Stable Best Place for Jesus Birth

I'm tired of people applying 21st Century standards to Jesus birth place    

Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem.

Luke 2:7  "While they were there, the time came for her Child to be born. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn, a Son. She wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."

A manger in a stable might not be a good place to have a baby today,  but 2,000 years ago a stable was probably the best place for a visitor to Bethlehem to have her first baby.

There are two suggested definitions for what "inn" means.  One type "inn" had a large common room in which people slept on  the floor   .I've forgotten the name of .the  preacher  who pointed out that offering Mary room in a stable would have provided her with privacy for her truly blessed event  she wouldn’t have had in  a large common room.

The alternate "inn" was a guest room in a private home.   Some believe the owner rejected Joseph and Mary because they weren’t  married.   It seems more likely Joseph, to protect Mary's honor ,  told people they were  married and he was the  father. 

Most guest room owners probably had a policy of not offering a room to  those with young children or women about to give birth.  New babies would  be undesirable in either type "inn" because of their crying.  

Most people think of Luke as if  it said "because there was no room --- in the inn." instead of  '" because there was no room for them in the inn."   The inn might have had room for  someone other than Joseph and Mary.

Biblehub.com  points  out the stable would have been empty and clean because the animals were in the fields  Mary had privacy and didn’t have to worry that  people would complain when her baby cried.

The stable, unlike the inns, had ample room for the shepherds who came to Jesus birthday party. The shepherds assured Mary people wanted her baby even if   "inn-keepers" had rejected  her because of  the baby.

Animal Lovers Shouldn’t Eat At Chick-fil-A

Christian Animal  Ethics reports Chick-fil-A "chickens are bred to grow so large, so quickly, that many of them suffer crippling leg deformities. Because their breasts grow abnormally large while their skeletons and other organs lag behind, their legs often break under the weight of their own bodies."

Chickens at Chick-fil-A "factory farm suppliers don’t see the light of day or receive any exercise. Most have trouble breathing in the overcrowded, filthy conditions while many others suffer heart failure and chronic pain."

To keep Chick-fil-A "chickens eating and growing as much as possible, their sleep is restricted by keeping the interior lights of the warehouses illuminated at almost all times."


Many Chick-fil-A "chickens die on the warehouse floor, their bodies rotting among the other chickens, adding to the overall stress and unhygienic conditions."

.This last situation discourages me  from  eating  at Chick-fil-A.   Such conditions encourage diseases that chickens can transmit to humans like the urinary tract infection causing intestinal bacterium Enterococcus faecalis and salmonella.

Give to The Salvation Army not Chick-fil-A

 Compassionless   Chick-fil-A executives have made an Ebenezer Scrooge like  decision to stop donating to The Salvation Army.  Many desperately need the help the donation would have provided. The money for the donation would have come from Chick-fil-A customers.  Thus Chick-fil-A customers could reverse the decision to stop donating "their" money to The Salvation Army. Chick-fil-A customers could eat at Chick-fil-A less often and donate the money  they would have spent at Chick-fil-A to The Salvation Army.

Intelligent Democrats could end the impeachment nonsense

Intelligent Democrats  could end the impeachment nonsense if enough  of  them leave their brain dead party to start a new party I'll refer to as the "Y2K" party [to use a non-political term]. With enough members,  the "Y2K" party could form a new majority coalition  with the  Republicans to take control of  the  House.  The coalition agreement should allow Y2K members to keep their committee positions  and  seniority.  .
  
The coalition might issue a statement that coalition members want to work together to develop compromise approaches to controversial issues. A compromise on  immigration could involve Congress providing money to hire border people to build the wall and get green cards.

Speaker Pelosi couldn't punish those who leave  her party to be part of a new majority coalition.

Republicans need to start political action committees to help veterans run against House Democrats.

Republicans need to start political action committees to help veterans run against House Democrats.
Pres. Trump's Call to Ukraine President Was the Right Thing to Do

Three Stooges Lead Democrat Field

The leading candidates for the Democrat presidential  nomination,  in no  particular order, are "Moe", "Larry"  and "Curly Joe Biden".  "Curly Joe" Biden  is an obvious choice.  I'll let others decide which  of the other two to call "Moe" and which to call "Larry".   The next four,  in no  particular order, are Shemp, Dopey, Sleepy,  and Sneezey.

It will be interesting ro see if Michael Bloomberg will blow Curly Joe and friends off the presidential race

Water Vapor Can "Trap" Heat -- CO2 Cannot

Those who talk about carbon dioxide affecting temperature ignore the fact that water's potential to affect air temperature is well established in science. Water vapor is the only atmospheric gas that can hold or "trap" heat. 


 Those who spend much time in greenhouses know that they are often very humid places because water evaporates from plants and from surfaces that get wet when the plants are watered. Meteorologists typically refer to the water vapor content of the air as relative humidity which is how close the air is to holding as much water vapor as it can hold at its current temperature.

Unfortunately many climatologists waste so much time on the nonexistent impact of radiation on air temperature that they don't provide sufficient emphasis to the significant impact of water vapor on air temperature. Those who want to blame climate changes on humans ignore the fact that the combustion of hydrogen containing fossil fuels increases the amount of water vapor in the air. Other human actitivies such as watering yards, washing cars and operating public fountains also add water to the atmosphere.

Water has some special thermal characteristics that can significantly affect atmospheric temperatures. Water heats and cools significantly slower than other components of the atmosphere. Water vapor needs to absorb over four times more heat energy than the same mass of other air molecules to raise its temperature the same amount. When it cools it releases four times more heat than other gases.

