Happy Day-After-Saint-Patrick's Day. :(

"The Worst Economy Since The Great Depression" Gets Even Worse

March 17, 2006
(Foxnews)

The Dow climbed 26.41, or 0.23 percent, to 11,279.65, its highest level since reaching 11,301.74 on May 21, 2001.

"Luck o' the Irish?" :)

The unemployment rate has been below 5% for many months now.

That is considered full employment by any sane economist.

However (bold by Republicus):

Andrew Taylor
(Associated Press)

WASHINGTON - Congress pushed the ceiling on the national debt to nearly $9 trillion Thursday, and the House and Senate promptly voted for major spending initiatives for the war in Iraq, hurricane relief and education.

The Senate, on a 52-48 vote, sent President Bush a measure allowing the government to borrow an additional $781 billion and preventing a first-ever default on Treasury notes. The move allows lawmakers and the president to pay for the war in Iraq without raising taxes or cutting popular domestic programs.

They have to borrow $781 billion to pay the interest on borrowed money. :(

Seriously, Happy Saint Patrick's Day :)

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Saint Patrick (386--March 17, 493 AD) was a missionary and is regarded as the patron saint of Ireland (along with Saint Brigid and Saint Columbia). He is also the patron saint of Nigeria (which was evangelized primarily by Irish missionaries, especially priests from Saint Patrick's Missionary Society (also known as the Kiltegan Missionaries)), excluded people, and engineers. Nevertheless, to this day he has not been canonized by the Catholic Church.

He was born somewhere along the west coast of Britain in the little settlement or village of Bannavem of Taburnia (vico banavem taburniae in his Confessio), which has never been identified with certainty. Sites suggested include Dumbarton, Furness, and Somerset, or the coastline of Wales or northern France; another possibility put forward for his birthplace is the settlement of Bannaventa in Northamptonshire, for raiders captured him with "many thousands of people" according to Patrick's autobiographical Confessio, and sold them as slaves in Ireland. The tiny Welsh village of Banwen has often been suggested as his birth place. It was clearly occupied in Roman times, sitting on the Neath-Brecon Roman road and next to the two Roman forts in Coelbren.

Although he came from a Christian family, he was not particularly religious before his capture. However, Patrick's enslavement markedly strengthened his faith. It was at this time he learned the native Celtic language and the customs of the druids, as his master was a druidic high priest. He escaped at the age of twenty-two, as legend has it, under the direction of an angel, and spent twelve years in a monastery in Auxerre, where he adopted the name Patrick (Patricius, in Old Irish spelled Pádraig).

One night he heard voices begging him to return to Ireland, and he thus, by then in his thirties, became one of the first Christian missionaries in Ireland, being preceded by Palladius (died c.457/461).

Britain at this time was undergoing turmoil following the withdrawal of Roman troops in 407 and Roman central authority in 410. Having been under the Roman cloak for over 350 years, the Romano-British were having to look after themselves. Populations were on the move on the European continent, and the recently converted Christian Britain was being colonised by pagan Anglo-Saxons.

His first converted patron was Saint Dichu, who made a gift of a large sabhall (barn) for a church sanctuary. This first sanctuary dedicated by St Patrick became in later years his chosen retreat. A monastery and church were erected there, and there Patrick died; the site, Saul County Down, retains the name Sabhall (pronounced "Sowel").

Patrick set up his see at Armagh, and organized the church into territorial sees, as elsewhere in the West and East. While Patrick encouraged the Irish to become monks and nuns, it is not certain that he was a monk himself. It is even less likely that in his time the monastery became the principal unit of the Irish Church, although it was in later periods. The choice of Armagh may have been determined by the presence of a powerful king. There Patrick had a school and presumably a small familia in residence; from this base he made his missionary journeys. There seems to have been little contact with the Palladian Christianity of the southeast.

One famous story relates that at the annual vernal fire that was to be lit by the High King at Tara, when all the fires were extinguished so they could be renewed from the sacred fire from Tara, Patrick lit a rival, miraculously inextinguishable Christian bonfire on the hill of Slane at the opposite end of the valley. The season was associated with Easter by chroniclers who followed Patrick's own account in his Confessio.

