Paul Harvey 1965 Thanks John L.@!

This speech was broadcast by legendary ABC Radio commentator Paul Harvey on  April 3, 1965:
If I were the Devil . . . I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States. I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.” “Do as you please.”   To the young, I would whisper, “The Bible is a myth.” I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is “square”.  In the ears of the young marrieds, I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you. I would caution them not to be extreme in religion, in patriotism, in moral conduct. And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to say after me: “Our Father, which art in Washington” . . .
If I were the devil, I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting so that anything else would appear dull an uninteresting. I’d threaten T.V. with dirtier movies and vice versa. And then, if I were the devil, I’d get organized. I’d infiltrate unions and urge more loafing and less work, because idle hands usually work for me. I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. And I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine yound intellects but neglect to discipline emotions . . . let those run wild. I would designate an athiest to front for me before the highest courts in the land and I would get preachers to say “she’s right.” With flattery and promises of power, I could get the courts to rule what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography, and  thus, I would evict God from the courthouse, and then from the school house, and then from the houses of Congress and then, in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and I would deify science because that way men would become smart enough to create super weapons but not wise enough to control them.
If I were Satan, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas, a bottle. If  I were the devil, I would take from those who have and I would give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And then, my police state would force everybody back to work. Then, I could separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines, and objectors in slave camps. In other words, if I were Satan, I’d just keep on doing what he’s doing.
Paul Harvey, Good Day.

USA truth ... Thanks Ron W. and JIM K. (EACH PHS 51)

Some truth here...

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Data unverified, but I believe it...

Well? We read all the jokes and forward the good ones but I just wonder who will pass this one on. How about you sending it on and back to me if you got the guts to do so. I am and just wonder how many I will get back? AND very happy to be of the 1%. Someone please tell me what the HELL's wrong with all the people that run this country!!!!!! Both Republicans & Democrats We're "broke" and can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless, etc.,??????????? In the last years we have provided direct cash aid to Haiti - 1.4 B, Israel – 3.5 B, Hamas - 351 M, Pakistan - 2 B, Libya 1.45 B, Egypt - 397 M, Mexico - 622 M, Russia - 380 M, Haiti - 1.4 B, Jordan - 463 M, Kenya - 816 M, Sudan - 870 M, Nigeria - 456 M, Uganda - 451 M, Congo - 359 M, Ethiopia - 981 M, Pakistan - 2 B, South Afrika - 566 M, Senegal - 698 M, Mozambique - 404 M, Zambia - 331 M, Kazakhstan - 304 M, Iraq - 1.08 B, Tanzania - 554 M,   with literally Billions of Dollars and they still hate us!!!! Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries! We have hundreds of adoptable children who are shoved aside to make room for the adoption of foreign orphans. AMERICA: a country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed hungry, elderly going without needed medication and mentally ill without treatment -etc. YET....................... They have a 'Benefit' for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations, ships and planes lining up with food, water, tents clothes, bedding, doctors and medical supplies. Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries. Sad isn't it? 99% of people won't have the guts to forward this. I'm one of the 1% -- I Just Did =

Irving Berlin and White Christmas

Wednesday December 26, 2012

America's Greatest Christmas Classic

Monday, 24 Dec 2012 11:31 AM

 

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America's classic Christmas song was written by a Jewish immigrant.

 

Born in Russia with the name Israel Baline, he was the genius songwriter we know as Irving Berlin. He wrote "White Christmas" for the 1942 Hollywood musical "Holiday Inn," starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.

 

On set, the movie's hit number was presumed to be another Berlin composition, the Valentine's Day song "Be Careful, It's My Heart." At first, it was. Then "White Christmas" captured the public's imagination and hasn't quite loosed its grip since.

 

As my colleague Mark Steyn puts it in a winsome podcast interview with Berlin's daughter Mary Ellin Barrett, "Berlin loved America and he sang its seasons": Easter ("Easter Parade"), July Fourth ("God Bless America") and, of course, Christmas.

 

Some estimates point to sales of all versions of "White Christmas" topping 100 million. According to Albert and Shirley Menendez in their book on American Christmas songs, it made the charts for two decades straight, and as late as 1969 was the No. 1 Christmas song in the country. You are sure to hear it multiple times any Christmas season, on the radio, on TV or at the mall.

 

It is a song built on yearning. In lines at the beginning of the original version that aren't usually performed, Berlin writes of being out in sunny California during the holiday: "There's never been such a day/in Beverly Hills, L.A./But it's December the twenty-fourth,/And I'm longing to be up North."