Thus as the water vapor content of the air increases the atmosphere will heat and cool slower than when the air is drier. This process tends to keep the temperature from rising as high during the day or cooling as much at night, although the increase in the overnight low may lead to an increase in the daytime temperature because the air doesn't have to heat as much to reach a higher temperature. In equatorial areas deserts have higher maximum temperatures and lower minimum temperatures than jungle areas where the humidity is higher.

Water vapor possesses what physicists have traditionally called "latent" heat. Latent heat refers to the heat energy water molecules must absorb to go from a solid to a liquid (heat of fusion 80 calories/gram) or a liquid to a gas(heat of vaporization 540 calories/gram). This energy isn't reflected in the temperature of the water vapor. However, when water vapor condenses back to a liquid, or freezes, the release of this latent heat can raise the temperature of the air. A gram of water vapor releases enough heat energy when it condenses to raise the temperature of 2 kg of air by 1 C.  

At a dew point of approximately 65 F water vapor in the atmosphere holds as much heat energy as the rest of the atmosphere.   This condition explains why dew points above 65 F are associated with the strongest thunderstorms.

Physicists define a "calorie" as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a gram of water 1 C. 27 C (82 F) is the same temperature as 300 Kelvin [the absolute temperature scale]. At 300 K water vapor has 300 calories of heat from its temperature and 620 calories of latent heat.

The dew point is the temperature at which water vapor will condense on objects or aerosals. The dew point normally is the lowest temperature the air will fall to. As the water vapor content of the air increases the dew point rises and the air doesn't get as cool at night.

The situation is more complex than I am presenting it in this post. I . The important facts to consider are that increases in humidity can raise the low, or minimum temperature, and limit the high, or maximum temperature, each day.  In areas where significant snowfall  occurs,  the increase in low  temperature can increase the melting of snow and ice by keeping the temperature  above freezing for longer periods of time.

I recently came across a 10 year old study done by David R. Easterling of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., indicating that humidity had increased and, as should have been expected, the minimum temperature had been increasing and the difference between the minimum and maximum daily temperatures, diurnal temperature range (DTR), had been declining.

The potential impact of changes in atmospheric water vapor are real science. Water vapor holds a substantial amount of heat energy. The only potential impact climatologists can find for carbon dioxide is the highly questionable claim about absorbing and re-radiating low energy IR. But then, if would be difficult for the politicians behind the global warming scare to make a case for getting rid of water.

Virtual "Blackface" and the Squad

I'm tired of the Democratic Party's race baiting.  The most recent example is the blatant lie that President Donald Trump's criticism of  the four female Representatives  on "The  Squad"  was racist.   Pardon my shouting, but REP. RASHIDA TLAIB AND  REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ ARE WHITE.   The complexions I see on my computer indicate they could have used a whites only restroom in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955.

Tlaib is Palestinian and Palestinians, like other Middle East peoples,   belong to the so-called "white race".  It may come as a shock to those who call themselves "Aryans", but Aryans are Indo-Iranians.

AOC is among the 75% of Puerto Ricans who are white.  Light complexioned European ancestry Hispanics have long been considered "white", especially those from Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico.  My first 11 years I lived in segregated Wichita.  There were no black residents in my south Wichita neighborhood,  but my elementary school had a popular Mexican teacher.   I was allowed to invite the Mexican boy in my class to my birthday party and attended a party at his house.  The husband on  the popular "I Love Lucy" show was from Cuba.   On the "Cisco  Kid" two Mexican heroes helped capture Western outlaws.

A century ago some white comics would put on blackface makeup because they believed people would be more likely to  laugh at their jokes if they wore blackface.   Even the great Bob Hope used blackface early in his career.  Hope told Dick Cavett  in a television interview that he stopped using blackface after he arrived at the theater too late to put on the makeup.    The manager told him to do his act without makeup.  The audience reaction  convinced Hope he  didn't need the makeup. 

Tlaib and AOC,or perhaps Democratic Party leaders, are trying to use virtual blackface to get people to support their programs or to try to prevent criticism..  A century ago southern Democrats  would use racial allegations to con white voters and divert their attention from real issues.  Today Democrats falsely claim  that individuals or actions are racist to con black voters and divert their attention from issue positions that might benefit them.

Impeach House Dingbat Democrats, not Trump

Do the Democrats who talk about impeaching President Donald Trump know that we are in a shooting war in which the enemy has attacked our homeland causing significant property damage and civilian deaths?   Those who want to remove   our Commander in Chief are saying they don't appreciate the efforts of thousands of brave American men and women who are willing to risk "trading all of  their tomorrows so we can have today."

There is an ancient proverb that says "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".  By treating President Trump as their enemy, Congressional Democrats are implying they are a friend of our enemies. Certainly removing President Trump from office would give aid and comfort to our enemies. 

The terrorists are more likely to continue fighting if they believe in the future they won't have to worry about dealing  with Trump any more.  They are almost certainly aware that the United States lost interest in Vietnam after Democrats forced President Richard Nixon out of office.  

Iranian terrorists took advantage of the fall of Nixon to overthrow the American backed Shah of Iran and establish the current government.   Iran might also expect to benefit if Democrats force Trump out.

I don't believe ultraconservative Democrats are intentionally engaged in treason.  They just are too dumb to understand what they are doing.

Humorist John Henry Faulk has compared members of Congress to Christopher Columbus.  "He didn't know where he was going.  He didn't know where he was when he got there. When he got home, he didn't know where he had been.".

Humorist Nipsey Russell once commented to  talk show host Johnny Carson.  "Pro is the opposite of con. "  Russell then asked. "If progress means to move forward, what does Congress mean?"

