Happy Thanksgiving To All, and May God Bless You

From the Rocky Mountain Family Council:

Thanksgiving Proclamations

In November of 1621, the Pilgrims had what is considered to be the first Thanksgiving. On November 29th, 1623, three years after the Pilgrims' arrival and two years after the first Thanksgiving, William Bradford, who was Governor of the Plymouth Colony, made an official proclamation of a day of Thanksgiving:

To all ye Pilgrims:

In as much as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetable, and has made the forest to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us ..., has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience;

Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house ..., on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

On October 21st, 1785, John Langdon, who was the Governor of New Hampshire, a signer of the U.S. Constitution as well as a U.S. Senator, made this official Proclamation for a General Thanksgiving to the State of New Hampshire:

The munificent Father of Mercies, and Sovereign Disposer of Events, having been graciously pleased to relieve the United States of America from the Calamities of a long and dangerous war.... preventing Famine from entering our Borders; -- eventually restored to us the blessings of Peace, on Terms advantageous and honourable.

...It therefore becomes our indispensable Duty, not only to acknowledge, in general with the rest of Mankind, our dependence on the supreme Ruler of the Universe, but as a people peculiarly favoured to testify our Gratitude to the Author of all our Mercies, in the most solemn and public manner.

I Do therefore, agree to a Vote of the General Court, appointing Thursday the 24th Day of November next, to be observed and kept as a Day of General Thanksgiving throughout this State ...

On November 8, 1783, John Hancock, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and first member of the Continental Congress to sign the Declaration of Independence, issued A Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving to celebrate the victorious conclusion of the Revolutionary War:

Whereas... these United States are not only happily rescued from the Danger and Calamities to which they have been so long exposed but their Freedom, Sovereignty and Independence ultimately acknowledged.

And whereas... the Interposition of Divine Providence in our Favor hath been most abundantly and most graciously manifested and the Citizens of these United States have every Reason for Praise and Gratitude to the God of their salvation.

Impresses therefore with an exalted Sense of Blessings by which we are surrounded and of our entire Dependence on that Almighty Being from whose Goodness and Bounty they are derived; I do. .. appoint Thursday the eleventh Day of December next to be religiously observed as a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer..

On September 25th, 1789, Congress unanimously approved a resolution asking the President to proclaim a National Day of Thanksgiving and on October 3, 1789, while in New York City, President George Washington shared his Thanksgiving Proclamation:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor...

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next to be devoted by the people of these United States... that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations , and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions...to promote the knowledge and practice of the true religion and virtue...

On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a formal proclamation, passed by an Act of Congress initiating the first annual National Day of Thanksgiving.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy...

I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens... [it is] announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord ... It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice, by the whole American people.

Let's all remember the words of these great men and thank God for His blessings.

Rocky Mountain Family Council
8704 Yates Drive, Suite 205
Westminster, CO 80031
(303) 292-1800

This resource may be reprinted without change and in its entirely for non-commercial purposes without prior permission from the Rocky Mountain Family Council.

Observations on Tactics, Firearms, Self Defense & Life In The Civilized World

A friend of mine forwarded to me the following quotes in an e-mail.

If you support the full meaning of the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution, these thoughts might be of interest to you.

If you don’t support the second amendment, then you need to educate yourself and quit being such a dumb ass.


Clint Smith, Director of Thunder Ranch, is part Drill Instructor, And part stand up comic. Here are a few of his observations on Tactics, firearms, self defense and life as we know it in the Civilized world.

"The handgun would not be my choice of weapon if I knew I was going to a fight....I'd choose a rifle, a shotgun, an RPG or an atomic Bomb instead."

"The two most important rules in a gunfight are: Always cheat and Always win."

"Every time I teach a class, I discover I don't know something."

"Don't forget, incoming fire has the right of way."

"Make your attacker advance through a wall of bullets. I may get killed with my own gun, but he's gonna have to beat me to death with it, cause it's going to be empty."

"If you're not shootin', you should be loadin'. If you're not loadin, you should be movin', if you're not movin', someone's gonna Cut your head off and put it on a stick."

"When you reload in low light encounters, don't put your flashlight in your back pocket... If you light yourself up, you'll look like an angel or the tooth fairy...and you're gonna be one of 'em pretty soon."

"Do something. It may be wrong, but do something."

"Nothing adds a little class to a sniper course like a babe in a Ghilliesuit."

"Shoot what's available, as long as it's available, until something else becomes available."

"If you carry a gun, people will call you paranoid. That's ridiculous.
If I have a gun, what in the hell do I have to be paranoid about."

"Don't shoot fast, shoot good."

"You can say 'stop' or 'alto' or use any other word you think will work but I've found that a large bore muzzle pointed at someone's head is pretty much the universal language."

"You have the rest of your life to solve your problems. How long you live depends on how well you do it."