 

Steyn thinks that if America had entered World War II a few years earlier, the song might never have taken off. But 1942 was the year that American men were first shipped overseas, and it was released into a wave of homesickness. Mary Ellin Barrett says it first caught on with GIs in Great Britain. During the course of the war, it became the most requested song with Armed Forces Radio.

 

The irony of the son of a cantor writing the characteristic American Christmas song is obvious. Yet, his daughter says, "he believed in the great American Christmas."

As a child on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, he loved to look at the little Christmas tree of his Catholic neighbors. He and his Christian wife Ellin (theirs was a scandalous mixed marriage), put on elaborate, joyous Christmases for their three daughters. Not until later would they reveal that the day was a painful one for them because they had lost an infant child on Christmas.

 

Berlin knew he had something special with "White Christmas" as soon as he wrote it. He supposedly enthused to his secretary, "I just wrote the best song I've ever written — heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!" The song evokes the warmth of the hearth and the comforts of our Christmas traditions in a way that hasn't stopped pulling at heartstrings yet.

 

Whereas Berlin's composition has proved its enduring appeal across more than half a century, Justin Bieber's or Cee Lo Green's latest holiday numbers probably won't. In an essay in The New Republic, Jonathan Fischer asks what has become of the golden age of pop Christmas songs between the 1930s and 1950s that not only gave us "White Christmas," but "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "The Christmas Song" and such lesser standards as "Silver Bells," "Santa Baby" and "Frosty the Snowman."

 

Well, the writing was better, the standards higher, the culture more charming and less abased. But Fischer notes something else — Christmas meant more. "As the religious purpose of Christmas has gotten increasingly remote," he writes, "pop songwriters seem to have less to say about it" and "a traditional and sentimental version of Christmas . . . doesn't appeal to the wider, more fractured popular culture the way it once did."

 

Maybe we can't make great Christmas songs anymore, but we can still listen to them, and that will have to be consolation enough. May your days be merry and bright.

 

Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and a variety of other publications. Read more reports from Rich Lowry — Click Here Now.

 

 

 

© King Features Syndicate

GI's best Christmas ... Thanks Sonny H.!

True personal account from a friend in Waverly, Ohio.

                     Ramey

 

 

                       CHRISTMAS AT THE 62^nd ENGINEERS IN PHAN RANG VIET NAM 1966

            Life in Viet Nam was for me, a 20 year old from Franklin Furnace Ohio, horrible.

No, we were not getting hit by Charlie every night or two, and we didn’t go on patrol. …….We played army.

Every night after a 12 hour day in the field, some jerk officer was holding a pre-ig inspection. That means every GI is doing extensive cleaning and polishing of his equipment while the brass was at the PX tent drinking beer. This was every day, seven days a week for about five months!

            We did this stuff until around Christmas and the harassment began to let up a bit.

Everyone was getting the holiday off unless of course you were a cook or something.

            Oh, it felt so good to just lay in the sack after 0500. I just lay there loving it.

            “Hays!”

            Oh no, “what”?

            “Get dressed. You’re driving the deuce and a half.”

            “You have got to be kidding.” He wasn’t. I complained and moaned around but did what I was told. I met a buck sargent and a 1^st. lieutenant at the truck. We all piled in and I was told to drive to Phan Rang. This was a small town about 3 clicks from our compound.

            The sargent directed me around until we came to a place that appeared to be a school. It was an orphanage.

            Sarge got out of the truck and a few minants later, he was leading about 20 beautiful kids to the rear of my truck where we helped each one onto the bench seats located on each side of the bed. They were dressed so fantastic in their native clothes.

            This was the beginning of the most wonderful Christmas I had ever had. How could I ever imagine it would be in Viet Nam.

            We took those kids back to the 62^nd Engineer’s compound where they ate Christmas dinner with the rest of us GI’S. Oh, they loved it.

            After we ate, Santa Clause showed up and began to hand out presents to all the kids, calling them by name. (This Santa kind of looked like the sargent that had ridden into town with me that mourning.)

            Time passed, we returned the kids to the home and this experience was burned into my memory from that time on. Thought I might have to go to field hospital and get my smile surgically removed.

            Truth is, my wife and I don’t celebrate Christmas. I don’t even like it. We have our reasons why we don’t but this story is not about that.

            It’s about, “the best Christmas I ever had”, 46 years ago today.

            May God have blessed those children.

 

Best analogy, Lou f.! Thanks!

BEST STATEMENT YET...

 This should be engraved in stone at the front of the Capitol. 

“Witnessing the Republicans and the Democrats bicker over the U.S. debt is like watching two drunks argue over a bar bill on the Titanic.”