Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Barack Obama, Spin Master Chuck Norris Oct 30, 2012

Barack Obama, Spin Master

 

The definition of spin is to apply a slant or particular emphasis to information, as to persuade or deceive.

President Barack Obama really has been pounding the pulpit the past few days, with the election right around the corner, with the help of his speechwriters. He sounds a lot like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. About the only thing Obama hasn't said is "God damn America," as Wright did.

Obama has to pound his chest and beat the drum to rev up the Democratic base. Thank goodness that the only thing Mitt Romney has to do to rev up the Republican base -- and, I hope, independents and undecided voters -- is to talk common sense.

Obama can spin a fact, and even though it's wrong or untrue, we almost believe it. Then he sends his minions out to spin the same fact, hoping that if we hear it enough times, we finally will believe it. The attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is a prime example. Even though Obama knew -- from the moment of the assault -- that it was a terrorist attack, he didn't let the American people know. We recently learned a drone was recording the attack in real time, and our president was watching from the Situation Room. It is clear that he chose to deceive the American people deliberately, saying it was a mob protest and blaming it on a video that nobody had seen.

My wife, Gena -- who is a lot tougher than I am -- and I are fighting mad with all the lies and distortions coming out of the White House. When I film a movie, I can kick the bad guy's butt. But here, all I can do is hope, pray and vote. So that is what we have to do! We have to get everyone out to vote for the only man who can get us out of this mess, Mitt Romney.

Unfortunately, Obama didn't have the experience to fix the economy, which he promised the American people he'd do. However, there were two things that would have been easy for him to accomplish. He promised to televise on C-SPAN all new bills presented to Congress, including Obamacare. However, Obama conveniently forgot that promise when his administration cut backroom deals with drug industry lobbyists, medical groups, union bosses, insurance industry representatives and lawmakers during Obamacare negotiations.

In a second broken promise, Obama assured us he wouldn't allow special interest groups and lobbyists to influence his policies. However, he regularly has granted exclusive White House access to his biggest donors, who bring their lobbyists with them. In fact, Democratic National Committee officials urged lobbyists to solicit personal checks from corporate executives and rewarded them with premium credentials and hotel rooms at the Democratic National Convention. So much for integrity and honesty!

Folks, we are at a crossroads this election. We could elect a president who would keep us on a losing streak, Obama, or we could elect a president who has the expertise to get us on a winning streak, Romney. Boy, is that a no-brainer!

I am a martial artist first and an actor second. I am definitely not a politician. I'll leave that to experienced people like Romney.

So I am going to evaluate this election as a martial artist. I am a 10th-degree grandmaster and have studied the martial arts for more than 50 years -- 15 of those years as a fighter and instructor, teaching thousands of students before going into the film business.

I was also able to achieve great success as a martial arts fighter and, through years of dedication and hard work, became a world champion. Why am I telling you all of this? Because Mitt Romney is that same kind of fighter. With his business acumen, he would be successful in turning our country around for a brighter future.

Romney is an incredibly successful businessman, which means he would focus on job growth and get small business up and running again. In a bipartisan fashion, Romney was very successful as the governor of Massachusetts. And he turned a failing Olympics around and made it one of the most successful Olympics in years. Most importantly, he and his wife, Ann, donate about 30 percent of their income to charity -- more than Obama and Vice President Joe Biden combined.

So if I were going to promote Romney to a belt rank based on all of his qualifications, it would be a black belt.

Now let's look at Obama's record. I already have mentioned a couple of his failures. Obama's failures are even more apparent when we look at his extremely limited background in the private sector and his complete lack of experience in running a business. That lack of experience means he doesn't fully appreciate the following:

1) Accountability to American consumers, employees and investors.

2) Balancing budgets, maximizing revenue and closely monitoring spending (at the risk of sinking your company if you fail).

3) Long hours, hard work and great personal investment with merely keeping a business afloat.

4) Intense competition with other businesses in the private market.

5) High personal risk and no taxpayer-funded safety net or bailout if your business flops.

6) A devastating impact from soaring tax hikes and government regulations on your ability to stay in business.

7) A solid understanding of free market principles and job creation strategies.

So, after evaluating all of Obama's qualifications, I would promote him to white belt, as I would all beginners. And I'm sure that if, God forbid, he were to get re-elected, at the end of four years he still would be a white belt.

Folks, Obama is the chief executive of our great nation. Without a firm understanding of these principles, how could he lead America back from the brink of economic collapse and even more widespread unemployment?

