Bit’s Greatest Hits: A Bithead’s Christmas

Edtor’s note:

Once again as in years past, I’ve found my inbox filled with messages from longtime readers who wonder if I’m going to be re-posting “A Bithead’s Christmas”, and begging me to do so.

As I believe I’ve told you in previous years, I get more email about this one single post, these 2900 or so words, then I have about anything else written here. And it happens every single year. Either this one post is particularly good, or the rest of it is comparatively bad. You’ll forgive me if in my vanity, I believe the former. I take that they’re using Email, instead of simply leaving comments, to mean that I’ve struck a very personal and private nerve.  Touching people in that fashion is a very rare thing, and one I take very seriously, so  the answer to the question is “Yes, of course I’ll run it again”.

Understand going in, it may not be politically correct.  I seek no absolution, no forgiveness, for it’s being overtly Christian in nature, any more than I seek absolution or forgiveness for anything else that I put into these spaces.  It is what it is, because Christmas is what it is, and because I speak my mind on the topic at hand, whatever that is.

Christmas, and thereby, Christianity itself, has been going on for a little over 2000 years, in spite of all the naysayers, protesters and government regulations that history has managed to toss up in those 2000- plus years. It does so, because at the core of it all, is a message…….. a message that all the naysayers, protesters and government hacks will never understand, much less conquer. It is a message that will survive the ravages of time, government, and liberals, fascists, and anything and everything else, long after you and I are no longer even a memory in this world.  The Christmas message, you see, is eternal, and ever green.

(Evergreen. I am suddenly struck with the symbolism here)
There is something of a journalistic precedent for this as well. . . I do not pretend to hold myself quite so high in the world as these media outlets who have such traditions as “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”…  but they’ve  been getting away with such things for well over 100 years, so I suppose I can get away with it, here.

One of the things that man has always found fascinating about the Christmas story, is that you can reread it all your life, and every time you reread it, you find a new truth buried within it, so perhaps that’s WHY we get away with repeating such stories. It’s perhaps where such traditions come from.

In looking around at the news wires today, I find that we have no shortage of things to worry about.  I have documented many of them and commented on them here as has David, Fersboo, YetAnotherJohn and others. Pay particular attention, this year, to the passages about things to worry about, that aren’t within our control.

Pay attention also, to the concept of Christmastime as a charitable time.  I remarked a day or two back in a Ramble, about Nick Kristoff’s peice in the New York Times, about the lack of charity among the left. I pointed to an post I’d put up in the comments section at Q&O, where I remarked about statements Barack Obama had made:

Look; what he says here, on the surface, is quite correct. We are in fact under a scripturally ordained responsibility to reach out and help others. No question.

Where he falls short of the mark, is where he conflates individual acts of charity, with government involvement. Note again where I say we are under a scripturally ordained responsibility… we as individuals….not the government. Not even as one church or another. As individuals. I eman, at what point did Christ say ‘governments are the source of charity”? No. Rather, Christ himself said:

” Give unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar’s and give unto God, that which is God’s.”

If you break this line of Christ’s down, you see there’s a rather thick line, drawn between charity and government. Confiscation which is what taxes are, is not charity, and it is certainly not the act of an individual. Charity is the realm of God, and the individual….not of government….

That passage came to mind yet again, as I re-read the post, re-posted below, as I could hear Scrooge saying, “Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”  Scrooge, you see, thought of charity, as the work of government, too. A clever man, Dickens.A man with a keen insight into human nature.

So with all this in mind, and with the hope of helping you find new meaning in this season…  and peace… a personal peace… in these troubled times,  I will offer once again this year:

A Bithead’s Christmas

I find myself wanting to take more seriously, the challenge of writing to the subject of Christmas, today, than I have in years past. It’s not clear in my mind as to why, but this isn’t unusual… I never really do have a firm grip on why I want to attack a subject in these spaces. In fact, the writing of a coulmn for me has becomes more an effort of exploring a subject; the codification of random thoughts. The act of putting those thoughts into words on a screen allows me to think about, and RE-think about the subject at hand. My thoughts on a given subject often do not fully take shape until such time as I’ve re-written them twice. Often, indeed… usually, the ideas are already there, waiting to be cast into words, but not fully defined until the act of sitting down and typing them out. I suppose this subject is no exception.
To this effort, some blogs, this time of year will quote the great Gospels of Christ’s arrival, and expound on that. And that’s worthy, and right. Some others will take the secular angle of the holiday and go off on that. That too, is fine, though frankly it’s always for me missed the core of the topic, a little.
But not me, for either of those tacks. Not this year. I’m going to go off the beaten path, for this post, at least in context of this blog, given it’s Christmas, and off the beaten path in terms of the Liturgical calendar, given it’s me. I’m going to stick with the meaning of Christmas, but to point it up, I’m going to turn to something a little later… about 30 years later… for my subject. I trust you’ll see why when I’m done.
This story is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We’ll use Luke’s version for the purpose.

In Luke 18 it reads:

15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Now, all three versions add a little something to the story, and I suggest you read them yourself to get it all. Most times that Christians hear this text or read it, a child is being baptized. The apparently intended thrust of reading it in those situations is to make a loose connection with the Children being accepted by Christ. And, that’s a valid angle for the story. But, think about the story line, here, so you can get the flavor of what I’m going to describe to you. There’s a far bigger angle that many miss.
Christ has been playing “superstar” for a while, now. He’s been attracting flat out huge crowds wherever he goes. The disciples are starting to become concerned for the (human) well being of Christ. Children are, then as now, a source of some stress to adults already under stress, so the disciples decide, wordlessly to give the Lord a break. But Jesus says.. “Hey… No.. Let ’em come… It’s OK. ” Apparently, seeing some remaining resistance in their eyes, he reinforces the command with a statement that must have shaken them badly. “It’s to the likes of these as belongs the Kingdom of God.”
Now, It’s not hard for us to imagine what’s going on in the minds of the disciples…. They must have felt a little put back… While not saying so, they must have figured they had an inside track to Heaven. (Shrug) It’s human nature.
The passages don’t record if they said anything, but you just know what they’re thinking, here… “Comon, Jesus… We’re tryin’ to give you a break here! And you elevate these lowest of low, mere children, into the ownership of heaven? You raise a polite nothing to a path to heaven and eternity? What’s THAT about?”
And you know, Jesus knows it too. He knows full well what they’re thinking, because watch what he comes back with: “I’ll tell you the truth;”, he says, “Unless you change… Unless you transform, and accept the kingdom of heaven like a child, you’ll never enter it.”
But what does he mean, here? He’s talking, I’m afraid, about how you lose touch with happiness and the sense of wonder, as you become an adult. That loss prevents us from seeing the Kingdom of heaven as it is.
For most of us, the happiest times of our lives was when we were children. When we’re younger, we have less in the way of cares, and troubles. Let’s admit, too, that as we get older, we become aware of, and allow more and more sadness into our lives.
It’s true; It’s a hard world out there, and being adults we’ve come to understand this, in a way of understanding that only long exposure and experience… and lots of scar tissue, can bring.
It seems that every year we have more worries and concerns.