Any House Democrats who don't agree with the extreme anti-Trump group should leave the senile Democratic party and start a new party.    People who have a lot more money than I have,  should set up a Political Action Committee  to help veterans of the current war run against congressional Democrats.

Yes, the Mueller Investigation Has Obstructed Justice

The people who talk about obstruction of justice in Robert Mueller's investigation appear unaware that in the United States the prosecution can be guilty of obstruction of justice. 

Most people don't understand that the Bill of Rights provisions regulating law enforcement were added to the Constitution to prevent corrupt law enforcement agencies from misusing the criminal justice system to harass political activists.   One of the worst abuses in British legal history was  the "Star Chamber" proceeding which allowed the use of secret unsubstantiated allegations against the accused, especially political activists.

The involvement of British intelligence agent Christopher Steele in the investigation in effect makes it a form of Star Chamber proceeding.  I know he says he's retired, but think about it. Obviously,  if he's on a "secret mission" for the British government, he's not going to say "I'm on a secret mission to discredit Donald Trump."  He's going to say "I'm retired."   I have enough respect for Britain's MI6
to believe that it can  arrange  for agents on secret assignments to appear to have "jobs"  that have no connection to the British government. 

American courts need to know how information is obtained,    Agents like Steele need to keep some information and sources of information secret.  Courts need to know the truth. Agents must be able to lie convincingly such as when the British  overstated the status of Iraq's  Weapons of Mass Destruction.  

Regardless of whether or not  Steele  prepared the Trump dossier on assignment for his government, the dossier appears to be the type of propaganda piece an agent might prepare for his government. It's not important whether Steele's document caused the Mueller investigation or merely encouraged it.   What is important is that allowing a foreign agent to encourage a criminal investigation of an American politician allows other countries to meddle in our politics by providing evidence to destroy politicians they don't like.

Consider a hypothetical situation that could have occurred before the 2016 election.   A country wishing  to hurt Hillary Clinton might have secretly provided incriminating emails to Wikileaks.  Any country that has Hillary emails won't want our government to know it has emails with information about American procedures, personnel and goals so emails would have to be distributed secretly.   What if such emails indicated Hillary had worked out a deal with Britain to have Americans stay in Benghazi to protect equipment the British left behind when a terrorist attack caused them to  evacuate the area in exchange for something like a contribution to the Clinton Foundation or unspecified help if Hillary ran for president?  The emails could not have been used to start a criminal investigation because government could not have verified  that the documents were authentic unaltered emails which had been obtained in accordance with American laws. 

Now that I think about it, if Russia had been really anxious to elect Trump wouldn't it have  tried to secretly distribute real or fake Clinton emails?

Hire the People on the Border to Build the Wall

When is  President Donald Trump going to recognize that the  best way to deal with the border people is to hire them to build the wall?

Hiring the border people to build the wall  would create a win  / win  situation.  The border people would win by getting jobs.  

People living in the United States would win because people entering  the country from the south in the future would have to pass though check points where they could be screened for contagious diseases.   The recent measles outbreaks demonstrate the potential danger of open  borders.     Dangerous diseases like tuberculosis  that are largely controlled in the United States can  be common in countries some "illegals" come from.   There are more HIV/AIDS deaths per million south of our border than in our country. 

A century ago a judge might have agreed to punish illegal immigrants by forcing them to build a wall.  Judges no longer order such forced labor, but the government can hire immigrants to build a wall.

The large number of unemployed people on the border provide a golden opportunity to build a wall that was first needed in the 19th Century when raiders would cross the border to attack settlers.  We need to take advantage of the opportunity to build the wall now.    Having the border people construct the wall would produce a work force that could be used to construct the infrastructure projects we also need. Trump's economic program is creating so many jobs that we may not otherwise have enough extra workers for essential infrastructure projects.

President Vladimir Putin's Election Gambit

There is no evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a master at the board game called "chess", but he is a grand master at a real life version of the game.

In 2016. he began an operation to discredit the American system of elections.   He took advantage of the basic stupidity of many American politicians and journalists to create the delusion that he had colluded with Donald Trump to affect the presidential election.

Putin was a Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB, the highly effective Soviet Secret Police.  If  the Russians had been trying to elect Trump, any Russian contact with the Trump campaign would have been done in secret to avoid detection.  Putin is intelligent enough to know that some Americans would vote against a candidate favored by Russia.

Putin had Russians meet with Trump campaigners to set Trump up for a collusion charge in the event Trump won.  I became suspicious of the real purpose of  one meeting because a tv news story sounded like someone might have coordinated the meeting with the Department of Justice.  The discovery of the meeting seemed too  easy.  I'm not a fan of Putin, but I respect his intelligence.  He would not have used people so unprofessional that they would be caught while engaged in what  should have been a secret operation.

Putting people in apparently compromising situations  is an old KGB tactic that the KGB used to blackmail  people into cooperating with the KGB such as by providing access to information.    The Russian contact with Trump campaigners is a variation on this tactic with the goal simply being to frame people in Trump's campaign.

I doubt that Putin wanted either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump to be President  of  the United States.   In 2016 Putin  likely thought the best outcome would be a discredited American election especially if the winner would be forced out of office.  .  Putin had been criticized for his  conduction of presidential    elections.   Creating a scandal about an Amercan presidential election might prevent unfavorable comparison of Russian elections to American elections particularly if Putin could claim the "American Secret Police" rejected the candidate voters wanted. 

Putin is certainly aware of how much the Soviet Union had benefited  from the Watergate controversy.  The fall of Richard Nixon  was followed by the fall of U.S. backed governments in Vietnam and Iran.  The  Soviet Union was able to take advantage of the weakened American presidency to invade Afghanistan.   

