That's What I Think

I'm going to start posting my general comments on a different blog, one titled That's What I Think, which was the title of my personal column in the Rolla Daily News, when I worked there many years ago.

This blog, The Ozarks Chronicle Blog, will remain focused on the region and issues affecting the region.

Feel free to check both blogs each day. I try to post something every day or two, because I like to write and to spew up chunks of my opinion. Feel free to disagree.

Funny Christmas song

I enjoy Christmas music, both secular and religious. I especially like this song, "Blue Christmas."
My wife and I heard it on the radio while driving through Dallas back in December 2002. We laughed so hard we almost had to pull off the busy highway. It is one of our cherished Christmas memories. Click and listen.

Weird Christmas

Christmas, even here in the Ozarks, gets weirder and weirder.
Somehow, the Christmas tree has become a symbol of Christianity. An administrator at the Missouri State University in Springfield (biggest city in the Ozarks, self-proclaimed Queen City of the Ozarks, in fact) took down a Christmas tree in a campus building because a Jewish faculty member whined that it was insensitive to other religions.
KY3 new reports the tree either has been put back or will be put back in place and a menorah, which is a Jewish candlestick used in religious rituals, will be set up next to it.
Well, now, here's what's weird: The Christmas tree is not a religious symbol. The Jewish candlestick is.
See, here's how it works: Christmas started out as a pagan feast called Saturnalia, as I've been told. The Church co-opted that day and turned it into a holy day (holiday) and held a mass to celebrate the birth of Christ. Doing this apparently made the converts from paganism feel better; they got to have their feast and Jesus Christ, too.
So Christmas has always been a mixture of religious and secular, and it's a day celebrated by Christians and non-Christians alike. Until recently, nobody complained.
Then the pagans and the heathens, through organizations like the ACLU, decided to go after the religious symbols, like creches, or manger scenes, or Nativity scenes, on public property. They threatened lawsuits and now you can't find a Nativity scene hardly.
There are other religious symbols, like Stars of Bethlehem, that don't seem to be the targets of threats yet. Here in Rolla, our city and chamber of commerce hang stars on the utility poles. These are five-pointed stars, so they could also be the symbols of Wicca. (My wife, a native of Houston, Texas, loves the big lighted five-pointed stars. She sees them as tributes to Texas, the Lone Star State.)
Somehow, the tree has become a religious symbol, though, and trees have been taken down elsewhere, too.
The tree, though, is a secular symbol of Christmas, just as Santa Claus and the North Pole toy factory are all secular symbols of Christmas. There are no elves in the Bible, nor are there reindeer, so while these may be symbols of Christmas, they are not religious symbols.
If you're going to allow a menorah on public property, I think you should also allow a Nativity scene.
Here's what I think: If we can't have manger scenes on public property and we can't hear Christmas carols and hymns ("Up on the Housetop (Click, click, click)" is NOT a Christmas carol; "Away in the Manger" IS a Christmas hymn) piped over the loudspeakers at shopping centers, then we ought to make sure any private property we have control of DOES have manger scenes and Christmas carols. The Ozarks Chronicle office has a Nativity scene that will be pulled out of storage and put up here soon, and I've already started listening to Christmas songs, both religious and secular, in the office while at work.
If you decorate the outside of your house, why not include a religious symbol?

GateHouse papers "throw off a lot of cash"

OK, now if I'm reading this article right, if you've got money to invest, according to the article, a wise investment would be in GateHouse Media, the owner of the Rolla Daily News, the St. James Leader-Press, the St. Robert Daily Guide and many other newspapers in Missouri.
The reasons are several: 1.) GateHouse pays a high dividend, 2.) insiders are snapping up the stock, 3.) the stock price is low and it's certain to turn around, 4.) GateHouse continues to buy newspapers in communities where there are no competing newspapers, communities like Rolla, St. James and St. Robert/Waynesville.

Here's an excerpt or two:

These tiny community newspapers it (GateHouse) owns may not be growing much. But they sure do throw off a lot of cash. Operating cash was $41 million in the third quarter, or 34% of revenue. That juicy 14% dividend backed by such prodigious cash flow is one reason why Morningstar (MORN) analyst James Walden has a five star rating on GateHouse stock, Morningstar’s highest rating.

And while the company has loaded up on debt to finance acquisitions, it has cash flow of about twice its interest expenses, which provides a margin of safety. “Still, we'd be more comfortable if it paid down some of its debt bill,” cautions Walden.

....

GateHouse has been on a buying spree in the past year, purchasing community papers from operators like Gannett (GCI), Journal Register Company (JRC), and Copley Press.

Thanks to this aggressive acquisition strategy, revenue was up 60% in the third quarter to $119 million. Circulation doubled to 34.8 million. And operating cash rose 150% to $41million. Throw in acquisition-related synergies, and the buying spree means more cash to support the dividend.

As of the end of September, the company had 475 community publications including 86 daily newspapers, 264 weekly papers and 125 shoppers in about 20 states around the country.

While many national newspapers have seen revenue slip big time in part because of large circulation declines, sales at GateHouse were down only 1.7% last quarter. That’s not bad, relatively speaking. Part of this strength comes from the fact that GateHouse operates very small papers. Average paid circulation for its daily newspapers is less than 5,500, says Morningstar’s Walden. They are often the only game in town for local news and advertisers, or pretty close. Over 70% of the community papers have been published for more than a century.

I am offering no advice on buying stocks or investing money, I'm only sharing some information I found interesting.

GateHouse is also looking to buy some more newspapers, this time the Ottaway group from Dow Jones.

