Smiting in Gaza

As promised just a few items below, more war, or "unprecedented waves of air strikes."

Hamas leaders threatened revenge attacks, Israel told its civilians near Gaza to take cover and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for restraint. Egypt opened its border with Gaza to allow ambulances to drive out some of the wounded.

"Raw" footage from the AP, cooked footage from the Beeb. Things still not to a head in South Asia, & cooler heads may even prevail.

Cliche Fest

How many stale old wingnut ideas can you spot in this panel?Perhaps cartoonist Glenn McCoy should have added a character inscribed "Will of The American People" or the like carrying B. O. all by itself to this clever caricature.

That About Which We Could Not Possibly Care Any Fucking Less

Spew From Pew: Gen Nexters, Americans in the 18-25 age bracket, are not afraid to express themselves through their appearance and tattoos are the most popular form of self-expression -- more than one-in-three (36%) now has one. Tattoos, however, are at least as prevalent among the preceding generation of Gen Xers -- 40% of them have a tattoo. Other nontraditional appearance-altering practices are also prevalent among Gen Nexters: About half (54%) have done one or more of the following: gotten a tattoo, dyed their hair an untraditional color, or had a body piercing in a place other than their ear lobe. Roughly a quarter of both Gen Nexters and Gen Xers have dyed their hair an untraditional color. Gender is not a factor in either tatooing or untraditional hair-dyeing -- men and women are about equally likely to have done either -- but body piercing is more common among young women than among their male counterparts and slightly more prevalent among Gen Next than among Gen X: three-in-ten Nexters have had a piercing somewhere other than their ear, compared with 22% of Xers. The generational divide on these measures is between those under age 40 and those over age 40. Among the over 40 crowd, just 21% have engaged in any of these.

Why We Call It X-Mess

Slate shares shots of X-mess excess & oddity from readers. Below, from Melissa Diane Holdren of Chandler, Ariz., who adds, "As a friend of mine said, 'Wow! I think Christmas threw up on that house.' It's like some perverse Where's Waldo—Santa Edition."

Today's "World of Entertainment" Birthdays December 27

Rockabilly musician Scotty Moore is 77. Actor John Amos is 69. Rock musician Mick Jones [The "bad" Mick Jones. — Ed.] (Foreigner) is 64. Singer Tracy Nelson is 64. Actor Gerard Depardieu is 60. Jazz singer-musician T.S. Monk is 59. Singer-songwriter Karla Bonoff is 57. Actress Tovah Feldshuh is 56. Rock musician David Knopfler (Dire Straits) is 56. Actress Maryam D'Abo is 48. Country musician Jeff Bryant is 46. Actor Ian Gomez is 44. Actress Theresa Randle is 44. Actress Eva LaRue is 42. [We had no idea who Eva LaRue was, until we saw the picture & recognized her from one or another of the CSIs. Her greatest crime against nature may actually be those eyebrows. No, up there. — Ed.]

December 27 In Entertaiment History: Gun Trouble

-- On December 27th, 1927, the musical play "Show Boat," with music by Jerome Kern and libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, opened at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York. In 1947, the children's TV program "Howdy Doody" made its debut on NBC, under the title "Puppet Playhouse."In 1970, "Hello, Dolly!" closed on Broadway after a run of 2,844 performances. It had opened in 1964. In 1985, singer Simon LeBon of Duran Duran and model Yasmin Parvanah got married. In 1992, singer Harry Connick Junior was arrested in New York's Kennedy Airport because an unloaded gun was found in his carry-on bag. He spent a night in jail. In 1999, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs and Jennifer Lopez were arrested following a shooting at a New York dance club during which three people were shot and wounded. Charges against Lopez were dropped. Combs was acquitted of gun and bribery charges. Associated Press

