas without ever acknowledging the birth of Christ. My view is that people who choose to celebrate the season without accepting the reason for it are not different from the people who want to come to America and accept the gifts of the land of opportunity without accepting the reasons that the opportunities exist.

I find it quite interesting when I think about it. The people who have made it their careers to banish Christ from Christmas and to remove all vestiges of Christianity from American society are basically the same people who want to stand by while our country is stolen from us and enable the thieves in their attempt to take it.

This time of year, we spend much of our time worrying about giving the right gift or receiving something nice in return. What we do not give enough thought to is preserving the gifts we already have. These are gifts that define us as a people and a nation. Gifts that we all too often take for granted. These are the God given gifts of freedom, the ability to express ourselves and the free will choose our own way.

The Christmas celebration is very much a part of what America is… one nation under God. We spend too much time in America apologizing for who we are and defending what we believe while wishing for acceptance from those who would as soon see us dead and our country destroyed. We owe no apologies or compromise to the failed societies whose people came here to escape real poverty and oppression. We do not owe any apologies to the people who come to America to live for insisting that they arrive legally and learn our language, history and laws. We owe them no apologies for insisting that they recognize that there is such a thing as a pure American culture. It is a culture consisting of a world class blend of people with the common focus of preserving freedom, individual liberties, freedom of religious worship and the freedom to express ourselves.

What each of us must ask of ourselves, of those who want to live here and of those who lead us is are we gifts or burdens. Are we gifts to that uniquely American culture or are we burdens that are destined to break it. Are we gifts to our society or burdens on it? Are we gifts to the people who depend on us or burdens on them? Do we look to contribute or just to take away?

Our gifts in this country are many, and I do not believe that is by accident. You may, but if you do please contemplate why it is that we are the most powerful and wealthiest nation on the planet. Is it because we are smarter than other people of the world or by some Darwinian accident we evolved faster than the rest of the world, or, is it because at our beginning we placed our faith in an entity that we can’t even see as expressed in our national motto, “In God We Trust?”

Copyright© J. D. Pendry 2007 All Rights Reserved

J. D. Pendry

It was 5:30 AM on Thanksgiving eve. I turned off through the park on to my usual shortcut. It is hard to explain why I take a route that brings me to my spot in the cube farm quicker than following the geometrically laid out streets would. Maybe it is human nature to be in a hurry to get somewhere you would really rather not be in the first place. As I meandered through the park, a good sized buck deer wandered across the road in front of me, which is not uncommon here in Wild and Wonderful. When we see a buck, even if it is wandering through town, our eyes tend to zero in on his antlers so that we might try and count the antler points. It makes for a better story if you can tell your cube farm inmates that you nearly clobbered an 8 point buck, rather than saying I almost hit a deer. This buck was a bit peculiar. He only had one antler. I believe I counted 4 points on it as he trotted across the road through the shadows cast by the streetlights. A one antlered buck made for much better conversation than an embellishment about the number of his antler points.

I suppose there is any number of ways a buck might lose an antler. Wandering across the road in front of someone barely peering out of one eye with the other partially obscured by a commuter mug filled with coffee at 5:30 AM is one way to do it. Since it is blamed for every other oddity in nature, maybe global warming did it. Either that or the Bush administration caused it. Personally, I think it was a band of Internet hustlers selling ground up deer antlers for use as an aphrodisiac.

You do know that it is the season when bucks seek does? When two bucks vie for the attention of the same doe, their ruttish behavior could lead to some serious head butting. I expect what I saw was the loser of rut encounter.

One-antlered bucks are losers. Sort of like Middle East peace summits. Every President in recent memory, at least since the Carter days, thought he could bring Israel and the rest of the region into peaceful coexistence. They’ve all failed, but not for lack of trying I suppose. I’m not particularly bright and many of my email fans have made that perfectly clear to me. It is an assessment they generally make right after I quote one or two of their political heroes or give my opinion on the history that I’ve lived. What I do know is that when things are out of whack, like that one-antlered buck, they are likely to wander in meaningless circles until such time as nature removes the other antler and they arrive back where they started having accomplished nothing.