I will admit that Obama is a gifted speaker and very charismatic, but he is just not a leader, and our economy would only get worse in the next four years if he were to be re-elected. I'm not going to bring up all the things he has lied about. All I'm going to say is that a president who is dishonest with the American people does not deserve a second term.

Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris is a columnist and impossible to kill.
 
Carl Ray Louk

"FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996
"LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000
"THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD
"EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941
"FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895
"FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895 
"I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock 
"TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003 
"EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS

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Black and White Standards Walter E. Williams Oct 31, 2012

Black and White Standards
 

The Washington Post (10/25/2012), in giving President Barack Obama an endorsement for another four years, wrote, "Much of the 2012 presidential campaign has dwelt on the past, but the key questions are who could better lead the country during the next four years -- and, most urgently, who is likelier to put the government on a more sound financial footing." The suggestion appears to be that a president is not to be held accountable to his promises and past record and that his past record is no indication of his future behavior. Possibly, the Washington Post people believe that a black president shouldn't be held accountable to his record and campaign promises. Let's look at it.

What about Obama's pledge to cut the deficit in half during his first term in office? Instead, we saw the first trillion-dollar deficit ever, under any president of the United States. Plus, it has been followed by trillion-dollar deficits in every year of his administration. What about Obama's pledge of transparency, in which his legislative proposals would be placed on the Internet days before Congress voted on them so that Americans could inspect them? Obama's major legislative proposal, Obamacare, was enacted in such secrecy and with such speed that even members of Congress did not have time to read it. Remember that it was Rep. Nancy Pelosi who told us, "But we have to pass the (health care) bill so that you can find out what is in it." What about Obama's stimulus packages and promises to get unemployment under control? The Current Employment Statistics program shows that in 2008, the total number of U.S. jobs was more than 138 million, compared with 133.5 million today. As Stanford University economics professor Edward Lazear summed it up, "there hasn't been one day during the entire Obama presidency when as many Americans were working as on the day President Bush left office."

While Obama's national job approval rating is a little less than 50 percent, among blacks his job approval is a whopping 88 percent. I'd like to ask people who approve of Obama's performance, "What has President Obama done during the past four years that you'd like to see more of in the next four years?"

Black support of politicians who have done little or nothing for their ordinary constituents is by no means unusual. Blacks are chief executives of major cities, such as Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington, Memphis, Atlanta, Baltimore, New Orleans, Oakland, Newark, Cleveland and Cincinnati. In most of these cities, the chief of police, the superintendent of schools and other high executives are black. But in these cities, black people, like no other sector of our population, suffer from the highest rates of homicides, assaults, robberies and shootings. Black high-school dropout rates in these cities are the highest in the nation. Even if a black youngster manages to graduate from high school, his reading, writing and computational proficiency is likely to be equivalent to that of a white seventh- or eighth-grader. That's even with school budgets per student being among the highest in the nation.

Last year, in reference to President Obama's failed employment policies and high unemployment among blacks, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who is chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said, "If Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House." That's a vision that seems to explain black tolerance for failed politicians -- namely, if it's a black politician whose policies are ineffectual and possibly harmful to the masses of the black community, it's tolerable, but it's entirely unacceptable if the politician is white.

Black people would not accept excuses upon excuses and vote to re-elect decade after decade any white politician, especially a Republican politician, to office who had the failed records of our big-city mayors. What that suggests about black people is not very flattering.

Walter E. Williams

Walter E. Williams

Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of 'Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination?' and 'Up from the Projects: An Autobiography.'
 
Carl Ray Louk

"FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996
"LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000
"THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD
"EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941
"FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895
"FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895 
"I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock 
"TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003 
"EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS

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Coulter Defends Romney John Stossel Oct 31, 2012

Coulter Defends Romney
Mitt Romney tells people he won't fire federal workers or cut education spending. He says he'll spend more on the military. He sounds like a big-government guy. Or is he just pandering for votes?

Ann Coulter came on my TV show to defend Romney.

"What you call pandering is called getting elected," Coulter said.

Romney says he'll repeal Obamacare. Great! But he wants to keep popular parts: coverage for pre-existing conditions and keeping grown kids on their parents' policies until age 26. Those mandates are popular. But that's not insurance. That's welfare.

"If we do not repeal Obamacare in the next few years, America takes the first step into 1,000 years of darkness. ... Romney is far more free market than any recent Republican candidate, including George Bush. What Romney is talking about here is the free market."

