Her cake.
When we sang Happy Birthday she wasn't sure what to think. She made some kinda funny faces.
Trying to blow out the candles but it wasn't working very well.
Opening presents. She had a fascination with the bow. She was trying to keep it balanced on her head.
Trying on some of her presents.
And this one.
Big brother holding him.
Natasha loves to hold him.
Even she thinks he is cute.
And now he is all tired out.
1Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.
5Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
8Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
9Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
10Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
11Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
Record Cold At Cancun Climate Confab
Written by William F. Jasper
Saturday, December, 11, 2010
Meteorologist Anthony Watts, who runs the global warming skeptic blog "Watts Up With That?," couldn't resist rubbing it in. In a December 10 posting, entitled "Gore Effect" on Steroids: Six straight days of record low temperatures during COP16 in Cancun Mexico — more coming, Watts wrote:
"The irony, it burns. Do you think maybe Gaia is trying to send the U.N. and the delegates a message? One record low was funny, three in a row was hilarious, a new record low for the month of December was ROFL [Rolling On Floor Laughing], but now six straight days of record lows during the U.N. COP16 Global Warming conference? That's galactically inconvenient. The whole month so far has averaged below normal...
How cold did it get? Temps were in the low 50s (Fahrenheit), for the most part, so no one got frostbite. Not bone-chilling, but also not the bikini temperatures and margaritas-on-the-beach experience most snowbirds are expecting when they ditch frigid Oslo, London, and Kalamazoo for Mexico's fabled sunny clime. Watts shows the official low temperatures for the past six days of the conference (December 5-10) and then matches them with the recorded historic lows for the same dates. The conference dates either tied the record lows or were lower by 4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Here's the temperatures (in Fahrenheit) for COP16 dates and the record lows:
December COP16 Record Low
5th 51 51
6th 53 53
7th 53 57
8th 50 50
9th 59 64
10th 55 60
"It is likely we will see a full week, possibly 8 days of record lows, and another new all time record low for the month of December is possible also," says Anthony Watts. This recent cold wave in Cancun has already added to the lore of the "Gore Effect," which is defined in the Urban Dictionary as:
The phenomenon that leads unseasonably cold temperatures, driving rain, hail, or snow whenever Al Gore visits an area to discuss global warming.
Poor Al Gore. He doesn't even have to show up at a global warming event anymore for record cold — often accompanied by paralyzing blizzards — to dampen, or even cancel, the event. The following are a few of the many links to stories from around the world about the Gore Effect provided by Marc Morano at the Climate Depot blog site:
Melbourne temperatures plummet in anticipation of Al Gore's visit next week!
First October snow since 1922 blankets London as global warming bill debated - October 2008
'Gore Effect': Driving snow froze the hopes of organizers of "the biggest global warming protest in history" in Washington
The Gore Effect brings snow to New York City
Al "Mr. Global Warming" Gore didn't show up in Cancun. Perhaps that was by design, since his appearance at last year's Copenhagen summit coincided with the arrival of record cold temperatures and snow storms that forced U.S. House Speaker and her congressional delegation to leave Denmark early — to avoid being snowed in. Even many members of the huge press pool at the Copenhagen summit, almost all of whom were solidly in Al Gore's AGW (anthropogenic global warming) camp, couldn't resist joking about the phenomenon. As I watched the first snow flakes begin to fall last December at Copenhagen's Bella Center, a reporter for Britain's left-wing Guardian commented: "Here comes the snow; Gore's plane must have landed." Similar comments, though considered politically incorrect (if not outright heresy) among the green true believers, were not uncommon in the media center.
Our own video for The New American from the COP15 conference, Gore Effect Impacts Copenhagen Climate provides a glimpse of the deep freeze that Gore's visit was credited with bringing to the event.
As delegates and NGO activists at Cancun insisted that the planet is overheating, millions of people were being deluged with snow and shivering in some of the coldest weather in a century. An extended headline for the U.K.'s Daily Mail on December 9 read:
British columnist/blogger James Delingpole at The Telegraph aimed this satirical barrage at the global warming alarmists in Cancun — and in the media:
As your boiler breaks down, your pipes freeze, your car won't start, your Ocado delivery fails to arrive, your train is cancelled, your neck is broken after slipping on black ice and you lie in an emergency ward waiting for a doctor to turn up only to learn that they're all off today because of the weather, you might be forgiven for thinking that all this has something to do with global cooling, changes in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and the decline in sunspot activity perhaps auguring a new Maunder minimum.