If Putin has any derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, he will probably keep it secret unless she is elected president.

This farce has gone on long enough.   Congress and President Trump  need to concentrate on the real problems our nation faces.

Has President Trump Abandoned MAGA?

President Donald Trump's statement at the Mexican border  implies he no longer believes he can make the United States great again.  Or, perhaps he doesn't know how a Great America would act in such a situation.

Trump said: "Our country is full, our area is full, the sector is full, can’t take you anymore. I’m sorry, can’t happen, so turn around -- that’s the way it is,”   Trump's statement  is pathetic.   He sounds  like he is whining.  He spoke like the head of a weak powerless nation who doesn't expect any improvement in the future.

The president  of a Great America would try to take advantage of the presence of the people at the border to build a wall to keep criminals from using the Mexican border.  He might declare a humanitarian emergency and hire the border people to build The Wall.  He would  give them an opportunity to prove they want to work by offering them jobs building the wall.   Instead of whining about the number  of would be immigrants, he would use the number of "refugees" to justify using emergency powers to protect them from economic distress.

Part of the funding for the program should come from money earmarked for the countries the border people come from.     Instead of rewarding the sanctuary cities by increasing their population just before the census that determines how much federal funding they receive President Trump should use part of the funds that go to local governments to pay the wall builders. 

The people at the border probably don't understand our badly outdated immigration laws and procedures.  They are  at the border  because they have been told they can find a better life here.  They to find a better life because they believe The United States of America is  a great nation.   Does President Donald Trump?

A Great Nation Would Hire Immigrants to Build The Wall

President Donald Trump  should start acting like the head of a great nation in dealing with the large number of jobless immigrants on the border.   The people coming to the Mexican border are essentially saying they think the United States is a great nation which can provide jobs their own countries cannot.  A Great Nation helps people in other nations when it can.   The United States under President Harry Truman was a great nation because it helped west European nations recover from the devastation their war had caused. 

The United States cannot provide jobs to everyone in the world, but it does have a public works project for the Mexican border that could provide jobs for the immigrants on the border.  Hiring the border immigrants to construct The Wall would allow construction in a short period of time.   Constructing The Wall would provide immigrants the jobs they need to support their families without taking jobs from those who are already living here.  Companies selling goods and services to Wall workers might even be able to add employees.   Having the immigrants construct The Wall might be the only way to avoid a humanitarian crisis because other potential  approaches are unlikely to be  able to create enough jobs for them in time to help.  If the United States can provide jobs building The Wall to jobless immigrants, it would be immoral not to hire them.  A Great Nation determines what needs to be done and does it.  

President Trump might have to switch to  a more labot intensive type of wall construction to reduce the cost of materials.   He could hire the immigrants now even though there would be a delay before they could begin working on The Wall.  That time could be used to teach them some basic English and to construct housing.  They would also receive training in how to build The Wall.   After building The Wall they would be available to work on infrastructure projects.

As an historian I recognize that sustained economic growth has involved an increasing population.  Except for the baby boomer era the population increase has come from immigration.    When the United States limited immigration in the 1920's the limits acted like a lid on the economy and the economy imploded.  New immigrants arrive with few possessions so they purchase more goods than established residents.  Immigrant families provide even more economic stimulation because parents need to replace clothes and toys the children have outgrown  

I don't know how the  immigrants view President Trump.   The fact that they are coming here looking for jobs implies they think of him the way Dorothy thought of the wonderful Wizard of Oz.   Is President Trump just smoke and mirrors or is he the leader of a great nation that helps those in need?  The leader of a Great Nation would do everything he can to deal with the crisis on the border.

Have Racists Regained Control of the Democratic Party?

Dr. Martin Luther King’s niece, Dr. Alveda King, accuses Democratic Party supported Planned Parenthood of what Rev. Dr. Clenard H Childress Jr. calls "Black Genocide." 

King points out  “The leading cause of death in the African-American community is not gang-violence, gun violence, heart attack, stroke, HIV, high blood pressure, diabetes. People will name all these. No, it’s abortion. And the reason we have come to that conclusion, statistically, you’ve got 60 million plus abortions legal in America since 1973. About a third of those occur in the African-American community. That means dead babies. And, with us being 13 percent or less of America’s population that means we are having more abortions'."

  King says the number of abortions don't mean that African-Americans are more immoral or don’t care."  Instead  she states:  "We are just regular, everyday people like everyone else. But Planned Parenthood moved into our community with the abortion killing centers and said, ‘We’re here to help you. Let’s kill your baby, so you can have a better life.’ Well, killing our babies doesn’t give us a better life. I have had my own abortions in the 1970s. They were secret then, and after I became born again in 1983 and became a pro-life voice, I began to talk about how those abortions hurt me and my family.”

The claim that racists have regained control of the Democratic Party may come as a  surprise to those who don't know that the Democratic Party is the historic home of racism.  The   Democratic Party is the party of slavery, secession and  segregation.  

The peopls who complain about the monument to slave owner Thomas Jefferson in Washington ignore the fact that he and other slave owners established the Democratic Party.   People protest southern Civil War monuments and ignore the fact the Democratic Party is itself  a monument because Confederate leaders  were Democrats as were the founders of the  post war Ku Klux Klan [KKK]..  Late in the 19th Century the Democratic Party established rigid "Jim Crow" racial  segregation laws in southern states.  . 

