No offense to Athiests or people of faiths with contrary beliefs, but this clip is a wonderful memory of my childhood.  It reminds me of a time when it was not politically incorrect to celebrate Christmas. 

Sister Toldjah explains it thusly:

All too often, the real meaning of Christmas gets lost or blurred in all the flurry of shopping, travelling, and holiday parties - and sadly, in the era of PC, some people want to take the meaning of Christmas out of the season altogether, as Mary Katharine Ham details here.

I know of people who don’t believe in any form of religious faith, and also know people of other faiths, who do not get offended when they hear or read “Merry Christmas.” They accept it as part of our culture but celebrate it privately in their homes in a different way. They know there is a reason the name “Christ” is in the word Christmas and it doesn’t have a bleeping thing to do with a “winter festival” or whatever the heck the perpetually offended call it these days. What does it have to do with? This little guy, who I’m sure most of ya’ll will recognize, explains it succinctly.

In what I see as the second major blow to her authority as Speaker, Pelosi will not be installing Rep Alcee "Impeached but not Convicted" Hastings to the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

Hastings, Harman Rejected for Chairmanship: Pelosi Decides Against Both of House Intelligence Panel’s Top Two Democrats

House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided against naming either Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, or Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (Fla.), the panel’s No. 2 Democrat, to chair the pivotal committee next year.

The decisions came despite lobbying by conservative Democrats on Harman’s behalf and a full-throttled campaign by Hastings to overcome the stigma of the 1988 impeachment that drove him from his federal judgeship.

The fight over the top spot on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has exposed the kind of factional politics that bedeviled House Democrats before they were swept from control in 1994. Harman, a moderate, strong-on-defense "Blue Dog" Democrat, had angered liberals with her reluctance to challenge the Bush administration’s use of intelligence. Hastings, an African American, was strongly backed by the Congressional Black Caucus but was ardently opposed by the Blue Dogs, who said his removal from the bench disqualifies him from such a sensitive post.

Since I am snowed in for all intents, I might as well blog some interesting links.

The big story is the major source used by the AP and other news sources has been shown to be a phoney.  What make this particularly troubling is this particular source, Jamil Hussein is the primae source in the story of an alleged massacre, the burning alive of six Sunnis.  This takes on particular importance when you find out that NBC based their decision to officially declare Iraq a civil war on this story.

Stop the ACLU notes that:

It’s not just NBC. Since the Adnan Hajj/Reutersgate/fauxtography scandal during the Israeli/Hezbollah war led to grave questions about the current state of Western journalism, it has become increasingly obvious that there is something basically wrong with the way the major media companies are covering events in the Middle East.

Indeed. Hot Air provides some interesting twists.

But Sister Toldjah provides the million dollar question: 

Does the MSM feel any responsiblity towards its readers for accurate reporting anymore?

Answer?  Apparently not.

I know I should remain respectful, but sometimes Rangel just makes me wanna beat the shit out of him. (pardon the profanity)

Hat tip on this is from Stop the ACLU.  Here is Charlie’s latest idiocy.  Hot Air has the video:

I want to make it abundantly clear: if there’s anyone who believes that these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No young, bright individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment. If a young fella has an option of having a decent career or joining the army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq.

Why do these people even pretend that they respect the Military?  It is such cheap lip service.

The obvious question is why does no one call Rangle on his Sexism.  Last I heard girls go into the military too.  But let’s ignore that for a second.

Wishing everyone a great holiday.  I won’t be blogging much the next few days, so feel free to use this as an open post for trackbacks or comments.

Thanksgiving at the LSU home will be a bit bittersweet this year, as we face the loss of an old friend.

The friend in question is one of my cats, who is 15 years old and doesn’t seem likely to survive the night.  If she does survive the night, we face the decision to try and keep her comfortable or put her down.

I don’t really tend to be the weepy pet person, but this cat came to me when I was in midst of hard times, and has been a great comfort to me throughout the years, and I admit I am very saddened by her impending loss.

She was a little scrawny kitten, the last of her litter from the pet store.  She grew into a medium sized short haired gray cat, much like a Russian Blue.

She was raised, if you will by a black lab, who was her only pet companion.  She in turned mothered my daughter, 3 more cats (the latest below) and another dog.

Photoshop via Stubborn Facts

If Kerry and his botched joke was not bad enough, now Rep Rangel has upped the ante a notch.

First, he has once again called for a resumption of the draft.

Video: Rangel says he’ll introduce a bill to bring back the draft

Now I find it odd that so many liberals pointed fingers at Bush claiming a draft was imminent, like during Vietnam, and yet the only two people to suggest on are Rangel and Sen Hollings, both Democrats.

As Allah notes above:

He floats this idea periodically when his side needs a little boost. The last time he really pushed it was before the election in 2004, when the left tried to scare voters into Waffles’s camp by whispering about a secret Republican plan to restart the draft after Bush won. The GOP called his bluff by bringing the bill to the House floor for a vote, where it failed, 402-2. Among the nays? Charlie Rangel. (Among the yeas: Jack Murtha.)

But Rangel has not stopped with the draft, he also has made some fairly serious accusations about the integrity of the military, claiming they are not patriotic, they are essentially in it for the money.

HT Sister Toldjah:

http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S20152.html?cat=1 

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has learned that federal investigators and airport police are questioning six Middle Eastern men who had to be escorted off of a plane Monday afternoon at Minneapolis/St. Paul International.

U.S. Airway officials tell 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS’ Aviation Expert Bob McNaney that Monday while Flight 300 was preparing to take off from Minneapolis to Phoenix, a passenger passed a note to a flight attendant saying they noticed ’suspicious behavior,’ among the men.

The men would not get off the plane when asked, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS has learned, and had to be removed by police.

Sources tell 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the men were chanting ‘Allah, Allah, Allah,’ as they were transported down the jetway.

Late Monday, federal investigators were still trying to determine exactly who the men are. One source tells 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the men said that they were in town for the weekend for a religious conference.

The other passengers on the flight, which was carrying 170 people, were re-screened for boarding, and it took off about three hours late.

This weeks Open Trackback includes a personal announcement, the start of NW Bloggers.com, a joint effort for all NW Boggers to share ideas and thoughts, and maybe even some traffic.  Drop in and register if you are from the Northwest, or have a Northwest connection. 

This weeks link roundup:

Drudge reports that Rangel Will Seek to Reinstate Draft.  After all the accusations against the Republicans and Bush, guess who is actually goping to do it.  And this is not his first attempt, he tried this in 2003 with the help of Sen Hollings, also a Democrat.  On a related note, Sen McCain, the man who would be president agrees that more troops are needed.  I didn’t see where he suggested conscription though.

Speaking of McCain, he has now said he supports a reversal of Roe v Wade and returning the ability to pass laws tot he States.  Apparently he is a Federalist after all.

The Democrats have the evil oil companies firmly in their sights.

Britney and KFed are divorcing, and TomKat are Married.  LSU asks:  Who Cares?!

Answer:  The lawyers, the paparazzi, and the people selling the Britney sex tape.

From Orbusmax Blog:

About 10 days ago, I received an interesting e-mail that I saved until after most of the election frenzy had died down and I had some time to do a little investigation of my own and present a fair representation of the facts.

The e-mailer (someone who has credibility with me but who will remain anonymous) alleged that the Dunlap elementary school in Seattle had been and was allowing students to leave classes at 1:30 in the afternoon to participate in a Muslim prayer service, held in a room and supervised by a teacher and/or a school staffer. The e-mailer also alleged that the services were being kept very low-key, and that only the involved parties (participating students and families) and the school administration was aware of what was going on, and that this had been going on since the beginning of the school year. The e-mailer believes there is also a similar situation at Aki Kurose Middle school but provided no details.

Orb contacted the school and asked for a comment and got this response:

Thank you for checking for the facts.

Thus sayeth OJ:

With no regard to my alleged victims families and to the greater sensibilities of the entire world, I will publish a book in which I "speculate" about how I killed my wife and her friend, if, you know, if I had actually done it, which I could not have because I was acquitted and everything.

And shielded by double jeopardy laws, I will be able to provide enough details to make such a wild speculation feasible, which of course is only speculation:  See above re: my acquittal.

And with the millions of dollars I will get from all the idiots suckers fools fans who buy my book, I will continue to live in a life of luxury and continue to ignore my victims family and the 30 million or so I owe them.  I may buy my kids a car and an iPod.

***

Look…from a dispassionate legal sense, he is free to speculate anything he wants.  He was fairly acquitted.  I closely watched the trials in a disgusting train wreck style fascination, and the prosecution and police bungled it.  Contaminated evidence galore.  There was enough to raise some doubt, which is all he needed.