Washington politicians, collectively, put us in a losing situation. They forgot the first rule of holes. When you find yourself in one, quit digging. We knew we were in a hole during the first Arab oil embargo brought about when we came to Israel’s aid during the Yom Kippur War. Instead of working our way back to level ground, the politicians continued to dig deeper and then they started pulling the walls in around us. We cannot negotiate from a position of strength when we have made ourselves dependent on those with which we are negotiating. It is like a nursing baby. Mother will ultimately call the shots.

Until we are energy independent, Middle East despots and people like Hugo Chavez will call the shots. We can obliterate all of them with our military power, but we won’t and they know it. We subsidize them with oil prices that are more than 200 percent higher than they should be. We subsidize Arab regimes that believe public beheadings and flogging the victims of gang rape is normal. We subsidize regimes that fund the Madrasas that brainwash the young men that fill the ranks of al Qaeda and crash airplanes into us. We fund the Persian regime that has threatened to wipe Israel from the map and then come for the great Satan -the Persian regime that has sponsored terror attacks on us for decades. All of them are at war with us and on many fronts. One of those fronts is an economic war. Our politicians put us in this predicament.

We need to build nuclear power plants. We need to drill for our own oil (like the Chinese are doing off of our coast). We need to start taking oil from shale. We need to build coal to liquid fuel plants. This is our now solution.

Until we have political leaders with the courage to commit to energy independence now, we are just a one-antlered buck. A loser hoping for a charitable doe.

Copyright © J D Pendry 2007 All Rights Reserved

J. D. Pendry

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. - Psalm 95:2 

On Thanksgiving Day 1971, I was a 19-year-old Private in basic combat training at Fort Ord, California. My military career did not have a grand beginning. For that matter it never had a grand middle or end either.

In September of 1971, just before my 19th birthday, I stepped down from a Greyhound bus onto sand and ice plant covered, foggy Fort Ord. It wasn’t the greeting folklore and movies primed me to expect. A lanky, solitary Corporal wearing heavily starched cotton fatigues, spit shined Cochran jump boots and a glossy black helmet with large white Corporal stripes painted on the front of it greeted the few of us arriving on the bus from San Francisco Airport. He wasn’t loud and ornery as we expected, but he did walk so fast that most of us had to jog to keep up. Our first stop was a mess hall for our first Army meal of warm soup and cold sandwiches. One week later we got that expected welcome. All hell broke loose for us when the cattle car we were crammed into stopped in front of our basic training company.

Our first two weeks were tough physically and mentally. The Drill Sergeants were all recent Vietnam combat veterans - constant reminders of our likely destination. Unfortunately for me, my second week of training ended with an admission to the surgical ward of Fort Ord’s hospital with a serious case of cellulitis that grew from an infected blister on my toe. The ward had two rows of beds, one on each side of the long bay. Combat medical evacuees from Vietnam occupied most of them. Young men, my age, with missing limbs and other serious combat wounds were my first introduction to a Soldier’s reality. It wasn’t a good place to pitch a military career to a Private still in basic training. Following my hospital stay, the doctors decided my foot needed more time to completely recover, so they sent me home for two more weeks of convalescent leave. I returned to the hospital ward to find many of the residents were the same, but there were some new ones too.

Thanksgiving in the trainee mess hall was quite formal in 1971. We trainees wore our Class A uniforms, mostly adorned only with nametags and US collar brass. The Drill Sergeants wore Class A’s as well. All wore combat decorations. Most wore blue Infantry ropes and Combat Infantryman Badges. The Senior Drill Sergeant, First Sergeant and Company Commander wore the Army Dress Blue Uniform. The Mess Hall was adorned with seasonal decorations. The normal basic training commotion of get in, get fed and get out wasn’t there. The cooks were unusually pleasant and the Drill Sergeants weren’t yelling or kicking anything over. The meal was traditional and quite good. It wasn’t a typical basic training dining experience. Some soldiers, local to the area, had family guests. It was quite a scene for my first Thanksgiving meal in the Army and my first away from home. It definitely stood in stark contrast to the hospital ward filled with combat evacuees.