The Endless Slog Through Time & History: 27 December

Today is Saturday, Dec. 27, the 362nd day of 2008. There are four days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: Forty years ago, in 1968, Apollo 8 and its three astronauts made a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific. On this date: In 1831, naturalist Charles Darwin set out on a round-the-world voyage aboard the HMS Beagle. In 1904, James Barrie's play "Peter Pan: The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up" opened at the Duke of York's Theater in London. In 1932, Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City. In 1945, 28 nations signed an agreement creating the World Bank. Fifty years ago, in 1958, American physicist James Van Allen reported the discovery of a second radiation belt around Earth, in addition to one found earlier in the year. Thirty years ago, in 1978, Algerian President Houari Boumediene, one of the Third World's most prominent and outspoken leaders, died after 40 days in a coma. In 1979, Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal. In 1985, Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; a total of 20 people were killed, including four of the attackers, who were slain by police and security personnel. Ten years ago: Six inmates, including four convicted killers, escaped from Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Tennessee. (All were recaptured by the end of the next day.) A week after she was born weighing just 10.3 ounces, the smallest of the Houston octuplets (Chijindu Chidera Louis) died from heart and lung failure. Five years ago: Coordinated rebel assaults in Karbala, Iraq, killed 13 people, including six coalition soldiers. Actor Alan Bates died in London at age 69. One year ago: Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Pakistan by an attacker who shot her after a campaign rally and then blew himself up. Kenya held an election pitting incumbent president Mwai Kibaki against opposition candidate Raila Odinga; both candidates ended up claiming victory in a vote that observers said was seriously flawed. Today's Birthdays: Former U.S. Sen. James A. McClure, R-Idaho, is 84. ABC News correspondent Cokie Roberts is 65. Journalist-turned-politician Arthur Kent is 55.

Thought for Today: "I'm not young enough to know everything." — Sir James Matthew Barrie, Scottish dramatist-author (1860-1937).

Glimpse Into The Future

Balls & Bats

Why, no, patriarchy & testosterone aren't a problem in this world of macho assholes & war in which we exist.

Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan A sixty yr.-old w/ four younger wives should be left to be worn to a nub, not encouraged in this sort of anti-Rick Warren behavior. "Soft bigotry of low expectations" Dep't.:

"If you give an asset $1,000, he'll go out and buy the shiniest junk he can find, and it will be apparent that he has suddenly come into a lot of money from someone," said Jamie Smith, a veteran of CIA covert operations in Afghanistan and now chief executive of SCG International, a private security and intelligence company. "Even if he doesn't get killed, he becomes ineffective as an informant because everyone knows where he got it."

An "asset." A real fucking "human resource," huh?

"You didn't hand it out to younger guys, but it could be a silver bullet to make connections to the older ones," said one retired operative familiar with the drug's use in Afghanistan. Afghan tribal leaders often had four wives -- the maximum number allowed by the Koran -- and aging village patriarchs were easily sold on the utility of a pill that could "put them back in an authoritative position," the official said.

As soon as one's little Mohammed is working again, one is "back in an authoritative position?" Our inability to transcend biology has left us w/ a wonderful world, hasn't it?

Of Course Pastor Rick Is An Egomaniac Who Thinks He's Jesus

Stop reading. It hurts your brain & eyes. Watch telebsion instead. It's soothing. Here, for example, Katha Pollitt & Rachel Maddow discuss Pastor Rick Warren's line of crap.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Ms. Pollitt suggests rooting about in the Saddleback Church's website. As a convenience to you, the information consumer, we provide a link thereto. And waste a sentence telling you so (& a parenthetical clause getting extra "meta" on it).

Two Tens = One Score

It would be a little obvious (& too damn much work) to compile a Top Ten Top Ten Lists List.  So we'll dole them out as we find them. Here are a brace of yr.-enders, TEN THINGS THAT SUCKED OUT LOUD IN 2008, MEDIA EDITION from a guy @ HuffPo. (Pull quote:

 let's skip ahead to a listicle of lowlights, which is probably what you all really want anyway, since everyone runs on schadenfreude these days and is filled with impotent rage!

Yeah daddy!)

& The Top 10 New Organisms of 2008, from Wired. Our favorite organism of the ten? Just for the irony, we'll go w/ Megadyptes waitaha. Though the micro-mini-snake is neat as well.

Ad hominem Attack on The Entire Political Right

Just minutes ago, it seems, we were noting Newsbusters' uh ... troglodytic, audience. We weren't kidding, either. 

For absolute evidence of audience difference & superiority, compare submissions in this caption contest (winners here, we modestly add) with the fountain of wit spurting from readers of the "Weekend Captionfest." Granted, World O' Crap's photo doesn't have the possibilities for gender & race humor that the Newsbusters photo offers (Why does that not surprise us? "Look, no white men. Aaahhgh!") but, were an objective observer possible, it would have to determine that We, The Left, were not only more intelligent & knowledgeable, but, most important, funnier. Yes. 

Us. The Good Guys. The decent, truly compassionate people.Well, let's not get too carried away.

Let's Have Two Wars, So You Can Go Die Twice!!

