12/25/2009

7 Responses to “Merry Christmas 2009”

1. I second the motion. Americans have been selected genetically for independence and resistance to totalitarian government. Our ancestors fled tyranny. My own left Ireland well before the potato famine and my great grandfather, for whom I am named, struck off to Illinois when Lincoln was a lawyer. He worked as a constable in the towns of Peru-LaSalle and worked in a glass factory there. On the day he quit to return to New York and marry my great grandmother, he made himself a glass cane. It hangs in a shadow box on my wall.

   They returned to Illinois with two small children and had ten more in the farm country south of Chicago. As he worked, he saved his money and bought more land. As each of his nine sons got married, he gave them a farm, for which they had to repay him half the value. With that money, he bought more land. By 1905, he had moved to town and the entire area was settled by his children and grandchildren.

   He and my great grandmother helped to build a Catholic church in the town they lived in, Odell, Illinois. The first stained glass window to the left has their names as donors. The first window to the right is named for my grandmother’s parents. He died in 1905 and is buried in the Catholic cemetery. My father is buried in the same family plot. With all this, my great grandfather never learned to read or write and could not figure on paper.

   With ancestors like that, I don’t think we will tolerate tyranny, even if it offers free medical care.

   Mike K (2cf494) — 12/25/2009 @ 12:50 pm

   
   

2. Mike K., that’s our America!
   This tree, though, reminds of the goodies being parceled out from that building behind it. Wish we had had a nice Charlie Brown Christmas tree in its place, and a Congress acting in that spirit.
   Wastrels.

   m (8a9d90) — 12/25/2009 @ 1:53 pm

   
   

3. Merry Christmas to DRJ and Patterico and all the writers here.

   Mike K, your Irish story is a lot like mine. I intend to use the story as an example of what to live up to, in honor of the dream of a free country that proved true to my forebearers.

   Patricia (b05e7f) — 12/25/2009 @ 1:59 pm

   
   

4. Millions came here to be free. They left behind those who were not brave enough or smart enough or adventurous enough to leave. Those that stayed were either passive enough to accept their lot or they were still fierce enough to fight. Those that fought were killed off in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War and WWI. We are an example of Darwin and his natural selection. When I visited Ireland in 1977, I found that the residents were not all that happy to see Americans. I asked an Irish friend about it and he said “They know that the cream left. They are the descendants of those who stayed behind. Of course, they don’t like Americans !”

   I wonder if Obama knows this ? I doubt it.

   Mike K (2cf494) — 12/25/2009 @ 3:35 pm

   
   

5. I’d say that the Christmas holiday tree in front of the Capitol is the last image we should use. Christmas is about faith, on which the government is not supposed to take sides, and families, about sacrifice and salvation, none of the things that make me think about the government. A picture of the DRJ family tree would have been far, far better.

   The Dana who knows that freedom and prosperity do not come from the government (474dfc) — 12/25/2009 @ 3:49 pm

   
   

6. #4 Mike K:

   Millions came here to be free.

   Proud as some of my relatives are at having Colonial era ancestors, at the end of the day when all is said and done, Grampa John was running away from his apprenticeship as a tailor in London.

   Did well for himself in the New World, becoming a well to do landowner as a result of a lot work, and a pillar in church and community. His son wasn’t much better, walking out of said church in disgust at turning his wife into a “church lady.”

   We still don’t like being told what’s good for us by somebody else.

   Merry Christmas!

   EW1(SG) (edc268) — 12/25/2009 @ 4:20 pm

   
   

7. Barack Obama and AL GORE nothing like having the GOREINCH and SCROOGE working together to ruin our holidays

   Krazy Kagu (8fb162) — 12/28/2009 @ 11:50 am