But, of course, you would be wrong, says Delingpole, in his acerbic parody; the "experts" will assure us that all this freezing mayhem is the result of global warming.
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Frigid weather blasts Europe
From Katy Byron, CNN
December 18, 2010
(CNN) -- A blast of harsh winter weather socked Europe on Saturday morning, causing travel chaos and sending temperatures into a deep-freeze ahead of a busy holiday travel week.
From Northern Ireland to Bulgaria, blizzard conditions left airports with heavy delays or shut them entirely on Friday, and many delays and cancellations continued into Saturday.
London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports closed all runways Saturday afternoon because of heavy snow and ice. British Airways canceled all Saturday domestic and European flights at Heathrow. The airline also canceled all shorthaul flights at Gatwick until 5 p.m.
Police closed several access roads surrounding the airports due to dangerous driving conditions.
The delays and cancellations extended across Europe -- to Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Geneva, Switzerland; Munich, Germany; Paris, France; and Copenhagen, Denmark.
Ireland braced for an icey Saturday as the Irish Meteorological Service, Met Eireann, forecast widespread frost, ice and freezing fog for the morning, and some sleet and snow showers for later in the day. Temperatures were expected to drop down to between 4 and 8 degrees Celsius below zero (between 18 degrees and 25 degrees Fahrenheit) Saturday night.
Northern Ireland was blanketed at the end of this week with its worst snowfall in 25 years, according to CNN affiliate TV3.
The government issued emergency snow warnings Friday night, and more snow was expected Saturday.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland warned motorists to avoid treacherous roads and travel "only if absolutely necessary."
At Frankfurt Airport Saturday morning, snow was still coming down.
"We have a light snow now. According to the weather forecast, the snowfall should stop in three hours," airport spokesman Tino Ross said. Approximately 80 flights were canceled Saturday and there were still some delays, he said.
Airport personnel were working Saturday morning to de-ice airplanes and resume full operations at the airport, Ross said. He added that while about 3,000 passengers were stranded Friday, after having passed through passport control, the situation has improved Saturday and that stranded passengers were provided food and water for the wait.
The relentless weather caused approximately 250 flights to be cancelled and thousands of passengers stranded at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport on Friday, according to airport spokeswoman Antoinette Spaans.
"We are expecting more delays due to weather conditions," Spaans said Saturday. "The most delays and cancellations are expected to affect air traffic within Europe," she added.
To the south in Bulgaria, the eastern part of the country has been under snow for three days, with accumulation at nearly 1 meter (40 inches) in some areas, according to CNN affiliate bTV.
The main highway, airport and port in Varna, Bulgaria, were closed Friday for several hours. Four regions in Bulgaria -- Silistra, Dorbich, Varna and Burgas -- elevated the weather advisory, and the country was still expecting heavy snowfall and strong winds, bTV's website said. Many roads remain closed, and town and villages were without water or electricity.
In Belgium, the weather forced truck drivers to spend a freezing night in their cabs after authorities banned trucks over seven tons from travelling on icy roads.
Italy's ANSA news agency reported that two people had died because of the bad weather -- a truck driver who was killed in a car accident and a man who died of a heart attack while cleaning up snow outside his house. Hundreds of passengers were stranded in Florence, Italy, after snow and ice stopped high-speed trains from entering the city's train station, the agency said.
In northeastern Greece near Macedonia, heavy snowfall mid-week caused massive problems on several highways, where snowchains were declared mandatory, according to national news Athens News Agency.
Meteorologists say the cold weather is caused by a negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation, which means that cold Arctic air is flowing into southern latitudes that are normally much warmer.
Forecasters don't expect conditions to change anytime soon. The next wave of snowy weather is expected to bring up to 20 centimeters (8 inches) to some parts of the U.K., with London expected to receive 5 to 10 centimeters (2 to 4 inches) of snow.
The weather system will move across France and Germany on Saturday night and Sunday. Below-normal temperatures are expected to continue in northern Europe into the beginning of next week.
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Brutal Cold, Snow Setting Records Across Eastern, U. S.
