Christmas Songs – Top 10

Without further ado, here are my top 10 favorite Christmas songs:

Bonus Track! 11. Happy X-Mas (War is Over)
In this song, John Lennon begs the world for peace … a valuable sentiment, in any season.

10. All I Want for Christmas is You
Ye gods, a Mariah song I like! It’s true. It’s rather cutsie, but I like it.

9. Please Come Home for Christmas
A blues standard. There’s actually a surprising amount of X-mas blues tunes out there, but this tops my list. The Eagles gave it a good effort, and Jon Bon Jovi does a shockingly good cover of this, but for the real McCoy get your hands on the Charles Brown (no, the blues singer) version.

8. Santa Baby
Eartha Kitt first sung and recording this in 1953, and she said it was a favorite song of hers. Smoky, bluesy, with a touch of sultry greed … this one charms with its bald-faced honesty.

7. Holly Jolly Christmas
Johnny Marks wrote a number of good Christmas songs, this among them. Burl Ives wasn’t the first to record it, but his happy voice is probably the first folks think of when this song is mentioned.

6. Let it Snow
A great love song that never bothers to mention Christmas, this tune has been covered at least 30 times to my count. Great stuff.

5. Christmas Wrapping
In 1981 the New Wave band The Waitresses spun a great tale of love lost, and found, and lost, and found… Charming, humorous, and something that touches a common chord.

4. What Child is This?
My favorite version of this lovely song is the Vanessa Williams version, well sung and passionately rendered.

3. White Christmas
The film Holiday Inn made this Irving Berlin tune immortal, and with good reason—no one does it like Bing Crosby.

2. The Christmas Song
This wonderful tune was written by Mel Tormé and Bob Wells during a particularly hot streatcch of summer, when Wells jotted some wintery-sounding thoughts on paper to cool off (mentally at least). Nat King Cole recorded several versions, beginning in 1946. Others have made covers of the song, but to me Nat's buttery voice invokes hot rum cider sipped before a warm fire.

1. Jingle Bell Rock
A fast, spirited song that, to me, sums up everything cool about holiday music. It gets me in a good mood every time I hear it for the first time in the season, without fail. That’s enough to earn it first place!

There are many, many more songs I could have mentioned, but this list is good enough for this year!

Get the lyrics and hear many of the songs mentioned here.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the very best going into 2008!

A Dispatch From Cuba

National Public Radio’s This I Believe segment today aired a wonderful piece by a former Guantanamo Bay interrogator. This isn’t a segment about torture; it’s a passionate soliloquy about enemies coming together and finding passive, mutual redemption. I was moved by it, and I urge my readers to please follow this link and read the piece, or, much better yet, listen to it.

Perhaps one day all the people of the world will realize we’re not so different after all. A naïve belief perhaps, but I certainly hope so.

Mordor Bound

This weekend saw us pulling out the long-buried Lord of the Rings RISK (LotR RISK) box for a try. It had been a while since we played this particular version of RISK, and I had never used the full, Trilogy version game board.

Note: For those unfamiliar with the Hasbro-related controversy, the original LotR RISK set had a game board that stopped above Gondor and Mordor—which was particularly odd since the ring travels toward Mordor throughout the game and because one or more players play the forces of darkness. It appears that because the initial release was tied to the Peter Jackson films, and The Two Towers had just been released at that point, the minds at Hasbro disliked the idea of revealing the full board. As a result, the buyers got a truncated board, and when the so-called Trilogy edition was released instead of containing an add-on board piece, as was expected, it contained another whole game with a full board. Folks who had purchased the initial set felt screwed and felt as if they had to buy the whole game again to complete the set. They complained. Loudly. Hasbro soon stepped up to the plate and made a “filler set” (my term here) available for a small fee.
I purchased the add-on, and for about $16 I received the full board, a full set of game pieces (some in different colors than the original set), and new rules and cards—basically everything in the Trilogy box except the box itself, it would seem! (A nice bargain.) To add to the confusion (and insult for some), a UK version actually did include just an add-on board piece, which also had a new, additional siege game printed on the reverse side!

At game start, the players had the majority of their holdings as marked in the large graphic below.



Initial turns saw Larry easily take most of Gondor, right to the edge of Mordor. He largely abandoned pursuit of other areas elsewhere.

