School teaching is important because teachers are supposed to help children learn skills that will help them become productive adults.

This is an area where you as parents should be demanding competence and excellence from your school officials.

As an older guy, I have not been a formal student since I was 40. I studied forensic science and toxicology to up my game. I assisted at autopsies and did blood work and trace evidence work as a 40-year-old intern with the good folks of the Cuyahoga County Coromer’s Office. Since I was older than most of the technicians, I ended up refereeing some of their squabbles even as they taught me the skills of their trade.

More recently, I have worked on defense projects with 20-something engineers who can run rings around me in the classroom but lack practical application skills for now. There is something about roofing a barn or putting a rebuilt motor and a wiring harness in a car or repairing the plumbing and wiring of a house that teaches a guy things that books don’t. One young woman I worked with, who looks and talks like a bespactacled escapee from a Mennonite community, had the guts to take on the manufacture of sophisticated aviation guidance shelters. She learned by doing in so many ways, and she will be an industrial leader in the years to come.

On the other hand, I’ve worked with 20-something and 30-something and 40-something people with little in the way of analytical skills or even curiosity. They didn’t learn a lot in schools, and they weren’t penalized for not achieving much.

So I’m turning to you parents out there with children in school or soon to be in school, and to you parents whose children are out of school but you are still paying taxes for your local schools and state colleges.

All too often the school hierarchy and teachers union oppose you. They belittle your understanding of school issues. Of course, if the government didn’t have armed officers to take your money and your property if you didn’t pay taxes, the teachers and adminstrators wouldn’t have jobs. Your job depends upon your performance – you have to profit if you are in business, or you have to help your company’s owners profit if you are an employee.

But admittedly it takes a lot of people being angry to overthrow a school board and run out bad teachers.

Chriss Street reported a relatively new tactic to hold teachers and administrators accountable – the lawsuit. He wrote in the 12/7/2017 edition of Breitbart:

“A group of parents and students has filed what it hopes will be a landmark lawsuit against the State of California for its public schools failing to teach literacy.

The parents’ group sued the State of California, the State Board of Education, the State Department of Education, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson for reportedly failing to provide every child in the state access to literacy as required under state law.

They charged California has 11 of the 26 worst-performing large public school districts in the nation for the ability of students to read and write.

Continue Reading →

One December Sunday many years ago, when I was home on leave from the Army, Mom, God rest her soul, was cooking a wonderful dinner for us all. When dinner was just about ready to serve, she called us all to the table. Dad in the meantime, had put the Advent wreath on the table, and had lit some candles on the wreath. Before dinner, Dad recited some Advent prayers to God, and finished with this impromptu prayer while we were all gathered around:

“Remember those who have gone before us,
those who founded our people,
who gave our people the gift of faith in God,
who gave us the gift of strong character.”

This is one of my favorite memories of Dad, God rest his soul. He was a big, blunt World War Two veteran who was a real man in every sense of the word. “Remember those who have gone before us.”

We have seen pictures of our parents and grandparents when they were young people. We have heard the family stories our old ones have told.

Kev and Bry, Christmas 1961

I was fortunate enough to have a great-great aunt old enough to remember Teddy Roosevelt as a young president when she was a young bride, and with a good enough mind to remember the stories her father had told her about his time as a soldier under the command of General Sherman in the Civil War, and she would share these with us. I also had the good fortune of having a grandfather who remembered and spoke often of his childhood days in Ireland and his rowdier days as a teenager on the streets of Chicago. Our family cherishes these memories and the pictures and other mementos Aunt Albie, Grandpa Charlie, and our other ancestors have left us.

History is not a collection of statistics or dry facts, but of stories. History is a STORY … or more correctly, MANY STORIES that make up an overall truth.

CHRISTMAS AT ELLIS ISLAND

Christmas at Ellis Island was often a sad day for the immigrants and would-be immigrants, because those on Ellis Island were often there against their will. And of course, these people missed their extended families and friends in the home country.

Some were being treated in the Island’s hospital. Many were being detained for a legal matter or were awaiting being discharged or being claimed by family or spouse, or awaiting the recovery of a loved one in the hospital. And some poor souls were awaiting deportation.

The authorities at Ellis Island did try to make Christmas as festive as they could for the immigrants. They also used the Christmas festival as a gentle way to aid in assimilation of immigrants to American customs.

Barry Moreno, a National Park Service historian at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, shared the following information about Christmases at Ellis Island in his excellent book Encyclopedia of Ellis Island and his monograph Christmases at Ellis Island:

Christmas at Ellis Island

Many priests and ministers from the various ethnic communities of the New York City area came to perform religious services for the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant immigrants in their native languages. The priests and ministers also did their best to console those facing deportation.

The Registry Room (also known as the Great Hall), a huge auditorium-sized room that occupied the center of the second floor of the Main Building of Ellis Island, was the site of most of the Christmas festivities. A huge Christmas tree and a huge American flag and many smaller decorations adorned the massive hall, which was almost a half-acre in size. Sometimes there could be as many as 2000 aliens present for the Christmas service at Ellis Island. The deportees were welcome to these celebrations, along with those other detainees not in the hospital.

Robert Watchorn, one of Theodore Roosevelt’s Commissioners of Immigration at Ellis Island, and an immigrant from England himself, presided over one such service in 1905 and ensured “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” was sung. In 1914, Anthony Caminetti, the Labor Department’s overall immigration chief, came up from the nation’s capital for Christmas, and the staffers provided a concert and a silent movie show.

The Christmas festival always included speeches, singing of carols in various languages, and gift-giving to the immigrants. For those who were too ill to attend, the hospital staffers threw them a Christmas party in the hospital’s Service Room. “Father Christmas” personally came to visit the sick boys and girls, bearing them presents.

Ludmilla Foxlee, in her work How They Came: The Drama of Ellis Island (pages 7-8), remembered the following about Christmases on Ellis Island:

Christmas was regularly observed on the island. Missionary societies sent toys and fruit for the children. The General Committee of Immigrant Aid decided to buy small, useful articles for adults, so that everyone could have a Christmas gift. An appeal was made for bags about 18 by 18 inches with a draw string at the top, made of bright cotton prints. Girls’ bags contained a doll, a towel, washcloth, and soap, a game, a toy set of dishes, three handkerchiefs, a writing tablet, a pencil box, and a pair of stockings. Women received a sewing bag, needles and thread, pins and safety pins, scissors and buttons, a bead necklace, an apron, a bath towel and washcloth, toothbrush and toothpaste, soap, a writing tablet and pencil, stockings, and three handkerchiefs.

For men the bags contained a comfort bag (with needles, thread, some buttons, et cetera) a safety razor, toothbrush, toothpaste, pins, safety pins, washcloth and soap, a towel, a writing tablet and pencil, a pair of socks, and three handkerchiefs. For boys, the bags were similar to those for the girls, with a game substituted for the doll.