    Day Gardner notes that  during the 20's "the KKK raged a lynching war on blacks in the south while Margaret Sanger and friends devised an evil plan of their own. Sanger was a staunch believer in eugenics, “race hygiene.” Her book, The Pivot of Civilization, {1922} contained her solution to the negro problem. She touted sterilization of 'genetically inferior races' which she called 'human weeds'.Since blacks were known to be blessed with large families, Sanger’s plan had to include limiting the growth of the black population by eliminating our children."

After World War II the Democratic Party split on the racial issue.  President Harry Truman integrated the armed forces in spite of opposition from within the Democratic Party.  Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson continued Truman's effort to end racial discrimination with Johnson managing to get landmark civil rights legisltion through Congress.  Southern Democratic Party senators provided the primary opposition to Johnson's legislation.  

Prior to the passage of Johnson's legislation Democrat governors tried to block court ordered integration at Little Rock Ark. high school and the University of Alabama. Some local southern Democrats tried to suppress civil rights demonstrators.

After the sixties, racism in the Democratic Party seemed to be relatively benign.  Democrats have continued  to perpetuate the old southern myth that black Americans  and white Americans belong to  different races in spite of the fact that African, European, and North American DNA have been mixing together for 400 years.   

At some point racist Democrats obviously decided to partner with the Planned Parenthood organization founded by racist Margaret Sanger    to pursue what appears to be their "final solution" to the racial issue.   They would try to discourage black women from having babies to keep the black population from growing.

Dr. King says, “Margaret Sanger, the founder of the Birth Control League [later, Planned Parenthood], said, that ‘colored people are like weeds,’ and they need to be eliminated. They need to be exterminated. We don’t want the word to get out, so let’s not package it that way. So that’s why they began to make a lot of propaganda and marketing materials, saying that abortion is a woman’s right. It will help her to finish college, get a job, do this or do that.”

Day Gardner notes, "in New York City, the abortion rate in the black community is at 60%, which means more black babies are aborted than are born.The KKK brutally killed about 3,500 black people since it began in 1865, Sanger’s Planned Parenthood is responsible for 19 million black deaths since 1973."

As part of the  effort to maintain the appearance of racial conflict, Democrats encouraged blacks to fear white racism while trying to keep blacks from recognizing that the real threat was to their babies.

Southern blacks should  stop wasting time with ghosts from the past associated with Civil War monuments.  The real racist threat is the threat to beautiful black babies from the unholy alliance of racist Democrats and Planned Parenthood abortionists.

The Truth About Slavery - Part 2

The initial forced labor in the British North American colonies involved indentured servants who served a limited amount of time and were then freed. Many whites volunteered to  serve a period of time in exchange for funds to pay for their trip to North America. Although these indentured servants were only temporary slaves, they were slaves in every sense of the word.   Owners could mistreat them and even choose their sexual partners.  Use of   indentured servants continued through April, 1775, when prominent Virginia planterGeorge Washington     advertised  a rewatd  for the  teturn of 8 white 2 black runaways.
s
  The Africans and many Irish were forced to travel to the British colonies. Irish were sometimes sentenced to "transportation to America" for illegal acts.  Over 300,000 Irish  were sent to North America and the West Indies as slaves.  .  Thousands of children from London streets were rounded up and sent to the Americas. 

 Most indentured servants were white, particularly Irish, but some were Africans like Anthony Johnson who like white indentured servants was given some land after being freed.  Johnson used indentured servants on his land. 

Later when a decision was made to allow people to be held as permanent slaves, only Africans could be permanent slaves because they were foreigners.  The law didn't allow British subjects to be permanent slaves.  However, initially black children of indentured servants could be treated as permanent slaves because the mother's status as free or nor free determined the  child's status.  If the mother was a slave the child woul be a slave.   This practice differed from the traditional practice of having the father's social status determine the child's status.    A white slave child would be considered an indentured servant.  A black slave child would become  a permanent slave.

By the time permanent slavery began whites and blacks had been having relationships for years and produced children of mixed ancestry.   Some plantation owners forced white female  indentured servants to mate with black men so the children would become permanent slaves.  This practice increased the portion of the slave population that had European [white] genes as well as African [black] genes.   The slave population received additional white DNA from slave owners and overseers.

The relationships among those of mixed ancestry and between those with  mixed ancestry and whites were producing children who could " pass for white " in the 18th Century.   Some with a slightly dark complexion might have claimed to be of North American or Mediterranean ancestry to gain acceptance as whites. 

The relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his sister-in-law and virtual wife  Sally Hemings provides an example of this situation.  Hemings was the daughter of a union between Jefferson's father-in-law  John Wayles. and a slave. Wayles took Hemings' mother as his concubine after his first three wives died.   Hemings was legally classified as  "white" and had  long straight hair, but the social situation and laws governing slavery likely made an actual marriage impossible.   Some of their children later passed for white after being freed and leaving Virginia. 

This situation demonstrates that slavery was no longer about "race" or "color" in 1800.  Even though Hemings was the "white" daughter of a plantation owner, she was still considered a slave who became part of the property of her father's estate when he died in 1774. 

Various accounts in the following years indicate that household servants were often of lighter complexion than field slaves.   Many suggest this situation indicates color prejudice.  The more likely explanation is that the household servants had lighter complexions because they were related to the plantation owner.

By the time of the Civil War there were 5,000 black slave owners and  many slaves who were light complexioned or even white.  

The strange case of Jane / Alexina Morrison demonstrates that slavery wasn't necessarily about color.  According to the slave trader who sold her in Louisiana the blonde haired blue-eyed young woman he called "Jane" was born a slave. The woman who called herself "Alexina" sued him for kidnapping her after she escaped from him. The case bounced around the Louisiana courts just before the Civil War with juries siding with the woman and the courts with the slave trader.  It  apparently is still technically before the courts.   Regardless of which person was telling the truth, the fact that the courts even considered the possibility of Morrison being a slave demonstrates that white slaves were a part of southern slavery by the start of the Civil War.   Some of the escaped slaves whose narratives were published before the Civil War mentioned having seen white slaves.    Harpet's  Weekly in January carried a picture of  slaves recently freed by the Union armywho were white.