Markus, having deposited virtually all his troops up north, made an early and expected push for Eriador (light green on map). Here came the first game-changing sequence of events… The Shire, held by Larry with one brigade, held off a huge force of elves, costing Markus numerous brigades. After seeing six or seven brigades fall to the mighty halflings(?), Mark quit his assault in disgust. It was a major blow from which he would never fully recover. He took his required three countries and ended his turn.

Meanwhile, in the south, Willie and I prepared for what I thought would be a hideous war of attrition in Mordor (dark grey on map). We both began with even holdings in the region, as well as him having some above and me beneath—a deadly clash seemed inevitable. I feared we would destroy each other, leaving the crumbs left to Larry’s hordes. Then—shock!—Willie proposed a plan: he would leave Mordor and Haradwaith (gold) to me, and he would move his troops north to mass on Rhovanion (brown). He asked that, in exchange for awaiting his peaceful withdrawal, that I limit my incursions onto Rhovanion. I happily accepted his terms. In the long run, it probably helped him more than I, but it certainly prevented a dual extermination that would certainly have destroyed one or both of us right from the start.

Soon, as expected, Willie gobbled up most of Rhovanion and also made some inroads into Rhun (burnt umber). Strengthened by a lucky, early trio of cards (netting me an additional 10 brigades) I took portions of Mordor and Haradwaith, and moved to clash with Larry in a deadly face-off that would decide the fate of Mirkwood (dark green). Some of the elven brigades in the Anduin Valley turned traitor (thanks to a played card) and I finally took the forest.

Subsequent turns saw Larry secure Gondor, although Willie skirmished with him frequently in Ithilien and South Ithilien (the far eastern area of Gondor near Mordor). He nudged his troops slowly northward as well. I gobbled up the strongholds in Mordor one by one, beginning with Barad-Dur, and I took Mirkwood from Larry. Soon Haradwaith was mine as well. Willie took the rest of Rhovanion, clashed with Larry outside Mordor, and steered toward Fangorn and the Gap of Rohan.
Markus meanwhile took over various northern countries but failed to take a continent. I continued to bolster a contingent of men I had placed in Eriador—mainly to prevent his taking this region early on—and their presence seemed to dissuade him from making a push for Eriador due to his lack of troop strength.



Late turns saw multiple attempts to slow the ring and everyone tried to complete missions (I think only Larry was successful in this) and secure regions. I finally took Mordor, only to watch helplessly as Larry invaded via sea to seize 90% of Haradwaith for his own. I unleashed my northern hordes to take 90% of Eriador and I took all of Rhun but a single country (which was inhabited by Willie’s ogre force).

Willie continued to assault the edges of Gondor and ruined Larry’s chances of securing that continent. Willie marched on Fangorn.
Markus eventually took and lost different northern and central countries, and used his final turn (the last of the game as it turned out). As the One Ring plunged into the fires of Mount Doom, Markus attacked Moria and Carrock in a successful attempt to play “spoiler” and disrupt our control of Rhovanion and Mirkwood, respectively. (I stupidly never claimed all of Rhun or Eriador, losing complete control of two regions by one country each.)

When the smoke cleared I edged to a clear point victory, helped by the numerous strongholds I held, and Markus and Willie tied for second. Larry, despite the best starting plays of the game, fell short of victory. I was a great, edge-of-the-seat clash between four very evenly matched forces (and players)!

Halloween Treats

I love Halloween; it's probably my favorite holiday of the year. Halloween weekend in my house always includes a few frightening movies, played back-to-back and viewed with friends (beer, coffee, and chips also in abundance). This year, in addition to a few “scary” Three Stooges shorts inserted to break up the gloom, were two offerings I had never seen before: The Descent (2005) and Saw (2004). I often prefer older, classic movies—such as The Omen—so this year I went for the new(ish).

The Descent

This movie involves a group of six women who partake in a yearly adventure-sport outing. Shortly after a white water rafting trip in Scotland, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) loses her husband and young daughter to a grisly automobile accident. Her strong-willed friend Juno (Natalie Jackson Mendoza) and Beth (Alex Reid) convince her to join the next expedition—a caving excursion in a scarcely populated area of North Carolina.

After arriving and entering the cave system, things begin to go badly wrong. The women are trapped by a cave-in, and Juno admits that, rather than exploring the ‘boring” cave system they had planned to visit, that she purposefully led them to an unmapped, unexplored cave system. The ladies hunt for a way out, struggling with injuries, short supplies, and each other, and just as things can’t apparently get worse they do—something else in the caves is alive and wants to feed on them.