But that's not the free market. It's a forced handout.

"If it's popular, it will be provided on the free market. There are insurance products we can't even think of, including buying insurance for your unborn children. ... The problem with health care -- and the reason Romneycare was a libertarian solution for a governor to provide because the governor can't repeal all the federal government stuff -- is that right now, you already have government intervention. Government pays for nearly 50 percent of all health care in America. It is already 50 percent socialist. Romney is going to roll it back, apply free-market magic, and everything you want covered is going to be covered."

But he says he will force every insurance company to cover pre-existing conditions.

"He's not saying 'force.' ... The free market will cover it. I promise you that's what he means."

Really? He does say, "Pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan." That sounds like force. A free market is voluntary. But I decided to move on.

Romney wants to increase military spending. America is going broke, and yet we still spend about as much on "defense" as all other countries combined. How can we afford this?

"For one thing, I do trust Romney to cut a lot of government -- more than Ronald Reagan did. That's why we need Romney right now as much as we needed Reagan in 1980. This is a free-market guy. He saved companies from going into bankruptcy. He saved the Olympics from going into bankruptcy. In Massachusetts -- the Soviet Union -- he balanced the budget and cut taxes. You need someone who'll go through the budget line by line and look at the things that can be cut."

But he says he's going to increase military spending by $2 trillion!

"With a booming economy we're going to have under Romney, we will have so much money we won't know where to spend it."

I moved on again. In one debate with Obama, Romney said, "I don't have any plan to cut education funding." He doesn't? Why not? Education is a local responsibility. The federal government wastes $100 billion every year, intruding on local schools. But Romney won't even cut that?

Coulter wouldn't defend her candidate on that point.

"But I will just say in his defense ... he said, 'We want to send that money to the parents.' He's talking about vouchers there."

My last complaint about Romney was his promise to label China a currency-manipulator, and if China doesn't respond, raise tariffs. So he wants a trade war? That would hurt everyone. And raising tariffs means Americans pay more for things.

"You're having a kneejerk reaction to the word 'tariffs.' ... That's not the issue. The issue is the intellectual (property) theft. ... Every libertarian I know is very concerned about intellectual theft."

Well, some libertarians don't think that's theft, but that's another story. Romney mostly talks about the Chinese currency, not intellectual property, and yet currency manipulation is something our Federal Reserve has been known to do. If China devalues its currency, Chinese people suffer, but we Americans get to buy cheaper products. We win!

Coulter dodged my argument. "If we continue for five more seconds on currency manipulation," Coulter said, "I'm going to need a bottle of NoDoz."

 

John Stossel

John Stossel

John Stossel is host of "Stossel" on the Fox Business Network. He's the author of "Give Me a Break" and of "Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity." To find out more about John Stossel, visit his site at johnstossel.com.
 
Carl Ray Louk

"FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996
"LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000
"THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD
"EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941
"FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895
"FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895 
"I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock 
"TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003 
"EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS

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Obama's Layoff Bomb Michelle Malkin Oct 31, 2012

Obama's Layoff Bomb

 

 
In June, a diffident and self-deluded President Obama claimed that "the private sector is doing fine." Last week, the private sector responded: Speak for yourself, buster. Who needs an "October Surprise" when the business headlines are broadcasting the imminent layoff bomb in neon lights?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last Tuesday that employers issued 1,316 "mass layoff actions" (affecting 50 workers or more) in September; more than 122,000 workers were affected overall. USA Today financial reporter Matt Krantz wrote that "(m)uch of the recent layoff activity is connected to what's been the slowest period of earnings growth since the third quarter of 2009." Some necessary restructuring is underway in response to the stagnant European economy. But more and more U.S. businesses are putting the blame -- bravely and squarely -- right where it belongs: on the obstructionist policies and regulatory schemes of the blame-shifter-in-chief.

Last week, Ohio-based auto parts manufacturer Dana Holding Corp. warned employees of potential layoffs amid "looming concern" about the economy. President and CEO Roger Wood specifically mentioned the walloping burden of "increasing taxes on small businesses" and the need to "offset increased costs that are placed on us through new laws and regulations."

Case in point: Obamacare. The mandate will cost Dana Holding Corp., which employs some 24,500 workers, "approximately $24 million over the next six years in additional U.S. health care expenses." As Ohio Watchdog blogger Maggie Thurber reported, the firm's Toledo area corporate offices laid off seven white-collar employees last Friday; company insiders told her more were on the way. They are not alone.

