Countdown

I'm certain Cec was pretty ticked off to not be able to vote. I'd vote twice if I could. I even have his voter registration card. But please, please, please, don't become complacent and think that a conservative win on election day is automatic. Remember, some will be voting twice. Or three times. The left have come up with all kinds of "October surprises" and it wouldn't surprise me if PBO arranged a terrorist attack on election eve, declared martial law and canceled the election. And there would be our American Revolution.

These entries will be short and far between for a while until I get my act together. My get up and go got up and took a hike. Bear with me.

God bless you all. God bless America.

Jan

A Son's Farewell

  

It has been twenty-two days since my husband breathed his last. It seems like years; it seems like seconds. Rather than post his obituary I decided to use his son Martin's eulogy, delivered at Cecil's memorial service at Fellowship Baptist Church in Aurora, Missouri, on October 4th, 2010, following the Honor Guard. Here it is in its entirety:

"I am Cecil Moon’s son. I would like to thank my mother Marjorie and [also] Jan for their help getting the information together for this. Cecil L Moon Jr. was born in Marshalltown, Iowa on March 31, 1932. His parents were Cecil L. Moon, Sr. and Anna (Frank) Moon.  He attended a campus school at Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls, Iowa. In 1945, When he was thirteen he moved West Liberty, Iowa with his mother.  She taught business subjects at West Liberty High School. He played on the basket ball and football teams, but his talent was really with music.  He sang baritone solos and sang in the chorus, in addition he had parts in some of the musicals and was in the church choir. Delivering papers and working in a grocery store he saved up money for a new Conn Trumpet.  He was talented trumpeter in the school band.  In his senior year of High School he won first place in both trumpet solo and baritone voice solo work.  He was also chosen for Boys' State while in high school. 

After high school Cecil and two friends took jobs with the FBI in Washington D.C.  He was a record's clerk and also worked in the photography lab developing film.  When he received notice of being drafted into the service, he enlisted for a 3 year stint in the Army Security Agency.  He trained at Ft. Devons, Massachusetts for Morse Code Intercept Operation. In 1952 before that training started he married Marjorie Wilkerson, they had attended high school together.  They lived in Boston and he commuted to Ft. Devons, Mass.  He was then sent to Germany in January 1953 and remained there until his enlistment was complete.  Marjorie joined him for two years in Heilbronn, Germany.  He never did use the Morse code training.  He volunteered to be a driver for officers on a part time basis and also ended up being the supply sergeant at the base.

After returning from Germany He and Marjorie resided in Denver CO. In 1956 they had their first child, Cecil Lee the Third and in 1960 had Martin Thomas. In 1962 The Family moved to Boulder CO where Cecil managed a Homestead house Furniture Gallery.

The family moved to small farm in Missouri in 1965. In addition to farming 120 acres, He worked selling carpet as a manufactures representative all over the mid-west. In 1972 Cecil and Marjorie were blessed with the birth of Jennifer Cathleen. During that same time Cecil went to work for a Catalog Showroom chain called Ardan’s and sold the farm.

Cecil worked in management and helped open and establish other new stores in Topeka Kansas and then in Las Vegas Nevada. A quick study and masterful salesman, he earned an excellent reputation as a Sales Manager. Both his sons also worked for the same company.

In 1976, Cecil and Marjorie were divorced and he started his own business. He traveled around selling Indian Jewelry and Art. Cecil operated this business for many years and opened two stores during that time called Cochise Trading Company.

In July 1983 Dad met Jan Rames at a Blue Grass Festival, and married her a year later. Cecil and Jan moved to Colorado Springs, CO where he operated his own store. In 1988 he took a job as a bus driver with Greyhound. While working for Greyhound He and Jan moved to Wisconsin. During a strike on Greyhound, he left and went to work for Rite-way Bus.  

There he planned and drove bus tours for German tourist to the western United States. Using some German he picked up in the Army and all of the knowledge of the west he picked up in his travels, made him a consummate tour guide, probably his favorite job.

Cecil retired 1999.  He and Jan moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, lived there for five years [and] then they decided to move to the Midwest. They found a nice place close to Verona and moved there. He worked for a Honeycreek Golf Course part time and became an avid blogger with his own site, Zion Beckons.