A Christmas tree with lights and a silver star brightened the hall. Benches in long rows with an aisle in the middle accommodated the detained. Chairs at the side of the hall were for the General Committee of Immigrant Aid and their friends. A musical program occupied the major part of the afternoon, and the talent was donated. For two successive Christmases, a group of the Social Service workers appeared in national costumes and sang English, Italian, German, Polish, Spanish, and Czechoslovak Christmas carols.

However, the Commissioner decided later that professional talent must be provided. He persuaded a broadcasting company to present a musical program, and that one was heard coast to coast.

The radio company provided a full orchestra and a Metropolitan Opera soprano to sing a Puccini aria. The grandeur had no visible effect on the audience. Probably they were thinking of home and loved ones. After the program, the immigrants were given their bags and an orange.

Jews and other non-Christians on Ellis Island of course could not in good conscience celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. Jewish immigrant societies tended to Jewish detainees’ religious needs on Hanukkahs. However, the non-Christian aliens on Ellis Island got gifts at Christmas and were welcome to the Christmas festivals just like the Christian aliens were.

Bear in mind most immigrants in the Ellis Island Era were practicing Catholics. And most American government officials in that era were churchgoing Protestants. Nowadays, the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion pissants would go into Grinch mode and sue to prevent such festivities on a federal installation.

CHRISTMAS WITH THE POLKA KING

I was on the road to Bethlehem one Sunday a couple of days before Christmas. Unlike St. Joseph, I was driving a Dodge truck to Bethlehem PA for an engineering project. I had written a technical manual for a company’s chemical plant and we needed to do some testing. I-80 flashes thru Pennsylvania’s Appalachians, and the radio reception is not good. I would get ethnic stations for about a county, and then they would fade. Polka music on Sunday afternoon mostly. The Polish Hour. Croatian tunes. Little Slovakia. Hungarian Folk Hour. Polka music is Eastern Europe’s Catholics counterpart to country music. Like Cajun music in Luzianne. Or Irish music, which is the father of American country music. At any rate, I heard this recitation by Frankie Yankovic on the radio, and I had to pull over because I clouded up.

Here is Frankie’s recitation:

“I remember years ago when I was just a little boy laying awake in my room waiting for Christmas. I didn’t think about toys very much ‘cause I knew Mom and Dad didn’t have very much money. Mom rented rooms to boarders from the old country. And as the holiday grew near they would all become kind of sad thinking about their wives and sweethearts they left far behind in their homeland. Then before you knew it, they’d start singing and drinking some of our homemade wine and listening to the old button accordion. Christmas Eve was special because Mom and Dad would let us (kids) stay up late so we could all go to Midnight Mass. The best memories of all were waking up on Christmas morning to the smell of the great holiday dishes that only Mom could make. Even though I’m fortunate enough to buy all that I can for my children and grandchildren, thinking back, I know that I remember the true meaning of my Christmases long long ago.”

Frank Yankovic’s parents were immigrants from Slovenia. He grew up in the Cleveland area, started his band “The Yanks” and ran a successful bar, all before World War Two. Frank joined the U.S. Army and earned a Purple Heart while fighting in the Battle of the Bulge.

He pressed his own records and sold them at gigs. When Frank became well-known, Columbia Records execs offered him a recording contract. Frank kept them from dictating to him what to record; he recorded songs he believed in and made himself, his band, and them a lot of money.

The story Frank told about Christmas he made into a recitation in the middle of the song “Silent Night.” Singers sang the first verse of the carol, then Frank told his anecdote, then the singers resumed. It is on his 1984 album “Christmas Memories.” Frank’s widow Ida allowed me to reprint the recitation in my book “Ellis Island Scrapbook” and she was wonderful in talking with me about Frank.

Again, God’s blessings to you all, and thanks and adoration to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit this joyous day! And a special Hanukkah blessing for my Jewish readers!

SHERLOCK JUSTICE

WE CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BE YOUR OWN DETECTIVE.

There is no such thing as Christmas for American servicemen and women. They are on duty this day as well as all the other days of the year. Ditto for the first responders and hospital nurses.

The first American Christmas where such an effort was recorded was Christmas 1776.

The high point of the year was the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Then the late summer and fall saw George Washington have to retreat his small army from New York and across New Jersey into Pennsylvania, above Philadelphia, the nation’s capital. Many men had deserted, and others who had enlisted for a year were about to leave. Many of Washington’s men were without boots or shoes in the winter snow, and they were underfed and underarmed. Washington feared the revolution was about to fail. So he planned a daring raid that might put a little spark in his men and get them to continue the struggle.

There was a small force of about 1500 Hessian soldiers under the command of Colonel Johann Rall from Hesse in Germany in winter quarters in Trenton, New Jersey, about 10 miles away and across the Delaware River from Washington’s men. This meant the Germans occupied the town. These British-hired German mercenaries were well supplied with food, uniforms, and weaponry. Washington figured maybe he could beat that force with a predawn attack in the wee hours of December 26, while the Germans were sleeping off a Christmas celebration, and take their supplies.

Battle of Trenton by Charles McBarron

Soldiers who were fishermen and bargemen rowed about 2400 Americans across the Delaware River from Pennsylvania the late night of December 25 and into the wee hours of December 26, 1776. Ferryboat men moved horses and cannon across. The freezing rain, snow, and ice in the river were bad enough that Washington couldn’t take another 3000 men he wanted for the mission. The weather also slowed down the men enough to prevent them from being able to make a pre-dawn attack on Trenton; they would have to attack the Germans in daylight. And their powder would be wet. And even though the Hessians had celebrated Christmas, they were disciplined and well-led and were fully capable of fighting the next day. Hessian commander Rall expected some sort of attack and prepared for it.

However, Washington and his men executed their raid skillfully enough to mortally wound Rall and his highest-ranking subordinates, kill 20 or so Hessian soldiers, wound another 80 or so, and force the surrender of 900 more Hessians they surrounded. Fewer than 10 Americans died in the battle; one young officer who nearly bled to death from a musket ball wound was future president James Monroe. Several other Americans died of exhaustion after the battle. The Americans captured 1000 muskets, stores of musket balls and gunpowder, and several cannons. They also captured several tons of flour and meat, and many shoes, boots, uniforms, and blankets.

Ten days later, Washington and his units, reinforced to about 6000 men, tried the same sort of attack against a British force at Princeton, New Jersey. This time his opponents looked to be 8000 British soldiers under the command of General Charles Cornwallis and another 1200 British solders under the command of Lt. Colonel Charles Mawhood.

One of Don Troiani’s masterpieces showing the Continental Army on the move

Mawhoods’ men, marching to join Cornwallis’ force, encountered a small American outfit under the command of Colonel Hugh Mercer in the early morning hours of January 3, 1777. Mawhood’s British troops overran the Americans and bayoneted Colonel Hugh Mercer to death because he chose to try to fight his way free instead of surrender to them. Other American militiamen approaching the British were skittish and on the verge of flight when Washington himself arrived with some Continentals (better trained regular soldiers.)