Oh, yeah, do we EVER worry. We worry about our health, and those concerns increase with advancing age. We worry about our jobs, about our investments, our savings, about the future in general. Retirement is a concern. Will we have enough? We’re too fat, we’re too skinny. We’re too tall, we’re too short, our once wavy hair is still waving… Only, it’s waving bye-bye. We worry about the future our kids will have and the normal growing up problems, but we also worry about the future that we’ve left our kids. We look at the news, and we wonder what kind of a world have we left them? We even worry if we worry too much.
We’ve seen marriages and relationships we thought would pass the test of time, pass away, instead. Things we had hoped would come to pass, didn’t, and those we’d not dreamed, in our wildest nightmares would happen, did. We see loved ones die. Jobs disappear. Hearts get broken.
And friends, those are just the hum-drum... The everyday worries that every generation has had, since Cain bopped his brother’s bean with a rock. Then you get into the problems particular to us and our times; AIDS, oil shortages, cancer, drugs, the way our own technology seems to be spiraling out of our control…And Islamofacists.

Ah, yes, there’s nothing at all, to my mind, like the specter of 3000 plus people dying on national television, in Washington, NY and Pennsylvania… while we watch, to remind us that we’re not in control.
And yes…. it’s all about control, if you think on it for long. All these things I’ve listed are worries about things we cannot control, try as we might.

The list of these reverses, these scars, gets longer as the years progress, and it starts eventually, to break down the positive outlook in every one of us… Each according to their ability to resist. Each step, each worry, each bit of emotional scar tissue, if you will, moves us farther away from the relative joy of our comparatively carefree childhood.
By now the sharper among you will notice where I’m going with this; This is where Christmas comes in. This is why Christmas holds a special place in our hearts, and our traditions.
You see, even for the not-so-religious, it is a time of renewal of our fragile human spirit. All of the hurts, small and large, become less pronounced, and fade under the soft glow of the lights, the candles, the fireplace, and the smile of the children.
Have you ever noticed that it’s the children, in fact, that do us the most healing? Christmas, it’s said, is for the children. Presidential speechwriter and WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan noted recently about some of the qualities of children:

“They are susceptible to wonder. A child can look at a red toy car in the red-green glow of Christmas tree lights and imagine an entire lifetime. A child can play with a new doll and smell good things being cooked and hear sweet music and it can make that child imagine that life is good, which gives her a template for good, a category for good; it helps her know good exists. This knowledge comes in handy in life; those who do not receive it, one way or another, are sadder than those who do.”

Of course, we move away from that ability as we grow older. Our long experience has hardened us to the realities of the world around us, and perhaps jaded our point of view. But here comes Christmas, which gives us, individually and collectively, the chance of looking at the world through the wonder-filled eyes of a child once again… Becoming childlike ourselves in the process, and becoming healed and renewed.
The experience is a far deeper one for those who have accepted the Christmas promise, and it’s meaning. Reacting to that promise includes allowing someone else to run the controls of our lives. Remember I said it was all about control? Well, I want you to think about the features of being a child. It was Randall Jarrell, I think, who once quipped:

“One of the most obvious facts about grownups to a child is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child.”

Well, let’s remember.

You’re NOT in control of much of anything. Someone who knows better, and is by far more powerful than we, is running things. And looking back, I’m sure most of us would conclude that having that situation back would be of comfort to us. Haven’t we all wished to resign from the world of adulthood at times?

I guess this would be a good place to slip in a parallel story. Consider the fictional person of Ebeneezer Scrooge. Think about how the story develops; He’s had some serious emotional setbacks in early life… and those have become a self-feeding, never ending circle by the time we meet him, 7 years after his best friend’s death.
All these setbacks have made him cold, and hard, and for all outward appearances, non-feeling. He’s covered with emotional scar tissue. Being hard, is his way of dealing with what he cannot control. Only after his overnight experience do all these cares get swept away, along with his anger of not being able to control his situation…. The realization comes to him that he never really WAS in control in the first place, so stop fretting about it all… Think about what are essentially the first words out of his mouth as he realizes that the weight of his worries.. Not unlike worries you and I have had, are gone; “I’m as light as a feather….” The weight of that scar tissue… And all the concerns they represent having been lifted off his shoulders…
“…and as giddy as a Schoolboy!”

Like.

A.

Child.

“I’ll tell you the truth”, he said, “Unless you change.. Unless you transform, and accept the kingdom of heaven like a child, you’ll never enter it.”

Amazing parallels, aren’t they?

I’m reliably informed that Charles Dickens was not as a rule what one would call very religious. Yet, in looking at the parallels in these two story lines, I must wonder in all honesty if he didn’t have some help with “A Christmas Carol”.
Now, you’ll notice I took some liberty with the way the Biblical text was quoted. Some liberty, I say, but not very much, really, since it’s long been pointed out by Bible scholars that the word that earlier versions of the text had as ‘change’ were really translated from the ancient Greek word for “transform”. This is a major point, because it demonstrates what the first step is, and whose it is… yours.

And no, change and transformation are not the same thing. The best description I’ve ever thought of to explain the difference between the two, runs along these lines:
If I take a rock, and in the other hand I take a large hammer, and I hit the rock with the hammer, and break it, I’ve changed that rock. If I take that same rock, and take a small hammer and chisel, and very carefully, perhaps over a period of decades, sculpt that rock into a flower, I’ve still merely changed that rock.
Transformation, on the other hand, is when the rock itself, as a matter of responding to it’s own will, becomes a flower. And of course that’s beyond the normal power of the rock, by any standard we know.

What Christ therefore is saying is, that we must become children, as of a matter of our own will. Which is, as I say, impossible by any standard we know…. Which in turn leads us to the source of all things, who teaches us how, and gives us the power to do it.

You see, the externalities I mentioned, the lights, the fire, the children…and that which Dickens writes of… the giving, the being open to what joys are around us, and so on, helps toward the goal of understanding the Christmas promise, but it’s not the whole deal.

At the core of it all… (and this is a connection that, alas, many people never make…) is that the one whose birth is being celebrated every December the 25th, is the one who takes over that long list of worries. But understand, here…THAT’S WHY WE CELEBRATE!!

With those worries removed, lives get changed, hearts mended, child-like perspectives restored in a way that the lights, carols and greenery can never do on their own. And the newly remade Children find that the authority and responsibility and all the ponderous weight connected with them, are taken away by the one who said “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”.