So those are his resume' points, but there is much more to Cecil Moon than that.

I will try to tell you about my Dad and what he did in his life, but what I really would like you to do is this, while you are listening to me or later on when you reflect on his this, if you knew my Dad, remember him fondly and know what I know. He had a deep and abiding faith in his Lord, a love for his family and a huge desire to preserve our great country. He was about God, Family and Country.

He was a lot of people, a soldier, a salesman, a farmer, a mechanic, a carpenter, a painter, a salesman, a musician, a manager, an entrepreneur, an author, and for sure he was an American.

He was a fun guy, quick to laugh and tell a joke. He was an entertainer. He could pick up his guitar and sing old country songs to crowds of people or sometimes just to his family. In a crowd he was the one laughing a little loud and enjoying those around him. My dad liked to be happy, he was not one to mope around and be depressed. Very much extroverted, he had a talent for bringing other people out of their shell. It may have been why he was such a good salesman.

He loved travel. When he was only six years old he rode a bus all by himself to Waterloo Iowa to see his dad. During his teen years he had a motor bike, and that is just what it was, a bike with a motor, called a whizzer which he rode all the way to Colorado from Iowa. He would even hitch hike, just to travel. Most of his jobs, especially the ones he liked, involved travel.

Driving was favorite. His last big trip was to Prudhoe Bay Alaska, which is in the Arctic Circle. If you have seen the show Ice Road Truckers, that is were he went. No fear, just slapped a couple of extra spare tires on the roof, and threw a bed in the back, and off he went to dip his toes into the icy waters of the bay. He even golfed the northern most golf course in the world while he was there.

Many memories of my dad involved driving, and cars. When he was teaching me to drive, we went out on a decent, but deserted stretch of highway outside Las Vegas. He told me that “since I would do it anyway, to mash the pedal and not let up until we were at a hundred!” We were in a 1968 Buick Rivera, with a four hundred and thirty cubic inch V-8. I stepped on the pedal and off we went. When we got to a hundred he coached me on how to handle the car. First he asked me if it felt like the front end was floating, I said it did. He told me, 'that’s because so much air is going under the car, the front end is floating and the tires don’t have as much contact.' He told me not to make any quick steering changes and that if we had a blow out, we would die. Then he asked if I had enough, and I had, so he had me slow back down.

I have lost track of how many road trips I have been on with him. Always the same, Oreos, peanut M&Ms, bologna, Coke, diners for dinner, gas up and get going. If you knew my dad you know we aren’t making any time standing here. Funny thing though, he taught me how to read a map, but he never needed one much.

My dad traveled in cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, ships and planes. He sailed both oceans, even drove the destroyer USS Fitzgerald. He had been to all fifty states and a few foreign countries. He could navigate his way around Paducah Kentucky as easily as Los Angeles. Johnny Cash had a song called “I’ve been everywhere”, Dad used to sing it and for him it was true.

Many of you probably don’t know that he was on a couple of TV game shows, he was on “Wheel of Fortune” with Chuck Wullery, for couple days and won a bunch of prizes, he and my brother were on “Block Busters” with Bill Cullen, but that time lost pretty quickly. He did stuff like that. Things we might not try, he would try. He was not one to feel constrained by convention and I think that his life reflected that.

We could refer to him as Colonel Cecil L. Moon, because he was a Kentucky Colonel. Membership in the Kentucky Colonels can only be given by the sitting Governor of the Commonwealth. Only the Governor knows the reason for bestowing the honor of a Colonel’s Commission on any particular individual. An I must admit my dad never shared that reason with me. I can tell you this a recent Governor made this comment about the qualities he considered for membership; 'Each time I have the pleasure of bestowing a membership to this exceptional organization on an individual, the great tradition established by Kentucky’s first governor, Isaac Shelby, lives on. The name Kentucky Colonel has become synonymous with strength of character, leadership and dedication to the welfare of others. Just as Isaac Shelby declared his trusted militia members to be his Kentucky Colonels, I see in you those things that place others above self' Sounds fitting to me.