"You cannot save the planet. You may be able to save yourself and your family."

"Thunder Ranch will be here as long as you'll have us or until someone makes us go away and either way it will be exciting."

More Excellent Gun Wisdom.......

The purpose of fighting is to Win!

There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either.

The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.

1. Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, He'll
just kill you.

2. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.

3. I carry a gun cause a cop is too heavy.

4. When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.

5. A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers. The
reporter recognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and
asked him 'Why do you carry a 45?' The Ranger responded, 'Because
they don't make a 46.'

6 An armed man will kill an unarmed man with monotonous regularity.

7. The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented
on his wearing his sidearm 'Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are
you expecting trouble?' 'No ma'am. If I were expecting trouble, I
would have brought my rifle.'

8. Beware the man who only has one gun. He probably knows how to use
it!

'The true Soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because He loves what is behind him.' -G. K. Chesterton

A people that values its privileges above its principles will soon lose both.

'Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.' ~ Thomas Jefferson

"A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy." --Samuel Adams

And The Terror Resumes…

This cartoon just about says it all regarding liberal butt kissing of anything and anyone muslim. To most liberals, the barbaric and archaic religion that is islam is the cat’s meow. (Do muslims consider cats unclean like they consider dogs unclean? Hope so.)

If this were not so, then why is there such a push to call Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood terrorist, “disturbed” and “innocent by reason of insanity.”

He’s not insane, he’s a “radical” muslim. He just did what many “radical” muslims want to do.

This weekend a story broke about a threat to replicate the Fort Hood massacre at Fort Benning in Georgia. A box was found with an anonymous note and package, reported by The Army Times as a box of bullets Thursday morning outside a motor pool area at Fort Benning, located near Columbus, Georgia.

An unnamed witness was quoted as saying to Army Times;

“The note said ‘tell the commanding general to call off all charges or there will be a re-enactment of Fort Hood,’” this was in reference to charges against Nidal Hasan who is charged in the shooting deaths of 13 solders at Fort Hood. Hasan also wounded dozens more.

Hasan’s attack was a most cowardly act, as most islamic terrorist attacks are. They love to attack the unarmed, those who are not expecting an attack.

At any rate, America is woefully unprepared and ripe for more of these islamic terrorist attacks with the likes of Barack Hussein Obama and Eric Holder running the show.

God Speed, and reload often.

Pray For Our Troops

(This photo is of a marine in Iraq fighting in the battle for Fallujah in 2004)

Considering the recent deadly attack on Fort Hood in Texas, and that Veteran's Day is tomorrow, please pray for our troops, especially those in harm's way.

And if you value your freedom, please take time to thank a military veteran.

What is a vet?

By Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, USMC Retired

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking.

What is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She or he is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat, but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the parade riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb of the Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket-palsied now and aggravatingly slows who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being, a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say "THANK YOU." That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words mean a lot, "THANK YOU."

"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag."

Amen to that.

A Time to Laugh...A Time to Cry...

Why does Barry Hussein Obama look like he just shit a brick?

These news stories may explain it. Sources are; Associated Press, politico.com, and Bloomberg.com.

None of the three are known to be bastions of conservatism.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_election_rdp

GOP sweep: Big governor victories in Virginia, NJ

By LIZ SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer Liz Sidoti, Ap National Political Writer – Wed Nov 4, 1:13 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Independents (voters) who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year.

And straight from the horse’s mouth;

Source: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29167.html

Election result: Red-state Dems worried, rethink agenda
11/5/09 4:56 AM EST

Election Day losses in Virginia and New Jersey have congressional Democrats focused like never before on jobs — their own.

While the White House and party leaders are urging calm, Democratic incumbents from red states and Republican-leaning districts are anything but; Tuesday's statehouse defeats have left them acutely aware that their votes on health care reform and other major Obama initiatives could be career-enders in 2010 or beyond.

“I should be nervous,” said Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Huntsville, Ala.

Griffith said the Democratic rank and file is “very, very sensitive” to the fact that issues being pushed by party leaders “have the potential to cost some of our front-line members their seats.”

“We got walloped,” said Sen. Mark Warner, the junior Democrat from Virginia.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPyQEnzr9DFY&pos=9

Republican Wins May Make Democrats Cautious on Obama Agenda

By Jonathan D. Salant

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Republican victories in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races may make some congressional Democrats more leery of backing key elements of President Barack Obama’s agenda because of the political price they could pay, analysts said.

Democrats in competitive House districts, many of them already cautious about Obama’s push to overhaul the U.S. health- care system and curb emissions blamed for global warming, might be more resistant to move ahead on the measures and face attacks from a newly energized Republican Party, the analysts said.

The Nov. 3 election results are “a real warning bell for moderate Democrats,” said Tobe Berkovitz, associate professor of communications at Boston University. “They are not going to think twice about their vote on health care. They’re going to think five times.”

Barry, I'm laughing my ass off.