By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

“Obama’s health care plan will be written by a committee whose head, John Conyers, says he doesn’t understand it. It’ll be passed by Congress that has not read it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a Treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and financed by a country that’s nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong?” -Rush Limbaugh

In preparation for Independence day on July 4th I decided to list a few of my favorite quotes about these ideals.

“In the summer of 1776 our Founding Fathers sought to secure our independence and the liberties that remain the foundation of our nation today. In the over two centuries since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, millions of Americans have bravely served our nation in uniform so that all generations can continue to enjoy those same liberties.”
- Doc Hastings

“Independence is happiness.”
- Susan B. Anthony

“Injustice in the end produces independence.”
- Voltaire

“It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment, independence now and independence forever.”
- Daniel Webster

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
- Mark Twain

“Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected. Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”
- George Washington

“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“Where liberty is, there is my country.”
- Benjamin Franklin

“Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.”
- John Adams

“Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.”
- Alexis de Tocqueville

“I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”
- Patrick Henry

“I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.”
- Harriet Tubman

“The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world.”
- James Madison

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
- George Orwell

“Peace is liberty in tranquility.”
- Cicero

“Liberty is worth paying for.”
- Jules Verne

“Liberty, as well as honor, man ought to preserve at the hazard of his life, for without it life is insupportable.”
- Cervantes

“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. Americans never quit.”
- Douglas MacArthur

I saw a link on digg.com to some pictures of Chernobyl taken in the last few years.  They’re very disturbing to see the reactor complex and the city of Pripyat just empty and in ruins.  I’ve posted a few below and here is the link to the rest.  In the same forum was a link to a show on google video about the incident.  It’s an hour and a half but it’s very interesting.  My favorite part was when Gorbachev says “It was Sweeden that allerted us!”.  The communication within the Soviet Union was so poor and so geared toward coverup that even Gorbechev coudn’t get a stright answer from his own people and had to get information from another country that was experiencing fallout from the disaster.

Today the mass of radioactive fuel still has a half life of over 2400 years nearly 23 years after the inital explosion.

I love a good conspiracy.  I lose interest over time in books, films, television, and just about everything else unless it’s laced with conspiracy.  At least to some extent, the draw for me is the layers upon layers of involvement by people, organizations, governments.  The more complex and twisted the conspiracy the more I enjoy the story.  I recently found a list of historical events and were later proven to be conspiracies.  Most of these were perpetrated by governments or those looking to destroy a government but they were none the less fascinating.  I think my favorite conspiracy narratives are those which take place around someone who discovers they are being manipulated by one side or the other of those battling as they conspire.  The worst part and possibly the best part of conspiracies, by way of the bittersweet, is the far too frequent lack of conclusion.  I always want to know definitively what happened or was supposed to happen, but I love having the freedom for mind to roam free with postulations of what could have been the final outcome or what should have happened next. Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson takes a rash of alarmist conspiracies and give them a conclusion similar to what I find myself doing with fictitious and factual conspiracies to which I am exposed.  The draw of the mysterious and unsolved awaits…. and so does Google if you’re so inclined.