Audubon Chautauqua in Rolla Dec. 10

The Missouri Humanities Council reports the following on its blog:

Brian "Fox" Ellis, a renowned Chautauqua performer from Illinois, will present a "must-see" program as John James Audubon in Rolla on December 10 at 7:00 p.m. The program is sponsored under an MHC grant by the Ozark Rivers Chapter of the National Audubon Society. It's at the Ozark Actors Theatre, 701 North Cedar. For more information, contact Constance Roberts, (573) 426-5616.

Stores ignore, censor Christmas

Here's a surprising list of stores that ignore or censor Christmas by avoiding mention of the words Christmas or holiday.

What's surprising is that so many of the stores have Ozarks or Missouri connections!

The list is broken down into the "good," the "bad," the "ugly" and "mixed reviews."

The "good" includes Big Lots, Dillard's, JCPenney, Hobby Lobby, Sears and Wal-Mart, all of which I know have Ozarks connections, along with others that I'm not familiar with. These are stores not afraid to say "Christmas." This is a short list

The "bad" list, stores that give only a token mention of Christmas in their sales flyers, includes Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy, PetSmart and Staples, all of which I'm familiar with either locally in Rolla or in Springfield, Jeff City or Columbia.

The "ugly," those stores that apparently have a policy of avoiding the use of the word Christmas during the Christmas season, include Barnes and Noble, Circuit City, Walgreens (which is rumored to be coming to Rolla soon), Petco and Dick's Sporting Goods, Ebay and others that do business through catalog and internet in Missouri and the Ozarks.

Then there's the mixed reviews list that you'll have to take a look at. The list includes several pages of additional information that you'll find interesting, courstesy of Focus on the Family, the original publisher of the list and the copyright holder.

See, this is what I meant in the previous posting about Christmas in which I said I was more concerned about the secularization of Christmas than about the commercialization of it. The day is really returning to its pagan roots. The Church had taken the day and converted it, redeemed it so to speak, into a day to honor the birth of Christ. I don't mind if part of that honor and celebration includes gift-giving, and the merchandising involved in that. It's frightening, though, when the advertising that goes along with that merchandising only talks about "the holidays" or "this special season" or some other avoidance of the word that includes the reference to Christ. Most stores, if they have "background music" playing, will have only secular Christmas songs, not any Christmas carols or hymns.

You can, of course, choose to buy your gifts from home-owned, local stores in your community. Those shopkeepers will very likely be churchgoers and they will wish you a merry Christmas and may even have Christmas carols playing on a radio in the corner.

It's a celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior (who will someday be our Judge). The blessed Christ Child grew up to be crucified. His death somehow paid the penalty for our sins so we might have eternal life. Don't ask me how that works, because I don't know. All I know is that the Bible says it and I believe it. You can believe in Jesus as your savior or you can go to hell. It's that simple, and on "that great gettin' up morning" when you have to give an accounting to Judge Jesus, what will you say? There'll be no avoiding of certain terms, no slippery use of language, on that future date.

A strong economy

The economy is strong enough for people to buy lots of Christmas gifts.

The Springfield News-Leader used an AP story to report on the strong Show-Me State economy. Here's an excerpt:

Maplewood — One for you, one for me.
Black Friday shoppers stormed the stores for holiday gifts, and if they happened to see a few things for themselves along the way, they were OK with that, too. Several shoppers in Missouri said they weren't planning to go overboard on holiday gifts this year, but were picking up things they'd been eyeing for a while or needed for their homes.
Drawn in by sale prices on flashy electronics, their carts also included toasters, vacuums and crock pots by the time they left.
Analysts expect sales gains to be the weakest in five years this year. The Washington-based National Retail Federation predicted total holiday sales will be up 4 percent for the combined November and December period, the slowest growth since a 1.3 percent rise in 2002.
Holiday sales rose 4.6 percent in 2006 and growth has averaged 4.8 percent over the last decade. The day is called Black Friday because it is associated with the time when merchants' balance sheets go from "red" into the "black" of profitability.

Nationwide, AP reports Retailers see strong holiday start for the shopping season.

After what appeared to be a strong start to 2007 holiday shopping, retailers are hoping customers will keep buying in a season some forecasters say will be the weakest in five years.
Shoppers had been pulling back in recent months amid a challenging economy, and the big worry is that after the big spending spree this past weekend, they will retreat and return to malls only for last-minute shopping.
Stores and malls attracted bigger-than-expected crowds as early as midnight for discounted flat-panel TVs, digital cameras and toys on Friday. Strong sales continued through Saturday, according to a research group that tracks total sales at retail outlets across the country.

AP also reported Wall Street buoyed by strong holiday shopping. Here's a sampling of the report:

Wall Street stocks opened modestly higher on Monday, as reports of a good start to the holiday shopping season were offset by increasing fears of a US economic slowdown and further turmoil in world credit markets.
Although holiday sales for Black Friday, traditionally the busiest shopping day of the season, were better than expected after this year's Thanksgiving, aggressive discounting was a feature, according to some analysts.
Combined retail sales for Friday and Saturday increased 7.2 per cent from the same period a year earlier, according to ShopperTrak RCT.
However a survey from the National Retail Federation found consumers spent an average of 3.5 per cent less over the holiday weekend. The S&P retail index was trading slightly lower early on Monday.

Whoops! I spoke too soon. Just checked the wire again and now the AP is reporting Stocks fall as credit worries resurface. Here's the latest (but wait a minute, it's like the Missouri weather, could change in five minutes):

NEW YORK - Wall Street turned lower Monday as concerns about a weakening credit market curbed investors' enthusiasm for reports of strong electronics sales over the holiday weekend.
he New York Federal Reserve, acknowledging "heightened pressures" in money markets that are expected to last through the rest of the year, said it plans to conduct a series of repurchase agreements aimed at boosting liquidity in the credit markets. The announcement from the New York Fed, which carries out monetary policy set by the U.S. Federal Reserve, essentially puts in writing many of the steps the Fed often takes at this time of year.
The Fed announced it would inject $8 billion to the banking system on Wednesday. The amount of money is somewhat larger than in past years at this time.