On Tuesday, Consol Energy issued a federally mandated layoff disclosure announcing its "intent to idle its Miller Creek surface operations near Naugatuck, W.Va." The move will affect the company's Wiley Surface Mine, Wiley Creek Surface Mine, Minway Surface Mine, Minway Preparation Plant and Miller Creek Administration Group, all in Mingo County, W.Va. Despite state approval, cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and myriad other agencies, and a stellar safety record, Obama's EPA dragged its feet on the permit approval process. The impasse has forced layoffs of 145 Consol Energy employees that will hit at the end of the year. They are not alone.

In August, Robert E. Murray, founder and CEO of Murray Energy Corporation in Ohio, blasted the White House anti-coal agenda for the layoffs and closure of his company's mine. He told Obama water-carrying CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien that "the many regulations that (Obama) and his radical appointees and the U.S. EPA have put on the use of coal, there are dozens of them and collectively by his own energy administration, have closed 175 power plants." As O'Brien barked at her guest about purported environmental objections, Murray explained that "we cannot get permits for these mines. They are delaying the issuance of permits. If you can't get the permit, you can't have the mine. ... I created those jobs, and I put the investment in that mine. And when it came time to lay the people off, I went up personally and talked to every one of them myself to lay them off. It's a human issue."

And it's an innovation issue, too. As I reported in February, Obamacare's impending 2.3 percent medical device excise tax has already wrought havoc on the industry:

Stryker, a maker of artificial hips and knees based in Kalamazoo, Mich., is slashing 5 percent of its global workforce (an estimated 1,000 workers) this coming year to reduce costs related to Obamacare's taxes and mandates.

Covidien, a N.Y.-based surgical supplies manufacturer, recently announced layoffs of 200 American workers and plans to move some of its plant work to Mexico and Costa Rica, in part because of the coming tax hit.

Mass.-based Zoll Medical Corp., which makes defibrillators and employs some 1,800 workers in the U.S. and around the world, says the medical device tax will cost the company between $5 million and $10 million a year.

This July, Indiana's Cook Medical Inc. shelved plans to open five new plants because of the imminent medical device tax hit. They are not alone.

The heads of Koch Industries, Westgate Resorts and ASG Software Solutions have all separately informed their employees of prosperity-undermining Obama economic politics. Left-wing groups have lambasted the executives for exercising their political free speech.

But they have remained silent while the White House corruptocrats bribed federal defense contractors into delaying federally mandated layoff disclosures before the election. In a memo now being investigated on Capitol Hill, Obama promised to cover the legal fees of Lockheed Martin and other defense contractors if they ignored legal requirements to inform workers in advance about so-called sequestration cuts to the military's budget scheduled to kick in next year.

Truth suppression is a time-honored Obama tactic, of course. Remember: The administration and its Democratic allies on Capitol Hill attempted to punish Deere, Caterpillar, Verizon and ATT in 2010 for disclosing how the costs of Obamacare taxes were hitting their bottom lines -- even though they were simply following SEC disclosure requirements. The White House also tried to silence insurers who dared to inform their customers about how Obamacare was driving up premiums. Not this time.

The administration's bully boys don't have enough whitewash and duct tape to cover up the past, present and future devastation of the president and his economic demolition team.

 

Michelle Malkin

Michelle Malkin

Michelle Malkin is the author of "Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies" (Regnery 2010).
 
Carl Ray Louk

"FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996
"LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000
"THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD
"EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941
"FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895
"FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895 
"I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock 
"TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003 
"EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS

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Louk's Haunted Graveyard Halloween 2012
Carl Ray Louk

Count Carl Ray Louk walking through the graveyard Halloween 2012
Carl Ray Louk

Count Carl Ray Louk under Louk's Haunted Graveyard sign Halloween 2012
Carl Ray Louk

Count Dracula & Count Carl Ray Louk Wednesday October 31, 2012 Halloween
Carl Ray Louk

Count Dracula & Count Carl Ray Louk Halloween 2012
Carl Ray Louk

Count Carl Ray Louk Family Mausolem Halloween 2012
Carl Ray Louk

Lisa Wilcox & Count Carl Ray Louk beside Malissa Wilcox tombstone Halloween 2012
Carl Ray Louk

Lisa Wilcox & Count Carl Ray Louk beside Malissa Wilcox grave stone
Carl Ray Louk

Count Carl Ray Louk & Jack Scarecrow Halloween 2012
Carl Ray Louk

Count Carl Ray Louk Wednesday October 31, 2012 Halloween
Carl Ray Louk

Count Carl Ray Louk Halloween 2012
Carl Ray Louk

I bid you a Happy Halloween. I am @ dialysis & hoo...