The film worked for me. This is straight-up horror. The film-makers don’t bother with gratuitous topless scenes or silly humor—this is pure horror, like it or not.

The six characters, while not all well defined, are realistic and reflect all stripes from the reckless and headstrong to the meek and over-cautious. All the major food groups of horror are represented: claustrophobia, darkness, fear of heights, painful injury, being trapped, being hunted, and friends you cannot trust. Jump-at-you scares are coupled with rising dread well. My biggest complaints: at times, especially as the action picks up in the last third of the movie, it’s difficult to tell whom is with whom or where people are in the caves; the creatures also could have used a slower revelation, in that once the women become clued in that they may not be alone, the creatures are there in abundance attacking them. The creatures themselves, described as “crawlers” in the credits, were well played and frightening.

Saw

This film has become a popular franchise, so a I knew it was just a matter of time before I saw it. For the uninitiated: the plot of this first installment finds two men, Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) and Adam (Leigh Whannell) awaking in a dirty room, chained to the wall. Neither one appears to know the other. They discover cassette tapes in their pockets and, after obtaining a recorder clutched in the palm of a corpse lying between them, play the tapes. They are being held captive by Jigsaw, a serial killer know for placing his victims in devious deathtraps where they must undertake almost unthinkable actions to survive. Following slim clues, they find hacksaws that are too thin to cut the heavy chains that bind them … but perfectly adequate for cutting off their feet. Meanwhile Dr. Gordon is told that he must kill the increasingly untrustworthy Adam by 6-o-clock—or his family will die.


For a series of films known for its gore (the third installment is reputed to be particularly gruesome) I found this film very “blood light” and far more of a mental exercise. This is not to say it doesn’t work—it does. At times the plot gets stretched a bit thin, and the film must be viewed tongue in check, but watched in that light I thought it to be an effective, interesting bit of psychological horror. I was happy to see Danny Glover in the role of an obsessed detective, and Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannel (who also co-wrote the movie) turn in reasonable performances.

I wish everyone a Happy Halloween!

A Yawner

The recent Republican debate was a bit of a yawner. True to form, most of those on stage tried hard to invoke the spirit of Ronald Regan—they summon him up like the Ghost of Christmas past, it seems. Or they wish they could. Tax breaks, tax breaks … yeah, yeah. How is it that the conservatives, who are so xenophobic at heart, don’t mind if we borrow money from China like there’s no tomorrow? What happened to the financial conservatives anyway? Doesn’t anyone have a problem with the mounting (actually it’s already a mountain) debt? (And please, for the love of Pete, don’t tell me we live in a different kind of world now. Bankrupting your country isn’t the first sensible response to terrorism that leaps to my mind.)

Eventually national security came up, as it always does with these guys, but I lost interest before Rudy could invoke 9/11. Ron Paul was the only one onstage to speak any truth to power with regards to foreign policy, the purposeful limits of presidential power, and the utter lack of a direct threat Iran poses us. His reward was to be cast as the nut of the group, the one so far behind he can howl away as he pleases and occasionally speak common sense—sort of the Dennis Kucinich of their side, I suppose.

Fred Thompson’s debut was also a major yawner. He started a bit unsteadily, but gradually got into the role. Given that he’s used to working off a script—I love him as an actor, by the way—I personally thought he’d do better. He was OK, but okay doesn’t cut it for Thompson at this point. He’s got to emerge at a run and impress the voters, and I seriously doubt he did that. Indeed, as John Stewart so ably said on Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough, we’ve already had one fairly lazy, gloss over the details, leaving the thinking to others, drawl as I speak -type president and Thompson is just more of that… it’s time we had a thinker in the White House.

I passionately agree.

Foregone Conclusions

Yesterday and today General David Petraeus met with Congress to deliver his much awaited briefing, although at this point most folks (including on the Hill) have already made up their minds about his testimony.

The event just leaves me sad, and feeling somewhat empty. I believe Petraeus is basically an honorable man. I believe the MoveOn.org ad in the New York Times was a bit over the top and insulting as well. I also believe that the White House—even if they didn’t “write his report”—probably put one hell of a lot of pressure on the man to spin the facts like a top.