Man, oh, man, it doesn't take much to move the stock market. One good Ozarks Boy fart could bring the whole financial house down!
Of course, Wall Street is in New York, so that might explain the flightiness.
Well, don't let Wall Street's silliness deter you from buying some quality gifts for your family this Christmas. Don't go overboard; use common sense, but don't let anyone put a guilt trip on you for buying gifts for your children and other loved ones.
Give a little bit, too, to an agency that helps people. In Rolla, I'd suggest GRACE for Christmas.

Just what you'd expect from Yankees

The University of Missouri-Columbia Tigers are ranked No. 1 in the AP football poll. The team is one victory away from the BCS championship game on Jan. 7, and all of us are hoping that victory comes Saturday against Oklahoma Saturday in San Antonio.

Want to know how the New York Times views our state? Want to know what New Yorkers think about us? Read this excerpt:

Imagine Albania playing for the World Cup title in soccer, or an amateur golfer approaching the final hole with the United States Open at stake. Think of Adam Sandler as a nominee for best actor at the Academy Awards.
With one week remaining in the regular season of this most unpredictable of college football campaigns, a similar possibility may await. The University of Missouri and West Virginia University are each one victory from playing for college football’s national title. Neither university has won a national title in football. Rarely has either one come close.
Over the past four decades, Missouri football has sent reporters thumbing through their thesauruses to find new ways to describe the Tigers’ football futility. (The actor Brad Pitt, who attended Missouri’s journalism school, found a more lucrative profession.)

And it goes on. Oh, those snooty and snotty New Yorkers. The Empire State really is a piece of work. Oh, well, what can you expect from Yankeeland except condescension?

What's odd is that in the summer, you see lots of New York State license plates here in the Ozarks. The city folks like to get out here in the heartland and hill country to relax in our streams, camp in our forests and go take in a music show at Branson.

If you're from the Northeast, we'll forgive your looking down your noses at us. Yes, indeedy, we're happy to have you in our state each year, spending your money with us. Come back to see us again--year after year. Just don't forget the way back home to Yankeeland.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

Yahoo News had an interesting story Thursday about a program to reintroduce the American Chestnut tree. Here's a part of it:

INDIANAPOLIS - Growing up in the 1920s, Bill Lord remembers feasting on the sweet, rich nuts of American chestnut trees — the majestic species that a fungus would soon all but wipe out.uff of holiday songs, Lord is now part of a far-flung network of volunteers working to return the so-called "Redwood of the East" to the forests it once dominated.

The American Chestnut Foundation oversees a tree-breeding program with chapters in 15 Eastern states and is closing in on blight-resistant American chestnuts trees it hopes could revive the species.

Unless a new biological invader intervenes, the Bennington, Vt.-based group hopes to begin mass replantings in about a decade in the chestnut's original range from Maine to Mississippi.

Lord, an 86-year-old retired veterinarian from Plum, Pa., said reviving the tree would be a boon not just to people — for its handsome, highly rot-resistant lumber and tasty nuts — but to a wide range of animals.

"Bears, deer, rabbits, raccoons, crows, foxes — you could just go on and on," he said. "Bringing it back would greatly increase the food supply for wildlife, and we'd have a wonderful, fast-growing timber tree."

The University of Missouri is going at this another route. Instead of waiting for the 10 years it will take to redevelop the American chestnut, MU has a program to introduce more blight-resistant Chinese chestnuts into the state. The Center for Agroforestry has a website about the program, particularly the annual chestnut roast held in October. That website includes links to growers, so if you're looking to roast some chestnuts on an open fire this month, see if they've got any left.

Price of gasoline

What's the price of gasoline where you live?

Here in Rolla, Missouri, it is $2.989 per gallon. I went to Springfield for Thanksgiving and it was $2.859 there. It was still $2.989 when I got back to Rolla.

It's always higher in Rolla, for some reason.

Commercializing Christmas doesn't bother me; something else does

OK, now's the time for all the griping about the commercialization of Christmas to start. Here's a website that asks "What Would Jesus Buy?" It then goes on to talk about some goofus who dresses up like a minister and goes around to shopping malls to preach against shopping. Here's a sample:

Bill Talen, known as Reverend Billy, doesn't mind making a fool of himself. He is happy to throw himself on the floor in a fit of religious ecstasy, perform cash register exorcisms or go caroling with the 35 members of the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, singing such favorites as "Fill the Malls With Wealthy People," to the tune of "Deck the Halls." He does all this and much, much more in the new documentary about him and his Church of Stop Shopping, "What Would Jesus Buy?"

Ten years ago Talen came to New York and, struck by the commercialization in Times Square, wanted to do something. He saw the people getting the most attention were the street preachers, so getting into his role, he bought a clerical collar to go with his white caterer's jacket, dyed his hair blonde, combed it into a tall pompadour and started preaching against overconsumption.

If people can change how they act at Christmas, Talen says, that could bleed over into the rest of the year. And he thinks people are ready for change. He sees it with all the emails the church gets supporting its anti-consumer message and in other ways, such as the dozens of communities across America that have successfully resisted Wal-Mart. He points to the town of Hercules, in California, which used eminent domain to take the land that the giant retailer planned to build on. In the city council's definition, a Wal-Mart store is "urban blight."