I bid you a Happy Halloween. I am @ dialysis & hooked up. I have 4:24 left. come off @ 5:00pm
Carl Ray Louk

Season's Greetings: Happy Halloween.

Season's Greetings: Happy Halloween.

 

I bid you Seasons Greetings of Halloween. When werewolves howl and pumpkins scowl and frightful witches fly, when fearsome phantoms haunt the dark and eerie voices cry! It's time to send a special friend a notice to remind you if you're out on Halloween, be sure to look behind you! Have a Frightfully Happy Halloween!

 
Carl Ray Louk

"FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996
"LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000
"THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD
"EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941
"FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895
"FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895 
"I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock 
"TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003 
"EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CarlRayLouk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/CarlRayLouk

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Halloween Prayer

Halloween Prayer

 

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!
 

Appropriate for many faiths

 

Source: Scottish prayer

 

 
Carl Ray Louk

"FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996
"LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000
"THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD
"EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941
"FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895
"FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895 
"I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock 
"TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003 
"EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS

Facebook: www.facebook.com/CarlRayLouk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/CarlRayLouk

MySpace:
www.myspace.com/carlraylouk

Yahoo Group: Yahoo! Groups : LouksHauntedGraveyardhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/LouksHauntedGraveyard/

Yahoo Group: Yahoo! Groups : TheWorldAccordingtoCarlRayLouk http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWorldAccordingtoCarlRayLouk/

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

The Story of Halloween

The Story of Halloween

 

Halloween is one of the oldest holidays with origins going back thousands of years. The holiday we know as Halloween has had many influences from many cultures over the centuries, from the Roman's Pomona Day, to the Celtic festival of Samhain, to the Christian holidays of All Saints and All Souls Days.

 

Hundreds of years ago in what is now Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts. The Celts worshipped nature and had many gods, with the sun god as their favorite. It was "he" who commanded their work and their rest times, and who made the earth beautiful and the crops grow.

 

The Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1st. It was celebrated every year with a festival and marked the end of the "season of the sun" and the beginning of "the season of darkness and cold."

 

On October 31st after the crops were all harvested and stored for the long winter the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids, the Celtic priests, would meet in the hilltop in the dark oak forest (oak trees were considered sacred). The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals. As they danced around the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin.
When the morning arrived the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits.

 

The November 1st festival was called Samhain (pronounced "sow-en"). The festival would last for 3 days. Many people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of their animals. This festival would become the first Halloween.

 

During the first century the Romans invaded Britain. They brought with them many of their festivals and customs. One of these was the festival know as Pomona Day, named for their goddess of fruits and gardens. It was also celebrated around the 1st of November. After hundreds of years of Roman rule the customs of the Celtic's Samhain festival and the Roman Pomona Day mixed becoming 1 major fall holiday.

 

The next influence came with the spread of the new Christian religion throughout Europe and Britain. In the year 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church would make November 1st a church holiday to honor all the saints. This day was called All Saint's Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Years later the Church would make November 2nd a holy day. It was called All Souls Day and was to honor the dead. It was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as saints, angels and devils.

 

But the spread of Christianity did not make people forget their early customs. On the eve of All Hallows, Oct. 31, people continued to celebrate the festivals of Samhain and Pomona Day. Over the years the customs from all these holidays mixed. October 31st became known as All Hallow Even, eventually All Hallow's Eve, Hallowe'en, and then - Halloween.

 

The Halloween we celebrate today includes all of these influences, Pomona Day's apples, nuts, and harvest, the Festival of Samhain's black cats, magic, evil spirits and death, and the ghosts, skeletons and skulls from All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day.

 
Carl Ray Louk

"FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996
"LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000
"THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD
"EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941
"FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895
"FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895 
"I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock 
"TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003 
"EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS

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The Pumpkin Patch

The Pumpkin Patch

 

The Celts that lived in what is now Great Britain and Northern France would carry a lantern when they walked on the eve of October 31. These lanterns were carved out of big turnips and the lights were believed to keep the evil spirits away. Children would carve faces in the turnips. These carved turnips were called "jack-o-lanterns.