Now, I must warn you; There are those who will resist being told all of this… to the point of removing such joy as they find, wherever they may find it, often using the power of governments, and force of arms to have it removed from town squares and schools, mocking, persecuting and yes, even killing those responsible for the spreading of the news of this miracle.

It’s a sad truth, that a world used to darkness, you see, will continually fight to see the darkness continued. That warning given, however, I will say to you also, that it’s no accident, Christmas being called the season of light, and that Christ is called the light of the world.

If I have one wish for this Christmas, it is that you will be open to the light…. With the wondering eyes of a child.

I am tired of the media droning about Mrs Schlossberg  wanting Mrs. Clinton’s seat.   Here is picture of the Mrs. Clinton’s seat as well as her ass.    As for the seat Mrs. Clinton is filling in the Senate, that remains property of the People of New York, yours truly et al.

As to Mrs. Schlossberg, you can smell the panic emanating from Da Mayor, Micheal Blomberg, via Elizabeth Benjamin, Daily-News(NY):

“I’m not endorsing Caroline Kennedy,” Bloomberg said. “I’ve said again and again that the governor is lucky to have multiple candidates who are qualified to pick from. But in the case of Caroline Kennedy, I happen to have worked with her. She has worked in the New York City school system. She is intelligent, competant, knows as much about the issues, I think, as most people that run for senator or have been our senators in the past.”
“…The fact that she comes from a family with an illustrious history of service to this country, you certainly shouldn’t hold it against her,” the mayor continued. “She is known because of it. She has conducted her life, I think, in an exemplary manner. She should be judged, however, on her ability, and I think on that basis Caroline Kennedy will do just fine.”

“That doesn’t mean she’s the only one. It’s up to the governor, and I think the governor should make a decision reasonably quickly because this is just getting out of control and everybody’s focusing on the wrong things

Hat tip:  Jennifer Rubin, Commentary.

Da Mayor wants the  Blind Governor, David Paterson, to move quickly.   Yet how can Paterson move quickly to fill a vacancy that does not yet exist.   Mrs. Schlossberg’s path to the Senate is being blocked by Mrs. Clinton.   I suspect that BO told Mrs. Clinton not to formally oppose Mrs. Schlossberg, but while Mrs. Clinton can not formally oppose Mrs. Schlossbeg, she does have to cooperate by resigning from the Senate, like BO did.

From a legally blind  governor, to a figuratively blind media,  Andrea Mitchell defends Mrs. Schlossberg’s supposed qualifications while she resists any suggestion that Mrs.  Schlossberg actually demonstrate her supposed qualifications.

To the ironic, Mitchell argument is that the United States Senate has become the equivalent of the House of Lords:

When Scarborough asked Andrea if Kennedy was conversant with the issues, Harold Ford Jr. jumped in to say that she shouldn’t be held to a higher standard than other senators.  Agreed Andrea: “how many hearings have you guys watched?  I mean, you’ve watched them every day.  You know it.”  Translation: the Senate is swimming with mediocrities—one more won’t hurt anything! 

BO hardly showed up.    Mean while Peter King,  mounted a defense of sorts, of Mrs Schlossberg:

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) made the rounds on Today and Morning Joe, where on the latter he made no bones about his interest in running for the Senate seat in 2010. He made an interesting revelation about Caroline’s much-vaunted work at an educational non-profit. She apparently toiled to the tune of an average of . . . one-to-two hours a week.

Not showing up is a habit for many senators, and it is a habit for which Mrs. Schlossberg has had plenty of practice.

In closing, heard a parody of Mrs. Schlossberg today on Rush, set to the tune of Sweet Caroline.

Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… BitsBlog’s Nightly Ramble.

Lot’s of last minute stuff to get in before the holiday. Let’s get to it.

• I’m hearing they’re starting to ask Chris Dodd about his dealings with Countrywide. What burns me is this guy will likely get away with half of what he’s been pulling.
• I think these two stories, culled off Drudge tell the story of Unions.
  

  California could be broke in 2 months…

  Unions sue governor over mandatory days off…

  Never let it be said that Unions are limited by reality.

• I cheerfully note David’s link to VDH yesterday, and raise him this from the same author:
  

  The probable appointment of Caroline Kennedy, the 51-year-old daughter of former President John Kennedy, to fill Secretary-of-State nominee Hillary Clinton’s New York Senate seat is both laughable and yet a parable for our bankrupt times. . . . Ms. Kennedy is about as undiverse as one could imagine. She was educated at exclusively private schools among those of her like race and class. Her financial security is due to either inheritance or marriage; there is no evidence of a self-employed stellar legal or business career. But there is plenty of evidence that Ms. Kennedy reflects the current Democratic Party’s obsession with celebrity and Hollywood-like imagery. . . .

  Like I said… Star power.  Also, Hanson’s point about the lack of ‘diversity’ is well taken. I note it’s the one charge, however, that even the far left hasn’t tossed at her. .. that whe’s not only too whitebread, but that she’s too white, period.   Granted that Charlie Rangel has his hands kinda full just now, but where’s the Bobby Rush contingent?  Come to think of it, I’d not seen that argument tossed at Hillary Clinton when she took the seat, either.  Is that star power, too, I wonder? And has anyone noticed she’s being very mum about her finaces?

•  Speaking of Sweet Caroline…. (Yes, that’s who the Diamond song was written for… didn’t you know?)…. Roger Simon notes that the New York Times got fooled on a story involving her.
  

  No doubt most of you remember the Jayson Blair affair at the New York Times, when the paper jettisoned the reporter for publishing several plagiarized and, at least partially, fabricated stories on its front page. The ensuing brouhaha caused an editorial shake-up at the onetime “newspaper of record.”Well, what’s the old saying about the “second time as farce”? [I think it’s from Marx.-ed. So it is.] This time the paper has outdone itself by publishing a putative letter from the mayor of Paris, attacking the potential elevation of Caroline Kennedy to the US Senate:

   

• Dan Reihl notes it too, and says that the Times is about ready for the Great Egress.
  

  From 24/7 Wall St – based upon background and financials, ten major companies predicted to go away in 2009. Number 6 on the list? The New York Times. h/t An email from Pundita.

  24/7 Wall St. looked at some of the largest and most well-known companies, reviewed their SEC filings if they are public, analyst reports, and media observations about their businesses and picked ten that probably won’t be around at the end of next year.
  6) The New York Times (NYT) has to repay $400 million in debt in the first half of 2009. It does not have the money. It plans to mortgage its headquarters, but it is uncertain what that will bring in an uncertain real estate market. The firm’s Boston Globe and regional newspaper operations lose money, so they will be hard to sell. NYT is controlled by the Sulzberger family which has super-majority voting shares. That won’t matter much when the company runs out of money. Another big media operation, perhaps News Corp (NWS) which owns The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, will come in and auction off what it can and keep the flagship New York Times newspaper and NYTimes.com website.