Then we have another website that encourages support of something called Buy Nothing Day. Curiously, the website is advertising-supported and appears to be devoted to the promotion of travel, especially by airline, and the use of hotels and motels around the world. Well, here's a sample:

With the ridiculous rate at which consumerism is growing around the world and the billions of dollars being minted by international brands always made me think that there is no hope; consumerism is impossible to undo.

But that's not true because today is "Buy Nothing Day" (for North America) -- a day launched by Kalle Lasn, the founder of Vancouver based Adbusters, in 1993 to ridicule the ghastly heights of global consumerism. It is now celebrated internationally across 65 nations on November 24.

Some people will never understand such ideas though, for instance, watch this video from CNN -- the host just doesn't understand how this day makes any sense!

So as friends and most intelligent and considerate readers of Gadling, why not try to not buy anything this Christmas? Spend it appreciating the non-material things you have?

Happy Buy Nothing Day!

I just really find that an odd entry on a website devoted to spending your disposable income on world travel! Am I alone in that?

Listen, liberals, when you promote no-shopping and you encourage people to stay away from stores, who are you hurting? In the big-box stores, are you hurting the owners? The shareholders? No, you're hurting the people who work in those stores, the hourly wage workers who are stocking the shelves, ringing up the cash registers, helping you carry things out to your car or truck, helping you find merchandise on the shelves. If you refuse to go shopping at a locally owned store, who are you hurting? Some hugely wealthy Scrooge? No, very likely you're hurting the man and woman who own the store, work there and are trying to make enough money to pay the rent, keep the lights and heat on and have money to make a home for their children. Are these the people you want to hurt? No, they're not. So don't be a moron. Go out and spend some money this Christmas season. Be sensible about it. Don't go into debt. Buy stuff people need. Do like my parents and grandparents did. Buy socks, underwear, pajamas and one or two toys for each kid, wrap them up and have a good Christmas. Again, I say, don't be a moron.

I'm more concerned about the secularization of Christmas than I am about the commercialization of it.

I'm concerned about the media, the liberals and the frightened moderates who go along with them, all of whom want to forget that this is a holy day commemorating the birth of Christ. We see this in the lawsuits against manger scenes, the avoidance of the words "Merry Christmas" and the news stories slanted against anything Christian.

The big-box stores and the little shopkeepers who hope you'll spend money on gifts are not hurting Christmas, but the so-called media watchdogs and the liberals (and their frightened moderate friends) are trying to destroy it.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Ozarks

Good morning! And Happy Thanksgiving from the Missouri Hill Country!. This is my favorite holiday, my favorite day, of the year. So far, the merchants and the media haven't commercialized it, although for many people, it's nothing more than a day to eat a lot and watch football games. I hope for you it really is Thanksgiving Day, and I hope you will remember today to thank God for your life and liberty. That's what this day is supposed to be about, a day for thanking God. There's nothing wrong with food and games; both were part of the first Thanksgiving. Family, friends and fellowship were also part of the first Thanksgiving.

That first Thanksgiving went on for three days, and each day began with prayer, praise and worship of God. It was God who was thanked, because the Pilgrims knew He gave them life and sustained their lives. That hasn't changed. You owe your life to God, so thank Him for that--today and everyday.

OK, here's something interesting. The following is from an old textbook my wife and I bought at a Friends of the Rolla Public Library book sale, A History of the United States by Henry Eldridge Bourne and Elbert Jay Benton, professors of history in Western Reserve University. It was first published in 1913 and again in 1921 for sixth graders.

Their Voyage. -- The Pilgrims left Holland in the summer of 1620. After many delays in England, a company of 102 sailed from Plymouth, September 6, in the ship Mayflower. For nine weeks the little company was tossed about on the rough seas of the North Atlantic, living in narrow, unwholesome quarters, as the first emigrants to Virginia had done thirteen years before.
Choosing a Place for a Settlement.--The Pilgrims had planned to settle somewhere in the neighborhood of the Hudson or the Delaware River, in what was then regarded as the northernpart of Virginia. But after the Mayflower passed Cape Cod it came upon dangerous shoals. The stormy season had set in, and winter was fast coming on. The plan to go farther was, therefore, abandoned, and a site for settlement was sought nearer at hand.
The "Mayflower" Compact.--Steps were also taken to ensure orderly government in the colony after landing. The men held a meeting in the cabin of the Mayflower, chose one of their number, John Carver, to be their governor, and signed a solemn compact or agreement to submit to the laws which should be made by the majority.
Beginnings of Plymouth. -- A party of explorers in a boat left the ship at Cape Cod and explored the coast. On May, December 21, 1620, they landed at a place which Captain John Smith had already seen. He had given the name New England to the region from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod, and the name Plymouth to the well-sheltered harbor into which the Pilgrims now sailed. This also happened to be the name of the last English port which they had seen. They found a protected harbor, running brooks, and cleared land at Plymouth, and decided to locate there. Several days later the Mayflower came to anchor in the harbor and the men began building the first houses. Lots were given to each family in proportion to the number of members. The women and children and the sick remained for weeks aboard the ship. Before the first winter was over several small houses had been built, with the sides of rudely squared logs and the roofs thatched with dry swamp grass. One served as a storehose for tools and provisions. In the others the families moved as soon as they were able.
The First Winter.--Prolonged ship life and exposure in a strange climate made havoc in the Pilgrim colony. When the first warm weather of the spring came barely half the colonists were living. Governor Carver died in April, 1621. Eighteen married women had come over in the Mayflower; only fourof them still lived. The graves of the dead were carefully covered and planted with corn in the spring in order to conceal from the Indians the ravages of disease in the little colony.
Fear of the Indians.--The Pilgrams were fortunately free from trouble with the Indians. A recent pestilence had carried off most of those of the neighborhood, and left their cleared corn fields ready for the settlers to plant. The settlers were, however, always on their guard against attack. Whether in the field or wood, at church, or at town meeting, each had his gun by his side. Their leader in arms was Captain Miles Standish, who, like Captain John Smith, was a brave and skilful soldier.
Friendly Indians.--The colonists were surprised on a fair morning toward the end of March, while many were still sick, at the sudden appearance of a solitary Indian in their village. He advanced boldly, and game then the good old English greeting of "Welcome!" He proved to be a chief from the far-off Maine coast who was visiting Indians nearby. His name was Samoset. He had learned English from the fishing vessels that annually visited his region. A few days afterward Samoset reappeared, bringing an Indian named Squanto, the only survivor of the tribe that had formerly inhabited the region around Plymouth. Squanto had once been captured and carried to England and had learned English. Samoset and Squanto brought a chieftain named Massasoit to visit the white men. In this way the Indians of the neighborhood became friendly with the settlers. Squanto taught them how to hunt, and where to get fish, and helped them to procure corn and furs from the Indians. He showed them how to plant corn, placing a fish in each hole in order to fertilize the poor soil.
A New Kind of Money.--In trading with the Indians the colonists learned to use, in place of money, strings of beads made from clam-shells. The shells were first broken into small pieces, then chipped and ground into a round form. A hole was bored through the center, and finally the polished beads were strung together on fibers of hemp or on sinews of deer. Six white beads, or three purple beads, were counted as worth a penny.
The First Thanksgiving Day. --The settlers at first had no horses or oxen or even plows, but many of them were farmers and they were soon able to reaise corn, wheat, rye, barley, and peas enough for their wants. Then their first harvest was gathered, they decided to set apart a few days for rest and thanksgiving. Massasoit and his tribe were asked to join them in the season of festivity. Ninety Indians came to Plymouth. These native guests remained three days. They contributed five deer as their share. The Indians amused the white men with wild, frolicsome games, and the settelrs in turn entertained them with military tactics and evolutions. Each day was opened with a religious service. This was the first Thanksgiving in New England.