Washington gave orders to form for an attack and led the men personally, narrowly avoiding death as British soldiers missed him at point-blank range. The Americans turned on Mawhood’s men, and drove them back west to Princeton, away from Cornwallis’ army coming from the east. Mawhood evacuated Princeton, and Washington’s men took the town. Washington’s men captured and took away rations, weapons, boots, shoes, uniforms, and other supplies, along with British cannons they had taken in the battle.

The Americans killed 100 British, wounded 70, and captured about 300. They lost, besides Colonel Mercer, about 40 men. Another 40 or so Americans were wounded.

Washington then took his soldiers north into Morristown, New Jersey, where they went into winter quarters. Many of Washington’s men thinking of leaving re-enlisted, and the men and other men across the American Seaboard began to believe maybe the British could be beat.

Washington’s successes led the British to commit more men to destroy the American Revolution. General William Howe decided to take Philadelphia, America’s capital. It was easy to supply by sea and the city and countryside had many Tories – people loyal to Britain and not America. In the summer of 1777, Howe took 15,000 men to the upper reaches of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and marched them northeast to Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, the British decided to separate New England from the rest of America by taking the Hudson Valley. They already controlled the New York City area after driving Washington and his men out in 1776. They planned to send men north from New York City and south from British-held Quebec and Ontario.

General John Burgoyne led 8000 troops down from Montreal toward Albany, and Colonel Barry St. Leger led 1000 more Brits and an equal number of Iroquois warriors toward Albany after he and his men crossed Lake Ontario into western New York. Howe was supposed to provide some support to a push from New York City, but Washington and his men would keep Howe’s men fully occupied around Philadelphia.

The British did not push hard from New York City. Meanwhile, the Continental Congress sent General Horatio Gates, a retired British officer and Virginia plantation owner in American service, to take charge of affairs in upstate New York after the British retook Fort Ticonderoga in Vermont. The Iroquois murdered an American girl (who ironically was the sweetheart of a Tory officer), and this caused a number of Americans in New York to join the American cause. (Back then, we didn’t run, we turned vigilante.) The Americans stopped St. Leger’s smaller force of Brits and Iroquois, then attacked Burgoyne’s larger force at north of Albany after delaying and harassing them for weeks.

Colonel John Starks and his Americans beat a number of Burgoyne’s British and Hessians near Bennington, Vermont, in August 1777. This weakened the invaders. Casualties were high and most of the Iroquois left the British cause.

The Americans beat Burgoyne’s men soundly in and around Saratoga, New York, north of Albany, in October of 1777, and surrounded the British and Hessians. Burgoyne had to surrender later in the month. When news of Burgoyne’s surrender reached Europe, it led France’s King Louis XVI to make a military alliance with the United States and give us aid in the years to come.

Gates claimed credit for the victory. But it was actually General Benedict Arnold, the future traitor, who led our men to victory (and was seriously wounded whole leading the attack).

Washington and the Continental Army meanwhile had to contend with General Howe’s superior army. Washington and the Americans lost battles at Brandywine and Germantown, near Philadelphia, and were unable to prevent Howe and his men from marching into Philadelphia. The Continental Congress fled from Philly to York, PA, a largely German community west of the Susquehanna River and about 50 miles north of Baltimore.

Washington, like in 1776 with New York City, believed it was more important to save his army than save a city. He didn’t leave the Philadelphia area but decided to encamp his 11,000 men for the winter in Valley Forge, a tabletop 25 miles or so northwest of Philadelphia, to keep an eye on the British.

Washington and Lafayette at Valley Forge

Washington’s men spent the winter trying to survive. They foraged from some not-too-friendly farmers for food. They paid pro-American farmers and protected them from British looting parties, and looted pro-British farmers.

While Howe’s men were comfortable in Philadelphia, Washington’s men trained in the snow. In that era, a key skill men had to have was to switch from a vertical column of men marching on a road or a trail into three horizontal skirmish lines. Because it was hard to load and fire a musket, the men had to form a front line where the men fired a volley then retreated back two lines, a second line of men ready to run up and fire a volley, and a third line of men loading their muskets so they could fire.

Men, after shooting gaps in the enemy, also had to be able to fix bayonets and charge the enemy in a disciplined rush so they could stab them to death or club them to death and break them. Until Valley Forge, our men were not on the same skill level as the British regulars. We had won our victories by outnumbering the Redcoats and using hit-and-run tactics, like what Washington had done at Trenton and Princeton a year earlier.

Washington had a German officer named Baron Von Steuben drill his men to fight in the European style so they could stand up to the British. Von Steuben “demoted” himself to “drill sergeant” to work the men so they would learn their soldier skills properly. His command of English was poor, so he had an American sergeant curse the troops in American English when he was dissatisfied with their performance. Bit by bit the Americans who remained at Valley Forge grew in ability.

Back to York, PA. Gates was the new darling of the Continental Congress because he won over Burgoyne, who had many fewer men. Washington, meanwhile had been unable to beat Howe and his men, and the congressmen weren’t awed with the few features York, PA offered as a capital-in-retreat. Congressmen holed up in a wattle-walled tavern in York (this was before the invention of Philly cheesesteaks), and drank and planned. They also conducted the nation’s business across the street in the county courthouse, which they borrowed for sessions. Some of them were also foolish enough to consider making Gates the top general.

Gates by merest coincidence had traveled from upstate New York to York, PA to court favor with the congressmen, and try to take Washington’s job as commander of the Continental Army. Gates quartered in a warm townhouse in York over the winter of 1777-1778 while Washington was out with his men at Valley Forge. Washington was where a commander should be, leading his men personally and setting good example.

Washington worried about the fate of his men; 2500 of them died during the winter at Valley Forge. Washington prayed for guidance and courage and success for himself and his men. The Patriots who the winter didn’t kill emerged in the spring of 1778 stronger. Washington’s men would never again lose a major battle to the British.

Washington and his men, aided by capable French soldiers, would eventually besiege General Cornwallis and his British army at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781, and when a French fleet temporarily kept British Navy ships from resupplying Cornwallis’ men, Cornwallis had to surrender his men. This for all practical purposes ended the war in America’s favor.

Gates, meanwhile, got command of an American force in the South. The British routed his men at Camden, South Carolina in the summer of 1780, and Gates rode away from his men so quickly that three days later he was 170 miles north of them. The Continental Congress replaced Gates with Nathanael Greene, one of Washington’s trusted subordinates. Greene would wear down the British in the South and cause British forces to march north to Virginia for the ultimate trap Washington and the Continental Army and the French would spring on them at Yorktown.

* * * * * * * * * *

On Christmas Day of 2012, after Mass, I got out to Washington’s Crossing, PA on the Delaware River to see a re-enactment of the crossing of the Delaware. The re-enactors, volunteers, and park people did a wonderful job with the re-enactment. Since it runs every year, you can do likewise one of these Christmases.

The re-enactors didn’t put any horses into the ore boats, but they put cannons in.

They even re-enacted Washington arresting the party General Gates sent up from Philly. Washington suspected they were spies or people involved in trying to get him relieved and dispersing his men before their enlistments were up. Washington and the other key figures were miked so we could hear their conversations in dealing with the “conspiracy.”