When Christmas came around he and Jan would go to the local Sears store and buy something to wear and a toy for every grandchild. He had a lot of grandkids. All told, he had twelve grandchildren and four great grandchildren, ranging in the ages of thirty-two to one. I remember when our daughter had her second child I called dad to let him know. He asked what the “little critter’s name was”, I told him Masina. There was a pause and he asked what sort of name was that? I told him it meant Moon in Samoan, (my son in law was from Samoa), there was another pause, and then he came back and said, “well that’s very respectful, how is the mother? I know he loved his grandchildren, but the real deal is, he liked the girls more. 

You really can’t talk about my dad’s life and not mention the Green Bay Packers. I think it was some kind of virus he and Jan picked up in Wisconsin. He was an avid supporter and is on the list for season tickets. My sister and I visited Jan and dad in Wisconsin, and he gave us the grand tour. We went to Oshkosh to visit the airplane museum, we went to the paperweight museum (yawn), and much to my sisters consternation we went to the Koehler museum, yep the folks that make toilets, she actually loved it. The real prize for me however, was the visit to the Packer hall of fame and Lambeau field. After all of that he took us to a Brewer’s game, (who he liked almost as much as the Packers). It was a good time, and was a good glimpse of who my dad was, we drove everywhere.

Dad had just got his thirty year chip from Alcoholics Anonymous a short time ago. Actually he told me about getting the chip an hour before he died. He was proud of his affiliation with that organization. He traveled to give talks at meetings, and sponsored new members. He even had me attend a meeting one time to see what it was all about. He felt very strongly about how AA changed his life, and believed in the program. 

He defended what he believed in passionately, but always had an open mind. When I was in grade school, he was asked to play guitar and sing at the local Elks Club. His performance was enjoyed and they asked him to join. A lot of my friend’s dads were members and I thought it would be cool if he was too. When I asked him why he didn’t join his answer was straight on. He told me 'I won’t join a group that won’t allow a black man to join.' He wasn’t trying to teach me anything, although he did, and he wasn’t grandstanding, he was just holding to his beliefs.

Some of you may have read his blog, Zion Beckons. If you have, you know his political stance, you know how strongly he felt and you how eloquently he could state his position. Without a doubt my father loved America, and was an unapologetic patriot. He was a life time member of the NRA and attended the 9/12/09 Tea Party march to Washington D.C. Whether you agree or disagreed with his politics, you have to admire the tenacity he showed supporting what he felt was absolutely critical to preserve what he considered good and decent about his America.   

He was an interesting collection of qualities that seemed somewhat incongruent. He was an eloquent speaker, but I’ve heard him cuss like a sailor. I’ve seen him crank start a John Deere “A” tractor with a breaking bar, and sell a two carat marquee diamond. He has been to Broadway plays and truck shows. He could play the classics on his trumpet and Blue Grass on his Guitar. His life had a very wide range.

I have seen my Dad in many, many situations. The most memorable to me are ones that reflected his love and faith in God. Cecil Moon had a strong faith in God, and Christ as his Savior. He was far from perfect, trust me, but I never saw his faith waiver. He got himself in some tight spots, but I never saw his faith waiver, I saw him face horrible tragedies, but I never saw his faith waiver, and I saw him see success and good times, and his faith did not waiver. He was a sinner, he knew it, but he kept his faith in Christ always.

This Eulogy is just an attempt to summarize a life of seventy-eight years. I told you he was a lot of people, however If you asked him he would tell you, I was a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a great-grand father, a friend to many and a child of God. That is my father’s life."

Cecil Moon is missed more than you can possibly know.

In His amazing love

Jan 

Cecil Lee Moon 1932-2110

Dear Friends

It is with more pain in my heart than you can imagine that I must tell you of the passing of my husband Friday evening. He had a massive heart attack and the damage was too extensive to allow any kind of repair. The doctors did all that was humanly possible, but, as Cec said to me on many occasions, when the Lord was ready for him He would take him, and arguing that particular issue was rather pointless.

