John Williams conducts Handel's Messiah

A number of years ago I participated in a "sing-along" Messiah -- great fun and a great Christmas experience.

Claymation "We three kings"

Claymation "Angels we have heard on high"

Claymation "Carol of the Bells"

David Bowie and Bing Crosby

singing together in one of the most unique Christmas specials ever made.

Great line of the day

Speaking for everyone who has ever had to work with the public, hairy fish nuts says:

I love all my clients and not just because they pay me but because they're human and that means one day they'll die.

And ya just gotta love anonomyous blogging, too.

Rhetorical bullets

Our Steven, another Profile in Courage:

Harper told a Calgary-based radio program that the United Nations and the entire international community want Canadian troops in the war-torn country. And he said the soldiers still believe in the mission. "If they're willing to take the real bullets, we can take the rhetorical bullets back here at home," Harper said.

Meanwhile, Canada's own General Hillier is firing a few of those rhetorical bullets himself, making statements about how he is apparently shivering at the prospect of another federal election. God forbid, I guess, that the Canadian people might vote this time based on their feelings about our Afghanistan adventure.

I read the news today, oh boy

What a balls-up this turned into. The player was kicked off the hockey team for not signing a Canadian flag, but now he says he never intended not to sign it. Now the coach has been suspended for kicking the player off the team and for making rude remarks about him. But the league commissioner now says the player was suspended for his poor performance on ice -- apparently he's not actually the team's top scorer, he's only tied for that title. It all makes perfect sense, doesn't it. But here's the kicker:

The Sea Dogs are last place in the east division.

And no wonder.

And another front has opened in the War on Christmas, this time in Ontario's courts. Of course Justice Cohen shouldn't have made such a dumb ruling, but everyone else needs to just chill out -- remember "peace on earth and goodwill to men"?

Why does Bush act like it was someone else's idea to send 20,000 or 30,000 or 40,000 more troops to Iraq? Now he's reassuring everyone that of course he couldn't possibly do it "unless they have a specific mission".
I don't think "win the war" is specific enough, George.

Apropos, The Onion reports "Thousands More Dead in Continuing Iraq Victory".

BAG News Notes has an interesting take on how Hezbollah is spinning its image in Lebanon. This is a website I don't read often enough -- it analyzes the sub-text behind news photos, demonstrating how they are easily worth a thousand words.

Loyalty to a culture

For the story behind these treasures and the personal courage which saved them -- a true story more fascinating than any Indiana Jones movie ever made -- read Galloping Beaver's The Keyholders of Afghanistan and follow the links at the end.

Ask the farmers what they want

Imagine, after 32 years, being fired by a man who won't even talk to you.
That's what happened to Wheat Board president Adrian Measner:

Measner said [Agriculture minister Chuck] Strahl never spoke with him directly about his firing. "It isn't a very professional way to operate, but it is the method of operation that the minister has chosen," he said from his home near Winnipeg.

Now we'll see whether Strahl, who has never been a farmer, is also afraid to seek farmer opinion about ending the Wheat Board marketing monopoly. Will he hold a plebicite -- or if he is so ideologically driven that he doesn't care what the grain farmers want?
Here's another surprising quote from this story:

Carl Siemens, who grows grains and oilseeds near Rush Lake, Sask., said Tuesday's announcement could cost the Conservatives votes in the next election. "Although a goodly number of (farmers) actually voted for the Conservative government in the last federal election, they did so with no knowledge that this government was going to move in this fashion to remove the Canadian Wheat Board," he said.

Have they been living in caves? Why would any farmer not know already that the Conservatives wanted to dump the Wheat Board? They're been talking about it for years.
Of course, maybe they just assumed that the Conservatives wouldn't dare do such a thing without a producer vote.

Yeah, right!

Bushistas are saying that Bush can copy the success of Vietnam with 40,000 extra troops.
Sorry about the mess on your computer -- I should have waited for you to swallow before I told you that.

Great line of the day

Suburban Guerrilla:

Does anything say Christmas quite like giant inflatable snow globes?

I read the news today, oh boy

Brisk market for burial shrouds in Iraq holy city -- well, as least there's one growth industry in Iraq.

The Bush administration might as well call their proposed troop increase Operation Big Swinging Dick, because that is whose idea it was and that is the idea behind it -- to prove to all the Dirty Fucking Hippies that the US military can win against a bunch of teenagers in Iraq. When will Harry Reid learn that you simply cannot give Bush bi-partisan cover? You say its OK to send more troops to Iraq provided this helps them all come home sooner -- but why would you believe that Bush ever intends to bring troops home?

August writes:

Congratulations to Time for actually thinking of something even stupider than Rudy Giuliani in 2001 . . . Person of the Year isn't the Special fucking Olympics. The entire point of the exercise is that everyone doesn't get a medal for participating. The purpose of the issue is to address the person or persons who, for bad or worse, most affected world events of that year. So they picked... everyone? Well of course everyone affected world events the most, fuckwits.
I mentioned Giuliani because I think most people who used to care about this would agree that 2001 was the year that without any argument Time blatantly copped out on the entire point of the issue. Osama bin Laden was clearly the person who, like Hitler in 1933, affected world events the most that year. But bin Laden wouldn't sell magazines and American readers would be too stupid to realize it's not an award. So now, five years later, Time's given in and decided that Person of the Year is, officially, an award. Congratulations, Time Magazine is now Everybody Gets a Trophy Day.
Wake me when we have journalism in America again.

And with the side-benefit that Time could avoid giving the award to either Al Gore or Nancy Pelosi. Time Canada gave it to Stephen Harper -- I guess Canadians just aren't "you"-worthy.

Cute

Enjoy what the Poorman calls The Greatest Webpage in the Known Universe

Donny we hardly knew ye

Bill in Portland Maine treats us to a Rumsfeld tribute, to the tune of "Memories":

Mem'ries, light the corners of my mind...
"It is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."
Misty water-colored memories, of the way we were...
"There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence."
Scattered pictures, of the smiles we left behind...
"Needless to say, the President is correct. Whatever it was he said."
Smiles we gave to one another, for the way we were...
"Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. Stuff happens."
Can it be that it was all so simple then? Or has time re-written every line?
"We do know of certain knowledge that he [bin Laden] is either in Afghanistan, or in some other country. Or dead."
If we had the chance to do it all again tell me, would we? Could we?
"As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns---the ones we don't know we don't know."
Mem'ries, may be beautiful and yet, what's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget...
"I don't do quagmires."
So it's the laughter we will remember...
"Now, settle down, settle down. Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning and I'm gathering my thoughts here."
Whenever we remember...the way we were...
"I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty."
The way we were...
"If I said yes, that would then suggest that that might be the only place where it might be done which would not be accurate, necessarily accurate. It might also not be inaccurate, but I'm disinclined to mislead anyone."
No matter what happens, sir, we’ll always have Tikrit and Baghdad. And areas east, west, north and south somewhat.