  I can’t say I’ll mourn when it happens. Indeed; Die, already.   (Ya know, I wonder if we’re going to hear from the Democrats in Congress that the Times is too big to fail? After all, the Times has served as the DNC house organ for two generations, at least. can you imagine Democrats doing with it? Neither can I, and as such I wouldn’t put a bailout for the Times, past them.)

• Throwing Shoes at Blago? And where is the Dinosaur media on this?
• OK, a local story, just to the north of us here. I like camping, but this is nuts. We’ve had feet of snow, and temps hivering around 10 degrees, with windchils well into the sub-zero.  What the hell was this guy doing in a popper under those conditions? Why do I get the feeling that in the end, the INS folks are going to be involved?
• McQ at Q&O😕
  

  Is there any question as to which ideology this minority most likely claims?

  Twenty-three percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday say that Cheney is the country’s worst vice president, when compared with his predecessors.

  Of course the headline is “Poll: 23 percent say Cheney worst vice president ever” instead of “4 out of 5 don’t find Cheney to be that bad”. Or said another way, here’s another poll used to manufacture a “news” story.

   

   

  Well, no kidding. Dinosaur ‘news’ agencies manipulating poll data for the sake of the image they want to present is nothing new, certainly. But, look, this goes to another level, too. They see what Obama did with Fox news when they dared question him on ‘sensitive’ matters of image. CNN knows who butters their bread. They want access to the power structure for the next couple years, they’ve gotta make the right noises.

•  Global Warming, my @$$. OK, perhaps it’s gotten to the point where pointing out that global warming is a farce is cliche’.   Yet, despite having gone into the status of being a bad joke, The Democrat Party, Obama included, continues to push the mantra of global warming.  Why? It’s exactly as I said yesterday.

Let me take this opportunity to wish all of our readers the best of the Christmas holidays.

Those of you lucky enough to have family and close freinds; I urge you to use this time to foster those relationships. Help them grow. You’ll find your rewards will be more than you imagined, and will take on shapes and depths you’d never considered.

Be watchful for a special posting or three over the next 24 to 48 hours particularly for the kids, and one post that’s become a tradition around here.  We’ll continue to post commentary at whiles over the next few days,  but given the holiday we’ll be off our usual schedule somewhat.

Merry Christmas.

Anyone who can slow the “rise of the oceans” deserves every otherwordly expectation ascribed to him.

Rick Moran, American Thinker.

The Delaware Blue Hen is madly trying to dial down the vastly over inflated expecation of the BO administration.    Gee Joe, I wonder how BO’s expectation got so sky high?    BO and Blue Hen having made their bed of expectations, can now lie in it.

Enjoy.

I noted the other day in the Ramble about how Tom Cruise  and his new film weren’t doing so well with the critics. But it’s worse than that. Far, far worse.

And what the hell is Pierce Brosnan  doing in the film version of “Mamma Mia”, while Daniel Craig so badly fouls “Quantum of Solace”? Talk about mis-casting.

Jennifer Ruben seens concerned about the missing in action New York Senator Chuckles Schumer, Panjamas Media:

It is odd indeed that the usual camera-craven Schumer has not been out calling for a full investigation and explanation for how Madoff got away with his scheme for so long. Why isn’t he popping up on the Sunday talk shows, as is his custom, to demand that one of his Senate committees get the bottom of this? It might be that for once Schumer would like to be forgotten. When he does reappear, some enterprising reporter might ask about any contacts he had with Madoff – or on behalf of Madoff.

Chuckles has suddenly become camera shy.    The old joke is that the most dangerous spot in Washington  is between Chuckles and a camera.     So speak up, Chuck.

Addendum(Bit);

Indeed. And lets recall, please, that it was Chuckles that caused the failure of IndyBank, last June.  One cannot help but wonder if these two situations are related. It would certainly explain the uncharacteristic silence of the man.

I’ll tell you the truth; I’m beginning to suspect that our recent financial difficulties are going to be the subject of great investigation over the next several months.  Probably, years.  A lot more will come out of that investigation that Mr. Schumer will be comfortable with.  Certainly, the involvement of Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, will be questioned. Also among those names, however, will be that of Charles Schumer.

Obviously, I have no proof of all of this at this point; but I’m hardly alone in my suspicions.

Within days of Chuck Schumer starting this run on IndyMac, $1.3 billion had been taken from the bank, people had taken that much out, the Feds, the FDIC had to step in there and stop it to save the bank, because there was such a run.  It was started by Chuck Schumer.  Now, just cut to the chase here.  Back to this October Surprise.  I am just wondering — as I say, it can’t be proven — I’m just wondering if a lot of this was by design, to create economic panic,  remember now, the Iraq war had dominated everything, and the economy was said to no longer be an issue in the campaign, for the first time.  Corruption, other things were, ethics, when the Republicans had those problems, but the economy wasn’t.  They wanted to create economic crisis, a mind-set of this.  So Chuck Schumer goes out, starts a run, a $1.3 billion run on IndyMac, and then all of us, look what we learned, all these mortgages are worthless, all the mortgage derivatives and the mortgage backed assets, they are worthless, everything was worthless, there was no “there” there.  Every institution, every guy in the institution was an empty suit, and we had to bail out this and bail out that and it didn’t help.

I just wonder if what was a planned attempt to scare people economically, start a little run on a bank and do this, that, and the other thing, has now spun so far out of control, it’s gone so far beyond what the intention was, just to win an election, that nobody knows what to do about it now.

I just wonder if what was a planned attempt to scare people economically, start a little run on a bank and do this, that, and the other thing, has now spun so far out of control, it’s gone so far beyond what the intention was, just to win an election, that nobody knows what to do about it now.  The only mitigating argument against that is that the number one, the primary beneficiary of this — and you have to look, even in an economic collapse like ours, there are beneficiaries.  Who’s benefiting?  Who is benefiting?  Aside from the people being bailed out, the Democrat Party and Barack Obama are benefiting.  They got elected, they increased their numbers in the House, they increased their numbers in the Senate, they got the White House now, and they’ve got a crisis that people think can only be fixed with the almighty and powerful government interceding to save this or to save that or to do whatever when in fact the government is going to nationalize the automobile industry, gonna nationalize some banks, is gonna nationalize the mortgage industry, and may end up nationalizing the automobile industry.  And everybody is sitting around arguing on the merits, “Oh, God, glad they did it, oh, I’m glad they did it, oh, thank goodness, they saved the UAW, they saved the auto companies.”