If you read the text above, think about what you read. The Pilgrims came over on a crowded sailing ship. The trip took nine weeks. When they arrived, there was no one to greet them, no hotel to check into. They arrived in December and had to start building houses. Did you catch the part that said half of them died that winter? Did you catch that there were 18 married women who arrived in December but only four who lived to see spring?

Do any of you have the faith, the persistence, the work ethic, the vision to do what the Pilgrims did? I'll tell you the answer to that question. Here it is: No. NO. NO! Absolutely not. Not one of you do. Nor do I. Modern Americans have nothing close to the attributes the Pilgrims had. We could not begin to build a land dedicated to Christian liberty. We can't even manage to keep intact what previous generations handed to us.

You'd better get down on your knees sometime today and thank God for all of his rich blessings on the United States and on each of us individually. More important, thank him for the grace and the mercy he offers us through his Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Pray for lots of wisdom. Pray for revival. Pray that people's hearts will be open to accept Jesus.

Some bad teaching in public schools about Thanksgiving

Leave it to the liberals in the public schools to try to take away the good feelings of Thanksgiving Day. Fox News reports the third largest school district in the state of Washington is teaching kids that Thanksgiving is "a time of mourning" for its Native American (or, as i say, Indian) students.

Fox says Caprice Hollins, the Seattle school district's director of equity, race and learning support, sent out a memo to teachers about the so-called myths of the first Thanksgiving. Hollins told the teachers that Thanksgiving is not a happy time because it's a reminder of the betrayal of the Native Americans (or, as I call them, Indians).

But one Seattle-area tribe says Thanksgiving is not somber on the reservation but a time to see friends and family, as it is for other Americans.
Native Americans in the Northwest celebrate the holiday with turkey and salmon, said Daryl Williams of the Tulalip Tribes. Before the period of bitter and violent relationships between natives and their culturally European counterparts, they worked together to survive, he said.
"The spirit of Thanksgiving, of people working together to help each other, is the spirit I think that needs to grow in this country, because this country has gotten very divisive," he said.

Fox also noted that the school district last year placed on its Web site a definition of racim "that claimed planning ahead and individualism were examples of cultural racism." I guess liberals believe Southern white people keep all the minorities in shackles by urging hard work, budgeting, planning ahead, individualism, savings, investment, education, faith, hope, love of God and country--you know, all those culturally racist virtues .

I suppose the biggest "sin" of all (in the liberals' view) is to be grateful to God for this nation's history, heritage and contribution to the world. I suppose liberals would think it blasphemy to believe that God has had His hand on this nation since its discovery--a Guiding Hand that will remain as long as we follow Jesus Christ, his Son, as our Lord and Savior.

Oil in Missouri

KOMU-TV out of Columbia reports the following:

Bill Thorton is the chief operating officer for Megawest Energy. He said he thinks the oil business in Missouri is important - so important that Megawest has invested one million dollars into an oil field in Vernon County, Mo.
According to Megawest, Missouri oil does cost a little bit more to get out of the ground, and is thick and cold. The oil is also not very deep in the ground.
Megawest said they hope to be pumping oil by February. Engineers are working on 8- acres now. The ultimate goal is 5,000 acres a year with a return of 10,000 barrels of oil per day.

GateHouse Media stock downgraded

GateHouse Media, the giant New York media company that owns many weeklies and small daily newspapers in the Ozarks, is seeing its stock start to fall out of favor.