I basically believe what he says—but it isn’t what I want to hear. Readers of my blog know I’m pretty liberal (although I try hard to be fair), but I must disagree with the left-most elements of the Democratic Party that are pushing hard for immediate withdrawal. That could be a catastrophe, not just for Iraq but (more importantly) for our troops.
Leaving hastily now would simply make our troops vulnerable. We need a steady draw-down, slow enough that the contractors and equipment can be evacuated in an orderly fashion. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden have been pretty straight forward in talking about this, saying not what folks want to hear but instead bravely saying what must be said.

While overly harsh, the MoveOn.org ad does focus some light in a good direction—the Bizarro World numbers in some of the Department of Defense’s statistics. It is true that car bombings—even those such as the enormously deadly and obviously sectarian-driven bombing in northern Iraq a few months ago—are not considered in the “sectarian violence” death and injury counts. In World War II terms, this is like counting up the damage by individual German soldiers sneaking into Britain but ignoring the Blitz.
Other times Petraeus’ charts began at differing start times, from weeks to years ago, always in service to the best numbers. It’s true that security gains in some areas have been made, some of them significant, but the White House trumpeting them is hardly deserved. The worst offender is the President’s continual citing of "our success in Al Anbar province"—a region that owes its lower rate of violence far more to tribal leaders turning against outside terrorists months before the surge even began, in the interest of protecting their own families (and sometimes their smuggling operations). In other areas violence is "down," but from when? Last year, when it was far higher than the year before?

I also have anger about the situation aplenty. Anger at the Administration’s decision to go to war, that put us in this intractable mess in the first place. And don’t let the pundits try to spin that, with all the “all the world’s intelligence agencies believed Iraq was a threat” and “read all these quotes my Democrats back then” nonsense. And that’s what it is—nonsense. This administration alone slanted the intelligence to push their case for war. This administration alone orchestrated a huge media push and talked about mushroom clouds, conflating 9/11 and Iraq and playing upon the feelings of a wounded and grieving nation. This administration alone ignored the UN and inspectors and the view of other countries and pushed relentlessly toward war, just as they would now begin to do with Iran.

I look at many of the Republican forerunners with fear and amazement—fear because they are so very much like Bush and amazement that some folks enjoy tough talk and yet still fail to see the emperor has no clothes. Rudy Giuliani in particular is demonstrating—at least in public now, before the general election—a slew of dangerously familiar traits: the tendency to wrongly and purposefully conflate varied countries and terrorist groups, stubbornness, a preference for military over diplomatic solutions even when the former is likely to fail, unwillingness to understand the enemy or the reasons terrorism begins, etc. It’s truly scary.

As far as the “surge” goes, let’s remember that the whole purpose for the surge wasn’t simply to clamp down the violence—something one can assume will be automatic if you dump a huge mass of troops into any one area—but to allow Nouri al-Maliki’s central government a chance to bring the warring factions together.

“And the first step for success is to do something about the sectarian violence in Baghdad so they can have breathing space in order to do the political work necessary to assure the different factions in Baghdad, factions that are recovering from years of tyranny, that there is a hopeful future for them and their families. I would call that political breathing space.”

Press Conference by the President, February 14, 2007, Washington, DC

“These troops are all aimed at helping the Iraqi government find the breathing space necessary to do what the people want them to do, and that is to reconcile and move forward with a government of and by and for the Iraqi people.”

President George W. Bush delivers a statement on the War in Iraq during a visit Monday, April 23, 2007, by Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of the Multinational Force-Iraq, to the White House

Well, there we have it. We give them some security and the Iraq government goes on vacation for a month. Ryan Crocker today admitted the dysfunctionality of the central government. Meanwhile, the GAO report on Iraq’s progress is dismal (even after desperate attempts to slant the report from the White House) and we’ve determined that the Iraqi National Police are hopelessly corrupt, untrusted by the majority off the populace (certainly the Sunnis), and dysfunctional. The citizens of Baghdad, long used to continual electricity before the occupation, still don’t average more than 6 hours of electric power a day... Oh, and our Army and Marines are nearly at the breaking point. Wonderful.

This was the Administration that told us the Mission was Accomplished. They told us the resistance was in its last throes. Food for thought.
So now, aided by a fully inept and dispirited Congress, the war plods on, giving Bush time to pass off the ball to the next sucker and ultimately leaving America with two choices: leaving behind chaos or more years of lost billions and needless American deaths. That’s a hell of a choice.