Patrick was not the first Christian missionary to Ireland, as men such as Secundus and Palladius were active there before him. However, tradition accords him the most impact, and his missions seem to have been concentrated in the provinces of Ulster and Connaught which had never received Christians before. He established the Church throughout Ireland on lasting foundations: he travelled throughout the country preaching, teaching, building churches, opening schools and monasteries, converting chiefs and bards, and everywhere supporting his preaching with miracles. He threw down the idol of Crom Cruach in Leitrim.

Patrick wrote that he daily expected to be violently killed or enslaved again. His Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus protested British slave trading and the slaughter of a group of Irish Christians by Coroticus's raiding Christian Welshmen, and is the first surely identified literature of the British or Celtic Celtic Church. Patrick gathered many followers, including Saint Benignus, who would become his successor. His chief concerns were the raising up of native clergy, and abolishing Paganism, idolatry, and Sun-worship. He made no distinction of classes in his preaching and was himself ready for imprisonment or death. He was the first writer to condemn all forms of slavery.

Pious legend credits Patrick with banishing snakes from the island, though post-glacial Ireland never actually had snakes; one suggestion is that snakes referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids of that time and place, as shown for instance on coins minted in Gaul, or that it could have referred to beliefs such as Pelagianism, symbolized as "serpents." Legend also credits Patrick with teaching the Irish about the concept of the Trinity by showing people the shamrock, a three-leaved clover, using it to highlight the Christian dogma of 'three divine persons in the one God' (as opposed to the Arian belief that was popular in Patrick's time).

In his use of Scripture and eschatological expectations, Patrick was typical of the 5th-century bishop. One of the traits which he retained as an old man was a consciousness of being an unlearned exile and former slave and fugitive, who learned to trust God completely.

Patrick died in AD 493, according to the latest reconstruction of the old Irish annals. Prior to the 1940's it was believed without doubt that he died in 461 and thus had lived in the first half of the 5th century. A lecture entitled "The Two Patricks", published in 1942 by T.F. O'Rahilly, caused enormous controversy by proposing that there had been two "Patricks", Palladius and Patrick, and that what we now know of St. Patrick was in fact in part a conscious effort to meld the two into one hagiographic personality. Decades of contention eventually ended with most historians now asserting that Patrick was indeed most likely to have been active in the mid-to-late 5th century.

The compiler of the Annals of Ulster stated that in the year 553:

"I have found this in the Book of Cuanu: The relics of Patrick were placed sixty years after his death in a shrine by Colum Cille. Three splendid halidoms were found in the burial-place: his goblet, the Angel's Gospel, and the Bell of the Testament. This is how the angel distributed the halidoms: the goblet to Dún, the Bell of the Testament to Ard Macha, and the Angel's Gospel to Colum Cille himself. The reason it is called the Angel's Gospel is that Colum Cille received it from the hand of the angel."

The placement of this event under the year 553 would certainly seem to place Patrick's death in 493, or at least in the early years of that decade.

It is believed that March 17 was his death date (according to the Encyclopedia Britannica) and it is the date popularly associated with him as his feast, known as St. Patrick's Day.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

[From top: The Annual Saint Patrick's Day Parade in NYC, St. Paddy the Leprechaun, his proverbial pot of gold, and a keg o' beer]

Faith and Begorra!

It's Saint Patrick's Day!

Everyone knows the story:

When St. Joseph of Arimathaea migrated to the British Isles, St. Mary "Holy Grail" Magdalene went with him.

When they arrived, the mighty Irish hero Cuchulain just so happened to be leading a raiding party from the Emerald Isle and he spotted and spied upon Magdalene while she bathed in the River Thames, and was stricken by her Semitic beauty.

A hot-blooded warrior who could not contain his boiling lust, he dashed and splashed into the river and abducted the lovely woman and carried her off for a starlit romp at Stonehenge.