From Editor & Publisher Wednesday, Nov. 14:

Goldman Sachs downgraded GateHouse Media from "buy" to "neutral" after the company reported lackluster Q3 results on Tuesday.
Goldman believed that GateHouse was somewhat protected from the downturn affecting larger metro papers due to its local focus in smaller markets.
"Our thesis," lead analyst Peter Appert wrote in a note to investors, "has proven only partially correct."
Goldman called GateHouse's Q3 performance "anemic."

From Forbes:

Shares of GateHouse Media Inc. slid to a fresh 52-week low Wednesday as the newspaper publisher's third-quarter results missed Wall Street's expectations and a Goldman Sachs analyst downgraded the company. Peter Appert said GateHouse is starting to feel the industrywide pain of sluggish ad sales, with third-quarter same-store ad revenue down 3.3 percent and classified revenue dropping 8.4 percent.

From the Boston Globe:

Gatehouse executives tell investors their company can withstand forces buffeting the rest of the newspaper industry (read: Internet) and thrive thanks to a "hyper-local" strategy employed by all their small hometown papers. The idea: Less competition and better protection against elements of the Web that have been sapping newspaper revenue, especially sites that turn cash-cow classified advertising into free services.
But the hyperlocal story isn't holding up as well as some investors hoped. Gatehouse's third-quarter revenue declined about 1.7 percent on a "same-store" basis. Advertising revenue was a little worse, down 3.3 percent. That performance was better than the overall industry, but hyper-local didn't provide the kind of insurance some people expected.

GateHouse, majority-owned by Fortress Investment Group, owns the Rolla Daily News, the St. James Leader-Journal and the St. Robert Daily Guide in Phelps and Pulaski counties. It also owns papers in Camdenton, Neosho, Carthage and other Missouri cities.

President Bush's Thanksgiving proclamation

Here's another website that has all the presidential Thanksgiving proclamations. You'll find not all of them were in November and not all of them called for feasting and family fellowship. Some called for (gasp!) prayer and fasting! Imagine that.

Following is President George W. Bush's proclamation with my bold-facing of references to Almighty God. You'll notice that there aren't nearly as many references to God in President Bush's proclamation as there were in President Washington's. Over the decades and centuries of our nation's history, we've lost sight of the Source of all our blessings: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in other words, the Triune Godhead.

We'd best get on our knees and pray, not just on Thanksgiving Day. We'd best offer prayers not just of thanksgiving but of repentance. We'd best offer some pleadings for mercy, grace and peace.

Thanksgiving Day, 2007
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
Americans are a grateful people, ever mindful of the many ways we have been blessed. On Thanksgiving Day, we lift our hearts in gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy, the people we love, and the gifts of our prosperous land.
Our country was founded by men and women who realized their dependence on God and were humbled by His providence and grace. The early explorers and settlers who arrived in this land gave thanks for God's protection and for the extraordinary natural abundance they found. Since the first National Day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed by President George Washington, Americans have come together to offer thanks for our many blessings. We recall the great privilege it is to live in a land where freedom is the right of every person and where all can pursue their dreams. We express our deep appreciation for the sacrifices of the honorable men and women in uniform who defend liberty. As they work to advance the cause of freedom, our Nation keeps these brave individuals and their families in our thoughts, and we pray for their safe return.
While Thanksgiving is a time to gather in a spirit of gratitude with family, friends, and neighbors, it is also an opportunity to serve others and to share our blessings with those in need. By answering the universal call to love a neighbor as we want to be loved ourselves, we make our Nation a more hopeful and caring place.
This Thanksgiving, may we reflect upon the past year with gratefulness and look toward the future with hope. Let us give thanks for all we have been given and ask God to continue to bless our families and our Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 22, 2007, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather together in their homes and places of worship with family, friends, and loved ones to reinforce the ties that bind us and give thanks for the freedoms and many blessings we enjoy.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.
GEORGE W. BUSH

Politician uses public office to encourage religious activity

Now, here's an interesting document. It is President George Washington's original Thanksgiving proclamation published in a newspaper of that day. Following is the text of that proclamation, taken from an interesting website about early America. First, though, I want to make two observations, related to one another:

1.) President Washington believed in Almighty God and wasn't afraid to talk about it or encourage other people to believe or pray to God, even by using his public office and a public document.

2.) I've heard many times (in high school and at the university, primarily) that Washington and the other Founding Fathers were Deists who believed that God created the universe and set it in motion like a machine. If that's true, why is a so-called Deist thanking God for blessings and beseeching Him for continued watch over the nation? It sounds to me like President Washington was a Christian.

OK, here's the proclamation with my bold-facing of the references to God:

General Thanksgiving

By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America
A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houfes of Congress have, by their joint committee, requefted me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to eftablifh a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and affign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of thefe States to the fervice of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our fincere and humble thanksfor His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the fignal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpofitions of His providence in the courfe and conclufion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have fince enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to eftablish Conftitutions of government for our fafety and happinefs, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are bleffed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffufing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleafed to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in moft humbly offering our prayers and fupplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and befeech Him to pardon our national and other tranfgreffions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private ftations, to perform our feveral and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a bleffing to all the people by conftantly being a Government of wife, juft, and conftitutional laws, difcreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all fovereigns and nations (especially fuch as have shewn kindnefs unto us); and to blefs them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increafe of fcience among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind fuch a degree of temporal profperity as he alone knows to be beft.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand feven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

Source: The Massachusetts Centinel, Wednesday, October 14, 1789

A happy CEO and rising stock prices for GateHouse

Although GateHouse Media's income was up, it lost $8.8 million in the third quarter, according to a report on the company's website.

Michael E. Reed, GateHouse Media's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are very pleased with GateHouse Media's performance in the third quarter. Our strategy of focusing on strong local media franchises in geographically diverse, small markets has allowed us to significantly outperform the newspaper industry and show resilience in a challenging advertising environment."

