Well, it’s been a fairly typical McMillan clan Christmas, though we delayed gift opening until early this afternoon. The turkey was a success. No room for pie just yet.
Unfortunately, I forgot my digital camera at home, or I would have captured the moments for all to share. My sister was speechless with emotion, watching the faces of her 11 and 13 year old boys light up as they ripped off wrapping paper to discover Grandad had given them hatchets. They nearly forgot the knives in their excitement! “You’ll have to take those to school”, he offered.
Among the final tally: 5 knives, 2 hatchets, 3 model warplanes, a Socom II Navy Seals playstation war game and 6 John Deere logos. I got some pliers.
Just like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting.
The Ketchup Of The Lamb
A Lileks offering for today, for those of us waiting and uneasily wondering if we shouldn’t thaw a lasagna for emergency backup.
I don�t think people in the Evil Coastal Godless Baal-Loving Media hate Christianity. I�m sure some hold it in disinterested contempt, the way they view NASCAR and Simplicity dress patterns and those giant salad forks some people inexplicably used as kitchen-wall decorations.
Soldiers Christmas
This is a poem that was forwarded by a friend who serves in the Canadian Forces, in Afghanistan. Written by a Canadian Peacekeeper, It’s fairly long so the rest appears in the extended entry.
Merry Christmas to everyone, and especially to those who are far from home, serving in Haiti, Kosovo, Afghanistan, the Middle East and elsewhere.
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS,
HE LIVED ALL ALONE,
IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF
PLASTER AND STONE.
I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY
WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE,
AND TO SEE JUST WHO
IN THIS HOME DID LIVE.
I LOOKED ALL ABOUT,
A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE,
NO TINSEL, NO PRESENTS,
NOT EVEN A TREE.
Attempted Break In
This is freaky. I’m sitting quietly here at Dad’s computer tonight, sipping rum and surfing blogs and goddamn if some fat bastard didn’t try to get in through the chimney.
He won’t try that again.
Early Christmas Present
Pol:Spy is back.
Finally.
Mere Coincidence?
While some of the feeding frenzy surrounding Donald Rumsfeld has been fueled by opinion leaders on the right, am I the only one who noticed how very soon the resignation chants erupted after calls for Kofi Annan’s head went up?
CNN transcript of the Rumsfeld Q&A session in Mosul. A soldier asks; “Sir, how do we win the war in the media? It seems like that is the place where we’re getting beat up more than anybody else. I’ve been here — this is my third tour over here, and we have done some amazing things. And it seems like the enemy’s Web sites and everything else are all over the media, and they love it. But the thing is, is everything we do good, no matter if it’s helping a little kid or building a new school, the public affairs sends out the message, but the media doesn’t pick up on it. How do we win the propaganda war?”
The response, in part;
” I was talking to a group of congressmen and senators the other day, and there were a couple of them who had negative things to say, and they were in the press in five minutes. There were 15 or 20 that had positive things to say about what’s going on in Iraq, and they couldn’t get on television. Television just said we’re not interested. That’s just sorry. So, it is, I guess, what’s news has to be bad news to get on the press.
And the truth is, however, it gets through eventually. There are people in the United States who understand what’s really going on over here. They do understand that thousands of acts of kindness and compassion and support that are taking place all across this country. They do understand that large portions of this country are relatively peaceful. And something like 14 out of 18 of the problems it’s had, incidents of down around five a day as opposed to the ones in certain places like Baghdad that are considerably higher.
And the Internet is helping. More and more people are seeing things that are taking the conventional wisdom and critiquing it and arguing it and debating it. And that’s a good thing.
Yes, it is.
Channeling Winston Churchill
UN Commission On Child Pornography
“Project Rob Lowe”
Related news: Rats, ship.
Reader Tips
Go over to Proud To Be Canadian and nominate your pick for Canada’s Most Annoying Liberal of 2004. (You’ll have to register, at which point you can vote for Most Annoying Nominating Process of 2004).
My choice is Tommy Douglas, for crawling back from the grave to remind us all that he is not dead enough – first, by being selected by viewers of the CBC as the “Greatest Canadian”, then (adding insult to insult) by getting a day named after him in Calvert’s Cuba.
Bush, democracy and the Middle East – the wind at their backs.
Lefty bloggers who saw a right wing conspiracy in the persons of two Iraq bloggers – the wind between their ears
More on Sharia Law. Why let a little thing like subjugation of women stand in the way of cultural equivalence?