By Heather buchman, Meteorologist
Millions of people across the eastern half of the country are enduring the coldest air of the season thus far with brutal temperatures and wind extending all the way into the South.
Many places have also picked up record snow or the first measurable snow of the season in the last few days.
This record-setting arctic blast, which could be one of the worst of this entire winter for some places, has been an early visitor. Coming on the heels of another cold outbreak last week, temperatures are averaging 8 to 10 degrees below normal for the month in places such asMinneapolis, Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, Orlando and Miami.
Tuesday night was another frigid one for the East with record-challenging lows dipping into the teens and 20s from Tennessee and the Carolinas into Florida. Farmers were forced again to stay up all night working to protect their fruit and vegetable crops.
Numerous records, some of which are more than 100 years old, fell throughout the Southeast Monday and Tuesday. In Norfolk, Va., the temperature only reached 28° Tuesday, setting a new record cold high that beat out the longstanding record of 29 from 1904.
Listed below are new record lows set or tied Tuesday with the previous record in parenthesis.
-Greenville, S.C.: 11° (11°/1917)
-Paducah, Ky.: 4° (6°/1985)
-Crossville, Tenn.: 4° (10°/1905)
-Lincoln, Ill.: -4° (-4°/1914)
-Roanoke, Va.: 10° (11°/1982)
-Jacksonville, Fla.: 20° (24°/1960)
-Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: 34° (34°/1962)
-West Palm Beach, Fla.: 32° (33°/1962)
-Key West, Fla.: 50° (50°/1962)
AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures, which provide a measure of how cold it feels with the wind factored in, have been even more brutal. These values have been below zero most of the last couple of days in Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, Buffalo and Pittsburgh.
Even all the way south into Atlanta, RealFeel® temperatures dropped below zero Monday and Tuesday morning.
The blizzard that opened the gates for the flood of arctic air into the eastern half of the country also brought record snow to many places. This AccuWeather.com news story has the details on records that were set across the Midwest and Southeast.
A farm worker is dressed for the cold as he packs lettuce onto a pallet at TKM-Bengard Farms in Belle Glade, Fla.,Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010. A cold front came through Florida bringing freezing temperatures. (AP Photo)
New York City picked up its first snow measuring more than a trace Monday night into Tuesday morning. Residents woke up to 1 to 3 inches of snow on the ground, while amounts up to 4 inches blanketed parts of Long Island.
The bitter cold was in full force in New York City as well with harsh winds bringing AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures below zero Monday night.
The cold will gradually start to ease today through the end of the week, though temperatures will still generally remain below normal in the East through much of next week.
More people could see their first significant snowfall of the season by early next week with prospects for one or more snowstorms.
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Global Warming Summit in Cancun Opens with Prayer to Pagan Goddess Ixchel
Read more: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2010/12/02/global-warming-summit-cancun-opens-prayer-pagan-goddess-ixchel#ixzz18TncLdDW
Exodus 34:14
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God
Perseverance can be a lonely road.
Or maybe a person just doesn’t know when to give up, quit.
As in Chuck Baldwin’s article below, most people just follow the crowd. The crowd is the mass of people who are following the seemingly easy path.
The mass are also the ones that are easily duped.
They cannot persevere when there are not too many people persevering along with them.
The reasons a person had for not going along with the crowd in the first place are no longer valid in their mind. After all, they may reason, Most of the people have abandoned me, so I must be wrong. Which, I admit, might be true. Sometimes a person just doesn’t know when to give up on his perseverance. He or she may be persevering in the wrong thing.
I agree with Mr. Baldwin. Most Christians probably do think a lot of the stories in the Bible are just fairy tales. Those martyrs in those “fairy tale” Bible stories standing for God’s Holy Word, standing against authorities who have over stepped their bounds, have nothing to do with our time today. Not here in the good ol’ US of A anyway. The circumstances back then could never happen today here in the United States.
Not like they happened in Rome, or not like it was in Nazi Germany, right?
Well, I am sure that the way it happened then is the way it is happening now here in our beloved country.
As Mr. Baldwin states in his article, Christians are turning against their brothers and sisters in Christ.
Those Christians are following the crowd; they are duped. They just can’t separate the true from the false. And they don’t see any correlation between our time and it’s tyrants and the past times with it’s tyrants.
It is sad and disturbing to see Christians betraying other Christians.
