Conservative Rumblings

His brother isn’t much better, but at least this commie is finally out of power after 47 years at the helm.

Fidel Castro announced his resignation as president of Cuba and commander-in-chief of Cuba’s military on Tuesday, according to a letter published in the state-run newspaper, Granma.

Heroes:

New Jersey State Senator Stephen Sweeney (D) for introducing another bill to penalize businesses that employ illegals. If passed, it would make New Jersey just the second state in the union (Arizona) to have such a law.

Zeros:

Dan Haskell, chairman of the Tennessee Jobs Coalition who in this column, is whining about Tennessee and other states enacting laws to fight illegals if the Federal government doesn’t do anything. He calls the measures in Arizona “excessive,” and it seems that he would rather states just sit back on their hands and let illegal immigration run wild if the Federal government doesn’t do anything about it.

With all due respect to Mr. Haskell, this country was founded on state’s rights, not a overarching central authority. If the Fed refuses to confront the danger posed to our country by passing some sort of non-amnesty immigration bill, it’s up to the states to protect themselves, and I tip my hat to those states already marching that direction.

Section: Features
Published: N/A

Many people know Valentine’s Day only in the context of the late 20th and early 21st century: chocolates, cards, flowers, chocolates, romantic dinners and, well, chocolates.

However, the history of Valentine’s Day is a bit checkered and much less well known, as the traditions and origins behind the ‘most romantic day of the year’ are rather varied and, in some cases, not quite so romantic.

The holiday has its roots in legends that belonged to both Christian and Roman culture, according to Cheryl Lemus, an NIU Ph.D. candidate in history.

“There are several myths about St. Valentine and why Valentine’s Day is celebrated in February,” she said, “Like many holidays, Valentine’s Day was ‘Christianized,’ as the Catholic Church, hoping to spread Christianity, adopted many ‘pagan’ celebrations.”

The Roman Catholic feast of St. Valentine, which falls on Feb. 14, is named for a martyred saint who died on that day in the third century. Christianity was a persecuted faith at that point in history, as the Roman emperor, Claudius II, had banned marriage, claiming that it “decreased his soldier’s zest for battle.”

A priest named Valentine, however, performed marriages in secret for those that wished it. When Claudius uncovered what was happening, he arrested Valentine and had him imprisoned.

Valentine was given the choice of renouncing his faith or facing death. When he refused to deny his religion, he was executed and later canonized as a saint. Before he died, however, he inadvertently started one of the main traditions of Valentine’s Day: the giving of Valentine’s cards.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, the practice of giving ‘valentines’ began while Valentine was in prison. After meeting the blind daughter of his jailer, the priest felt pity for her and offered up prayers for her healing.

As the legend goes, the girl’s sight was “miraculously” returned to her. Valentine became friends with the girl, and on the night of his beheading, wrote her a farewell message that ended with, ‘From your Valentine.’”

Thus, the practice of calling sweethearts ‘valentines’ was born, and the tradition has grown from that goodbye note to a massive level; the U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that one billion cards are sent every year for Valentine’s Day, which is second worldwide behind only Christmas.

The feast day also has significance in Roman legend, as Feb. 15 was a Roman celebration that honored the pagan god Lupercus and involved a sort of arranged courtship procedure. Women would write love notes and place them in a large urn that men would randomly draw from. Whichever note was drawn would be the woman that the man would court.

When Christianity eventually became the official religion of Rome, the church combined the Feb. 15 Lupercus feast with St. Valentine’s martyrdom on Feb. 14 and the holiday was born.

Lemus notes that Western Civilization did not pick up the holiday, officially, until the 1600s. “In Britain, Valentine’s Day was celebrated sometime in the 17th century, as men and women sent each other little notes and gifts,” she said, “In America, Valentine’s Day was not really recognized until the 1840s.”

Despite the fact that many anti-Valentine’s Day advocates in recent years complain that the commercialization of the holiday has ruined its ‘original purpose,’ when America first recognized Valentine’s Day as a holiday in the 1840s, the commercialization began right away.

