Your membership to The Continental has been, by thine own hand, revoked.
Today is Easter Sunday, the holiest day on the Christian calendar.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe in this?” John 11:25-26
God bless you all, God bless your families, and God bless America. Enjoy the day.
P.S. – The kids after mass this morning.
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, arguably my least favorite holiday of the year. It’s chock full of Irish people and Irish wannabes, lousy drunks, and awful food. That said, there are ways you can celebrate without peeing your pants – or someone else’s.
Learn the History. I’m not going to avoid the fact that there are an increasing number of people who feel that non-Irish people celebrating St. Patrick’s Day is tantamount to cultural appropriation. I haven’t truly made up my mind on this and I have children whose 23andMe results indicate they are 74% Irish. For our family, comprised of last names like Milligan, Keating and Keane, this is a celebration of a real heritage and history.
As I mentioned, though, I do think it’s important (and respectful) to learn who St. Patrick actually was along with the history of why this day exists. I believe that learning the history and avoiding these mistakes and faux pas is important but I also think that, just like any other holiday, North America has adopted its own way of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.
Yeah, by drinking too much, singing too poorly, and vomiting on your neighbor’s dog.
Today is Mrs. Earp’s birthday!
Mrs. Earp and I met in high school, as she was my friend Mike’s sister. We started dating in 1992 – I was a year out of college and she was a sophomore at West Chester University.
We were married in 1997 – on the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, heh – and four kids and twenty-one years later, here we are.
Mrs. Earp is a good person, and great mother, and an incomparable friend. She has put up with a lot from me – the sarcasm, the dangerous job, and two-plus years of depression – but she never wavered from her support. I should probably take her out to dinner, but I’m working a twelve-hour shift tonight because of the damned Eagles parade.
Happy birthday, anyway. I do have gifts waiting for you.
Thus begins our annual Three Birthdays in Six Days Marathon. I’ll name the cake-related diabetes after the wife. 🙂
Today we say goodbye – and arguably, good riddance – to 2017 and welcome in the new year. Hopefully, it will be a year filled with joy, triumphs, and accomplishments for all of you.
For Me? Well, I’ll be happy if I can get my World of Tanks player rating (WN8) over 1200. Yeah, I’ll take the small victories.
I hope you all enjoy a happy and healthy 2018. The world is yours.
Today is Christmas Day; a day which brings great joy for Christians all over the world.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke, Chapter 2, verses 8 to 14)
Have a terrific day, everyone! Remember the reason for the season, and God bless you all.
Today is Thanksgiving Day; a time to give thanks to God for all the blessings he has bestowed upon us. The first Thanksgiving proclamation was given by George Washington in 1789. My words could never hold a candle to the president’s.
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation…
Hopefully your day will find you surrounded by family and friends, and please keep those of us who have to work today in your prayers.
Oh, and as always, Mrs. Earp made a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Dinner for the kids last night.
And no, I have no idea what’s going on with Julia’s face.
Today is my good friend Bill’s 50th birthday.
Bill and I met at Saint Joseph’s University when I joined The Hawk; the university’s newspaper. I was a freshman features writer and he was the business manager. (It’s always good to make friends with the money guy.) After college, I disappointed my parents by joining the police department and Bill thrilled his by working as an accountant with KPMG Peat Marwick – or as I called it, Peat Mosswick.
We remained friends after college after the other members of our clique drifted off to Leftist Island. (A few good friends from SJU unfriended me on Facebook solely because I was a conservative.) Bill was – and is – a staple at all our family celebrations, and is godfather to my son Erik. In short, he is a member of the family.
Bill is arguably the nicest person you would ever want to meet. He never swears, is very active in his church, and he’s a NASCAR fan. What’s not to love? Bill has also sacrificed his personal life in favor of taking care of his elderly mother. I don’t want to sound like his grandmother, but he would make someone a very fine husband.
(Ladies, send me your addresses and an 8×10 glossy. I’ll hook you up!)
We’ll be seeing Bill at Julia’s birthday party on December 3rd, and as always, the family will be excited to see him.
Happy birthday, Bill! Never forget I’m younger than you. 🙂
Oh, a preliminary birthday gift is below the fold…
This marks the first Halloween day off I’ve had in a few years, so I get to take the monsters around the neighborhood tonight. It will be nice swindling the old people out of their candy… then egging their houses as we leave. I’m fairly exhausted – see below – but it’ll be nice to take Kevin and Julia out. Kyle will be giving out candy, and Erik, who is 13, is going out with his friends. Erik has said this will be last Halloween hurrah.
This also serves as a vehicle to publish a photo of the kids in their Halloween costumes.
ALSO: Posting will be sub-par for a while – well, moreso – because I am on a two-week shooting trial. I am also on the night shift, so I get to work, come home, get a few hours sleep, and drive downtown to sit in a courtroom for hours. I’m doing my best to post without falling asleep, but I wanted to give everyone a heads up. The trial will not be over until next Friday.
While leftists are decrying Christopher Columbus as his century’s Hitler, rational people can celebrate the man who discovered America, even with his faults.
Irrational people, however, will be spending the day vandalizing and destroying statues erected in Columbus’ likeness, and probably assaulting cops.
Violent left-wing anarchists have announced a nationwide campaign to deface Christopher Columbus statues this coming Monday.
Five Christopher Columbus statues have already been vandalized in New York City in recent weeks, according to Far Left Watch. In one case last month, vandals defaced a “larger-than-life” statue of Columbus in Central Park, leaving blood-red paint on his hands, and scrawled, “Hate will not be tolerated” and “#SomethingsComing” on its pedestal.
What is coming appears to be a coordinated campaign to destroy monuments all across the country on Columbus Day.
Fear not, the statues of Vladimir Lenin in Atlantic City, New York City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Seattle are completely safe from the Antifa thugs.
Today is Labor Day, a bullsh*t holiday created to appease union goons. More importantly, it signals the unofficial end of summer, which means my kids will soon be returning to school, freeing up my computer and PlayStation 4 for some quality time with dad.
It honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, laws and well-being of the country. It is the Monday of the long weekend known as Labor Day Weekend and it is considered the unofficial end of summer in the United States.
Beginning in the late 19th century, as the trade union and labor movements grew, trade unionists proposed that a day be set aside to celebrate labor. “Labor Day” was promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, which organized the first parade in New York City. In 1887, Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday.
In a rare quirk of the schedule, I am actually off today, so I can lie around the house and make the kids bring me beer. Enjoy the holiday, everyone!