The officers didn’t need mikes for their shouted commands. However, a young woman in Continental Army gear, narrated the following actions for we the spectators.

It was also easy to see because we the spectators were higher up on the river bank than the re-enactors were. Local police stopped traffic on the little perforated iron car bridge across to the Jersey shore and people stood on the bridge to get a great view and a nice headwind at about 35 degrees air temp and high humidity.

The re-enactors test-rowed a boat across two hours before the show. Current was strong, and they would have wound up far downriver of the bridge coming back, so for safety and logistical reasons, they decided not to cross fully for the main event. Spectators on the Jersey side were going to be a little miffed. But then, Jersey people are used to disappointment.

For the show, the re-enactors went halfway across the Delaware (which at the crossing is about 600 feet and running fast, but with no ice that day) and came back for safety reasons. Washington had many more oarsmen to paddle the boats and benefited from a slower current in 1776. Since less land was paved then, there was less runoff to the river than there is now.

The man who played Washington was big and stern and carried himself like an officer and planter used to being obeyed. Only oddity was he had a slight Joisey accent.

His hair was brownish red, which puzzled people who see him as white-haired. I told them GW was in his 40s when the Crossing happened. He didn’t have the white hair and puffy face with wrinkles look a la Hillary Clinton until he was president.

My voice carries well, so this observation provoked a good deal of mirth in the crowd.

A lot of pretty and unattached 20-something girls were at this event, braving the weather in boots and skinny jeans or tights. Good-looking damsels also show up at other re-enactments. If you young guys are looking for gals with patriotism, re-enactments of history are actually pretty good places to meet them.

Likewise to the young ladies. A re-enactment is a place to be seen, and to get in the way of young bucks who have some love for the country. Girls who wear period wear or who just show up looking pretty will get noticed.

Who said Sherlock doesn’t look out for you?

At any rate, remember, from the shepherds at Bethlehem to Washington and his men at Trenton, to our men and women in the military, and to our men and women who are first responders and hospital nurses, there are dedicated people who don’t take holidays so we can.

God bless you all. Blessed Christmas and Hanukkah to all men and women of good will. And God and Michael the Archangel be with our military people and our first responders who look out for us.

SHERLOCK JUSTICE

WE CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BE YOUR OWN DETECTIVE.

What heavier fate is it than to bear the weight of a people upon your back?

It’s tough enough being a soldier in war … your death could come at any time, and painfully.

But just imagine the added burden of knowing your soldiers depended upon your leadership, and your people depended upon your courage and your decision-making to throw off their chains and become free.

This is why every liberator is a hero to his people … those who appreciate the burdens they had to carry to make it possible for them to live free rightly give them this honor. George Washington, Michael Collins, Simon Bolivar, Giuseppe Garibaldi, and Jomo Kenyatta all have earned such adulation.

So have men like Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel. Poles and Czechs may question the day-to-day decisions they make in running their nations, but they appreciate the sacrifices these men made. Even Boris Yeltsin has won many admirers for his courage in preventing the Communists from regripping the throats of the Russian people.

Irish patriot Wolfe Tone said it so well in court, as he awaited execution at the hands of British tyrants, “In a case like this, success is everything. Success, in the eyes of the vulgar, fixes its merits. Washington succeeded, and Kosciusko (who fought in vain to prevent the murder of Poland by Russia, Prussia, and the Hapsburg Empire) failed. Tone tried to escape the public ritual torture murder that the British used on rebels by committing suicide in his cell. He died in agony of his self-inflicted wounds.

However, people who are more substantial do appreciate the sacrifices people like Wolfe Tone made. Joan of Arc has special meaning to the French, even though she was captured, treated immorally, and burned publicly. Kosciusko, Imre Nagy, Alexander Dubcek, Toussaint L’Overture, Francisco Miranda, and the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Polish National Uprising a year later, the Hungarian Uprising, and the Irish Troubles all receive today the respect of those who appreciate what they tried to do for their people. And Ireland and Poland are free, many years after Tone and Kosciusko bled for them.

This is why the Maccabees are so special to the Jews . This whole FAMILY — several generations of it — took upon themselves the burdens of war, courage, and decision-making. They kept the Jews free from foreign enslavement so they could worship God and live freely.

The predicament of the Jews that led to the Maccabees’ emergence had its roots in the empire of Alexander the Great. He divided his empire among his key officers before he died. But then they and their successors fought among themselves to be rulers of all the others. So the Jews, whose land of Israel was between Syria and Egypt, was a battleground for rulers from these two areas. Thanks to these pagan egotists, the Jews became prisoners, and their homeland became a plundered and scavenged wasteland.

The persecution of the Jews for resisting pagan oppression was intolerable. People who kept the Jewish faith were starved to death, or were tortured fiendishly and executed. Men who had scrolls of the Law were stabbed to death. Mothers who had their babies circumcised were put to death, and their murdered babies were hung from their necks. The pagan rulers defiled the Temple and used it for orgies and drunken revelry. Under such pressure, many Jews gave up their faith.

Mattathias the priest decided to fight the pagans. He and his sons defied the ruler’s command to sacrifice to pagan idols, then one day in the streets of his hometown, he and his sons publicly killed the ruler’s officer who demanded them to submit, and challenged the other Jews to join them in a war to liberate their nation.

From the hill country of Israel, Mattathias and his sons waged guerrilla warfare against the pagan invaders and the Jews who had sold out. His son Judas was such a good leader in combat that he earned the nickname “Maccabeus” (Hebrew for “hammerer) … and the people soon started calling the whole family “The Maccabees.”

Rubens’ Painting of Judas Maccabee 

When Mattathias was about to die, he gathered his sons around him and said, “Arrogance and scorn have now grown strong … My sons, be zealous for the Law and give your lives for the covenant of our fathers … Gather about you all who observe the Law, and you shall avenge the wrongs of your people. Pay back the pagans what they deserve, and observe the precepts of the Law.” He blessed them all and then died.

Judas and his brothers led the Jews to victory against the pagans. In 164 BC, they liberated Jerusalem, and purified the Temple that the pagans had defiled. For eight days Judas and his men celebrated the purification of the Temple and the dedication of its altar … and the small cruet of oil that was supposed to keep the holy lamps lit for only one day kept the Temple illuminated for eight. (Even today, the Jews commemorate this miracle with the holy week of Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights.)

Judas also led prayers for his dead soldiers, to ensure their souls would be pure so they could eventually reach Heaven. The author of the Second Book of Maccabees (2 Macc, 12: 43-46) noted, “In doing this (praying for the dead and taking up a collection for their widows and orphans), he (Judas) acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view… For if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useful and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid award that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin.”

(The books of Maccabees are in the Catholic Bible. Luther opposed them, in part because the above text supports the Catholic and Orthodox belief in Purgatory for the deceased who avoid Hell, but are not saintly enough yet to merit instant entry into Heaven.)