Everything has been presented to us, “We can’t let this fail; it’s the end of America.”  We recently learned also that the Treasury secretary, Hank Paulson was cited talking about how bad the economic conditions were, was wrong.  The numbers that he was given to cite how rotten the economy, they were wrong just before we did the $700 billion TARP bailout.  But doesn’t matter, we’ve done it, and now TARP has become United Auto Workers bailout.  People are sitting by letting this happen with great hope, by the way, that it will fix what’s wrong.  Miraculously the stock market will rebound.  So the Obama team and the Democrat Party are benefiting tremendously from this, even if it has spun outta control.  If it’s spun outta control they’ll make due with the new crisis they’ve created a la Rahm Emanuel.  But the reason I think it has spun a little bit out of control and gone a little further than they intended is that even the Obama people are saying, “Hey, it’s going to be really bad for a really long time.” 

As I say, David, my guess is is that this is going to be investigated by a large number of people over the next four years. No, not by the democrats ; we won’t be seeing any democrat run kangaroo courts in front of the TV cameras this time around.  I think what’s probably going to happen is we’re going to see the resurgence of investigative reporting.  Indeed, that’s one of the reasons that I’ve been wishing for the dinosaur media to die off sooner.  We need to get serious investigative reporting going again.  I think this incident will bring that to the fore.

Once the facts start coming out on all of this,   I think the backlash against those who brought it on us for their own purposes, is going to be severe.  The Boston tea party will look, well, like a tea party by comparison, as the truth starts getting revealed on this stuff.

First, some housekeeping:

Given the Christmas Eve is on Wednesday, this is going to be a shortened week, for the Nightly Ramble. We’ll run the Ramble on Monday and Tuesday, and then perhaps again on Friday…. Friday entirely depends on personal plans that day, and how they time out. Unfortunately the same thing is going to be happening for the next week being new year’s week. Life and its intrusions when I would rather be Blogging.

We haven’t decided on our destination for New Year’s Eve this year, though we will probably end up going up to Niagara Falls as has been our habit the last ten to fifteen years.  We’ll see.

Christmas day, though, we’ll be spending at my brother’s place.  Dad’s been gone now for a few years, and he’s missed, but Mom will be there, and so will my brother and his wife. Donna, and our kids, of course, and at least one of my brother’s boys, and now their kids… a point which I have trouble getting my mind around.   My sister and her husband will be in Florida.. a point I’m sure we’ll all grumble about as we fight with the snow.  Those kinds of changes, though, are what happens to all extended families, eventually. But, we’ll carry on. We’ll eat, drink a little, laugh, and revel in each other’s company. It’ll be a fine day.  It’s one I’ve been looking forward to.  I don’t get out to my brother’s nearly as much as I’d like.  Come to think of it, today’s his birthday… I’ll have to see about that.  I’ll have to see, also about driving Mom down there, too, Christmas day… particularly if it’s like it is today… and I have no doubt it will be.

Meantime there’s been an awful lot happening over the weekend, and we’d better get to it;

• They call it Snowy Monday….. I’m busy freezing, as I showed you last night. Actually, it’s snowing here again this morning and blowing, too. All that shoveling I did?  It’s all filled in again.
• I’ve been having a lot of fun with the Rainier, the last few days. Full-time All Wheel Drive, combined with the automatic locking rear axle, and 300 ft lbs of torque, makes for a combo that can’t be beat in the snow… even by the guys with ‘real’ four wheel drive. Just point it, and go, usually with a cheerful abandon as to where that is, or through what. Example; when I left work Friday night, there was perhaps a foot of snow on the parking lot. The snow crews were up at one end, frntic in their removal efforts. Me, I took off through the foot of snow. Nothin’ to it. I’m sure I’ll hear about that one, eventually. Of course the truck likes to make fun of me, too. Here I sit, freezing my backside off, just having started the truck, and the computer wakes up, looks around, see’s it’s 13 degrees out, and noisily announces “Ice Possible” on the dashboard UI. It’s times like that I wish cars weren’t so smart, anymore.
• Gas is still coming down. Currently, it’s as low as it’s been in over 5 years. I’m thinking we might do a short road trip over the Holiday to get some photography in. Assuming, of course the weather cooperates. And that’s a biggie. This morning, I90 was closed from Rochester to the Pensy Line, and I heard it was closed beyond that, too, not opening up until well beyond Ashtabula, OH.  Lake Erie tends to make a mess this time of year… snowfall.  Even in summer, that’s a nasty strech of road, the Erie run, when summer storms come off the lake.  Been caught in a few winter blasts along that run. It’s OK, but it’s not fun.
• But there are other considerations which may block such excursions. This time of year, and given the calendar, and the number of free days around Christmas, just about anywhere we go, you’re going to run into a ski area, and the people driving to them. (You never get people driving FROM them, for some reason,  just TO them.Perhaps they’re using other forms of transport… like Ambulances, for example.)  And with all the fresh snow, you’re going to see legions of powderheads skis tied to their roofs, zipping off to their ski areas. One such I can think of is on I81 between Syracuse and Binghampton, NY… a place called Tully. There’s a resort called “Song Mountain” there, that, if you’re southbound on 81, by virtue of there being nothing but small lakes between you and the mountain at that point, you can see off to your right, once you pass the Tully exit. The kids tend to be fascinated as they watch the skiers sliding down the mountain like so many dark colored grains of sand against the white background, while the lifts, which you can also, see, drag them back up again. All that of course assumes you actually can get PAST the Tully exit. The traffic tends to back up onto 81, when the powder’s good. When, I hear, the skiing is very good indeed. I’d hardly know a good bit of skiing from a bad one, myself, never having been.  But it’s true that just about every major highway leading to and from our house has a ski area on it, and the usual traffic problems. It’s true; All the problems I’ve talked about regarding the traffic around shopping malls on black Friday, can easily be transferred to the road surrounding ski areas, during Christmas week. So where and if we go anywhere, that’s a consideration.
• Jules Crittenden:
  

  Exhibit A, Andrew Sullivan re Dick Cheney on presidential war powers:

  One thing you have to concede to Dick Cheney. He says what he thinks. And so we get this:

  WALLACE: This is at the core of the controversies that I want to get to with you in a moment. If the president during war decides to do something to protect the country, is it legal?

  CHENEY: General proposition, I’d say yes. You need to be more specific than that. I mean — but clearly, when you take the oath of office on January 20th of 2001, as we did, you take the oath to support and defend and protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

  The irony seems lost on him. How can the suspension of all laws into the power of the executive branch in wartime be seen as a defense or protection of the Constitution? Perhaps for a brief amount of time in a dire emergency, after which there would be a thorough accounting to the Congress and the Courts. But indefinitely? As inherent in the office? And with jurisdiction over the entire United States as well as the world? With “enemy combatants” defined as anyone the president calls an “enemy combatant” and no distinction between citizen and non-citizen? Including the right to torture? Indefinitely?