The Truth About Slavery - Part 1

The Truth  About Slavery - Part 1

Many  Americans believe slavery only involved white people owning black people.  They believe the master race was white and the slave race was black.  North American slavery actually involved relatively rich people,[e.g. land owners]  owning poor people who might or might not be of the same color.  

There were two types of forced laborers brought to North America:  indentured  servants and permanent slaves.   Most of the primarily Irish indentured servants were forced to travel to North America, but some were volunteers.  The first Africans were treated as indentured servants but were eventually treated as permanent slaves.  Members of the two groups worked together and the historical account indicates there was sufficient sexual contact between the two to produce a hybrid group of permanent slaves whose members could be  called "black Irish".

Unfortunately,the fact that most  slaves were black and most owners were white led to a belief among some whites that this situation meant blacks are inferior to whites.   This belief began during the slave era in part as a way to justify treating some people as slaves in an otherwise free country.

The first  Africans arrived in Jamestown in 1619 only 14 years after the founding of the settlement.  During the two centuries of the Atlantic slave trade only about 500,000 additional Africans were imported into North America.   Britain led the way to ending the Atlantic slave trade in 1807 and the United States quickly followed to outlaw the importation of slaves without prohibiting the internal slave trade
.
Initially North American forced laborers were white temporary slaves called "indentured servants" who served for a specified term such as 5-10 years.   The first Africans who arrived at Jamestown were treated as indentured servants   . Anthony Johnson arrived in 1620 and received some land from the Virginia colony  after he was freed.   In 1651 he  owned five indentured servants (four white and one black.  man named John Casor, was  considered a permanent slave).

The term "indentured servant" is deceptive because during their period of indenture "servants"  could be brutally mistreated like regular slaves.  Some owners treated much cheaper Irish indentured servants  worse than ;lifetime slaves.  Africans cost from 20-50 pounds Sterling compared to about 5 pounds Sterling for an Irishman. 

Owners could even choose who  servants would mate with like  they were breeding  horses. Owners might use whites to breed lighter colored  slaves to be  sold.  Raising slaves for sale would become a signaficant part of the plantation economy. Light colored females would eventually be sold as "fancy slaves" to be prostitutes or concubines who might command a higher price than a prime field hand.

Many servants were children  picked up from London   streets.  The exploitation of children in the North American workplace would continue into the 20th Century.

Europe didn't have a large enough population to support large scale agriculture in the Western Hemisphere when colonization began.  The British used the colonies to relocate the Irish, but Ireland only had a population of 1.5 million.  The Spanish use of African slaves had begun before the discovery of land available for settlement in the Western Hemisphere.

Africans had been capturing, enslaving and selling each other for thousands of years  before Christopher Columbus discovered a huge new market for African slave traders.   Africans continued to enslave each other after the end of North American slavery.  There are reports that Africans still practice slavery.

The career of  Englishman John Newton demonstrates not only that whites could be slaves, but that those who engaged in the slave trade could also be slaves.   Newton was a sailor on a slave ship whose shipmates sold him to a West African slave trader because  they didn't get along with him.   A friend of Newton's retired ship captain father arranged to free Newton. Newton evenstually got a position as the captain of a slave ship.  A religious experience convinced Newton to become a Christian minister and become active in the movement to abolish slavery.  He wrote the popular hymn "Amazing Grace" which according to gospel singer Larnelle Harris uses a west African sorrow chant for the melody.

Remember the Alamo Walls

As a Vietnam Vet I know that physical barriers  can limit the number of uninvited "guests"   Even a barrier as relatively flimsy as concertina wire can discourage unwelcome  visitors.

The Texas Revolution demonstrates the potential benefits of walls.    The Battle of the Alamo was an epic defensive battle with Texas army co-commanders James Bowie and William B. Travis.
attempting to hold the walled Alamo mission they were using as a fort against  a vastly superior Mexican army under the command of  President General Antonio López de Santa Anna
 
Marty Robbins celebrated the defender's efforts in "the Ballad of the Alamo".

"One hundred and eighty five
Holdin' back five thousand
Five days, six days, eight days, ten
Travis held and held again."  

The Alamo's   walls helped Travis hold the fort until Gen. Santa Anna  decided to accept the high casualties needed to take the fort.  :Later at the Battle of San Jacinto Texas Gen. Sam Houston easily defeated Santa Anna because Santa Anna didn't have walls to protect his men.

The post office I was assigned to in Vietnam was initially located at a small compound south of Phu Cat AFB called Camp Fidel.  Even though the enemy wasn't likely to attack us instead of the Air /Force's jets, our commanders knew we had to guard our perimeter all night because the enemy wouldn't pass up an easy target.

Do the Brainless Wonders in Congress Know What Happened on 9/11/01?

Do  they know that a mere 19 men who had infiltrated our country hijacked four  airliners and used them to destroy the World Trade Towers and damage the Pentagon?  Current Congressional  leaders are even more brainless than leaders in November, 1941, who thought the country could avoid World War II by being neutral.  They hadn't yet experienced an attack by an enemy.  Today's leaders have..