9/11

Finally, I wish peace to all those that lost loved ones six years ago today. The fallen are all heroes, merely by their innocence, or their dedication to family or work, or perhaps because they tried to help others in their final minutes. They will never be forgotten.

Godstorming

Last night Schizo, Larry, Willie and I met once again on the field of battle—this time the selection was Risk Godstorm. Bellies full of BBQ and chips, we descended on the board like a plaque of locusts.

Two plague zones fell in useless spots—Roma and southern Nubia—but two other blocked off Europa nicely (falling on Seythia and Phonecia if memory holds). I ended up (due to random placement) with a large number of Germania holdings, plus a few scattered in Asia Minor and 1-2 each in Africa and Europa. Schizo was spread mostly Germania (the “British Isles”) and Africa, plus one Atlantis country. Willie dominated Atlantis, starting with three of four areas, but was otherwise spread around everywhere but Germania. Larry started strong in the central board (see map below), in Europa and neighboring Hyrkania.

The initial game (indeed all of it) went poorly for me. I purposely underbid in the first turn bid, in an attempt to secure an early death god and powerful death cards, with which I hoped to turn the tide of war my way. This placed me third in the initial pull.

Schizo came out of the game strongly. His initial placement suggested that he didn’t desire to yield Atlantis to Willie or Germania to me without a major, protracted struggle. I had dumped many troops at strategic points in Germania to stave off multiple attacks, and threw a war god in Asia Minor with a small force. My troops held Germania against Schizo’s determined assaults, but the many “split decision” rolls weakened us both greatly. It was the first blow from which I was never to recover.

Willie and Schizo battled over Atlantis. Despite some early progress in areas, and a huge card lead (many powerful relics) Willie never took Atlantis, and instead moved to strike my flank in southern Germania. The combination of the multiple Germania assaults forced me to consolidate my forces around Thule. My forces in Asia Minor did better, seizing a few countries. Meanwhile Schizo made some serious inroads, as did Willie, in Africa.

Larry, during the first two turns, placed conservatively. He made minor gains, easily took Hyrkania (the first continent taken), and stood unopposed in Europa. (Europa was never taken by anyone, despite the relatively low number of troops there and the blocking plague zones.)

The next several turns were marked by tit-for-tat scuffles. I took much of Asia Minor, only to lose it to Larry. Africa battles swept back and forth, with numerous godswars. (I desperately clung to a Death card that banished all war gods and sky gods, even after I had neither, because of a high faith cost I could barely afford—a bad mistake, given the number of battles I saw won due to the tie-winning abilities of the plentiful war gods in play. Willie pushed back hard into Atlantis (still amazingly never conquering it) and I watched, bemused, knowing a card I held could sink the whole continent at any time. (A loose 1-turn truce I held with Willie prevented this action, as I wished to secure his orderly withdrawal from Iheria (southern tip of Germania).

The fourth turn was huge. Larry destroyed Willie’s many relics (and several of his own) with a single card. He swept aside my defenders in Varangia and moved into Germania. At this point He controlled almost everything save Africa and Atlantis. Much of Willie’s and Schizo’s strength were in the latter places, and I was holed up in Thule. I was quickly eliminated from everywhere else on the board except Germania. My pitiful income never allowed me more than 4 incoming troops and my sole temple has long since fallen to Willie’s earlier attacks. The numerous crypts I help in the Underworld secured me several bonus Death cards, all of which were two expense to make use of easily. They sat unused. I won a godswar or to and rousted Schizo from the British Isles. Willie forged into Hyrkania and Asia Minor, while Schizo raged around Eqypt.

The final turn saw me sweep out from my sole country—Anglia in the ‘Isles—to peck away at Larry. Good defensive rolls prevented my breaking his continent at the gates of Hyrkania. Larry, taking no chances, stole Pandora’s Box from me, denying me a free Death card play the final turn (and I didn’t have the faith to play my other cards). The others nibbled away at Larry’s vast holding as well, reducing the size of his empire. It was not enough. Larry earned a well-deserved victory. Schizo came in second, with Willie and I limping behind. It was a frustrating game for me, as I never got a “good headwind” due to the multiple earlier attacks I was forced to repel, but it was a good game nonetheless. I await with much avidity our next bout. I shall learn from my mistakes and the Ancient Empire shall tremble! (Hoo hah!)