  Breathless histrionics his. Whatever alternative United States Sullivan has dwelt in for the last seven years, sounds like it’s been a living heck. All laws suspended indefinitely. Enemy combatant labels slapped on everyone, everyone tortured … indefinitely.

  In the United States I’ve been living in, the president very politely sought and received authorization from Congress to run this nation’s wars; asked for and received billions of dollars in multiple appropriations from Congress to finance this nation’s wars; consulted Congress on interrogation techniques and had Democrats urging him not to pussyfoot around; and when the going go tough and popular opinion wavered, stood alone as a strong executive, pushing forward to fight and win while the legislative branch dithered, wrung its hands, and did what legislative branches and weak executives do, which is cater to popular whims, ineffectively. …

  Look, Jules, at what point has Sullivan ever written anything that wasn’t at the least, borderine  histrionics? That’s exactly why he’s earned the moniker “St Andrew, the Incontinent” around here. And by the way, you’ve also given us as good a reading as I’ve seen yet on why I ceased to consider him a libertarian, or a conservative or much of anything else he claims. He gives us so much in the way of falsehood in his positional claims, I sometimes wonder if he is, as he claims, a homosexual. There’s a part of me that wouldn’t be too shocked if that turned out to be BS, too, with he and Eliot Spitzer chasing High priced call girls around New York City.

• Is there anyone on the planet who does not understand the  implications of this are far more than just a high school prank?  If we’re going to be basing guilt or innocence on a photograph only, and a low grade photograph at that,  what does this say about our criminal justice system as a whole?
• I’ll have to show this to the other half. Oh, I know…  I’m sure I’ll get hit for my trouble but.. . (Shrug)
• Anyone who considers the Joe Biden ever had a brain in his head, had better reconsider. And yes, that includes you, Billy. I understand your comment and to a large degree I am in sympathy with it.  I just don’t think this guy’s got the smarts to pull off half of what he’s talking about.  And that’s assuming that he even knows what he’s talking about… always a question mark. Granted, that’s also dangerous, but it’s a different kind of danger, and perhaps more controllable, thereby.
• I want you to do me a favor, and look at the mugshots in this link.  Look very closely at the clothing.
• We now see the Democrats trying to lower expectations, after having promised us a magic pony in every garage by next Tuesday. Seems what we’re going to got for having given them power, is a cockroach in every garage. And we’re expected to drive the thing, instead of our cars, and particularly our SUV’s.
• It is still amazing to me…. though I guess it shouldn’t be any more… how much effort the press, even the international press, goes to, to intentionally mislabel behavioral problems attached to Islam in the civilized world.  As in this case for example.
• Glenn gets this one right:
  

  WRONG QUESTION: Leonard Downie asks Could we uncover Watergate today? The real question, given the way the press covered for John Edwards, Barack Obama, et al. is whether the press would cover a Watergate if it happened under a Democratic administration…

  (Nod) Just so. And by the way, the answer is ‘No’.  For his part,  Downie remains very close to his historical perspective.  Understandable, and even laudable.  But consider the case of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. We know, for example, that his arrest and indictment was hurried into because of press leaks.  Unlike the Watergate situation, this was not a case where the truth was being said on in order to keep it permanently out of the public eye.  Rather it was part of an ongoing investigation.  The case against the governor would have been far more prosecutable had the story been held for 48 hours, let’s say.  Personally, I can’t help but wonder if that wasn’t the intent of running the story when they did.

• While I have Glenn open on my desktop, here, let’s look at another of his links that catches my eye, mostly because it’s on a topic I’ve addressed here many times:
  

  NICK KRISTOF: Bleeding-heart tightwads. “This holiday season is a time to examine who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, but I’m unhappy with my findings. The problem is this: We liberals are personally stingy. Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates.” When you’re spending other people’s money, it’s not compassion — it’s compulsion.

  Well, exactly so.  That’s something which almost to the word, I reflected on back in 92, first, and several times since. (I’m at work so don’t have the oldest references to hand, but I do have some of the newer ones)  I made the point by way of pointing out that when taxes went up, charity giving goes down, rather dramatically. And usually when Taxes go up, guess which party is in power?  There’s this, too, and this one wasn’t even written here, but at Q&O:

  Let’s try breaking this down a little differently. Since Obama choses to place this argument within the realm of Christian theology, let’s deconstruct it there.

  Look; what he says here, on the surface, is quite correct. We are in fact under a scripturally ordained responsibility to reach out and help others. No question.

  Where he falls short of the mark, is where he conflates individual acts of charity, with government involvement. Note again where I say we are under a scripturally ordained responsibility… we as individuals….not the government. Not even as one church or another. As individuals. I eman, at what point did Christ say ‘governments are the source of charity”? No. Rather, Christ himself said:

  ” Give unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar’s and give unto God, that which is God’s.”

  If you break this line of Christ’s down, you see there’s a rather thick line, drawn between charity and government. Confiscation which is what taxes are, is not charity, and it is certainly not the act of an individual. Charity is the realm of God, and the individual….not of government…. And given Obama’s brother’s situation, we see what happens when such is left to government. We see the work of Obama’s ideal.

  He’s clearly of the idea that charity involves giving away somebody else’s money, however you have obtained it… and there’s the crux of the issue; he has bent the religion to his own world view, which I view as being on a level plane with Islamo-Facists… who have done precisely the same thing. Jerry Wright, call your office.

  Perhaps now we have a clearer understanding of why Obama’s attachment to Wright and his preaching of liberation theology is of such great import to Americans.

  OK, it’s a little out of context, but I think the central point is still driven home. The idea about chairty is you, yourself getting involved, not just throwing money… and someone else’s money at that, at the problem, and hoping it’ll all just go away. Something to consider, this Christmas. And consider that the context of the Q&O quote is a story where Obama’s brther lives in a shack, on around $65/year.

• Of COURSE you’d expect the morally vacuous New York Times to tell us the credit crunch is all Bush’s fault. I mean forget about Fanny and Freddie. Those can’t be the problem…  after all Democrats ran those.
• Speaking of that, here’s a link to a video over Reason TV.  The speaker is one Peter Wallison. Please listen closely, and notice how closely the parallels what we’ve been saying in these spaces for the last six months at least.
• I think Bush has this one right, though. The judgment of his performance, in the end will not even resemble what the Times has to say on the subject. And as often as we’ve been spanking GWB around here, that ought to give you a clue.
• I do have to give Bush credit, here, however. Compare Barack Obama canceling his vist to Walter Reed because he couldn’t bring the press with him to this story.
• Me at Q&O this afternoon, responding to our conversation on BTR last night:
  

  Dale;Your response was exactly what I was anticipating, when I dropped my rather cryptic comment.Certainly, the goal here… the one overarching idea, as you call it… is not simply money, but rather it is the increase of governmental control, of which money is merely a part, albeit a major part.