The affair produced divine triplets, as forever celebrated in such popular minstrel songs as "An Irishman, A Jewess, And A Barrel Of Beer":

Faith and Begorra!
What do we see?
'Tis Cuchulain and Mary
And 1-2-3!

The legendary "Brothers Three" are, of course, the elf Kris Kringle (a.k.a. Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of crass commercialism), the cherub Cupid (a.k.a. Saint Valentine, the patron saint of lust), and Paddy the Leprechaun (a.k.a. St. Patrick, the patron saint of beer).

March 17 is celebrated in Ireland and across the Republic as the day Paddy introduced beer to Ireland.

Hence he is the Irish Dionysus, the latter, earlier divinity having introduced wine to ancient Greece and from thence art, poetry, drunkeness, tragedy, incoherent ramblings, and Roman occupation.

For his part, St. Paddy's own gift of beer led to labyrinthine Celtic art, fairy-tales, armwrestling, fist-fighting, barroom brawling, the incoherent ramblings of James Joyce, the proddy English occupation, bloody Sunday, Bono, and, of course, everyone's favorite neighborhood Irish pub.

As for the origin of St. Paddy's "pot of gold," the best-selling and now sued The Davinci Code author Dan Brown is rumored to be working on a new book to help him pay his legal bills.

The book is called "The Rainbow Connection," and explores the theory that St. Paddy's hidden "pot o' gold" was actually code for a stashed keg o' beer.

Early Bird Democrat '08 Hopefuls

From top: New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, former-Vice President Al Gore, DNC Chairman Howard Dean, Massachussets Senator John Kerry ("Reporting for Duty"), North Carolina Senator and necromancer John Edward, race-baiting Reverend Al Sharpton (standing by Right-Wing valkyrie Anne Coulter), Italian porn-star and Parliamentarian Cicciolina, and satan.

Early Bird GOP '08 Hopefuls

From top: Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Arizona Senator John McCain, Vrginia Senator George Allen, Jesus Christ (Announcing His Candidacy), and Candidate Jesus (running)

Peace.

Republicus is a compassionate conservative (seriously) and a uniter, not a divider (it's true).

And he is not waging war against liberalism, but against the hateful extremists who give the Great Idea of Liberalism (whatever) a bad name.

In the post "BLACKBALLED," Republicus sincerely shared his misgivings about banishment (ultimate censorship), but honestly thought that Lee Harvey--that is, "Jeff"-- crossed one line too many when he offended another guest and caused her to leave.

However, as a representative of what is great about this grand republic known far and wide as the United States of America, it is incumbent upon Republicus to prove malice towards none and love for all of his fellow Americans (however wayward and deranged).

Therefore, Republicus is offering the peacepipe and lifting the ban on Lee Harvey he means Jeff and re-instating his privileges as a guest of Republicus and who is free to come and go as he pleases, provisionally:

1) He must STOP the wallpapering in the commentary section with previously-published Lefty editorials/opinion pieces/propaganda unless they are specifically relevant to a posted point (and by all means, provide corrections when warranted, but of fact, not opinion).

He is free to vent himself for as long as he wants, and provide whatever links he would like to be looked at.

And he is welcome to attack Republicus.

Please, go right ahead.

Bring it on.

Make my day.

2) He must apologize, not to Republicus, but to Kelly for his ungentlemanly insinuations.

Honor those two, Jeff, and you're back in like Flynn! :)

If you're interested in becoming a Silver-Star Member of Republicus (with such privileges* as 24/7 access to the site, an allowance of one imported editorial per-post, and a guaranteed response of no less than five words to your comments):

3) Solemnly swear to never cheat on your taxes.

4) Do 25 hours of community service for a faith-based organization (like a church, for example).

5) Wear an American flag lapel pin for one week.

6) Go scavenging around your neighborhood and collect 10 ilbs. of tin cans for the war effort.

7) Buy Halliburton stock.

8) Support your local country club and play golf every weekend.

9) Make a donation to the 700 Club.

10) Subscribe to either The National Review, The Weekly Standard, or The American Spectator.