The company's stock is up, too, in spite of the quarterly loss, so maybe employees at the Rolla Daily News, the St. Robert Daily Guide and the St. James Leader-Journal, as well as those at all the other GateHouse papers in the state, can look forward to some big Christmas bonuses.

Calling on a Higher Power

The Georgia Farm Radio Network reports that state's chief executive, Gov. Sonny Perdue, has sought Almighty God's grace and mercy by praying for an end to drought in the Southeast.
Reports the GFRN:

As Georgia descends deeper into drought, Gov. Sonny Perdue has ordered water restrictions, launched a legal battle and asked President George W. Bush for help. On Tuesday, the governor called on a higher power.
He joined lawmakers and ministers on the steps of the state Capitol to pray for rain.
While public prayer vigils might raise eyebrows in other parts of America, they are mostly shrugged off in the Bible Belt of the southern states, where turning to the heavens for help is common and sometimes even politically expedient.
"Christianity has more of a place in the culture here than in some other region," said Ray Van Neste, a professor of Christian studies at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. "And it's only natural, in a way, for the public to pray for rain."
Perdue would not be the first governor to hold a call for public prayer during the epic drought gripping the Southeast. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley issued a proclamation declaring a week in July as "Days of Prayer for Rain" to "humbly ask for His blessings and to hold us steady in times of difficulty."
Political heavyweights outside the U.S. are known to occasionally plead to the heavens for rain. In May, Australian Prime Minister John Howard asked churchgoers to pray for rain in hopes of snapping a drought that has devastated crops and bankrupted farmers Down Under.
In the U.S., public expressions of faith are often discouraged as a breach of the separation of church and state.
Thomas Jefferson, for one, resisted calls for a federal day of prayer. But he was an exception. From George Washington, who declared "a day of prayer and thanksgiving," to Harry Truman, who established a National Day of Prayer, American politicians have not been shy about associating themselves with petitions to the Almighty.
With rivers and reservoirs dropping to dangerously low levels across the region, a prayer rally at a high school football stadium in the Georgia town of Watkinsville drew more than 100 worshippers last week, and a gospel concert dedicated to rain attracted hundreds more two weeks ago at an Atlanta church.
"We need to try a different approach," said Rocky Twyman, who organized the concert. "We need to call on God, because what we're doing isn't working. We think that instead of all this fussing and fighting, Gov. Perdue and all these others would come together and pray."
A Baptist, Perdue has several times mentioned the need for prayer -- along with water conservation -- as the crisis has worsened. Over the summer, he participated in a day of prayer for agriculture at a gathering at the Georgia Farm Bureau in Macon.


Let's all join the Georgians in calling on the Lord for mercy on the land.

Saving some wild space

Having just written that I believe we need to drill for oil in Alaska, I'm now faced with the news that the Missouri Wilderness Coalition wants to set aside 50,000 acres of Missouri land as a preservation area.

The Associated Press reported the full story and you can read the whole thing by clicking, but here's a quick excerpt:

Hundreds of bird-watchers, backpackers, hunters and rafters from across the state are lobbying Congress to designate about 50,000 acres as federally protected wilderness areas.

If the Missouri Wilderness Coalition succeeds, it would be the first time in more than 23 years that Congress has designated a wilderness area in Missouri. It would almost double the amount of land in the state with that kind of federal protection.

Most of the land is within the Mark Twain National Forest. If it becomes federally protected, the land would be off-limits to all-terrain-vehicle riding, logging, mining and other activities that might mar the rugged landscape.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday that Republican U.S. Sen. Kit Bond has expressed interest in supporting the measure. But the proposal could still face significant hurdles. The group must convince a member of the Missouri delegation to sponsor legislation - and Bond hasn't yet committed to doing so.

Now, I've got to think about which side I'm for, so I can decide what I need to say in a letter to Sen. Bond. I'm for economic development, and I'm for using natural resources. However, there's no doubt we need to preserve some areas in Southern Missouri. Population pressure continues to build, and urban sprawl is reaching out farther. Even little ole Rolla is eating up farmland and forestland, and the city has an ambitious plan to sprawl west along the interstate.

My inclination is to support the preservation of the resources in these 50,000 acres. I want a place for the birds and those who watch them, a place for hunters and a place for backpackers. All-terrain vehicle users can find other places.

In spite of thise preservationist bent I've developed, I still believe we need to drill for oil in Alaska, otherwise, we'll have 50,000 acres preserved and no money to buy gasoline (or no gasoline at all) to drive over to do some birding.

The forest is full of deer hunters

The Kansas City Star this morning has a great story about the importance of deer hunting to a huge number of Missourians. Reports the Star:

See if you can answer this one.

Which Missouri sports tradition will attract a crowd of almost 500,000 this weekend?

Here are a few clues. It has nothing to do with the ball sports, it will take place in the boonies, and it will include participants from all walks of life.

Give up? We’re talking about the Missouri deer opener, the marquee event in the outdoors-sports world.

The woods south and west of Rolla are already full of city slickers who have set up camp and are drinking and getting ready to go out in the morning and start firing away.

KTTR's Bill Bates had some good advice this morning for his fellow Morning Mayor Lee Buhr: "Don't go out in the forest with your white handkerchief hanging out of your back pocket."

ABC News pooh-poohs story about new high

The rumors and internet reports about America's next generation getting high on the smell of their own excrement are not true, according to this report from ABC News online.

Of course, now that the stories are out on the web and in the electronic media, kids with no common sense will no doubt try it.