Scooter Scoots

Yawn.

Is it just me, or is the White House getting predictable?

President Bush, not 24 hours after the federal appeals court ruled without discent that Libby was not entitled to avoid jail (while he was appealing his conviction on four felony charges), lets Scooter of the hook. Never mind the recent, similar decision in a similar case. Never mind law and order. Bush bowed to his hardline base, the only fans he has left. His poll numbers have already long-since sank below Nixon's worst, and things might get worse yet.

The White House issued a lame statement speaking of the considerable fine that remained. Sure, right. A Yale-graduate lawyer, backed by millions in donations by fellow Republicans, should have real trouble paying that fine. Please.
I've tried mightily to present thoughtful arguments here, and be polite, and be even-handed to all sides, but the mountain of hypocracy and bullshit has grown to the point that King Kong might well try to climb it.

Oh, and read this for a hoot:

Had enough yet?
That's my bumber sticker for the day.

No Confidence

Today marks another sad day in our democracy.

As I write this, it appears a test-vote of no confidence for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will not be going anywhere, as most Senate Republicans—even those that directly told Gonzales during testimony that he should resign—will not vote expressing their lack of confidence.

I need not belabor Gonzales’ wrongful actions here. The recent and blatant politicization of the Department of Justice, a department with a long-established tradition of political appointees acting nobly apolitical after hire, is (yet another) black mark on our country’s honor. The Hatch Act was enacted to prevent such nonsense, but to the current group in power truly nothing is sacred.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa), a fierce critic of Gonzales, said today
"If you ask Arlen Specter, do I have confidence in Attorney General Gonzales, the answer is a resounding no. I'm going to vote that I have no confidence in Attorney General Gonzales." Specter has had concerns about the no confidence vote and its affect on his party, but it appears he may take the high road. Bully for him if he does.

The President, true to form, has backed Gonzales. In this administration loyalty to one’s stooges far out-weighs competence, but of course in this case the “decider” doesn’t overwhelm in the competency department himself, so it’s almost understandable. The President has called the vote “pure political theater” by the Democrats, despite the harsh criticism several important Republicans have heaped on Gonzales these past few months. Perhaps the vote of no confidence should be directed somewhat higher up; that may be the only way historians, given 20 years or so of objectivity, can conclude that Americans back in 2007 had any sanity left.

Reaching the Top

On May 16th, Samantha Larson achieved her goal: she reached the top of Mount Everest. Larson is 18-years-old, the youngest foreigner to reach the top. Samantha made the climb with her father. It was the last of the so-called "seven summits" — the tallest peaks on each of the seven continents — all of which they have climbed.


In this time of constant bad news, how wonderful to read of this accomplishment (by a blogger no less). Check out Samantha's blog and first-hand account here. This serves as a good reminder for all of us to never stop reaching for the top.

Mission Never-Ending

.

It was apt that the Democrats sent Bush the war funding bill on this, the fourth anniversary of his over-eager victory march and press opportunity. And, sadly, equally apt that he would veto it.

There's no great psychological analysis to be done here folks, the motive is simple: in football terms, our President is running out the clock. To watch troops leave Iraq sans "Mission Accomplished" would be for the man to admit defeat, to admit that the advice of his star-headed neocons was wrong, and to admit that the biggest decision of his presidency was the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history. He simply won't let himself be saddled with that sort of legacy.
Instead he'll do what they often do, pawn it of on the next guy. A word of advice: observe what an incoming president inherits. Does he enter office with a surplus, or with a deficit? With America respected in most of the world or hated? Pay attention, and remember who did what. It'll help you make sense of things in the long run, because there's an amazing amount of people with pretty crappy memories, and many are part-time pundits.

Some in Washington has gotten the message of reality, even as they run the spin cycle full tilt on the public. A translation: when a Republican senator utters the words "mistakes were made" regarding this war, it's code for "we fucked up royally, so royally in fact that even though it's our policy to never, never admit mistakes, there's simply no hiding it"—but even then the very prose deflects blame onto some unknown third party. Not "I was wrong" not "Bush was wrong" but simply acknowledging the horrendous mistakes in the barest of terms, as if they occcured in a vacuum. Nice try though. If things had gone the way they planned and expected, they'd be crowing off the rooftops, not palming of lame apologies masked as acknowledgments of a war gone poorly.