(*conditional upon mood of host)

So whaddya say, pal? Do you want to bury the hatchet, or wott? :)

Anonymous Praise For Republicus

Anonymous sang:

Republicus Republicus
You've saved the day

You've made us safe
By keeping Lee-Harvey at bay

He's not too big
And he's not too tough
And Republicus, well,
He's got the right stuff.

Republicus republicus, yeahhhh republicus.


:)

BLACKBALLED

Kelly said:

It was good to have some good political discussions with someone who doesn't have the same background as me.

I have met some interesting people here. I have followed and posted to some of the others blogs who's owners visit this blog. I like Amy, for instance, and have posted to her blog, as well.

But, I really don't like jeff!!! More often than not, I am not cheering for you. Rather, I am grumbling about HIM!!

He just couldn't take it that I pointed out that doing certain things doesn't make your argument valid. So, he rattles of something about some love affair.

THAT WAS LOW!!

JEFF!! GET A LIFE!

I'll be back when he's gone!

Thank you, Kelly! You've just resolved a dilemma!

Republicus has pondered over issues of censorship and banning, particularly in regards to guests who are not only hostile and generally unpleasant in bearing (they must be tolerated and engaged with), but who also barbarically exploit and abuse the civility of their host in his allowing of Free Speech (and that's pushing the envelope).

What really bothers Republicus is the indiscriminate, off-topic importation of long-winded Lefty rants, raves, and screeding manifestos from such liberal political hacks and hatchetman as Paul Krugman, David Corn, and Dr. Goldhammer--with all such postings plastered with a very-annoyingly smug vindication and with a vile Catch-22 awareness, that is, Republicus must either take the time to read the lengthy, hateful, Leftist garbage and refute them on a point-by-point basis (to prove the garbage that they most certainly are), let them stand unanswered (which can be interpreted to imply irrefutability), or delete them at the pleasure of the host (which can be charged as censorship).

Do you have a mind of your own? Speak it. If there is an article you want to be considered along with your own point-of-view--if not referencing it as the source of your opinion-- provide a link to it. It's that simple.

Republicus himself has been on the receiving end of censorship and banishment on Lefty and "I-Sound-Like-A-Pompous-Liberal-But-I-Agree-With-Pat-Buchanan-So-I'm-Not-One" blogs and confirmed the Left's true inclinations vis-a-vis Free Speech and Inclusiveness.

Republicus is not like them, and his tolerance bar was raised much higher.

However, here he was with a pest who was pushing the envelope not on ideology per se but with his tactlessness, his offensive, snide attitude, his vendetta-like obsession, and his spiteful persistence on swamping the commentary sections with imported, long-winded Lefty manifestos and subjective analyses and his own plagiarized posturings.

And most of the time--if not all of the time, come to think of it-- they would have nothing to do with the subject of the post.

Anyway, because of the Catch 22 nature of them, Republicus has asked him--ad nauseum-- to control himself and to stop the damn importation of Lefty opinion-pieces.

That was many months ago.

He wouldn't stop.

What's a host to do with such a guest?

Several months ago, Republicus told a fellow blogger--the Fair Irina-- that he was about ready to boot the boor, rationalizing the censorship by the reasons such as those above.

Irina reminded him of certain principles to uphold (i.e. Free Speech) and comforted him with the possibility that the pest will just get bored and go away on its own, eventually.

Well, it did--but it was only lurking and has now re-surfaced and is plaguing Republicus once again.

Republics endured, and swatted and sprayed the vile, venom-spitting pest as needed, essentially posting "BEWARE" signs here and there as required.

But no! The pest multiplied its posting of long-winded, imported OPINION PIECES BY TOADS like a a cockroach laying its eggs!

What's a homeowner to do?

Well, all of a sudden...mirabile dictu!

A MIRACLE.

Kelly said: "THAT WAS LOW!! JEFF!! GET A LIFE!"

LOL! Of course it was low, what else is new?

But there was nothing--upon principle--that Republicus would do about that.

But this: "I'll be back when he's gone."