The  government didn't know of a potential terror threat when the  9/11 hijackers entered the country.    Today the government is more careful about who it allows in. Suspected  terrorists cannot come in at monitored points of entry.   They have to find entry points that aren't closely monitored such as along our southern border.   Coming in that way allows them to bring weapons and high explosives.  
s
Those who claim there isn't a crisis need to explain when the terror crisis that began  on 9/11 ended.   Americans didn't realize there was a  terror crisis until a plane hit the second tower. 

Our enemies haven't announced an end to their war.  Maybe they haven't attacked our homeland because they prefer to concentrate on defending their homeland.  Maybe our law enforcement agencies have been preventing their attacks.  Or maybe they are secretly preparing a surprise attack like the Germans did before the Battle of the Bulge  or the Viet Cong did before the 1968 Tet Offensive.    If they think they can mount a surprise attack, we may not know until it begins. 

Women Who Get Abortions Have a Negative Self Image

When a woman gets an abortion she is essentially saying "the world would be better off if no one like me was born into it because I am not worth duplicating."

A woman who has a baby is saying the world will benefit from having another person like her.

President Trump Cares About Us - Wealthy Democrats Don't

President Donald Trump recognizes a primary function of the federal government involves protecting us from external threats.   Our state governments protect us from internal threats, but only the federal government can deal with threats coming from other countries.

He recognizes that Mexico and other Latin American countries like Guatemala have significant crime problems.  Dingbat Democrats are oblivious to the difficulty the Mexican government is having with the drug cartels  that operate from there.   The government has had to use the Mexican army in its war with the cartels.

Many of those coming to the United States want to get away from their homeland's criminals.  They expect our government to at least try to prevent those criminals from following them here. 

President Trump's  proposed wall might not be perfectly effective [few anti-crime measures are], but it is an appropriate attempt to deal  with a dangerous situation.   There is no good reason not to try it.  

A government that spends over $10 billion a day can find a way to come up with the $5 billion needed to build a wall.   Wealthy Democrats like multi-millionaire Rep. Nancy Pelosi don't want to fund the wall because they don't care what happens to the rest  of  us.  They just want to play partisan political games. They don't care who might be hurt by the government shutdown if they can get their media  sheep to blame Trump for everything.

When I was in high school the Democrats had a great leader who told us America could build a rocket that would put men on the moon.  Today's Democrats claim the federal government can't even build a wall to prevent killers from entering the country illegally.   President Donald Trump comes closer to having the "can do" attitude of President John Kennedy than any current Democratic Party leader.

Trump needs to change his  strategy   The Democrat mules in Congress don't seem likely to give in because they don't care what happens. Their favorite program kills babies before they can be born.   They don't care if illegal immigrants kill  "other people" or "other people" die from drug use.   I wonder it they believe such deaths reduce " the surplus population".

President Trump could build a wall as a military training activity.   In a combat area concrete walls  may be needed as  part of a bunker to protect personnel or supplies. A wall can protect  buildings from a truck bomb on a nearby road.  Thus military personnel need to know how to construct concrete walls  The southwestern states provide a good location to train personnel to construct concrete walls in the Middle East because it has  a relatively close  match in terrain, climate and  soil. Training benefits  would include practice in moving personnel, equipment and supplies  into an area and learning how to operate in that type physical environment.  

 
Using military personnel would lower the extra government cost of building a wall because military personnel are paid the same regardless of whether they are building walls, marching around or watching training films.   National Guard and Reserve units might work on the wall during  their summer camps.

Erect Wall for Military Training

President Trump can build a wall as a military training activity.   In a combat area concrete walls  may be needed as  part of a bunker to protect personnel or supplies. A wall can protect  buildings from a truck bomb on a nearby road.  Thus military personnel need to know how to construct concrete walls  The southwestern states provide a good location to train personnel to construct concrete walls in the Middle East because it has  a relatively close  match in terrain, climate and  soil. Training benefits  would include practice in moving personnel, equipment and supplies  into an area and learning how to operate in that type physical environment. 

Can President Trump Prosecute Those Perpetuating Crooked Enron's Global Warming Scam?

[Most of this was previously posted.  Some of the links may no longer work.].
 
Lawrence Solomon, executive director of  Energy Probe and Urban Renaissance Institute, has reported that Enron played a major role in pushing  the global warming scam, including establishing the Kyoto Protocals.

Enron had already profited from trading sulfur dioxide credits and saw the  potential for even greater profits from trading what would become known as "carbon credits".

The article is the first in a series of articles about those who seek to profit from what Weather  Channel founder John Coleman calls "the greatest scam in history."  It's too late to prosecute Enron executives, but what about executives in the companies that continue to profit from the scam.   The media's continued failure to report the truth could allow executives to claim they don't know claims about "global warming" or "climate change" are fraudulent.

Solomon states,  " The climate-change industry — the scientists, lawyers, consultants, lobbyists and, most importantly, the multinationals that work behind the scenes to cash in on the riches at stake — has emerged as the world’s largest industry. Virtually every resident in the developed world feels the bite of this industry..."  which increases the costs of various goods and services.

Enron was an early player  beginning early in the  administration of Bill Clinton to push for a carbon dioxide trading system.   Enron also sought support from environmental groups.
"Between 1994 and 1996, the Enron Foundation donated $1-million to the Nature Conservancy and its Climate Change Project, a leading force for global warming reform, while [Chairman Kenneth] Lay and other individuals associated with Enron donated $1.5-million to environmental groups seeking international controls on carbon dioxide."

According to Solomon, "Political contributions and Enron-funded analyses flowed freely, all geared to demonstrating a looming global catastrophe if carbon dioxide emissions weren’t curbed. An Enron-funded study that dismissed the notion that calamity could come of global warming, meanwhile, was quietly buried."

 Enron advised  the Clinton administration what to do at the Kyoto Japan Conference in 1997. 