I'll do my best to keep up Zion Beckons because it was his passion. We must fight the good fight and take our beloved country back. The loss of one voice will mean the even louder voice of one determined granny. I'll try to put together an obituary in the next few days.

God bless all of you and keep up the noise. I love you.

Love

Granny

Whoa Nelly !!

A word of apology in advance of fact may be necessary.  For the next few days, I shall be involved with those who practice the medical arts.  A kind and loving God has kept me free of such involvement for over seventy years when I had my tonsils removed as a wee child. 

Your kind attention is always welcome and I regret any interruption in our lines of communication.  The details are unnecessary to relate since I have little experience in such medical matters and would probably mis-report the issues involved.  Offer prayers for the care-givers as they strive to tolerate an unlikely and stubbornly obnoxious patient.

Meanwhile—keep up the good fight as best you can and remain true to that which sustains our liberties and God given rights.

In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon

Monday Morning Rant 166

The following article is from the Washington Examiner and is a must read.  It constitutes a “clear and present” danger to the electoral process and the success of the republic as an entity.  All due credit is given to the Tea Party group in Texas who recognized that threat and doggedly followed up. Once the electoral process is corrupted, the nation is in dire peril.  Do not be deceived and think this is exclusive to Texas.

Every trip we make to the local polling place should include a vigilant attitude and the courage to complain about any observed irregularities.  Read On!

Local Tea Party group may have uncovered massive vote fraud in Texas

By: Mark Hemingway
Commentary Staff Writer

(This comes directly from the Washington Examiner and is unedited.)
09/26/10 3:35 PM EDT

The Examiner’s Mark Tapscott wrote about this story over a week ago, but now Fox News is reporting on Tea Party activists in Texas uncovering vote fraud:

When Catherine Engelbrecht and her friends sat down and started talking politics several years ago, they soon agreed that talking wasn’t enough. They wanted to do more. So when the 2008 election came around, “about 50” of her friends volunteered to work at Houston’s polling places.

“What we saw shocked us,” she said. “There was no one checking IDs, judges would vote for people that asked for help. It was fraud, and we watched like deer in the headlights.”

Their shared experience, she says, created “True the Vote,” a citizen-based grassroots organization that began collecting publicly available voting data to prove that what they saw in their day at the polls was, indeed, happening — and that it was happening everywhere.

“It was a true Tea Party moment,” she remembers.

True the Vote appears to have made some pretty significant discoveries, including one blockbuster revelation possibly connecting the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to vote fraud in Houston:

Their work paid off. Two weeks ago the Harris County voter registrar took their work and the findings of his own investigation and handed them over to both the Texas secretary of state’s office and the Harris County district attorney.

Most of the findings focused on a group called Houston Votes, a voter registration group headed by Steve Caddle, who also works for the Service Employees International Union. Among the findings were that only 1,793 of the 25,000 registrations the group submitted appeared to be valid. The other registrations included one of a woman who registered six times in the same day; registrations of non-citizens; so many applications from one Houston Voters collector in one day that it was deemed to be beyond human capability; and 1,597 registrations that named the same person multiple times, often with different signatures.

Caddle told local newspapers that there “had been mistakes made,” and he said he had fired 30 workers for filing defective voter registration applications. He could not be reached for this article.

There’s a lot more to the story at the link. It’s an inspiring example grassroots activism.

The Erik Scott Shooting by Las Vegas Metro

Lacking full information on this event, I have shown reluctance to make a report. If you haven’t heard of it, the basic nuts and bolts are as follows.

Erik Scott and his girlfriend were shopping at Costco in Las Vegas and in selecting an appropriate cooler were observed unwrapping some bottles to see how the fit in it.  In that process, an employee, when Scott bent over, noted that he was armed.  He had a legal firearm, with a legal permit for concealed carry.  Nevada also has a lawful provision for open carry.  The employee then called “Metro” to inform them of the “armed man” in the store.  Although no sign or other indication of store policy was posted, the store has an internal rule disallowing customers with firearms.

 

Las Vegas Metro responded to the call, asked the manager to clear the store, and encountered Scott and his friend as they made their requested exit.  In the process, officers—several—gave conflicting orders to Scott and apparently felt threatened in confronting Scott who had his arms raised as requested.  In the melee which followed, Scott was shot four times in the back and once under his upraised arm.  Scott died of his wounds.