Yes, oh yes, that gives Republicus all he needs to show the lowlife the door and throw him out on his noisome buttocks in good conscience, upon the principle that he HE OFFENDED ANOTHER LONG-TIME GUEST AND CAUSED HER TO LEAVE!

THANK YOU, Kelly! :)

Buh-bye, Lee-Harvey.

You are persona non grata at Republicus.

Ah! Fresh air! It's Springtime!

The Bush-Hater Is LUNCH

Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee and Lee-Harvey said:

No need to feel sorry for me "sigh", doing damn good on this side of the fence. Overcompensating huh, took down that "read em and weep" post pretty quick and then attacked me real quick there bro. Hmm, who's overcompensating here??

And he bites the bait.

Republicus thanks him for proving the last post.

You're the one who swooped in and attacked the deleted "Read It And Weep" post mighty quick there yourself Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Harvey, in a characteristically OVERCOMPENSATING attempt to discredit your host by posting pages and pages of other's assessments followed by the obligatory digression into some anti-Christian manifesto by a godless liberal.

And by saying that it is Republicus who is "overcompensating" and "attacking pretty quick" when you yourself are doing precisely those in the process proves that the rapid-fire knee-jerk ego-defense mechanisms in your bag of tricks aren't restricted to overcompensation, but rummage through the entire toolbox and most often pull out the liberal's favorite monkey wrench, i.e. Projection:

Placing unacceptable impulses in yourself onto someone else.

To wit:

Something must have bunched up your panties extra tight--the D.H. nexus, presumably--and you jerked upright and compulsively had to obsessively plaster the walls of the commentary section with "proof" after "proof" of what you are too blinded or dense to realize are just more proofs of what Republicus has been saying about the Bush-hating, liberal mind for many months now, and, in the process, quite beautifully proving the very post where you were pegged as engaging in overcompensation Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee and Lee-Harvey.

And, of course: "hmm, it's like your obsessed with me or something."

Yes. Projecting all the way like jingle bells: "I know you are, but what am I?"

In your foaming-at-the-mouth attempt to discredit Republicus by debunking a chain email he received from D., you replicated entire paragraphs in your fevered cut-and-pasting (which nevertheless effectively questioned the veracity of the email).

Then you reverted back to your obsession of overcompensatingly plastering the walls of the commentary sections with more Bush-hating, Christian-demonizing manifestos by a pathetically-transparent Leftist who could just as well be the next James Bond villain (i.e. Dr. Goldhammer).

In your triumphant delusion that you are "outing" some "Vast, Right-Wing Christo-Fascist Conspiracy," you only out what Republicus has been saying all along: That what is at the core of your seething hate for the president is his "sectarian" faith of the Christian "cult."

Retro satana.

As to Republicus' removing of the post "Read It And Weep," Republicus had received other similar chain emails from others that he thought were worthy of posting.

One showed ranks of soldiers bowing their heads in prayer with an allegation that the ACLU was going to sue the U.S. Army over that.

Republicus found it curious that such an outrageous lawsuit was not picked up by watchdogs like Bill O'Reilly, and decided to do some Googling.

He found many online "corrections" that debunked that allegation, and decided it wasn't worth the effort of finding out the truth by more diligent--and time-consuming-- research.

Same thing here with the "Read It And Weep" post, a similar chain email which claimed that Oliver North identified Osama Bin Laden by name during the Iran-Contra hearings and presciently warned Senator Al Gore about him, the latter scoffing.

Apparently, North actually named Abu Nidal, according to the long-winded and replicated cut-&-pasted rebuttals that Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee and Lee-Harvey overcompensated with.

Keep in mind that Republicus has not himself researched either angle,but just shrugged and deleted what may very well be propaganda (both the post AND Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee and Lee's-Harvey's wall-papering comments).

However, a letter by North himself was included that denied the veracity, so Republicus could not stand behind it and wasn't willing to try.

