Boy, the way Van Halen played
We had good stocks that we could trade
Dudes and chicks, we had it made
Those were the days
And you knew who you were then
Black or white American
Mister, we could use a man like
Ronald Reagan again
Didn’t need no welfare states
Everybody pulled his weight
Gee our SUV ran great
Those were the days...

Just listening to Archie and Edith belt out that song this morning had me laughing and I realized all you have to do is make a few changes and the song remains the same.

People often talk about the great cycle of life, how old things become new again, and really, there is a lot of truth to that.

Something else that rings true is this: The world is in a rush and drawing closer to its end, and it always happens that the longer it lasts, the worse it becomes. And so it must ever be, for the coming of the anti-Christ grows ever more evil because of the sins of the people, and then truly it will be grim and terrible throughout the world.

The devil has deceived all people too much, and there has been little faith among men, though they speak fair words, and too many crimes have gone unchecked across the nation. The laws of the people have deteriorated altogether, and holy places are open to attack. The houses of God are completely deprived of ancient rites, religious orders have now for a long time been greatly despised. Poor men are deceived, cruelly cheated and wholly innocent, sold out of this country far and wide into the possession of foreigners. God’s laws are hated and his commands despised.

Now, I am not one of those freakazoids that is a doomsayer or a Book of Revelations activist. It is merely to point out that once again, its the same ol’ same ol’.

That statement about the end of days you just read is something that was written back in the year one thousand. Yes, the year 1000.

Interesting, isn’t it? Folks who plowed fields with the crudest of instruments pretty much worried about the same things we are worrying about today.

And as for the history of our country, there have been events in our short history that we would really like to erase off the history books, but to do that would mean that certain people, places, and events never happened.

It would be doing this great nation a disservice to do that ... the folks who sweated and toiled to get this country up and running would not appreciate having their efforts dismissed or glossed over.

People paid hellacious prices to get us where we are today.

As for the bitter pill that was slavery and seems to continually define Americans, here is another interesting piece of history:  In England, the Anglo-Saxons proved to be slavers on a par with their Germanic cousins. Weallas, or Welshman, was one of the old English words for slave — which showed where the Anglo-Saxons got their slaves. When, in 1086 AD, the Normans did a survey of the land they conquered, it showed that there were significantly more slaves in the west of England than in the east, reflecting the closeness of Wales, and also the fact that Bristol was a slave port, trading with the Viking merchants based in Ireland. According to recent chronicles, 11th-century Dublin operated the largest slave market in western Europe.

Sometimes people were put into bondage for certain crimes committed, other times people surrendered themselves into bondage at times of famine or distress, when they simply could not provide for their families anymore.

Having said that, they weren’t manacled like ancient galley-slaves or treated like modern-day workers in South African mines.

Slavery has been around since the dawn of time, and it does still exist in certain places around the world.

The United States did suffer the stigma of slavery, but for a brief blink in time compared to the rest of the world. If slavery had not existed, what would have become of our country? Had there not been the defining moments of the fight to free slaves, or the civil rights movement that came about because of the way “Christians” treated their black brothers, what would this country be like today?

Here we are over 1,000 years later and people basically still treat each other the same way.

If Rush wants to join in and buy a football team, so be it.

If Obama wants to go to Norway and accept the Nobel Peace Prize, so be it.

But for the time being, I’m going back to this book I’ve been reading, “The Year 1000” by Robert Lacey and Danny Danzinger.

Interesting stuff.

Makes you appreciate things like buttons, zippers, and cotton underwear.

Oh, and just so you know ... they were experiencing a bit of “global warming” back then too. Somehow the polar bears managed to survive ... even without Al Gore.