 

Legends have it that the "jack-o-lantern" got its name from a stingy and mean old man, named Jack, who when he died was too mean to get into heaven. When Jack went to hell he was met by the Devil who gave him a piece of burning coal and sent him away. Jack placed the burning coal in a turnip to use as a lantern to light his way. The legends claim that Jack is still walking with the lantern looking for a place to stay.

 

When the early settlers came to America they found the big round orange pumpkin. Being larger and much more colorful than turnips, the pumpkin made great "jack-o-lanterns". Eventually the pumpkin would replace the turnip.

 

As the settlers spread across America they took their Halloween celebrations with them. The custom of the "jack-o-lantern" would travel with them. Eventually the Pumpkin would become the most widely recognized symbol of the Halloween holiday.

 
Carl Ray Louk

"FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996
"LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000
"THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD
"EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941
"FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895
"FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895 
"I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock 
"TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003 
"EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS

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The Witches' Caldron *

The Witches' Caldron *

 

"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog"
"Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing"
"For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and babble"
"Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn, and caldron bubble"
William Shakespeare

 

Witches and Warlocks have had a long history with Halloween. Legends tell of witches gathering twice a year when the seasons changed, on April 30 - the eve of May Day and the other was on the eve of October 31 - All Hallow's Eve.

 

The witches would gather on these nights, arriving on broomsticks, to celebrate a party hosted by the devil. Superstitions told of witches casting spells on unsuspecting people, transform themselves into different forms and causing other magical mischief.

 

It was said that to meet a witch you had to put your clothes on wrong side out and you had to walk backwards on Halloween night. Then at midnight you would see a witch.
When the early settlers came to America, they brought along their belief in witches. In American the legends of witches spread and mixed with the beliefs of others, the Native Americans - who also believed in witches, and then later with the black magic beliefs of the African slaves.

 

The black cat has long been associated with witches. Many superstitions have evolved about cats. It was believed that witches could change into cats. Some people also believed that cats were the spirits of the dead.

 

One of the best known superstitions is that of the black cat. If a black cat was to cross your path you would have to turn around and go back because many people believe if you continued bad luck would strike you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Holidays on the Net has received numerous objections about our presentation of Halloween folklore involving witches. In fairness we present this letter from one of our visitors wishing to address this stereotyping. "Letter to the Webmaster:"
Letter to the Webmaster

 

Please Note: We at Holidays on the Net work hard to present factual holiday information. We have received numerous objections about our presentation of Halloween folklore involving witches. In fairness we present this letter from one of our visitors wishing to address this stereotyping. This letter is unedited (aside from spelling corrections).
Holidays on the Net is great! There is only one really big problem that I see here.
You see there is this religion that IS recognized by the United States of America as an actual religion. We hold the SAME religious freedoms that you hold. It is called Wicca, for short we are witches.

 

Yes it's true that we do gather on Halloween and May first. Actually their names would be Samhain, pronounced Sow-wan, Oct. 31.Yule, Dec. 21, Imbolc, Feb 2nd, Ostara, March 20, Beltane, May 1st, Summer Solstice, June 21, Lammas, Aug 1, Mabon Sept 22, and then back to Samhain again.

 

We, however, do not worship the devil as your story put it. In fact we have no deity that we call the devil, Lucifer, Satan, or whatever. We believe is a balance of both male and female. Thus we worship the God and the Goddess. We honor Mother Earth, and hold all of nature with great respect.

 

Also we do not harm anyone. The Wiccan Reed states that, AN IT HARM NONE, DO WHAT YE WILL. This one line encompasses all of the Ten Commandments the Moses supposedly brought down off of Sanai. We do not seek to destroy nor harm others for their beliefs. And we always try to understand everyone for their own system of beliefs. We do not believe that Wicca is the only true religion, and that we are all heading in the same direction after life, but we all get there on different paths.

 

If you were to sit down and actually study the Christian holidays you would see that many of our traditions were taken by them. Many of the rites that Christians perform were here long before there was a Christian church, or Jewish for that matter. These are rites and ceremonies that were and still are practiced by Wiccans.

 

Just to name a few, Yule is on December 21. That is when we celebrate the birth of our Lord. Ostara is right before Easter. This holiday, or sabbat as we call them, is a fertility rite. Hence that is why there are bunnies and eggs. We believe that on Samhain the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest. So this is when we gather to honor our past on ancestors. To tell them that we love them, that we miss them, and ask for help if needed. It's our memorial day. Not a day that we gather to fly out on "brooms" and bring harm and evil upon the world. To be quite honest, the Samhain ritual is very emotional and touching. There are lots of tears and hugging.

