From the Danz family to you and yours, have a very merry Christmas!

Very busy lately, so not much posting. I only have time to pass on a message from Will and Drew to go Elf Yourself!

Update...Drew now has a message for you!

The random quotes in the left-hand column have grown to twenty-one. I previously posted the first thirteen, and below are the next eight. I've included a couple not so much because of the greatness of the message but, rather, because they are so telling about the author.

This country has lost control of its borders, and no country can sustain that kind of position.
- Ronald Reagan, October 19, 1983

A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her falling trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars. The political causes of decay were rooted in one fact - that increasing despotism destroyed the citizen's civic sense, and dried up statesmanship at its source.
- Dr. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. III, Caesar and Christ

Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.
- Omar Ahmad, Co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
We know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism.
- Sen. Charles Shumer, (D-NY)

In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.
- Theodore Roosevelt, January 3, 1919

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
- George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense

I have continued directing the unpopular fight for the rights of agitation, as director of the American Civil Liberties Union.... I am for socialism, disarmament and ultimately for abolishing the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control by those who produce wealth. Communism is, of course, the goal.
- Roger Nash Baldwin, Founder and first Executive Director of the ACLU

Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.
- Pope Benedict XVI, quoting 14th-century Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus

A democracy is two wolves and a small lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Freedom under a constitutional republic is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
- Benjamin Franklin

(USS Shaw exploding during attack on Pearl Harbor.)

December 7, 1941, the Japanese sneak attacked Pearl Harbor and thus began World War II, arguably the last war we ever won. The architect of the attack, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, is quoted (possible fabrication) as saying that he feared, "all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant." Well, I fear that the giant is either now dead or so drugged up on ignorance and self-absorption that he can no longer be awakened.

In response to the attack on Pearl Harbor, all of America put 100% effort behind striking back with all and every force available to kill the enemy, takes its land, and obtain victory. No one asked how long it would take or what our exit strategy was? It would take as long as needed and our exist strategy was the elimination or unconditional surrender of the enemy...their choice. And then, after absolute victory was achieved, how long did we remain in Germany and Japan? Hint, we currently have 27 military bases in Germany and 9 in Japan. Did anyone ever suggest we vacate Germany and let them fight their own potential battles with their neighbors…the Soviets?

And how did the media, so responsible for forming popular opinion respond? Did the media report nightly U.S. soldier and foreign civilian casualties? Was news footage of less than honorable acts committed by American soldiers replayed in the media over and over and over and over again? Did the media focus on instances where American soldiers where horribly ill equipped to fight? Did the media meet with Nazi and Imperial leaders and broadcast their propaganda messages?

In the Battle of Normandy 54,000 Allied soldiers were killed and 209,000 wounded. In taking just one little 8 squire mile island, Iwo Jima, away from the Japanese, 6,821 American soldiers were killed and 20,000 wounded. In response to these horrific losses, did anyone ever suggest that we should cut and run? All told, about 24 million soldiers and 38 million civilians were killed in World War II. Read that last sentence again and think about those numbers for a second. Now, after the war, did any sane person ever utter the notion that we never should have gone to war in the first place and that a world divided between Fascist Germany and Imperial Japan would be preferable?

And, what were we fighting in World War II? Well, obviously we were fighting the blitzkrieg and surprise attacks then, just as we're fighting terrorism now, right? Or, were we not so politically correct then and unafraid to name our enemy: the German Nazi's and the Imperial Japanese. Shouldn't we have been more concerned with the feelings of innocent civilian Germans and Japanese and refused to identify the enemy?

Is there anyone who would not choose to go back in time and take out Hitler when he first reoccupied the Rhineland as part of a diplomatic test in 1936, three years before the outbreak of World War II? I say there are plenty of people that would prefer 62 million dead as the result of WWII rather than taking out a young Hitler testing the waters...they are the same ones that won't put a stop to Islamic Fascism as it tests the waters for international tolerance of its atrocities...of which, you ain't seen nothin' yet!

As the number of Pearl Harbor survivors dwindles down, I am most saddened by that fact that our nation as a whole and the world in general, appear to have learned so little from their sacrifice.

Will is an incredibly happy baby. If you pay any attention to him, he will immediately smile for you. He is also very vocal, not in a crying out sort of way, rather just cooing and experimenting with the sounds he can make.

Last night it snowed 10" in Tulsa. It was an all time record November snowfall and particularly amazing considering Tulsa averages just 9" of snowfall a year. The entire city is shut down today. Nothing is open. And, I got to stay home and play with the boys! Unfortunately, Will could only watch as Drew and I made snow angels, built a snowman, threw snowballs and played in the deep snow drifts:

After playing around our home, Drew and I went sledding down the hills which are part of a flood retention reservoir near our house. For over an hour, Drew sledded down while I chased after and hauled his sled back up. A couple of times while I rested, Drew carried his own sled up the steep snow covered hill, "like the big boys do." He was so exhausted afterwards, he had to be carried home. After getting into some warm dry clothes and having a snack, Drew almost immediately fell asleep for a long afternoon nap.