  The stated goals, as well as the concept of governmental omnipotence, are shown to be lies at every turn. Global cooling becomes global warming becmes (whoops) climate change. Banks are bailed out because they…. oops Car companies are bailed out becase they… oops homeowners are bailed out because they are the locus of the central problem in the financial world.

  It doesn’t take a great deal to figure out based on the pattern before us, that these guys are just vamping, rather like what we see of the Wizard of Oz, after Toto pulls the curtain back.

  The real goal, obviously, is to maintain the illusion of governmental omnipotence, which is of course helpful in the maintainance and indeed the expansion, of governmental control… and that we mere mortals pay no attention to that man behind the curtain over there, lest we with Reagan say “Government isn’t the solution, government is the problem.”

  The hope I have at this point is that the trust level for governmental solutions will decrease as a result of the Democrat party’s screwups… mostly their own over- relience on government, but their corruption, as well… Of course one has to rely on Providence that we’ll survive long enough to see them ushered out of office, too.

  That day coming, however, requries we continually beat the drum over these failures, as they appear. We know damned well the Dinosaurs aren’t going to be saying anything about them.

• Did anybody notice the AP report on the former Ohio attorney general Mark Dann? Seems the attorney general had been using his campaign account to cover home repairs and family vacations and the like. Gee, another Democrat doing that? I had no idea.  I notice that the Associated Press mentions nothing about the idea that the guy is of the Democrat Party.  As many times as this is been pointed out, and by as many people, we still end up taking the Associated Press to task for these omissions.  They never seem to have any problem mentioning party affiliation when the criminal is of the Republican party, Governor Ryan for example.  After all this time and all this being taken to the woodshed over the years, I can only assume that there is something intentional going on here on the part of the Associated Press.
• OK, I’m going to get a little “Inside Baseball” with you here.  It’s Small World time: Scott Fybsuh mentions this week that the former owner of WJTO in Bath, Maine,  is picking up a new station, WNBP (1450 Newburyport).  Interesting to me, because the current owner of WJTO is someone with whom I worked with at WVOR (100.5 Rchester), back in the day, Bob Bittner.  Also interesting to me given Scott starts this week’s report with a laundry list of “Public” stations (Read that ‘taxpayer funded’)  that are closing in the Pinetree State. The group buying WNBP, as Scott notes, meanwhile, has a long history of ‘Community voice” stations, as does the station he’s buying up,.. this would seem to prove that the government stations there… and the expense to taxpayers… really are not needed.

From the mailbag:

Last weekend I saw something at Larry’s Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest… The occasion was our 15th anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my wife Julie.

What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety….??

WAY TOO COOL!

Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded two AAA batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button.

Nothing! I was disappointed.

I learned, however, that if I pushed the button AND pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I’d get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs.

AWESOME!!!

Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Julie what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave.

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn’t be all that bad with only two triple-A batteries, right?

There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target.

I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat.

But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised.

Am I wrong?

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and taser in another.

The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries.

All the while I’m looking at this little device measuring about 5′ long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and (loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself, ‘no possible way!’

What happened next is almost beyond description, but I’ll do my best…?

I’m sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, ‘don’t do it,’ reasoning that a one second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn’t hurt all that bad.

I decided to give myself a one second burst just for heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and ..
HOLY MOTHER OF GOD . . . WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. .. . WHAT THE HELL!!!

I’m pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again.

I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs?

The cat was making meowing sounds I had never heard before, clinging to a picture frame hanging above the fireplace, obviously in an attempt to avoid getting slammed by my body flopping all over the living room.

Note: If you ever feel compelled to ‘mug’ yourself with a taser, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one second burst when you zap yourself!

You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three second burst would be considered conservative?

SON-OF-A-BITCH, THAT HURT LIKE HELL!!!

A minute or so later (I can’t be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape.

My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. The recliner was upside down and about 8 feet or so from where it originally was. My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching.

My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I had no control over the drooling.

Apparently I crapped myself, but was too numb to know for sure and my sense of smell was gone. I saw a faint smoke cloud above my head which I believe came from my hair.

I’m still looking for my nuts and I’m offering a significant reward for their safe return!!

P. S. My wife loved the gift, and now regularly threatens me with it!

Victor Davis Hansen, on Mrs. Schlossberg, Real Clear Politics:

Yet there is no evidence that Caroline Kennedy knows any more about Waziristan than did Sarah Palin; there is a great deal of evidence that it is far more difficult for a nobody mom of five to make it through the electoral process into national politics from Alaska than it is for a Kennedy daughter of a President to be appointed from the Upper East Side to fill a liberal New York Senate Seat

As much as I relish the thought of Peter King wrecking havoc on to Mrs. Schlossberg in particular and the Clan Kennedy in general in 2010, I want my state to have a competent  senator for the next two years not not merely a weak echo for BO.

Let me give you just a small taste of the snow we’ve been getting around here.

For the first time in a few years there doesn’t seem much doubt about a white Christmas around here.

As usual, click once to get the description, and click the pic again to get the high resolition version.

Star LaBranche,  In Cold Blog, reviews Crystal  Gail Mangum’s epic work of fiction,  The Last Dance for Grace:

The overall problem with Crystal’s memoirs is her total lack of credibility. She lied about so much, how can anyone have faith in what she writes? Even the most minute details are subject to critical examination.

Also, Crystal’s interpretation of some events are illogical at best and at worst provable lies. At times Crystal dances around the truth by not revealing the whole picture and she occasionally leaves out some seemingly important incidents

Personally I have kicked Ms Mangum around so much that I now have hole in my boot.   I  repeat what  wrote  12 January 2007:

Yes the first escort has changed her story, yet again.   I think by this stage, it no longer matters what her story is, because none of her verisions are credibile.   Even the New York Times is piling on the escort.

There is another question.  Now that Crystal Gail Mangum’s credibility has been destroyed, her prior rape accusations exposed, criminal record made public, and feminists have abandoned her cause, why is the MSM still protecting her name?  There was no rape,   There is no rape victim which to shield.

Mr. Nifong and Ms Mangum have dragged Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann’s good names through the mud for the last several months.  Ms Mangum, it is time for this travesty to stop.

Ms Mangum — Get off the stage.    Go home and dry out.

Comments Bit?

Addendum:(Bit)

You bet your sitting device.