 

We also do a little ritual at our sabbats called cakes and wine. This is when we break bread and offer it to the God and the Goddess. Then in turn we each partake of the bread. After this we do the wine. It is offered to the God and the Goddess, and then we each partake of this. It seems strange how a pagan ritual has been put into a Christian ritual, communion.
On Yule we celebrate the birth of the Lord. This falls on December 21st. We decorate our homes with Yule logs and holly. Funny how Christmas songs still sung by Christians today talk of "pagan" rites for the sabbat. The holly is placed to honor the Holly King. The Yule log is set with three candles. They honor the maiden, mother and crone. The three forms of the Goddess. The Christians use the three as well, as the father, son and Holy Ghost.
Also we DO NOT use the term "warlock". This word means oath breaker. A male witch is called a witch, not a warlock. Many witches will take offense to this. Myself being a "male witch", and High priest and ordained minister of the Wiccan faith, I am not very fond of people calling me a "warlock".

 

The myth that people formed about us flying on brooms is a very old crop fertility rite. The people would gather together at their fields with brooms and pitch forks. They would jump over the brooms and such as a gesture of showing how high the crops should grow that year. The higher they would jump, the higher they believed their crops would grow. We did not fly through the air on the full moon wreaking havoc.
This is just a very small portion of our belief system.

 

And as usual, people have misconstrued us out to be some evil beings trying to bring harm to the world. It's sad that people can't understand who we really are. Even the Hebrews worshipped the Goddess for a time.

 

If you don't think so look in Jeremiah chapter 7:8. Everything was fine until good old Jehovah got mad. In all actuality, he didn't get mad. It was more likely that the male governing body couldn't keep control if the woman were not brought down. Probably where they got the saying of let your women be silent in church.

 

Understand that I am not trying to bash you for your story. But it would be nice and VERY appreciated if after the stories you could put the actual truth. It may have been just a Halloween tale, but people read this stuff and believe it all to be true.

 

There may be no more witch burnings in America, but we still lose our jobs, homes, families, and children because of belief. Because we are not following the "one true god" as the Christians would put it. That is why there are organizations like the Witches League for Religious Discrimination. We are still here, and growing in numbers. Our belief will never die out, no more than the Christians. But we do hold the same religious freedoms that they hold.

 

When you do your holiday net stories and such perhaps you should add people of other faiths as well. Not just the Christians and Jews. Maybe then the world would be more at peace and people could understand one another better.
Thank you,
Rev. (Name Withheld)*

 

* Holidays on the Net has chosen to leave the writer anonymous because we have not been able to contact the writer to get permission to publish his name.

 
Carl Ray Louk

"FRIENDSHIP NEVER ENDS" SG-1996
"LET LOVE LEAD THE WAY" SG-2000
"THE PHOENIX SHALL RISE" SD
"EVEN A MAN WHO IS PURE IN HEART AND SAYS HIS PRAYERS BY NIGHT, MAY BECOME A WOLF WHEN THE WOLFBANE BLOOMS AND THE AUTUMN MOON IS BRIGHT." LT-1941
"FLESH OF MY FLESH; BLOOD OF MY BLOOD; KIN OF MY KIN WHEN SAY COME TO YOU, YOU SHALL CROSS LAND OR SEA TO DO MY BIDDING!" CVTD-1895
"FROM HELL'S HEART I STAB AT THEE, FOR HATE SAKE I SPIT MY LAST BREATH AT THEE" CA-1895 
"I HAVE BEEN, AND ALWAYS SHALL BE YOUR FRIEND" Spock 
"TRICK OR TREAT, TRICK OR TREAT CANDY IS DANDY BUT MURDER, OH MURDER, IS SO SWEET" CRL-2003 
"EYE OF NEWT, AND TOE OF FROG, WOOL OF BAT, AND TONGUE OF DOG ADDER'S FORK, BLIND-WORM'S STING, LIZARD'S LEG, AND OWLET'S WING. FOR A CHARM OF POWERFUL TROUBLE, LIKE A HELL-BROTH BOIL AND BABBLE. DOUBLE, DOUBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE, FIRE BURN, AND CALDRON BUBBLE" WS

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