Over the years, I continued to have Thanksgiving in the mess hall, even after I was married and had my primary family to care for. As a First Sergeant, I’d help serve the meal to the Soldiers and their families. Inevitably, I’d end up with potatoes or something else on my dress blue uniform and predictably my cheeks would turn red as my wife tried to clean me up with a napkin in front of the Soldiers.

The Men and Women that comprise our Armed Forces on this or any Thanksgiving are incredible people. One who chooses voluntarily to place him or herself in the line of danger for the rest of us is an extraordinarily special person.

At home on Thanksgiving, members of my family and I will circle the dinner table and join hands. We’ll offer thanks to God for our many blessings not the least of which is living in the world’s freest and most blessed nation. We will also give heartfelt thanks for those men and women God provided who stand in harm’s way on our behalf, for those who fill the hospital wards and for those, because of their selfless service, who’ve seen their last earthly Thanksgiving.

This Thanksgiving Day, please take some time to give thanks and ask a special blessing for all of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coastguardsmen and their families.

Copyright © J.D. Pendry 2007 All Rights Reserved

J. D. Pendry

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” Isaiah 6:8 (NIV)

Forgive me troops. I know this is supposed to be a somber time of remembrance, but I have some things I need to get off my chest. I’m tired of Veterans being a political badminton birdie for politicians. When times are difficult for the Men and Women of Arms, the political parties spend their time blaming one another for not doing enough to meet the needs of Veterans and those now serving. When the difficult times pass, our Veterans, Soldiers and their needs cease being political hot buttons. My favorite quote sums that up quite well:

Our God and Soldiers we alike adore,
Ev’n at the brink of danger, not before,
After deliverance, both alike requited,
Our God’s forgotten,
And our Soldiers slighted. – Frances Quarles 1632

The other thing that grates on me is how Veterans are treated in the media. Too often, it is as victims or as homeless derelicts. Whenever someone with Veteran status is involved in a crime, the first thing highlighted by the media is their Veteran status. That’s how we are viewed by a hopelessly liberal media, which means that’s how we are portrayed to the majority of the American population. It’s an American population that has little contact with its serving Armed Forces or Veterans so it only knows what is reported to it. Can you recall the last time you heard a positive media story about Veterans or serving Soldiers? Sad, isn’t it.

As I write this, the estimated United States population is 303,328,167. Around 2 million of that population serves in all branches of the Armed Forces. Sort of adds a new perspective to the “never have so few” axiom, doesn’t it? Of that population, 23,425,051 have veteran status. The population that is 18 years of age or older is 224,648,294. Ten percent of the military aged population has veteran status; ten out of a hundred if that puts it in better perspective for you. Here are some interesting numbers to consider. 64.4 percent of the Veteran population is over 55 years of age. 27.2 percent are in the 35 to 54 year old range. Only 8.4 percent of our Veterans are in the 18 to 34 year old range. 60.7 percent of our Veterans are from the Vietnam Era, Korean War and World War II. It is easy to see the downward trend isn’t it?

The news this week reported to us that fully 25 percent of our Nation’s homeless population is Veterans. I’m not sure how they determined that. Do you reckon they asked the guy pushing his grocery cart under the bridge to produce a DD Form 214? Study the linked Census report and you’ll see that Veterans have better high school graduation rates, higher per capita income, lower unemployment rates, and fewer who reside below the poverty level than their non Veteran counterparts. That information paints a positive picture of Veterans so a biased, liberal media will never report it. Only in the new media can we counterbalance such an unfair portrait painted of Men and Women of such high character.

Please take time this weekend to educate someone about Veterans and their contributions to our Nation. Dedicate a reading of Psalm 91 for the Men and Women who are serving for us around the world so that we can live freely. Offer a moment of meditation for those who rest In Flanders Fields or at Fiddlers’ Green.

Most of all, if you are a Veteran or are now serving, Stand Tall on your day. Thank you for what you’ve done and are doing for my family and me.

Copyright © J. D. Pendry 2007 All Rights Reserved