Judas would live only four years more. The pagan armies from Israel’s hostile neighbors never quit trying to invade Israel. Judas and his men would spend the rest of their lives in almost constant warfare against these would-be oppressors.

Even in death Judas was unconquered. His little army was approached by so many invaders that most of his men fled. His captains tried to talk him into retreating, but he replied, “If our time has come, let us die bravely for our kinsmen and not leave a stain on our glory!”

Judas rallied his men, restored their discipline, and formed them into fighting formations. He died in hand-to-hand combat even as his little group was pushing back a force ten times its size.

The Books of Maccabees chronicle how the family members kept taking upon themselves the responsibility of keeping the Jews free. When a Maccabee died, there was another one as brave and as talented to take his place. Judas’ brothers, and the succeeding generations of Maccabees kept the Jews free until almost the time of Christ, when they fell under the power of Rome. Herod the Great (traitor) gave up his faith, betrayed his fellow Jews, and served as the Romans’ puppet princeling. Herod’s men killed John Hyrcanus, the last of the Maccabees.

What the Books of Maccabees do not say is the hardships the Maccabee women endured. We’ll dwell a little on that here.

You ladies out there … imagine being the wife or sweetheart of a Maccabee – a man who had pledged his life to the freedom of your people. Undoubtedly you would be proud … but always fearful for his safety, for he could fall in battle at almost any time. And when your man did die in combat, you had to be prepared to raise your children without him, and carry on as best you could.

But think of how the women in the Maccabees’ lives helped their husbands in their work by being mistresses on the home front … raising children, organizing alms for those whose men who died in battle, bringing charm and love and commitment to their men’s lives , making their men’s lives that much more worth living.

Think also of how well the Maccabee women raised successive generations of Maccabee children. The sons and grandsons and great-grandsons and great-great-grandsons of Judas Maccabee and his brothers did their part to preserve the Jews’ liberty and their freedom to worship God … and they wouldn’t have had the morality to make this choice nor the character to stick with it if their mothers weren’t there day after day teaching them right from wrong and encouraging them to do what was right. The Maccabee women made sure the children would grow into decent adults who would do what their people needed them to do.

The Maccabees should be special not only to the Jews, but to us all, because we as Christians owe them so much. They kept the faith of the Jews alive so they could fulfill their destiny as the only people who worshiped and spread the word of the True God, the people from whom Christ would come into the world, and the people who would provide Him with the apostles and disciples He would need to establish Christianity and make it spread. Even today, they are shining examples of righteous anger and resistance to unjust power, and are examples of wise leaders who liberated their people and tried to lead them according to basic God-given morality instead of the latest silly and sinful tread of the day.

My own Dad, a tough man who served his country in World War II, told me when he was a boy, he got to meet relatives who fought in Ireland’s wars of liberation against the British. He said it was an honor to meet men who had volunteered to carry the cause and the fate of a people on their backs.

This is what the Maccabees mean to the Jews … and should mean to all of us who choose to follow the faith of the Messiah for Whom they prayed and fought so zealously.

SHERLOCK JUSTICE

WE CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BE YOUR OWN DETECTIVE.

Last week’s news provided another lesson on the use of the public record, and why forcing info out of the shadows and into public record is a threat to those who do wrong.

Most communications between government officials and others are public record, with some exceptions. Most exceptions relate to national security, a person’s privacy if not being prosecuted by government officials, ongoing criminal investigations to protect witnesses or informants and avoid alerting the suspects or slandering them by releasing info that is not true, trade secrets companies may have to disclose in applying for licenses or government contracts, and the like.

However, hookup text messages between adulterous government agents using taxpayer-provided phones don’t merit privacy or protection under the Freedom of Information Act. In other words, if enquiring minds want to know, they can find out if they file FOIA requests, and have some patience and some high-priced legal backup to fight off government stonewalling.

Fox News reported Justice Department Inspector General agents got ahold of the content of numerous text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

Peter Strzok was the FBI’s “Deputy Head of Counterintelligence.”

But his other head got in the way. Strzok was in the briefs of FBI lawyer Lisa Page. Literally. They were cheating with each other on their respective spouses.

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The results of the doomed Roy Moore campaign proves Republican officeholders and candidates will stand accused of spurious sexual charges because the tactic works.

Roy Moore was not a good candidate. But he would have won if the accusations he molested underage girls had not sunk him.

Moore’s people proved most of the allegations were laughably false and most of the women who accused him of illegal conduct had reputations as liars. But Moore admitted as a 30-something guy coming out of the military he dated young women just out of high school. (A lot of men who served in the military while others stayed home and snapped up all the eligible females in their age bracket pursued younger women if they wanted to raise families.) Although what Moore did is perfectly legal, it didn’t sit well with enough people, so they believed it could be true he went after underage girls.

Leading Democrats and Hollywood people, most of whom are okay with Roman Polanski raping 13-year-old girls in jacuzzis, and almost all of whom are okay with Bill Clinton visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s “Island of Underage Girls” multiple times with taxpayer-provided Secret Service protection, called Moore a pervert. So did many in his own party. Enough people voted write-in or didn’t vote that it cost the controversial Moore the election.

So Republican candidates should expect the sex card to be played against them.

If I was a politician, I wouldn’t wait to be falsely accused of anything. Or if I was a political consultant, I wouldn’t let my candidates wait to be falsely accused of anything. (I would have vetted them first.)

As a politician or as a consultant, I would fight back in a way that will help the nation’s children and young women. I would start a comprehensive push for protection of children and young women from sexual predators. The elements of my plan are as follows:

1. FIGHT AGAINST “RAPERATIONS.”

IMMEDIATELY DIRECT FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL PROSECUTORS TO FILE AMICUS CURIAE BRIEFS AGAINST THOSE WHO GOT A RULING DECLARING COLORADO’S SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY “CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT” AND SETTING UP TAXPAYERS TO HAVE TO PAY “RAPERATIONS” TO CONVICTED RAPISTS.

The case in question is the Millard, Knight, and Vega vs. Michael Rankin and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation case. In this case, federal judge Richard Matsch ruled Colorado’s sex offender registry is unconstitutional. If allowed to stand, this crazy or corrupt ruling will be the ACLU’s next gold rush. They will sue for the hundreds of thousands of convicted sexual predators and seize billions of dollars from taxpayers for lawyer fees. They want to remove the protection from women and children further by killing the registries that alert the public to stay away from these perverted convicts.

This ruling and ACLU lawyers and others who support it for mercenary reasons must be destroyed. Sex offender registries must be protected because they spotlight sex offenders, and warn the public to stay away from rapists.

2. ALL STATES, LOCALITIES, COLLEGES, TRIBES, AND THE MILITARY MUST PROVIDE ACCURATE INFORMATION ON SEX OFFENDERS AND OTHER CRIMINALS TO THE FBI ON PAIN OF PROSECUTION AND INCARCERATION.

Mandate criminal prosecution and punishment of bureaucratic violators if these laws are not already on the books. Devin Kelley was able to obtain guns and murder Texas churchgoers due to failures of military, local law enforcement and prosecutor, and public school officials to punish him for sex offenses and/or report same to the FBI. Government dereliction-abetted crimes must cease.

3. ALL STATE CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES OFFICIALS MUST ENSURE SCREENING OUT OF SEX OFFENDERS FOR FOSTER PARENT ROLES ON PAIN OF PROSECUTION AND INCARCERATION.

I have uncovered such cases in Virginia and Illinois. California officials recently admitted 1000 or so children were placed in foster homes with sex offenders. An aide to Illinois governor Bruce Rauner admitted the same was true in his state when he talked with me in 2016. This must end; penalties to government violators and foster home sex offenders must be very severe.

4. THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION MUST MAKE A NATIONAL DATABASE OF TEACHERS AND OTHER SCHOOL EMPLOYEES ACCUSED OF SEXUAL OFFENSES AND OTHER CRIMES AND WHAT THE OUTCOMES OF THE CASES WERE. EACH STATE MUST CONTRIBUTE TO THE NATIONAL EFFORT WITH THEIR OWN STATE DATABASE.

These databases would enable school districts to avoid hiring offenders, and allows parents to force school districts to purge their sex offenders and stop hiring new ones. I made such a proposal to the U.S. Department of Education in 2002, and can provide it for any elected official’s perusal and for any candidate’s perusal. Likewise, there should be background checks done on school employees at their expense every year, with criminal penalties for school employees and administrators who don’t undergo the checks or fail to ensure the checks are done 100%.

(Jeff Dobrozsi, a staffer for Ohio congressman John Boehner, whined I was proposing a national blacklist for teachers. I cheerfully and profanely confirmed his suspicions. Keep scumbags away from kids, I said. Bush 43’s people spent a million dollars to get a flawed study on sexual assault in schools instead of spending that money to set up a database to protect children.)

5. EACH STATE SHOULD ENACT A LAW MAKING SEX OFFENDERS PAY FOR THEIR MONITORING AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO 1/40 THE COST OF HIRING AND MAINTAINING A MID-LEVEL STATE TROOPER IN THEIR STATES.

This will allow each trooper to check on 40 sex offenders multiple times each year and give him or her the time and resources to make the sex offender registries as error-free as possible. This is like requiring people to have car insurance, and DUI convicts have to pay much more due to the elevated risks they pose. I have done the analysis on such a database and can provide it for any elected official’s or candidate’s perusal.

6. EACH STATE SHOULD MAKE A LAW REQUIRING REALTORS TO DISCLOSE TO PEOPLE IF THEY INTEND TO SELL PROPERTY TO A REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER WITHIN STATUTORY REPORTING DISTANCE OF THEIR HOMES AT LEAST 30 DAYS BEFORE CLOSING.

This would give people time to outbid or organize to protect their children and young women. We have gotten such a measure approved by the Ohio legislature’s constitutionality lawyers. We can provide it for any elected official’s or candidate’s perusal. No realtor whore should be able to dump rapists near children for profit.

Likewise, each legislature and Congress should expand anti-blockbusting laws to keep dishonest speculators from dropping sex offenders into neighborhoods to depress property values and trigger short sales.

7. MAKE IT ILLEGAL ON PENALTY OF INCARCERATION TO DESTROY RECORDS OF GOVERNMENT SEXUAL ABUSE INVESTIGATIONS. L.A. Unified School District lawyers destroyed 20 years of their district’s sex offender records to cheat abused children out of settlements. Washington school officials have been caught doing likewise. This must cease everywhere.

8. KILL THE CONGRESSIONAL SEX ABUSER SLUSH FUND, OUT THOSE WHO USED IT TO PAY OFF VICTIMS, RECOUP THE MONEY FROM THOSE WHO USED IT, AND HAVE THE US ATTORNEY GENERAL OR STATE PROSECUTORS LOOK AT PROSECUTING THOSE STILL PROSECUTABLE WITHIN THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.

If there are any similar funds to protect state or local officials, do likewise with these.

9. MAKE A NATIONAL DATABASE, REQUIRING INPUT FROM ALL STATES’ JURISDICTIONS, OF CRIMINAL ARRESTS AND CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS THAT IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. EACH STATE MUST CONTRIBUTE TO THE NATIONAL EFFORT WITH THEIR OWN STATE DATABASE.

It might be easier to take some confidential info out of the NCIC database police use now to make a “little brother” database that is legal for public viewing. This will help parents, young women, and even gun dealers, as they all can screen those who come in contact with children and themselves, and those who want to buy firearms. This way, the public can backstop the government and independently protect themselves.

10. CONGRESS SHOULD LOOK AT RESTRICTING IMMIGRATION FROM ALL NATIONS WHERE CULTURAL AND LEGAL PRACTICES OF PROTECTING WOMEN AND CHILDREN FROM SEXUAL ABUSE ARE ABSENT OR IGNORED.

CONGRESS SHOULD END THE SHAMEFUL PRACTICE OF ALLOWING GROUPS TO GAIN LUCRATIVE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS TO DUMP ALIENS FROM NATIONS WITH CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS THAT CLASH WITH AMERICAN VALUES INTO AREAS WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE RESIDENTS.

Restricting immigration and relocation in such fashion will prevent the rapes and assaults such people commit against women and children in this nation.

11. CONGRESS SHOULD WORK WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP TO CLEAR ALL SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN WHO WERE WRONGFULLY PUNISHED FOR DEFENDING RAPE VICTIMS WHILE IN THE SERVICE.

Some of our fighting men in Afghanistan received punishment for smashing Afghan officials who raped boys. Of course, this happened when Barack Obama was president and the gutless in his military chains of command kowtowed to Barack’s civilian appointees instead of doing the right thing and protecting their fighting men.

12. EACH STATE SHOULD CLEAR ITS SEX OFFENDER DATA BASES OF PEOPLE WHO SHOULD NOT BE THERE. This includes those who bureaucratic errors put there, and those who were guilty of acts such as public urination or 19-year-olds being with 17-year-olds who were overcharged by prosecutors. Concentrate on putting the mark of Cain on those who chose to prey upon victims.

Now why would this help Republican candidates more than Democrat candidates?

Most predators who have political protection are Democrats. The groups who most protect sex offenders, like teacher unions, the ACLU, trial lawyers, and immigrant frontists, are leftists. The Democrats could do the right thing too, and push for these policies, but their pressure groups and big money donors would have tantrums.

Candidates and office holders who support the above agenda can legitimately accuse anyone who opposes the majority of the above agenda as being soft on child molesters and other rapists. Most of the opposers will be Democrats …. and there will be some guilty GOPers in this group too. The goofs will out themselves so the public can purge them.

Homeland security begins when women and children are protected. These proposals will help people in each state protect their women and children. Feel free to push these with your own elected officials and candidates.

UPDATE – The Hill, a left-of-center publication, on Friday (12/15) published a story saying Gloria Allred’s daughter Lisa Bloom got a woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual harassment in 1997 (and dropped her suit without getting a settlement) $30,000 or so from Democrat donors to rehash her unproven charges. The Hill’s writers also said Lisa Bloom offered another woman about $750,000 to accuse Trump of making unwanted sexual advances to her in the early 1990s.

(Bear in mind Gloria Allred produced a forged signature and message on a high school yearbook to try to slime Roy Moore. The poisoned fruit doesn’t fall far from the rotten tree.)

The woman apparently thought Trump would make a better president than Hillary. When Lisa Bloom mentioned money, she may have decided to play the radical feminist lawyer to see how high she would go. The woman said Ms. Bloom offered $750,000 two days before the 2016 presidential election for her to publicly accuse Mr. Trump of sexual improprieties. The woman turned Ms. Bloom down.

The Hill’s reporters said this woman said she talked to the Hill because she was angry Lisa Bloom would defend (for money, of course) sexual abuser movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and try to slime his many accusers.

The Hill’s reporters also noted Lisa Bloom said some women who were willing to accuse Mr. Trump publicly wanted smaller amounts of money. Ms. Bloom said other women who were willing to accuse Mr. Trump publicly wanted larger amounts of money. Why sell yourself cheap?

The Hill’s reporters said they saw messages and documents to validate the woman’s story. Lisa Bloom hasn’t denied it.

Actually it is good advertising on Lisa’s part, because she gets a cut of any moneys the donors would pay to have a woman come out against President Trump or any other public official the Left or the Deep State or the Establishment Republicans want to target. The truth is there is plenty of money available for those women who are willing to lie if it will hurt President Trump or any other target of the Left or the Deep State or the GOP Establishment.

SHERLOCK JUSTICE

WE CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BE YOUR OWN DETECTIVE.

END NOTES

The info about Gloria Allred and the yearbook comes from a 12/8/2017 New York Post article. Fortunately the Daily News photographer cut off Gloria’s head in the pic he took of her standing next to her sitting forging (allegedly) client.

Info on the Washington teacher sex offenders and the stonewalling teachers and officials did comes from 12/14/2003 and 12/15/2003 articles by Maureen O’Hagan and Christine Willmsen in the Seattle Times.

Info on the Los Angeles Unified School district lawyers who destroyed the sex abuse records of the district comes from a 5/1/2014 NBC-TV (Los Angeles) article.

Illinois governor Bruce Rauner (RINO) raised eyebrows and emboldened his political enemies last week when he said he is “trying to get to be” in charge of Illinois but has been blocked by Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Rauner drew instant criticism for telling the truth. Chicagoland Democrats run the state legislature. More than 60% of state senators and almost 60% of state representatives sport the donkey brand. Madigan’s stepdaughter Lisa (D) is the state’s Attorney General. Rauner defended his record on things he could do that didn’t go thru the state legislature.

Here’s something Rauner damn well better control – he needs to stop his state’s loony and corrupt social workers from placing foster children in homes with sex offenders. And he should look at canning key officials of that corrupt agency.

We were contacted by a Chicagoland woman in 2014, who has been trying to gain custody of her grandson and adopt him. Her daughter and the natural father are both druggies, so she wanted to protect the little boy.

Instead, child protective services people in an Illinois county placed the boy with a relative of the sperm donor “in the best interests of the child.”

The woman asked us to look into the sperm donor and the foster couple, who state officials consider good enough to be foster parents.

We found the natural father has a string of convictions and lesser punishments for drug offenses, multiple DUIs, theft, car title violations, a concealed weapon incident, and criminal trespass in Illinois and Kentucky. He was also on the wrong end of a child support case. He is probably not father material in the sense of raising the little boy responsibly and setting him a good example.

The “haven” to where local social workers sent the little boy was the house in which the sperm donor’s uncle and uncle’s current honey live. The uncle/foster dude had financial problems, as evidenced by his conviction related to a bad check, and his eviction, as well as a divorce which showed his first ex-wife was the breadwinner. He also had assault and DUI related convictions, and matching ex-wives. The first one sued him for adultery after she was supporting him. The second sued him for cruelty, and had married him even after he beat her when she was his live-in girlfriend. The woman currently keeping his bed warm had an older son (now moved out), a paternity suit against this son’s natural father, who she later married as her first husband, a divorce, and a daughter (now moved out) who had a baby and a restraining order against a boyfriend before she was 20.

All these wonderful people, and the current (for now) wife’s younger son, who turned 18 in 2014, were living in the house the current wife got from her ex-husband when she divorced him. (It’s a rental; the first hubby moved out.) Related to the three divorces (and mentioned in the divorce files) were three restraining order petitions that had the truly bizarre info.

The current wife/foster gal filed a restraining order against her first husband, who had committed the politically incorrect crime of growing chubby. She claimed he became suspicious she was cheating on him, checked her cell phone for evidence of hookups, and called her a slut and a whore. In the divorce, she got the rented house and the fridge.

The uncle/foster dude, who fathered four daughters by his first two wives, was the target of two restraining order requests. Ex-Wife No. 1 filed on him when he refused to return their two daughters from a parental visitation. She had to have the police retrieve her little girls. Ex-Wife No. 2 also filed her restraining order due to a visitation problem. She said her older girl (who was 8) said the 16-year-old boy who was in her dad’s house – the younger son of his current wife – had molested her several times. Ex-Wife No. 2 sought to cut off his visitation rights because she didn’t want the pervert son (allegedly) of his current female raping her little girls.

When I found these cases in 2014, I immediately shot them to the woman’s lawyer. I also contacted the state police and the state inspector general. Putting a little boy in the home with a known or suspected child molester is corrupt or incompetent or both.

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On this day, in 1941, a Jap carrier fleet’s airmen sneak-attacked our naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. They sunk five battleships and several other ships. They destroyed 188 aircraft and damaged 159 others on the ground. (There were 402 military aircraft on Oahu.) They murdered 2335 military people and scores of civilians.

We declared war on the Japs quickly, then Hitler the bisexual leather freak who ran Germany foolishly declared war upon us.

World War Two would cost us about 400,000 men and some women military dead, and many hundreds of thousands more wounded, diseased, and blinded or crippled for life. It cost about 15 million men and some women some of the best years of their lives. The war also shortened the lives of many Americans who had to fight it.

These included my Dad, my Uncle Chuck, and my Uncle Rusty, and virtually all their friends. And my Aunt Billie, who was an Army nurse. It also set up the Korean War, in which my Uncle Don suffered enough wounds to earn the Purple Heart five times – as a medic! The Red Chinese used his medic cross as a target. My Aunt Olive also served in that war as a nurse.

The Japanese are strategic thinkers. In 1920, right after World War One, a young Japanese named Isoroku Yamamoto was a student at Harvard. In his free time, he “quietly surveyed U.S. oil fields and refineries,” wrote Nathan Miller, on page 303 of his book “The U.S. Navy: An Illustrated History.” Yamamoto was also a junior officer in the Japanese navy; two decades later, he would be the evil genius behind the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Our airmen shot his plane out of the sky and killed him in 1943.