Being a patriot is tough. There are sadly those who will attempt to wrap that flag around your eyes and stuff it in your ears to block out reality. But true patriots do more than mouthe the words. They worry about the care the troops receive after they arrive home wounded (physically and otherwise), they don't dishonor our nation's heritage, and they think before they act because all actions have consequences. I fear this country will be paying the cost of the "Mission Accomplished" for years and years to come.

I hope and pray we can bring home all our troops safely, and soon.

Goodbye John

John Inman, 71, died today. I'm greatly saddened at the loss of such a talented, funny man.


The actor is best known for his hysterical portrayal of Mr. Wilberforce Clayborne Humphries, a sales associate at Grace Brothers Department store in the British sitcom Are You Being Served? John's emotive style and comedic timing were great, and he conveyed things purely through his eyes or the use of a pause to the perfection of many funny scenes. His scenes with Dick Lucas (Trevor Bannister) and Mrs. Slocombe (Mollie Sudgen) were especially good.
John died after a long bout fighting Hepatitis A. He will be greatly missed by his long-term partner Ron Lynch, fellow comedy actors, and many fans.

Truth to Power

Here’s to Chuck Hagel, senior Senator from Nebraska, a Republican, for having the guts to buck his party line on the recent Iraq resolution. Senator Hagel blasts all his colleagues in this wonderful clip.


Timothy “Chuck” Hagel has recently shown a rare spirit in Washington, putting the lives of Americans and the truth above his own political salvation and false nuances of the sort both parties have become so well versed in. Senator Hagel, sir, I salute you.

Five Minutes to Midnight

Today scientists will update the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock, a symbolic construct designed to reflect how close the world perches to total annihilation. Perhaps it’s ironic that, 60 years after the Clock’s conception in 1947, we are right back to where we started … a mere 5 minutes to midnight. The clock has changed times over the years, but we’re almost as close as we’ve ever gotten.

No great statement or moral here. Only the hope that, together, the people of the world can reverse the course we’re on. Maybe we can buy a few minutes more.

Talking Points

On this cold and growing ever colder January evening, I’m steeling myself for the President’s speech tonight. At this point, tuning in is like waiting to get struck with a cream pie – it’s like a bad joke you can’t help but turn away from. We’ve been promised a rhetoric-free speech, but...

I’ve decided to keep a quick tally and keep score:

• Uses of the word “victory” = –5 points per instance
• Uses of the word “success” = –5 points per instance
• Uses of the word combination “victory/success in Iraq” = –5 points points per instance
• Reminders of the danger we face if we leave “without achieving victory” = –10 points*

• Admitting mistakes made already in Iraq = +5 points per mistake (+10 if he admits personal responsibility)**
• Stating specific goals or strategies, beyond the obvious (improving Bagdad security, etc.) = +10 points
• Stating promise to end war before he leaves office = +20 points

*It's a valid point that leaving Iraq in the throes of a civil war is dangerous, but the neocons should have thought about that when they hatched this war.
**I expect that, quite early in this speech, we’ll hear a frightfully rare admission of mistakes made from Bush — it’s required to build any credibility whatsoever for the speech — so I’m basically starting him out ahead here.

A negative score and he fails. A positive score he passes and I’ll score it a good speech (never mind the idea that a surge will actually do anything, but that's a subject for another post). I’ll keep score and meet you back here later.


Alright, I'm back ... and here's the score:

• Uses of the word “victory” = –5 x1 = -5
• Uses of the word “success” = –5 x1 = -5
• Uses of the word combination “victory/success in Iraq” = Ouch! –5 x5 = -25
• Reminders of the danger we face –10 x5 = -50

• Admitting mistakes made already in Iraq = (A big hit for Bush here!) +10 x1 = 10
• Stating specific goals or strategies = (general goals mentioned only, but I'm feeling charitable) +10 x1 = 10
• Stating promise to end war = +20 x0 = 0

Grand Total = –55 points
We'll give this speech a score of lame.

Sorry folks.
It's worth noting that the name of this new White House initiative has been titled "A New Way Forward"; the name of the last plan was simply "The Way Forward" ... what's next? Let's see, Yet Another Way Forward, A Way Forward That's a Bit Saner, A Way Forward After I'm Outta Here, the mind boggles at the possibilities.