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; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.

– Charles “Tremendous” Jones

It’s been said you can tell a lot about a man by the books he reads and the friends he keeps. I’ve been writing recently about the friends that I keep and those of you who keep coming back for the continuing saga have, I’m sure, updated your mental portrait of me based on those writings. Well today–on Veteran’s Day no less–I want to give you an idea of where my mind has been lately when I take those rare occasions to step away from the news and pick up a book.

Also, for those of you random folks out there who are looking for a recommend, I would dare say that you could pick up anything on my list, but I have also created a recommendation section at the bottom.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but ever time I think of it, I’m at home and I can’t get to this script–incompatibility with Snow Leopard and our network.

The trick that made this script useful for me (and saved me from having tor really think outside of the box) was basename

I know I need to comment this script so they know who to come sue when it doesn’t work and actually explain what the hell is going on here, but I wanted to hear from my *nix versed readers.

I’m also considering x-posting to unixadmin for recommendations on how to clean up the script or what kind of things I should add. For instance, a suggestion was made to check for 0 byte files. Also, it seems like on the day, just echo didn’t produce a blank line. I considered echo n but I didn’t think that would work either.

Nevertheless, here’s my latest script made public for review, critique and criticism.