The credit for the first Valentine’s Day card goes to a Massachusetts resident named Esther Howland, who sold $5,000 worth of colorful cards in 1847. Other manufacturers soon copied her ideas, and very quickly the ‘commercialized’ Valentine’s Day became the norm.

By 1861, Richard Cadbury had invented the Valentine’s Day candy box, and within 40 years, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates were a mainstay of the holiday and could be found all across the country.

According to Lemus, today’s Valentine’s Day is much the same as it was then, with just subtle differences. “It is still a commercialized holiday.” Lemus said. She explained that she has seen old advertisements from the 19th century that listed prices for valentines, some reaching as high as $250 each, no small sum in the 1800s.

Men and women were urged as well as they are now to spend their disposable income on treats and gifts for their significant others.

Right, so I never got through all of them. I spent too much time writing about illegal immigration over break, so that’s the way it goes.

Stay tuned next week as the race summaries make a return.

Unless Congress starts passing more shamnesty bills, then I’ll be back on my Conservative Rumblings blog.

Heroes:

Utah’s House of Representatives, which just passed a bill that would disallow illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition.

Indiana State Senator Mike Delph (R-Carmel), who is sticking to his guns about a bill he supports in the Indiana state senate that targets companies employing illegal immigrants.

Zeros:

The Wyoming House, which killed off a bill that would have made it a felony to transport or harbor illegals.

Mexico’s racist and arrogant president Felipe Calderon, who is visiting the U.S., but can’t find the time to meet with President Bush. No, instead he is meeting with “expatriate Mexican community leaders,” among others. Translation: he’s up here to see how his hordes of illegals are doing and to make sure they are still sending enough money back to his corrupt little country.

However, when it comes down to picking one or the other, I always side with social issues. For example, that’s why I can vote Mike Huckabee with a clear conscience, even though he has some tax issues that I’m not too keen on. McCain, on the other hand, is an open-borders wingnut with a strong fiscal and foreign policy.

I’ll support the latter in the general election if he’s the nominee, mind you, but I’d rather pay higher taxes and have abortion outlawed, and I’d rather see interest rates go up than see illegal immigrants rewarded.

As Rush Limbaugh said today, read it and weep.

Michelle Malkin’s entry here and here.

State Department’s Official Gibberish

Mexican president’s reaction. Keep in mind, we are trying to give him $1.4 billion and he’s insulting us non-stop.

Calderon: “Give it to me. And give it to me without conditions.”

Good lord. We can’t stem the tide of illegals in our country and our economy is trying to take a dive, and instead we are giving away billions to our corrupt, screwed up southern neighbor so they can blow it on bribes to Colombian drug lords?

Does any of this make sense? To anyone? Left or right, can anyone honestly see this as a smart thing to do? I really, really want to know.

That money could build our border fence. Why blow it on such an ungrateful nation. For that matter, why blow it on any nation other than our own? This isn’t going to solve anything; they are not going to use the money for what it’s supposed to be used for. We are feeding the monster while leavin the front door open. How about instead, we starve the monster and bar the door. Let’s try that plan for a change.

My predictions, followed by the result and comments.

Alabama - Huckabee (correct)
Proportional delegate distribution meant that Huck only picked up 4 more than McCain, so essentially a push.

Alaska - McCain (incorrect, Romney)
Romney shows his strength, again, in the north. Another proportional state, however; Romney picked up 12 and Huckabee got 6.

Arizona - McCain (correct)
It was touch and go through the first 15% of the precincts, but McCain ended with a comfortable 13-point lead in his home state.

Arkansas - Huckabee (correct)
A much stronger showing by Huckabee in AR than McCain in AZ. The difference? Huck got 26 delegates for stomping everyone in AR, and McCain got 53 for “just” winning AZ.

California - McCain (correct)
The results are not all in, but it looks like McCain will have the lion’s share of the proportional delegates. Not like he needs them at this point.

Colorado - McCain (incorrect, Romney)
Mitt snags 22 handily.

Connecticut - McCain (correct)
WTA state, and McCain crushed Romney right next door to Romney’s home turf.

Delaware - McCain (correct)
Ditto

Georgia - Huckabee (correct)
Huckabee’s biggest win of the night.

Illinois - McCain (correct)
My home state (and my county for god’s sake) went heavily McCain, giving him an easy 54 delegates.

Massachusetts - Romney (correct)
McCain made it close enough in MA to create a push; Romney pulled 22 and McCain grabbed 18. Pretty pathetic showing for Romney in his home state.

Minnesota - Romney (correct)
Expected; close to Michigan, full of people who consider the economy their number one issue and for some reason think that Romney is the man to fix it.

Missouri - Huckabee (incorrect, McCain)
This is the state that killed Huckabee’s presidential hopes. He lost by a measly 9000 votes, but with WTA, it may as well have been 900,000. The 120 delegate swing if he had won would have put him in much better shape. Now, he settles for VP or a cabinet position.

Montana - McCain (incorrect, Romney)
Again, Romney with the north. I guess he looks sort of like a viking; he certainly talks like one.

New Jersey - McCain (correct)
New Jersey, New Hampshire…same difference.

New York - McCain (correct)
The most liberal GOP candidate wins in a liberal state? You’re kidding!!?!?!

North Dakota - Romney (correct)
Remember the north?

Oklahoma - Huckabee (incorrect, McCain)
Another close race; Huckabee got 6 for finishing second, while McCain pulled down 32.

Tennessee - Huckabee (correct)
While this close race fell in Huckabee’s “favor,” proportional delegate distribution meant that McCain only got 7 less, more than enough to keep Huckabee down.

Utah - Romney (correct)
Mormon capitol of the world.

West Virginia - McCain/Huckabee (my one toss up) (correct, Huckabee)
The Huck won the WV convention early in the day, but according the McCain campaign, only because the latter ordered his supports to vote Huckabee in order to prevent Romney from getting the delegates. Sound strategy on McShamnesty’s part, but ironically it turned out that Huckabee was his main competition later on in the evening.

Overall: As predicted, McCain did very well. I hesitate to say he “dominated,” but all in all, he’s pretty much wrapped up the nomination. The biggest surprise to the media was the success of Huckabee, who stormed to the win in several states, despite being written off for dead weeks ago.

It wasn’t a surprise to me, of course; I’m not the liberal media. I expected Huckabee to do well (and I hoped he’d do even better than I expected, if that makes sense). Unfortunately, he just doesn’t have the broad appeal at this point. Plus, people are all twitchy about a minister being president. All I get to hear is shrill voices screaming “separation of church and state.” It’s hilarious how many people don’t actually know what that means. It doesn’t mean there can be NO religion on government; it means that government shall make no law establishing a national, required religion. Taking The Ten Commandments down from a courthouse is not preserving precious “separation of church and state,” it is infringing on freedom of speech.

But I’m digressing; the only way for Romney or Huckabee to win now would be to combine delegates. Since both of them detest the other with a fury only matched by Ted Kennedy’s rage when he runs out of booze, there’s no chance of that happening.

McCain is going to get the nomination, and hopefully Huckabee can parlay his 2nd place status into something useful (whether it is VP or something else). Personally, I think McCain needs an extremely conservative running mate in order to make his candidacy a little less vomit inducing. Newt Gingrich, maybe, or Duncan Hunter. Just someone that isn’t such a RINO.

One day, McCain is going to reach across that aisle one too many times, and he’s going to get his arm chopped off.

Winners, by state:

Alabama - Huckabee
Alaska - McCain
Arizona - McCain
Arkansas - Huckabee
California - McCain
Colorado - McCain
Connecticut - McCain
Delaware - McCain
Georgia - Huckabee
Illinois - McCain
Massachusetts - Romney
Minnesota - Romney
Missouri - Huckabee
Montana - McCain
New Jersey - McCain
New York - McCain
North Dakota - Romney
Oklahoma - Huckabee
Tennessee - Huckabee
Utah - Romney
West Virginia - McCain/Huckabee (my one toss up)

Basically, it’s looking like a blowout for Mr. McShamnesty. God save our party.

If you are voting for Huckabee or Clinton, I highly encourage you to get out and vote!

If you are voting for McShamnesty or B. Hussein, I highly encourage you to change your position