The store was well equipped with internal cameras to substantiate any actions which take place within.  Metro also has a firm policy of recording all 911 calls to their dispatcher.  In both cases, we find that Costco’s tapes of the proceedings are suddenly unusable and Metro refuses to release a copy of the recording of the employee contact.  The latest on this tragedy is available on Confederate Yankee

which is following the story and the subsequent investigation very closely.

Once you become more familiar with the details, you may and will draw your own conclusions.  As a dedicated believer in the Second Amendment, as I read this ongoing story, I find much to be suspicious of in the store policy and the police reaction.  Also the absence of corroborating evidence in the unusable tape and the missing 911 call raises red flags as to the management of what should have been an encounter with little or no danger to anyone involved.  If you have even the least interest in firearms and their usage, you need to become familiar with this story.

And finally---

As mentioned previously, the hummingbirds seem to have departed for a warmer climate.  It has become seasonably cool here so it’s easy to understand their haste.  On the other hand, the gold finches, cardinals, etc. appear to be so attached to their daily input of seeds to not even be tempted to leave.  Some wintered straight thru last year.  Both categories will continue to be fed until I am absolutely convinced they have departed.  I owe it to both since they are of equal joy to observe less than 10’ over the top of my keyboard. 

We have accumulated 11.35” in the rain gauge since the first of September.  This promises a winter yard with some remaining color and perhaps an even cut before I retire the lawnmower.  The remaining question then is; how is a geezer going to get equivalent exercise to match that 20 mile plus stroll every week or so during the non-growing season?  On second thought, I’m certain Granny will figure something out.  Meanwhile, stay well and thank God for your blessings.

In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon

Stop Lying!!

As a people, we in the United States have been subjected to an almost continuous series of lies for the past four years.  Obviously, the greatest of these has been the murky background of our president.  We have become accustomed, as citizens, to an endless supply of information, easily verified, about every candidate who has ever aspired to that office.  Our former watchdogs—the press—had kept us up to date with far more information than we could absorb about every minor facet of their existence. 

Even the most trivial information is obscured in mystery.  A quick Google search will reveal that former president; Warren G. Harding wore size 14 shoes.  His immense girth would have required proportionally large feet to support him.  No one questions the veracity of that stated measurement.  Substituting Obama for Harding we find responses ranging from 9 ½, 12, & 13 ½ on the first page.   This is not an issue of any real importance so what is the point of not having a definitive answer?  Do his feet enlarge and then shrink during each day?

Back in the rude rural community, in which I was raised, a popular expression was: “He’d lie when the truth would do better.”  For those who constantly extol the virtues of the president (the media and his minions) this is common practice.  It extends well past the size of his feet to discussions of domestic and foreign policy, social issues, pending legislation, cap and trade, military matters, socialized medicine, taxes, the housing crisis, and unemployment.  True to form, each is approached from a Pollyannaish perspective, with solutions and their appropriate numbers snatched from thin air. 

For example, the socialized medicine initiative is rife with examples of a program billed as being a money saver.  The OEM, responsible for reporting actual fiscal outlay, has not seen it that way.  Even the speaker of the house (I cannot bring myself to mention the name of that harridan) assured us we would have to pass it in order to read it.  Insurance companies are withdrawing from the market place in droves and doctors are retreating from Medicare practice as a result.  These people are realistic evaluators of the fiscal aspects of their enterprise and realize that what was presented as savings is an absolute lie.  Who in their right mind ever turned any enterprise over to the federal government as a cost cutting device?

The stimulus package was advertised as assuring the public that they would, as a result, benefit from a fixed unemployment rate of 8% or under. The reality has been 9.5% with slight variables.  Once one factors in those who have just plain given up on finding suitable employment, it is realistically estimated at 16% plus.   Those responsible, including the president, were well aware that this was a lie.  In spite of claming to reduce the deficit, we find it soaring to a level equivalent to the total achieved in our 225 year history.