But we are all self-centered sinners, are we not?
We have no loyalty when it comes to our own feelings of security.
What a warning in Jeremiah 9:4,5.
I’m afraid that my cynical nature (maybe that should read “sin-ical” nature) doesn’t trust my brother or my neighbor. For I have experienced the sting of betrayal at times throughout my life, as I am sure most people have.
Read Chuck Baldwin’s article:
TIME FOR CHRISTIANS TO SHRED THEIR BIBLES
By Chuck Baldwin
December 16, 2010
Many of us grew up in Sunday School and church. We have heard the great Bible stories over and over. We heard about the story of how Moses’ mother defied Pharaoh and hid her little baby boy in bulrushes. We heard the story of how Moses killed the Egyptian taskmaster defending a Hebrew slave and later became the great deliverer of God’s people. We heard the story of young David going out alone against the Philistines’ greatest warrior, Goliath. We heard the story of how Saul’s servants refused to carry out the king’s order to murder the priest Ahimelech. We know well the story of Daniel who defied his government’s order to refrain from praying. The names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are very familiar to us. We heard our teachers and preachers extol their courage in defying the government’s order to bow to the image of their emperor. We remember that John the Baptist went to prison (and was eventually beheaded), not for preaching the Gospel, but for criticizing the king for his immoral behavior. We certainly recall the story of Simon Peter who bluntly told his civil magistrates, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” We know that the Apostle Paul wrote many of his epistles from inside government prisons. We certainly recall that before John penned the Revelation, he had been banished to an island-prison by his civil authorities.
I challenge Christians to objectively look at the great stories of Bible heroes (in both testaments) and observe how many times they are noted for either being martyred for defying a civil authority, or, perhaps, for being delivered from death for defying a civil authority. The stories of defiance to civil government (in one form or another) comprise a great percentage of all the stories contained in the Bible--perhaps even a majority of them.
So, how has it happened that a majority of today’s Christians, it seems, have become such sheepish slaves of government? How has it happened that, for the most part, the concept of courage in the face of government oppression has been totally lost to the average Christian, pastor, and church? For all intents and purposes, it is time for many Christians to shred their Bibles, because the lessons and principles of God’s Word have absolutely no influence over their attitudes and conduct.
For example, if the story of Peter in prison were being experienced today, instead of the church rallying behind their pastor and conducting an all-night prayer meeting for him, most church members would be excoriating him in the name of Romans chapter 13. Instead of Paul being let down the wall in a basket to escape the civil authorities trying to apprehend him, the average Christian today would be the first one to turn him over to the authorities.
In the mind of the average Christian, God is not God; government is God! For instance, when one well-known Christian attorney was recently confronted by the teaching of Scripture relative to the church’s independence from government (meaning, no church should allow itself to be subject to the government’s tyrannical 501(c)3 non-profit, tax-exempt status), he said, “That might be Biblically correct, but it is not legally correct.” In other words, the “Christian” attorney would rather a church be legal than Biblical. And, unfortunately, that seems to be the attitude of the vast majority of professing Christians today. They would rather please the government than please God; they would rather obey the government than obey God; they would rather be at peace with the government than be at peace with God.
And when it comes to the courage of risking anything of value in order to do right, forget it!
Think of what Abram risked when he obeyed God and left his country and kin and struck out for a land that God had not even told him of. Think of what Moses risked when he killed that Egyptian; think of what Joshua and Caleb risked when they defied the entire nation that was following the evil counsel of the ten spies; think of what David risked when he faced the giant; think of what Elijah risked when he confronted 850 false prophets all by himself; think of what the Old Testament prophets risked when they rebuked or challenged the kings of Israel and Judah; think of what the disciples risked when they “left all” and followed Jesus; think of what the early church risked when it embraced the Gospel and defied the wishes of Rome and Jewry (not to mention their own families and friends). But these stories are more like fairy tales to the average Christian today. They serve no practical benefit whatsoever!
Let a church deacon, trustee, or elder be told by some government-backed attorney that he is really a corporate officer, subject to the laws and punishments of IRS tax codes, and that church leader will say anything, sign anything, or do anything to save his own financial security. In order to not jeopardize his own standing with the IRS, that same church leader would turn his back on his best friend, or gladly join with the government in prosecuting a fellow believer.
I personally know of more than one case where professing Christians either lied against a beloved brother in order to protect themselves against threatened government (read: IRS) penalties, or actually testified for the prosecution (read: IRS) under oath in a court of law against a Christian brother. In each case, these “brothers” actually felt it was their “Christian duty” to betray their friends and brothers and help the government.
I am reminded of the verse where Jesus said, “Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” (John 16:2 KJV)
I am also reminded of the warning from the prophet Jeremiah when he cautioned, “Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders. And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.” (Jeremiah 9:4,5 KJV)
Jeremiah’s prophecy is spot-on! Christians today cannot be trusted to be faithful to the truth; they cannot be trusted to not betray and turn against their brethren; they cannot be trusted to not be party with slander and libel. If it means saving their own skin, or keeping their bread buttered, or staying in the good graces of the IRS, they would sell out their best friend--maybe even their own mother! And it is no coincidence that Jeremiah, himself, experienced firsthand that which he had spoken. It is no wonder he said, “Trust ye not any brother.”
When will Christians get it through their heads (and in their hearts) that oftentimes government is the enemy of God? When will they understand that they have only one Sovereign: King Jesus? When will they come to comprehend that helping government perpetrate unjust action against fellow believers is a crime against Heaven? When will they stop talking about the Bible and actually start internalizing its teachings, examples, and principles?
It has gotten to the point today many unbelievers are far more trustworthy than today’s Christians--especially when it comes to the subject of resisting unjust government. It grieves me say that many “Christian” attorneys, politicians, pastors, and church leaders are merely shills and toadies for a government that has often become both oppressive and illegitimate!
May God help us! He will have to, because we won’t get much help from the vast majority of today’s professing Christians. That is for sure!
Two expecting mothers. Rachel's due date is December 17 and Elise is due the first week of June.
Our neighbor gave Jordon an ATV because something was wrong with it. He fixed it up and we all got to ride it.
Abigail checking it out.
Jordon speeding.
Boaz has a lot of fun with it.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
How in the world did we get here, creating all these "quasi-government agencies"????????????????????????
Let's see, we have the APHIS, ATF, CCC, CFTC, BA, ETA, ESA, EPA, EEOC, FCE, FAA, FCC, FDIC, FEC, FERC EREN, FHA, FMC, FRA, FTC, FDA, NRC, SEC, DHHS, DOE, USDA, DOT. FEMA, HUD, etc., etc., etc......
For an article on the latest news go to:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/2/wave-goodbye-to-internet-freedom/
I really like the second paragraph in that article.
From historyplace.com:
Following the Boston Tea Party, Dec. 16, 1773, in which American colonists dumped 342 containers of tea into the Boston harbor, the British Parliament enacted a series of Acts in response to the rebellion in Massachusetts.
In May of 1774, General Thomas Gage, commander of all British military forces in the colonies, arrived in Boston, followed by the arrival of four regiments of British troops.
The First Continental Congress met in the fall of 1774 in Philadelphia with 56 American delegates, representing every colony, except Georgia. On September 17th, the Congress declared its opposition to the repressive Acts of Parliament, saying they are "not to be obeyed," and also promoted the formation of local militia units.
Thus economic and military tensions between the colonists and the British escalated. In February of 1775, a Provincial Congress was held in Massachusetts during which John Hancock and Joseph Warren began defensive preparations for a state of war. The British Parliament then declared Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion.
On March 23rd, in Virginia, the largest colony in America, a meeting of the colony's delegates was held in St. John's church in Richmond. Resolutions were presented by Patrick Henry putting the colony of Virginia "into a posture of defense...embodying, arming, and disciplining such a number of men as may be sufficient for that purpose." Before the vote was taken on his resolutions, Henry delivered the speech below, imploring the delegates to vote in favor.
He spoke without any notes in a voice that became louder and louder, climaxing with the now famous ending. Following his speech, the vote was taken in which his resolutions passed by a narrow margin, and thus Virginia joined in the American Revolution.
No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope that it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve.
This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty towards the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth -- to know the worst and to provide for it. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House?
Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with these warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation -- the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motives for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies?
No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer on the subject? Nothing.
We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer.
Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament.
Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope.
If we wish to be free -- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending -- if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!
They tell us, sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable -- and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, "Peace! Peace!" -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
Patrick Henry - March 23, 1775