The Japanese demonstrated their savage bestiality in Asia in World War Two every bit as thoroughly as the Nazis showed theirs in Europe. The Bataan Death March was typical of the Japs’ subhuman treatment of captured American soldiers. They also raped, burned, shot, and beheaded millions of Chinese civilians in World War Two. They turned Korea into a sex slave colony. They raped and beheaded many European, Australian, and American women and children they captured in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

They even shot the radio man on Attu in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands while his terrified wife watched, then chopped off his head in front of her and the children on the little island. The Japs took them to Japan and worked them as slaves. Half of the enslaved islanders died in Japan.

The militant savagery of the Japanese earned them the hatred of the Chinese and Koreans, the peoples of Southeast Asia, and the Americans. Roughly one-third of Americans in Japanese captivity died or were murdered; fewer than 10% of Americans in German captivity met the same fate. The Germans have apologized for their savagery and have paid billions of dollars in reparations. The Japanese are still largely in denial, still refuse to apologize or pay reparations in most cases, and portray themselves as victims of the Americans who justifiably nuked them.

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Last week’s news provided more lessons on the use of the public record, and why the existence of the public record is a threat to those who do wrong.

A person’s lawsuits are public record and a good way to get a handle on a person’s background and character.

Over the years, I have found victims or their survivors have filed more than a thousand lawsuits against abortion providers for being hamfisted bunglers or worse. Statistics don’t lie – the average abortion provider gets sued a lot more often than the average OB-GYN. They are lousier doctors, and they sink to doing abortions because the surgery is not hard and they have healthy clients who are vulnerable. Very few females want to disclose they were fooling around, got pregnant, and underwent an abortion. A girl has to tell her parents about malpractice, which may land her in hot water over the pregnancy and the abortion. Abortionists’ defense lawyers essentially play the slut card against women and girls in court. And yet abortionists harm so many girls and young women that they get sued often.

A few days ago, a group of Chinese businesspeople filed suit against Hillary Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe, the outgoing governor of Virginia, and Hillary Clinton’s kid brother Anthony Rodham for a scheme in which they got more than 30 rich Chinese to invest $500,000 apiece into their company that was supposedly going to make electric cars. In exchange, according to the lawsuit filed in Fairfax County, Virginia, McAuliffe and Rodham told the investors as they traveled through China looking for money, they would use their political connections to get the Chinese EB-5 foreign investor visas to come to America with their families.

The firm, GreenTech, made a few crappy low-powered cars, the Chinese charged, and supposedly is about to go bankrupt. Meanwhile, McAuliffe and Rodham didn’t get the Chinese “investor” visas to come into America.

It is not illegal in China for someone to bribe a foreigner. It is illegal for an American to accept bribes. This is something the Justice Department, once they get rid of their Hillary moles, may be interested in. Terry McAuliffe should be happy he let the felons vote when he was governor of Virginia. He might need that courtesy if this lawsuit against him leads to a criminal conviction.

Public expenditure equals (in almost all cases) public record.

It is illegal for a government body to spend money above a certain amount in secret. It is also illegal for them to disguise the full truth from the public about such spending. This is a point any citizen should remember.

Town officials of Bernards Township in northern New Jersey found this out the hard way a few days ago, when residents sued them for deciding to pay $3.5 million to a Moslem group who wants to put a mosque in one of their neighborhoods.

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Ronald Reagan said it is easy to complain about problems but an adult provides solutions.

I sent the following letter to a number of members of Congress and political operatives with ties to President Trump today. It is my hope that it is shown to him and he gets a chance to press for these reforms that will protect more women and children from sexual predators.

My guests, feel free to push these with your own elected officials.

In the wake of the Al Franken and John Conyers fiascos, and the Hollywood fiascos, I have an idea that might help President Trump help the public and expose his opponents yet again.

He can push for the following set of actions to protect women and children from sex offenders.

1. He needs to have the Justice Department file an amicus curiae brief in the Millard, Knight, and Vega vs. Michael Rankin and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation case. In this case, federal judge Richard Matsch ruled Colorado’s sex offender registry is unconstitutional. If allowed to stand, this crazy or corrupt ruling will be the ACLU’s next gold rush. They will sue for the hundreds of thousands of convicted sexual predators and seize billions of dollars from taxpayers for lawyer fees. They will remove the protection from women and children further by killing the registries that alert the public to stay away from these perverted convicts. This ruling must be destroyed.

2. He should look at making states, localities, tribal governments, colleges, and the military provide accurate information on sex offenders and other criminals to the FBI and mandate prosecution of bureaucratic violators if these laws are not already on the books.

3. He should look at making a national database, requiring input from all states’ courts, of criminal arrests and criminal convictions open to the public. It might be easier to take some confidential info out of the NCIC database police use now to make a “little brother” database that is legal for public viewing. This will help parents, young women, and even gun dealers, as they all can screen those who come in contact with children, and themselves, and those who want to buy firearms.

4. He should look at having the U.S. Department of Education put together a national database of teachers and other school employees accused of sexual offenses and other misconduct toward students and what the outcomes of the cases were. This enables school districts to avoid hiring offenders, and allows parents to force school districts to purge their sex offenders and stop hiring new ones. We made such a proposal to the U.S. Department of Education in 2002, and can provide it for the President’s perusal. Likewise, there should be background checks done on school employees at their expense every year.

5. He should look at a law making sex offenders pay for their monitoring an amount equal to the cost of hiring and maintaining a mid-level state trooper in their states of residence. This will allow each trooper to check on 40 sex offenders multiple times each year and give him or her the time and resources to make the sex offender registries as error-free as possible. This is like requiring people to have car insurance, and DUI convicts have to pay much more due to the elevated risks they pose. We have done the analysis on such a database and can provide it for the President’s perusal.

6. He should look at pushing laws requiring realtors to disclose to people if they intend to sell property to a registered sex offender within statutory reporting distance of their homes at least 30 days before closing. This would give people time to outbid or organize to protect their children and young women. We have gotten such a measure approved by the Ohio legislature’s constitutionality lawyers. We can provide it for the President’s perusal.

Likewise, he should look at expanding anti-blockbusting laws to keep dishonest speculators from dropping sex offenders into neighborhoods to depress property values and trigger short sales.

7. He should look at killing the congressional sex abuser slush fund, outing those who used it to pay off victims, recoup the money from those who used it, and have the US Attorney General or state prosecutors look at prosecuting those still prosecutable within the statute of limitations.

8. He should look at clearing all service men and women who were wrongfully punished for defending rape victims while in the Service.

Homeland security begins when women and children are protected. President Trump is known by those in the know to have privately donated hundreds of thousands of dollars for police wanted posters of rapists. He has undeniably helped sexual assault victims in other ways. These proposals, if enacted, will help President Trump further protect the most vulnerable of our people.

My guests, feel free to push these with your own elected officials.

God bless all of you, every day, for as long as you shall live.

SHERLOCK JUSTICE

WE CAN SHOW YOU HOW TO BE YOUR OWN DETECTIVE.