Those who observed this benign and generous nation over our existence have seen us use our treasure, the lives of our youth, and our strength to protect their freedoms, secure their safety and rescue them from both manmade and natural disaster.  How then, can the president go abroad and apologize for our country as the provoker of evil in the world.  It is little more than the furtherance of the lie. 

Another earthy phrase comes to mind as we watch the rats jumping from the sinking ship which is our administration.  “It’s enough to gag a maggot.”  Even the hardened liberal left has recognized that association with a serial liar is a perilous path to success even in a world of liars.  Many have retreated to the warrens of academia to nurse the wounds of their proximity to Obama.  Many however, remain to further the false doctrines and twisted reportage of actual facts.  Even the media has, through dropping readership and loss of viewers, become aware of decreasing revenue streams resulting from their obvious devotion to the fully committed socialist president.  There is now awareness on their part of the importance of self-preservation.  The sale of Newsweek for $1 is indicative of that realization.

This raises the question, then, of the biggest lie of all.  Obama is not dedicated to the greatest constitutional republic the world has ever seen.  Even though he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States; in so doing he ascribed to yet another lie.  Even those not really paying attention should, by now, be able to understand that his dedication is the exact opposite.  He has done his level best to exercise the Cloward/Piven strategy to seek the destruction of the republic.  He seeks to accomplish, by destroying our financial base, the ends which aggressors have failed to achieve by force of arms.  We are currently being led by the most aggressive socialist ever to have sought the office.

As we approach the second anniversary of the worst election result in the nation’s history, we need to, as a people, understand clearly our role in reversing the mistakes of the past.  We must “man-up” and admit that we made a serious mistake.  We must absolutely insist upon the restoration of truth from our leadership, the media, and our neighbors.  We can no longer be comfortable listening to a continuation of a string of lies, distortion of fact, and misrepresentation.  If you are reading this post on your computer, there is an automatic assurance that you personally have the means to fact check every word which comes from the mouth of the prevaricator-in-chief.  Rather than assume that he is humble and sincere; recognize that his agenda seeks to destroy the United States. 

As a father with a near score of grandchildren I urge you to recognize the horror of the legacy which these innocent youngsters and yours will inherit.  It will not be one of ease and luxury compared to the rest of the world and our previous history.  Instead they will share in the responsibility for a mammoth debt from the moment of their birth. 

As I returned from the Tea Party event on 9/12/09, I brought my mind back to leaving the Capitol Mall.  I noted at the time that the grounds were absolutely clean with no evidence of 800,000 people having been there.  As we age and then depart this earth will we take the same care to leave the republic free of debt and being a useful citizen on the world stage?  Or, will we leave a legacy of slavery to our socialist masters and the wreckage of imprudent finances?  The answer rests upon our actions over the next five weeks and the events of November 2, 2010.   The result will depend upon you.  God help us all.

In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon

Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers!

I was unable to resist this tale of woe from Alliance, Ohio.  It appears that Jim Brienzo, at the conclusion of a “shopping” foray at Wal-Mart, went out an open side door instead of using the checkout lines near the front.  Once outside, Brienzo, decided to hide out in a dumpster parked beside the super center.  It was not mentioned whether he had the $1000 worth of merchandise he had lifted, with him in the trash.

Soon after becoming “safely” hidden; along came the trash truck, picked up the dumpster and dumped Jim and the largely cardboard contents into the interior and activated the compactor mechanism.  Jim, unable to extricate himself, called a friend who in turn called 911.  The truck continued on its rounds and picked up several more dumpsters full and added to Brienzo’s problems.  The police, by using GPS tracking of Jim’s phone signal, were able finally to locate the truck and direct it to the nearest trash facility.  Once the contents were dumped, they still couldn’t find the thief until they sorted through the mess in search of his faint calls for help.

After experiencing repeated compactions in the rear of the truck, he was fairly easy to apprehend.  If you want to experience “breaking every bone in your body,” Jim’s escapade will serve you well.  This latest will only enlarge upon the existing 26 page “rap” sheet he already has—if he lives through it.

It surely brings new meaning to “clean up on aisle 8.”  Or better; maybe a quote from Bill Engvall: “Here’s your sign!”

In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon