In the interest of inclusivity, let us together offer Greetings of the Season to everyone:
To All Our Leftist, Politically Correct Friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the summer/winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2012, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Canada and the United States great nations. Not to imply that these two countries are necessarily greater than any other country in the world. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
To Everyone Else:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Modified from an e-mail sent around within the latter group.
Two Middle Aged Men, Deeply Unfit And Mostly Drunk
Set out to prove David Suzuki a lying grinch.
The World Is Being Run By Crazy People
Senator Tom Coburn’s Wastebook 2011;
Robot dragons, video games, Christmas trees, snow cone machines, and chocolate. This is not a Christmas wish list. These are just some of the ways the [US] federal government spent your tax dollars this year.
Along with $592,000 to study feces flinging monkeys. Can’t forget those.
Climategate 2.0: Scientist Unsettled
Mann hockey stick co-author Bradley:
…the biggest “miss” was an apparently very warm year in the late 19th century that we did not get right at all. This makes criticisms of the “antis” difficult to respond to (they have not yet risen to this level of sophistication, but they are “on the scent”). Furthermore, it may be that Mann et al simply don’t have the long-term trend right, due to underestimation of low frequency info. in the (very few) proxies that we used. We tried to demonstrate that this was not a problem of the tree ring data we used by re-running the reconstruction with & without tree rings, and indeed the two efforts were very similar — but we could only do this back to about 1700. Whether we have the 1000 year trend right is far less certain (& one reason why I hedge my bets on whether there were any periods in Medieval times that might have been “warm”, to the irritation of my co-authors!).”
The Christians of Egypt
Because the United States is negotiating with the Muslim Brotherhood, there’s a conspiracy theory in Egypt that says the Brotherhood, the Egyptian army, and the State Department came to an agreement a long time ago and that everything that’s happening now is just play acting.
MJT: How many people actually believe that?
Ramez Atallah: Lots of people believe that.
MJT: Because the three groups are talking to each other? Is that the only reason?
Ramez Atallah: Because they’re the three most powerful groups in Egypt, not because they’re talking to each other.
The Egyptian army is trained by the United States. During the revolution I saw Barack Obama on CNN talking about how American military officers are meeting with their counterparts in the Egyptian army. These military people are like American employees. They’re trained by America, they use American weapons, and they get financial support from America. They’re just as corrupt as Mubarak’s people.
I’d like for the Western press to fight for the rights of Muslims and forget the Christians.
MJT: Really? Why?
‘Tis The Season
Reader Tips
In tonight’s musical selection the late Luciano Pavarotti, backed by Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal and Les Disciples de Massenet, fills every square inch of Montreal’s Notre Dame Cathedral with a stirring performance of Adeste Fideles.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Climate realists testify before the Canadian Senate
h/t Dr.D
Math Is Hard
Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?
Now Is The Time At SDA When We Juxtapose!
But Politico’s traffic losses appear to be part of a year-long trend on the political left. Media Matters For America’s website, for instance, lost 56.83 percent of its unique visitors between November 2010 and November 2011. In the same 12-month period, Talking Points Memo lost 41 percent, Wonkette was down by 32 percent, Gawker declined by 31 percent, Salon decreased by 22 percent and progressive blog Daily Kos shed 18 percent of its unique visitors.”
Thanks to you – each and every one – for your unwavering support of SDA!
The Decline And Fall Of The American Empire
Christmas Carols Redux
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Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Should you find them useful during your Christmas celebrations this year, I have assembled a varied collection of 20 secular and sacred Christmas Carols (in audio & video formats, at YouTube) which, along with YouTube’s recommendations thereto, and EBD’s excellent selections this year and last, provide a good starting point for putting together an appropriate musical program.
Also, a quick reminder that my collection of 16 Christmas Carol Song Sheets (formatted for printing, with a PDF for broken browsers) is available at The Sagacious Iconoclast, should you be fortunate enough to be celebrating Christmas with others who like to carol and yet who may not know all the words. You can also find there a good selection of old movies, cooking shows, and other such videos, should you find any of them useful for your Christmas entertaining or relaxation.
Lastly, as I’ll likely be remotely located with respect to Internet connectivity over the weekend, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish y’all in advance a very Merry Christmas. All my best to Kate, and to you and yours;
in the words of Rowley Birkin (QC): Merry Christmas, To You.
It’s Probably Nothing
I’m not sure people have grasped the magnitude of what has just happened. The European Central Bank firehosed €489,190,000,000 at the eurozone banking system. Five-hundred-and-twenty-three banks snatched greedily at the cheap cash. And the markets fell.
Furthermore …
There is a strange belief out there that the Boy-King has vetoed a treaty and all is well with the world. Setting aside the truth that we are still in the EU and subject to its ever more insane laws and regulations, there is a problem with the word. To quote The Princess Bride (ha, didn’t expect that, did you): “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” To be fair, I have no idea what the Boy-King, his supporters, the ToryBoy blog or the so-called eurosceptics who are still whooping with joy think the word “veto” means. But I do not think it means whatever it is they think it means.
(h/t Ken Kulak, Adrian)
Rosbifs vs. Frogs
Plus ça…
Franco-British Tensions Stress Relationship
Britain and Europe, divided by more than a channel
Britain started war of words over credit ratings, insists French foreign minister
Remember St. Crispin’s Day!
Also remember:
France Surrenders, We’re in the Finals
Fog in Channel, Continent Isolated
Meanwhile, Little England?
Sir Gus O’Donnell: The UK faces break-up
Britain’s most senior civil servant Sir Gus O’Donnell has publicly questioned whether the United Kingdom will still exist in a few years’ time.
Father Forgive Him, For He Was Trained To Be A Broadcast Journalist
Rick Horst, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Canada;
“Palestinians are daily harassed and abused and treated with indignities that are simply not allowable under international law, yet it continues to persist because of frankly the power of the Jewish and Zionist lobbies both in America and frankly all around the world including Canada.”
Reader Tips
Tonight the Vince Guaraldi Trio sets the mood, and then we find out what Christmas is all about.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Honey, I Finished The Internet
Top 10: Shameless Male Crying Displays (h/t Revnant Dream)
A Feminist Christmas
Losing The Peace
The turnover of Iraq to Iran continues apace;
A wave of bombings ripped across Baghdad on Thursday morning, killing at least 63 people and injuring almost 200 in the worst violence Iraq has seen for months. The bloodbath comes just days after American forces left the country.
The blasts also came on the heels of a political crisis between Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite factions that erupted this weekend.
The political spat has raised fears that Iraq’s sectarian wounds will be reopened during a fragile time when Iraq is finally navigating its own political future without U.S. military support.
Is there nothing that Obama can’t do?