Saddam Was

Michelle Malkin covers the facts as they seem to be for now. Obviously more info will be released over the weekend.

Just found this, and I'm down for it.

H/T the Anchoress

Merry Christmas

We've just finished with the stockings. The kids are happy. Our little foster girl is wearing the tiara and tutu that Santa delivered, and my wife is wearing her tennis bracelet and ring (thank you Stauer!)

Later we will watch some Monte Python, the Mega Set of the whole series being another present to my wife from "Santa".

Or maybe some Veggie Tales...

And if it's Christmas Day, what are you doing here? Log off and spend time with your family.

And read them the true Christmas Story.


Luke 2;1-20 (New International Version)

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

What kind of Christmas Ornament Would You Be?

Thanks to Dr. Sanity and The Carnival of Christmas Insanities I now know that I am a snowman!

You Are a Snowman

Friendly and fun, you enjoy bringing holiday cheer to everyone you know!

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

A snowman! I hate snow! I have three driveways and five house-lot lengths of sidewalk to shovel this year (mine, I live on a corner with a half lot across the street, and two rental propeties in town).

What in the world am I doing as a snowman?

Children's Books that never made the Cut


With the approach of Christmas, it's time once again to release the list of failed ideas for Children's Books!
(this was posted last year to Concrete Frog, which has since gone idle)


Tigger & Pooh and Ritalin Too!

The Polar Expectorant

Dora the Informer (and her sidekick, Concrete Boots)

Harry Potter and the Marketing Department’s Dream of Filthy Lucre

What the Berenstein Bears Did in the Woods

Mommies Make the Best Soup (by Hannibal Lecter)

Beatrix Potter’s Hasenpfeffer Recipes

My FIRST BOOK of Embalming

Kipling’s “The Slash-and-Burn Jungle Books”

The Little Suicide-Bomber-Drummer Boy (actually quite popular in the Palestinian Territories)

The Muppets Take Skokie Illinois

Robert Louis Stephenson’s “The REAL Treasure Island”



(and from a certain Doctor we all know)


That Cat Spat in my Hat!

There’s a Wocket in my Pocket (or am I just happy to see you?)

Horton Hears a World Health Organization

Green Eggs and Genetically Altered Corn

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Mercury Poisoned Fish




As I predicted last year, the Cease-and-Desist orders should be rolling in any time now.

Must-Read Article at The American Thinker

Amil Imani posts an important essay, Iranians Are Defiant over at The American Thinker.

I completely support the military effort in Iraq. In fact, before 9-11 I thought that military action against Saddam was overdue. The agreements he had signed after the first Gulf War clearly stated that a military response was the punishment for failing to comply with the UN's stipulations. He clearly failed to comply. For the UN to ever have any credibility, or for it to ever be able to prevent any other nation from committing genocide or war crimes, there had to be action behind the threat. Anyone who has ever had to confront a schoolyard bully knows this. "Stop, or I shall say 'Stop!' again," is a Monty Python routine, not the action of a government that wants to be taken seriously.

Just because military intervention in Iraq was the best and only option at the time, does not mean that it is the best option at all times. The mullahs have never really had a grip on the population like that which Saddam had developed. The Iranian people are not cowed under the heal of a Fascist machine, but are still a proud and independent people.

It's time we supported them.

What kind of actions could be taken diplomatically to make the regime an international pariah? What pressure could be put upon their trading partners to cease trading with them? Could the government of Iraq, which has no reason to wish Iran to be dominant in the region, offer to fulfill the oil contracts that Iran has with China. This would protect China's energy supply, and give the Chinese government the opportunity to defend its own sovereignty. Iran's long-range missiles could reach into China, and another nuclear nation in the East would change the balance of power and could seriously hinder China's plans. Not to mention that China has its own problems with radical Islamic factions.

Has anyone got any plan for leaning on the mullahs?

Now would be the time, guys.

Keeping the Past Alive

A few years ago, a my parents became neighbors to a gentleman of about their own age (actually, a little older) who became a good friend to them. He was especially supportive of them during my father's battle with terminal cancer.

Later, after my father's death, this old gentleman needed to move to a nursing home as his needs became more than he could handle. Many of his effects had to be disposed of, so my mother bought for me several boxes of slides that he had taken during his lifetime. There are several hundred of them, maybe even a thousand. I have been digitizing them with an Epson 4990 scanner in between paintng and scanning old family photos. I've become something of the family archivist.

Many of the images that this gentleman took forty years ago and more of New England and the Canadian Maritimes are incredibly beautiful.

An so, here is to keeping the past alive. Thank you, Mister Clayton Chase, a gentleman and a true neighbor.

The light at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, July 1965



Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, July 1965



Dorys at Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia, July 1965



Setting sun on the way home from Blue Rocks, Nova Scotia, July 1965

The Glenn points out an article about how the Armed Services are appreciating their older recruits. I seem to remember when I was a kid reading that the average age in the Army in WWII was somewhere in the 40s.

There is a truism that I can't place my finger on exactly, which goes something like, "the old and cynical will always triumph over the young and idealistic." It may simply be that those who are older are less apt to risk themselves foolishly. When I was twenty I thought I was invincible. I would also street-race in the middle of the night with people I had never met. It's a wonder that I lived to grow up. When you are older, your mortality weighs more heavily on you, and your probably more apt to call in an air-strike than stick your head up when you shouldn't.

No offence meant to anyone young and in the military. Remember, I'm just old and cynical.

Eteraz is once again covering women's rights in Pakistan.

This is important progress. Coming from a military dictatorship with a heavy percentage of Islamic fundamentalists in the population and military makes it especially encouraging.

Two Interesting Thoughts

Not related on the surface, but deeply related at the core. Remembering the purveyors of the intellectual cult of death in the West and an essay about relativism and evil.

Both good reads, and worth dwelling on.

Non-stick Cookware! Non-stick Cookware! Non-stick Cookware!

OK, so I neglect the blogosphere for a while, I come back and what momentous earth-shaking concept is the Great Oz nattering on about? NON-STICK COOKWARE!

OK, oh Legal-Thinking-One! I got your sticky-pan solution right here! Just 30 seconds with these babies and your grease troubles are over!


You’d think a guy with a last name of Reynolds would have a general idea of how to keep his pans free from sticky, greasy gook.