Good news for Ozarkers and others

I picked up a copy of the 2008 Old Farmers Almanac (the one with the yellow cover and the hole in the upper left corner so you can hang it on a nail in the wall of your indoor privy) and discovered this in the Heartland weather forecast on page 197:

Winter will be about two degrees above normal, on average, with slightly below-normal precipitation. The coldest temperatures will occur in early December, early and mid- to late January, and mid-February. Snowfall will be near normal in Iowa and below normal elsewhere, with the heaviest snowfalls in mid-December, early to mid-January, and late February.

Hooray! It's going to be a little warmer this winter and there will be less snow to shovel.

Now let me warn you about something, though. Missouri Hill Country science says this: Weather always averages out. We're going through a cycle of warmth, but we're going to have to pay the price in the future for this. When this cycle ends, we'll go through a cycle of cold.

Bad news for Ozarkers and everyone else

This morning I woke up to a newscast on my clock-radio informing me that oil was almost $100 a barrel, and once it got there, I should expect to pay $4 a gallon for gasoline.

Great, just great. I make my living as an advertising salesman/reporter/photographer for regional monthly magazine, The Ozarks Chronicle. Also, I work 30 hours a week as a sales associate for a retail store in a town about 25 miles from where I live. I have to drive a lot just to make money to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. My old Chevrolet Corsica took $40 to fill up day before yesterday when gasoline was $2.89. I didn't even look to see what gas cost today. I dread to think about what it's going to cost when oil takes another hike and the media whip everyone into a cavalcade of price hikes.

This is bad news for all of us Ozarkers, not just salesmen like me, but guys who haul cattle to market, the men and women who are in construction, folks who have to drive to bigger cities to work in what few factories are remaining. Those folks will see their disposable income lowered by the cost of energy, and that's going to affect the merchants in small towns across the Ozarks. I hate to sound so negative and pessimistic, folks, but we need to have lower energy costs to keep our economic engine running.

Abundant energy is within our grasp. This country has a wealth of energy resources. We could go to Alaska and drill today and start pumping oil ASAP but the environmentalists have got the lawmakers scared to do that. We've got plenty of coal, but I heard on the news that there's a big move never to burn another chunk of coal because of so-called global warming. Kansas turned down a coal-fired electrical plant recently that a group of electrical cooperatives were wanting to build.

Folks, this is a bunch of crap. There's no such thing as manmade global warming. It's a hoax that people like Al Gore have come up with to feather their nests with money, power and fame. If the globe is warming up, it's a natural thing. The earth warms and it cools, then it warms again, then it cools again. The same scientists who are working us into a mouth-foaming frenzy of worry about global warming are the same ones who warned of an ice age 30 years ago. They're the same scientists who acknowledge that the earth has been warmer in the past, even before man's technology started emitting fumes.

If the earth is warming, nature will just adapt. If some species of animals go extinct because of natural processes, so what? The dinosaurs went extinct and I for one don't miss them.

We need to let our lawmakers know we want energy. We demand energy. We want to put people to work. We want to drill oil and we want to mine coal. We want to burn both. We also want nuclear power plants. We want more wind farms and we want solar power. We want all research and development and utilization of our resources to proceed with common sense. Locking them up in Alaska or beneath our soil here while we pay $6 a gallon for gasoline and have to keep our furnaces turned down to near-freezing, well, that just doesn't make a dadgum bit of sense.

Something for nothing? Not hardly

There are people in this world working hard to con you out of your money. KY3 in Springfield has a report about a new mail scam in the Ozarks, so be very careful. The TV station reports:

A new scam has made its' way to the Ozarks through your mail.
With promises of winning $38,000, these con artists claiming to be Enterprise Rent-A-Car are ready to take you for a ride. One springfield woman wasn't fooled by this scam and now she wants others to know bit.
It started at a normal Saturday for Peggy Cunningham.
"I went to the mailbox and saw this letter from Toronto, Ontario," Cunningham said.
Inside was two checks, one for almost $38,000 and a cashiers check for $3,800.
"Both had been run through a check protector and the signature was a stamp which a lot of times businesses do use."
The former banker grew curious.
"I had no idea how I had any connection with Enterprise Car Rental," Cunningham said.
After calling the Enterprise office in St. Louis, Peggy got on the internet and did a search for Secured Bond Bureau, another name included in the letter.
"It came up number one ripoff report by consumers for consumers," Cunningham said.
Instead of winning a sweepstakes, at stake was sweeping away Peggy's savings.
"Don't try and cash the smaller check," Cunningham read on the website.

The KY3 website has more details on how the scam works. Just remember: You don't get something for nothing, so if you get a promise in the mail, either throw it away or give it to a law enforcement agency.

Let's hope this is an Internet hoax

Well, this is just what the world needs: a supermouse that can run faster, eat more and reproduce well into old age. Science does it again!

Scientists have been astounded by the creation of a genetically modified "supermouse" with extraordinary physical abilities - comparable to the performance of the very best athletes - raising the prospect that the discovery may one day be used to transform people's capacities.

The mouse can run up to 6km at a speed of 20m per minute for five hours or more without stopping. Scientists said that this is equivalent to a man cycling at speed up an Alpine mountain without a break. Although it eats up to 60 percent more food than an ordinary mouse, the modified mouse does not put on weight. It also lives longer and enjoys an active sex life well into old age - being capable of breeding at three times the normal maximum age.

American scientists who created the mice - they now have a breeding colony of 500 - said that they were stunned by their abilities, especially given that the animals came about as a result of a standard genetic modification to a single metabolism gene shared with humans.

They emphasised that the aim of the research was not to prepare the way to enhance the genes of people, but they accepted that it may be possible to use the findings to develop new drugs or treatments that could one day be used to "enhance" the natural abilities of athletes.

Let's hope this is an Internet joke or hoax.