The posted chain email also referred to 9/11 hijacker Muhammad Atta, and claimed that he was in an Israeli prison and released by the insistence of the Clinton Administration as the latter appeased the Jihadists so he could win for himself the "legacy" crown of bringing peace to the Middle East--however recklessly it took him to do it.

Apparently--though, again, Republicus has not researched it to arrive at a conclusion either way-- it was a different Atta.

All of that compelled Republicus to impatiently delete the whole kit-&-caboodle, and decided to fill the vacany by fly-swatting the pest Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee and Lee-Harvey for the fun of it.

But as to the those circulating, chain-emails that appear in the box of Republicus from time-to-time, it's odd that the originating propagandist could think that he/she could get away with an easily-and readily-- disproven lie so widely-circulated.

Indeed, it would be no surprise to Republicus if a cunning Leftist actually began the circulation of emails like that just so it could be widely--and readily-- debunked, creating skepticism for anything else that comes along that reveals the Left for what it is.

Of course, that is the very skullduggery underlying the allegation that it is Rove himself who planted the National Guard story during the 2004 campaign for the Left to jump on and then be easily--and readily--debunked (and so create skepticism for anything else that comes along that is harmful to the President).

But conservatives don't think like that. Lefty's do, and simply projected what they would do: Intentionally bad-mouth their own under the guise of the opposition so they could then discredit the opposition for baseless bad-mouthing.

Anyway, poor Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee and Lee Harvey.

In order to "prove" that his overcompensating with Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee and Lee-Harvey is not a manifestation of the ego defense mechanism of overcompensation kicking in, he now goes around with the proof of the diagnosis in full, disgraceful display pretending that it doesn't bother him just so he could spite Republicus' diagnosis while accusing Republicus of overcompensating!

Heh, you do that Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee Lee and Lee-Harvey.

P.S. "No need to feel sorry for me 'sigh', doing damn good on this side of the fence."

So stay there. Why do keep climbing over it?

*BURP*

Excuse me.

*sigh*

The Bush-Hater Overcompensates

Overcompensation: The ego-defense mechanism that covers up felt weaknesses by emphasizing some desirable characteristic or making up for frustration in one area by overgratification in another.

(Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life, Eighth Edition, R.C. Carson, J.N. Butcher, and J.C. Coleman)

In the March 2, 2006 post "The Bush-Hater Is BACK!" Republicus discerned:

Yes, (Lee Harvey's) apparently nursed back to health after Republicus went Beni Hanna on him a month or two ago, and is now timidly testing the waters before jumping in to swim with the shark (namely, Republicus)!

Republicus says timidly" because the man who went around as "Jeff"--who at one time had maliciously posted personal information about Republicus, then called the latter's righteous prerogative to delete the entry "cowardice," and then posted his own full name and city of residence as a show of shameless bravado-- now dips his toe into the deep waters of Republicus as... "anonymous!

That referred to his anonymous toe-tipping in the commentary section of the February 26 post "Banned From The Liberal Avenger."

The anonymous comment was then imported to the March 2 post where Republicus publicly un-masked him.

Undoubtedly stunned, he made no comment there after reading that, but he then overcompensated for his timidity by marching back to the February 26 post like an angry "Oh yeah?" Daffy Duck and this time climbing up on his unicycle as "Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff Jeff!"

And he's been stuck there like the needle on a broken record ever since.

Poor Lee Harvey. *sigh*

RFK Assassin A Terrorist

Wednesday, March 15, 2006 (Associated Press)

FRESNO, Calif. — Sirhan Sirhan, who shot Robert F. Kennedy to death in 1968, was denied parole Wednesday for the 13th time since his conviction.

Sirhan is "very hostile. He hates Americans. ... He continues to pose a risk to public safety," said state Board of Parole Hearings spokesman Tip Kindel.

[...]

Kennedy was shot in the narrow pantry of Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel on June 5, 1968, soon after the New York senator claimed victory in the California presidential primary.

Sirhan was wrestled to the ground with the gun in his hand.

Prosecutors at Sirhan's trial said the Palestinian immigrant targeted Kennedy because of his pledge to sell fighter jets to Israel.