Victor Davis Hanson delivers a reality bitchslap. (Tip for trivia buffs – it is a well known fact that if Gwynne Dyer ever looks into the face of Victor Davis Hanson, he will burst into flame.)
Talk Radio
I just found out that I’ll be a guest for about 20 minutes on The World Tonight, this evening, on CHQR Calgary talk radio.
The interview is scheduled for 7:30 pm Alberta time, after they warm up my audience with an appearance by some guy named Glenn Reynolds. There’s a live feed on the website. The topic is blogging, of course.
Audio copies of both interviews are available here, courtesy of David Janes.
No Rest For The Idiot
Yesterday started out pretty well. I figured it had to be better than the day before, when I struggled with everything from freezing fingers to unexpected paint splashes down the front of a nearly finished paint surface. I had two goalie masks to paint, both needed for Christmas. The out of town mask had a gorilla /flames pattern on it, the other was to have a simple dragon.
Whenever possible I try to do two at the same time – it’s more efficient to have both up on the same bench where colours they have in common can be applied at the same time. Both masks came in pretty banged up, so the project had already been pushed back a day by repair work and priming.
By late afternoon Tuesday, I had finally completed the gorilla, it was in the booth for clearcoating , and the dragon was well on its way. I thought a short morning yesterday would be lots of time to complete that, and then I’d head out for some Christmas shopping, drop off a few gifts to good customers, track down a friend who was in town from the US and get ready for the trip to the farm for the holidays.
On arrival at the body shop yesterday morning, I checked out the newly cleared gorilla mask. As I turned it over, preparing to remove the masking paper and tape protecting the interior padding, I saw a word, written in pen.
“dragon”
This paragraph could describe my reaction, but it would be too profanity ridden for the traffic that frequents this site. One of the painters offered weak encouragement … “no rest for the wicked”, he offered.
“No rest for the idiot“, was my reply.
I spent the entire day repainting both masks. After three days emersed in scotchbrite pads, metalglaze, featheredgers, base coat and gun wash, my hands are so raw that typing is uncomfortable. And I have all the errands from yesterday that have yet to be accomplished, and a five hour drive to Arcola tonight.
Nice day for it, though. The radio just announced the windchill factor is around -39C.
World’s Tiniest Baby
I have puppies who weigh more than 8.6 ounces at birth.
For all the general wonderment and talk of miracles, the brutal truth is that most extremely premature babies face a lifetime of disability and dependancy.
Reader Tips
And a few quick links of my own. Being the leadup to Christmas, it seems like half the goal masks in western Canada have landed on my doorstep, and they all need to be ready to fit under the tree. So, it’s long days of inhaling solvents and frozen fingers in a very cool body shop for me. And not much energy left for blogging.
So, without further adieu;
Sing along with Paul Desmarais: “The Annan bone is connected to the Strong bone, the Strong bone is connected to the Desmerais bone.The Desmarais bone is connected to the Chretien bone, and the Martin bone, and the Volker bone and the…”
Brought to you by the chief architects of the Canadian Gun Registry; office renovations at the Useless Tit Wing of the Department of Perpetual Indecision at the low, low price of $400 a square foot.
That does it. I’m starting my own damned religion and invoking Kate-ia Law for the parking tickets God forbids me to pay.
Right after I find my long-lost Indian grandmother.
Prophesy Self-Fulfillment
Arthur Chrenkoff, in today’s Opinion Journal
The latest poll of 5,000 people in and around Baghdad suggests that an overwhelming majority are prepared to make a clean break with the past and pursue democracy–now. Some of the specific results:
What will you base your vote on?Political agenda – 65%
Factional origin – 14%
Party Affiliation – 4%
National Background – 12%
Other reasons – 5%Do you support dialog with the deposed Baathists?
Yes – 15%
No – 84%
Do not know – 1%Do you support postponing the election?
Yes – 18%
No – 80%
Do not know – 2%Do you think the elections will take place as scheduled?
Yes – 83%
No – 13%
Do not know – 4%
The long and detailed report is more than encouraging – it is a staggering indictment of a politically motivated mainstream media, intent on burying every sign of progress with “rising death tolls” (as if fatality statistics have the ability to drop) and “car bomb o’the day” coverage. There can be little remaining doubt that there is a determination to adhere to a “we told you so” agenda until the bitter end, even if it means taking an active hand in prophesy self-fulfillment.