To improve its chances for success Enron hired former Environmental Protection Agency regulator John Palmisano to become the company's lead lobbyist as senior director for Environmental Policy and Compliance.  Palismano wrote a memo describing the historic corporate achievement that was Kyoto.

“If implemented this agreement will do more to promote Enron’s business than will almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring of the energy and natural-gas industries in Europe and the United States,” Polisano began. “The potential to add incremental gas sales, and additional demand for renewable technology is enormous.”

The memo, entitled “Implications of the Climate Change Agreement in Kyoto & What Transpired,” summarized the achievements that Enron had accomplished. “I do not think it is possible to overestimate the importance of this year in shaping every aspect of this agreement,” he wrote.  He cited  three issues of specific importance to Enron in the climate-change debate:  the rules governing emissions trading, the rules governing transfers of emission reduction rights between countries, and the rules governing a gargantuan clean energy fund.

Polisano’s memo expressed satisfaction bordering on amazement at Enron’s successes. The rules governing transfers of emission rights “is exactly what I have been lobbying for and it seems like we won. The clean development fund will be a mechanism for funding renewable projects. Again we won .... The endorsement of emissions trading was another victory for us.”

“Enron now has excellent credentials with many ‘green’ interests including Greenpeace, WWF [World Wildlife Fund], NRDC [Natural Resources Defense Council], German Watch, the U.S. Climate Action Network, the European Climate Action Network, Ozone Action, WRI [World Resources Institute] and Worldwatch. This position should be increasingly cultivated and capitalized on (monetized),” Polisano explained.

Those who believe in Global Warming like to claim that they are opposed by corporate interests in the form of the energy companies.  They neglect to mention that the battle isn't against corporations, it is between different groups of corporations.  The energy companies are attempting to continue providing energy to consumers.  Companies on the other side are merely attempting to create a financial opportunity for themselves as financial parasites who provide nothing to anyone and get rich in return.

Democrats often criticize Republicans for being too close to business.  Democrats are just as close to business. They simply favor different businesses. 

As  William O'Keefe, chief executive officer of the Marshall Institute, puts it:  "The American people have had enough of convoluted, indecipherable financial schemes and the opportunists who exploit them. The public is understandably angry about Wall Street's exploitation of Main Street, and yet our political leaders are setting the stage for another complex trading market, ripe for corruption. The future Enrons and Bernie Madoffs of the world would like nothing better than to see the U.S. impose a new market for carbon emission trading."
 

Abortion Supporters Are on the Wrong Side of Alice's Looking Glass

Alice's looking glass had an odd  property.  It not only reversed the appearance of objects, it reversed logic..

When Alice entered the world behind the  mirror 'she discovered that if she tried to run she remained in place.   If she wanted to go toward something she had to try to move away from it.

The claim that abortion "empowers" women uses such reverse logic.  The most powerful action a woman can take is to make a new human being.   Abortion shuts down that powerful activity.

Making babies allows women to have a huge impact on the world. .   Two of the most important people of the last 70 years didn't hold high government office themselves. Rose Kennedy and Barbara Bush impacted the world by producing sons who held various high offices.

The Kennedy and Bush sons received a boost because the mothers were in politically prominent families.   However,  a woman can produce a powerful child without being part of  such  a family.

We would never have heard of Virginia  Clinton Kelley or Stanley Ann Dunham if they had not been powerful enough to produce sons Bill Clinton and Barack Obama who achieved the office of President of the United States.

Powerful women make babies.   Powerless  women get abortions.

Wrong People Protest Illegal Immigration

Protests of illegal immigration into the United States are peculiar because the wrong groups are protesting.

Most of those protesting immigration are white folks who don't want the entry level jobs the illegal immigrants usually take, particularly those involving manual labor or domestic service.   These jobs are the type of jobs young blacks need to enter the labor force.  Members of ethnic groups trying to enter the American labor force often begin with the least desirable jobs so that their children can have an opportunity for better jobs later.    The loss of entry level  jobs to illegal immigrants is keeping black unemployment higher than it should be.   Hispanic ancestry citizens and those who are in the country legally also can lose jobs to those who are in the country illegally.

President Barack Obama is undoubtedly encouraging illegal immigration because the corporate interests that bought the White House for him want a labor surplus so they can keep wages down and find people who are willing to work for less than the minimum wage. 

The immigrants that take jobs from whites  often are legal immigrants.   Some tech companies use the H1B immigration program to replace American employees with immigrants who will work for less.

Many of those who complain about "illegals" have the misconception that they are all from Mexico and come into the country by illegally crossing the border from Mexico.   Many of those who enter the country by illegally crossing the border are from Central America rather of Mexico.   Some of those who enter the country illegally arrive by sea from Asia, the Middle East or Africa.    Many of those who are in the country illegally entered the country legally on student or tourist visas and simply "forgot" to leave.

President Trump should put his money where his mouth is

President Donald Trump should put his money where his mouth is on the Wall.  It's easy for politicians to spend other people's money on projects.  If Trump really believes  the wall is necessary he should be willing to donate some of his  money, possibly his presidential salary, to the wall like many of our fellow Americans are doing.  Maybe he could suggest that those running his  businesses donate part of the profits to the wall.   Trump might try to persuade Congress to match private donations of money or labor.

Selling advertising could be practical near urban areas.  Perhaps some companies would be satisfied with using pictures of ads on rural sections of the wall they have paid to construct.

  Trump needs to educate those  who want gun control to the fact that gun control cannot be effective without border control.  A person who  can cross the border unchecked can cross carrying 6 M16 rifles while wearing a backpack full of ammo.