Granted that Mangum isn’t exactly the driest road flare in the box, but it strikes me as flat out amazing that this woman is so disconnected from reality as to try this at all.   On the other hand, what else can she do? Admit her own fault? Not likely when she has so many willing to reinforce her falsehood. Selling books is perhaps her last recourse for making money. Apparently, she even failed as a prostitute, so what’s left? (Is being an author of tell-all books, then, one step below prostitution?)

I’ll tell you this; If anyone, or any group made a victim of Mangum, it is those who tried to attach legitimacy to her charges, for their own reasons… the people the author calls the “gang of 88”. These were the college staff, and the professors, as well as the press, and then also, the Democrat supporters of Mike Nifong,  (Who jumped in simply because a Democrat was in trouble)  all of whom were so damnably willing to believe her story, all evidence to the contrary.  In retrospect, it seems clear to me that these were motivated by what can only be considered social and political preconceptions, and weren’t fighting for Mangumn’s rights as much as they were to protect their own narrow worldview in the public eye.  The narrative above all, as we have seen with the misdeeds of those surrounding Barack Obama of late.

The comparisons to the Anita Hill case are striking, and telling.

In the end, I figure there’s nothing going to come out of this; Mangum’s self-image as a victim will be reinforced by those around her, and she’ll continue her slide into the gutter, thereby.

I hope this isn’t the case, but given the history I have no reason to think this thing isn’t on that path. I note also that this is a journey she herself started long before the Duke thing. It’s just that Duke’s Lacrosse team gave her a chance to make a little money under the banner of “(black woman) + (rich white boys) =victim”.

The book company will have made it’s money, and the Democrats and race hucksters will have another battle flag to clamp to their petard.

I say nothing will come of this, because, think now; Does anyone really foresee that the mere facts in this case, will ever change the left’s perception of it? Or, for that matter, the perception of Mangum herself?

I wanted to pass along a couple of pictures that were passed along to me by readers last year. I never got the chance to use them last season because I didn’t see them until well after new year’s. But now seems as good a time as any to post them.

in case you don’t recognize it, I will tell you up front that these are pictures from Arlington National Cemetery. They do this, every year. Every headstone in the place, gets a wreath. Every person buried at Arlington, is remembered with honor, and perhaps there is no time they are honored more than during the holiday season.

The Arlington Wreath project was started on the order of fifteen years ago by the president of the Worcester wreath company in Maine, who apparently decided to send holiday wreaths to Arlington is a way to honor the country’s fallen soldiers . Each and every year without fail since then 5000 or so evergreen wreaths are made up in the state of Maine, and then decorated , then loaded on a truck bound for Arlington.

The last I heard, there was supposed to be a wreath laying ceremony this morning at Arlington.

Longtime readers of this blog will recall that my wife is something of a fan of one Trace Adkins. Truth to tell, I like him as well… and particularly admire him for recording this one, which this story reminds me of. I know… copyright laws, and all… I hope Trace doesn’t mind, because I think this says it so well, what I feel looking at these pics.

I never thought that this is where I’d settle down,
I thought I’d die an old man back in my hometown,
They gave me this plot of land, me and some other men, for a job well done,
There’s a big white house sits on a hill just up the road,
The man inside he cried the day they brought me home,
They folded up a flag and told my mom and dad, we’re proud of your sonAnd I’m proud to be on this peaceful piece of property,
I’m on sacred ground and I’m in the best of company,
I’m thankful for those thankful for the things I’ve done,
I can rest in peace, I’m one of the chosen ones, I made it to Arlington I remember daddy brought me here when i was eight,
We searched all day to find out where my granddad lay,
And when we finally found that cross,
He said, “son this is what it cost to keep us free”
Now here I am, a thousand stones away from him,
He recognized me on the first day i came in,
And it gave me a chill when he clicked his heels, and saluted me.

And everytime I hear twenty-one guns,
I know they brought another hero home to us

We’re thankful for those thankful for the things we’ve done,
We can rest in peace, ’cause we are the chosen ones,
We made it to Arlington..

yea dust to dust,
Don’t cry for us…

We made it to Arlington.

Oh… and before I forget…. Remember to thank the LIVING soldiers as well. Here’s one way. There are other ways, as well.Look, let’s make this easy….you’re going to see a lot of people in uniform traveling for the Christmas season. When you see one, take the time to say “Thanks for wearing that Uniform, and doing our country proud”. The smile you get in return will doubtless make your day.

This is some of  what hit us yesterday  and we have  got another storm due in Sunday.   Hamlin (Where this pic was taken)  has a nice state park.   I’ve hiked and skied it and Bit may have camped there.

Hat tip:   13WHAM; article, picture.

Addendum:(Bit) I sure have camped there… several times, over the years. IN fact, it was the place we took our big rig too, on the first trip out of the barn with it, years ago.

What you see in the pic is pretty well typical of the whole area, yesterday.  Myself, I came up Lake Road from the east side, across Irondiquoit Bay and through Durand Eastman park, all of it right along the lake shore… which is pretty much the situation in the pic you see here.

Now the new storm they’re talking about features 50mph winds, so all this snow will be blowing around.  Let’s see.. up to our pipiks in snow, and being taxed to death. What’s not to love?

Having found a meme on Sara’s place, I’ll jump in:

You just won the mega powerball jackpot to the tune of 150 million dollars…

1. What would be the very first thing you would do?

Faint.

2. Where would you choose to live?

Anywhere outside of the liberal dominated northeast. And certainly not on the west coast either. Perhaps the Carolinas, since Donna likes the water, or perhaps in Big Sky country near a lake somewhere.

3. What kind of house would you live in?

Whatever. I’m not particular about that, though I guess it’d end up being bigger.

4. What kind of car would you buy?

Frankly, I”m pretty happy with the one I have. I might buy Donna an Escape and keep the Fusion, though, and I’d spend some time and money dressing out the one I have.

5. Where would you vacation?

Wherever we’ve not been recently.  We have the trailer and like traveling that way. I figure we’d be traveling farther on a per-trip basis.

6. Would you have anything on your body fixed?

Weight, mostly.

7. What kind of hobbies would you engage in?

Photography. Been doing rather a lot of that of late, and have gotten fairly good at it. Ham Radio, perhaps.

8. What charities would you donate to?

Leukemia, cancer, and animal adoption agencies.

9. Would you give money to your relatives?

Sure. My Mom, mostly.

10.Would you run away from your current life?

Pretty much.

11. Would you continue to work?

Yes, but not where I’m currently working. Might buy and run a radio station. Always wanted to do that.

12. Would the money change you in any way?

I don’t see how it can’t, at least in some ways.

Y0, Bit.   Looking for a new job and change of scenery?    Consider moving to Pennsylvania and running for the Senate. Chrissy Mathews is a putz. It would be like stealing candy from a baby, video:

Not that I actually know anything about stealing candy.

Hat tip: Ace.