I don’t know which makes me angrier, as a Canadian – the prospect of seeing the day in which a free and democratic Iraq looks to my country and asks “Where were you when we needed you most?”, or the sobering fact that there are substancial numbers of my fellow citizens who are not-so-secretly hoping they fail.
Accidently, On Purpose
This must read from Wretchard.
Even with today’s proliferation of compact photographic equipment, a legitimate photojournalist rarely gets the opportunity to capture an execution. Apart from the beheadings which are purposely recorded on video by the jihadis and from gun camera film, most footage of people actually being shot are taken by photographers in company with combatants who are ready to film an ambush. Those individuals are combat cameramen for their armies or embedded reporters. The most famous analogue to the Associated Press sequence of photographs is probably the Eddie Adams photo of the execution of Vietcong Captain Bay Lop by South Vietnamese General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. Adams owed that opportunity to General Loan himself, who brought Adams along to cover what he believed to be a justifiable summary execution. Adams depressed the shutter at exactly the moment Loan fired and photo analysis actually shows the impact of the bullet on Bay Lop’s skull.
It may have been pure luck, but it was surely the longest of odds that would have brought an Associated Press cameraman to the site of a surprise attack on two Iraqi electoral workers. As it was, the AP photograph was unable to capture the actual execution, only the moments shortly before and after the Iraqis were killed. Although the Eddie Adams photograph was widely used to illustrate the ‘brutality’ of the Saigon government, the photos taken by the Associated Press
are unlikely to reflect badly on the electoral worker’s killers. Press reports highlight the confidence and boldness of the insurgents. “Both of the victims shown in the sequence wore traditional Arab headscarfs. In contrast, the attackers were bareheaded and apparently unafraid to show their faces”, suggesting that ‘collaborators’ must conceal their faces while the Ba’athists stride with impunity through the light of day. It was fortunate for the AP that their photographer was accidentally there.
A similar thing happened during the murder and desecration of the 4 contract workers in Fallujah. Though it was an Arab news outlet, the cameras were there and rolling. The “ambush” was carefully set up for media consumption.
They learned from the best. I don’t know what was more outrageous – the admission by Eason Jordan that CNN had been functioning as the Western propoganda wing of Saddam Hussein’s information ministry – or the mild mumble of disapproval that the rest of the MSM reacted with.
How long are we going to tolerate media outlets who accept invitations from terorist regimes and organizations, in order to capture a few drops of bloody propoganda on film? At what point do their actions cross the line from observer to participant? I can honestly say that I’d sleep better tonight knowing the AP photographer who panted along behind these thugs like an adrenaline-intoxicated puppy was behind bars under terrorist conspiracy or accessory to murder charges.
It’s bad enough that news consumers have to do their own fact checking, and bring in their own document experts to verify the information being presented as “truth”. Now we have to worry that the RPG triggerman who has selected our restaurant, our bus, our airplane for random anhilation has a goddamn AP cameraman in tow.
The Librano
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Shawinigate. Sponsorgate. Open Gate. |
Embrace Hollywood
“Democrats need to embrace Hollywood because this is where they need to come to learn how to tell a story.” – Michael Moore*
“I believe Michael is absolutely innocent and that he will be vindicated,” – Liz Taylor
Global Warming Watch: Well Past Tea Time
The Diplomad notes with great alarm that the above Guardian article ran on December 3, 2003, based on information that was already about 24 hours old, so do the math! We’ve used up Ms. Wallstorm’s 12 months and are now eating into her 18 months upper limit! We’re all going to die! We won’t be able to elect a Republican in 2008! We’ll all be dead — and dead voters vote Democrat — and we’re all going to starve to death, or, well, maybe not, no, it appears we’ll have a good lunch while we wait for the world to end..
Sure, if you like to dine out in courtrooms.
Time To Start A Cull
A SERBIAN tie-maker is planning to launch a new range of penis cravats for the man who has everything.
Designer Neven Vrgoc said: “The ties are of a special shape and do not go around the neck of the man, but around his member.
“I hope male customers will buy them to create a good impression on a first date, or women might present them to men when they have been totally satisfied.”
It’s official: The world has too many reporters.
New Search For Earhart Plane
‘Team to set out in search of elusive Earhart plane “
Call me a pessimist, but I think she’s probably dead.