If, like so many of our readers, you've been spending the day after X-mess in a hungover stupor lying there, moaning, & watching athletic competition on telebision, you may not be aware that post-holiday tensions (Not really; none of these fortresses of religio-fascist-nationalism have much interest in Xianity & its bullshit rituals. They have their own religious lies to celebrate.) are increasing world-wide.

Tensions mount as Pakistan shifts troops to Indian border

&:

Gaza braces for Israeli offensive

"Combat Troops"

Generational hate-monger Ted Rall switches from his elders & betters to picking on someone in his own age cohort, the lying Prez-elect. Calls him a "weasel."

Germans are organized. The French are snotty. Americans have a national character trait, too: inattention. It's now obvious that Obama exploited our hard-wired inability to read between the lines to lay the groundwork for what many of his supporters will soon view as a terrible betrayal.

Damn, Ted, you think so?

Seems clear. End means end. Finito. No more. But there's an interesting phrase in Obama's promises to pull out, repeated throughout the campaign": "combat troops." "We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment of combat troops that I have long advocated," he wrote in his op/ed. "We can safely redeploy our combat brigades." "It's time to end this war," Obama concluded. Ending the war would mean following the political cartoonist Matt Bors' prescription: The troops would go to the airport. They would board planes. They would fly away. But Obama doesn't want to end the war. Obama will classify some units as "combat troops" and send them to Afghanistan, which he wants to expand into an even bigger war. But tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of troops, will remain in Iraq, killing and getting killed.

Lied to by a politician. When do the rivers start running uphill?

Newsweek Necrology

In alphabetical order, the Top 40 Dead People of 2008, per the Avis Rent-A-Car of the wkly. news rags. 

Christmastime for Hitler?

Christmas With the Nazis: WWII Films Proliferate at Year's End Oh, horrid menace of liberal fascism. What is the deadly secret of the Nazis? What secret info will Newsbusters creator & executive editor Matthew Sheffield reveal to us about Hollywood's machinations? (Mostly quotes from this AP item, that's what.)

You could have bet several farms that we were expecting there to be something about the people (or is it a "tribe?") who control Hollywood. (When will we hear the complaints about the number of Anglo dudes in the oil business, or running airlines & auto companies? Ah, never mind.) The big secret of why,

during what's supposed to be the cheeriest time of year, this abundance of stories from one of humanity's darkest hours?

turns out not to be that the You Know Whos are trying to subvert Christmas w/ bummer fare, but

"Much of it is awards-driven," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, which tracks box-office totals. "Downer movies come out this time of year as a reflection of the fact that people are vying for Oscars."

As Newsbusters is bent on “Exposing & Combating Liberal Media Bias” we have to peg their audience/viewership, whatever it's called in the still-to-make-a-profit new media age, as troglodytes. Perception of "leftist/liberal elite" media bias in the United Snakes should probably be classified as a psychiatric condition of some type. Or they're just plain dense. But we didn't think WWII/Nazi cinema at this "cheery" time would have to be explained to anyone who can navigate to Newsbusters in the first place.

A Public Service Announcement From The SoCal Tourism Council

Now look, we allow you people (you know who you are) to visit our little paradise every yr. about this time, usually in conjunction w/ a land grant university from your frost-bitten state having earned the privilege of having it's lunch handed to it by the Trojans or another manly sort of Pac-10 football colossus in the Rose Bowl, but remember, you don't have to go home by the wknd. after New Yr.'s Day, but you must leave Southern California. (Authorities will be searching hotels, motels, & relatives' houses for stragglers. Be warned!) So to save you (& your rental car) from wandering endlessly through the streets of the celebrity districts, we'll let you all in on the biggest bang for your map-to-the-stars-homes buck, one little street in Beverly Hills, where Jack Benny & Lucille Ball lived next door to each other, & the world was a happier & simpler (or so it's claimed) place.

1000 N. ROXBURY.

At 1000 Roxbury Drive is the former home of LUCILLE BALL, star of "I Love Lucy." It's a beautiful, gray & white, modern colonial home, with large, rounded hedges out front. Lucy used to personally hand out candy to trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

1002 N. ROXBURY.

Right next door, at 1002 Roxbury is the longtime home of comedian JACK BENNY, a wonderful brick home, with a large bay window, and brick walkways. Back in 1944, Jack and his wife Mary set up a huge tent in their back yard for a New Year's Eve party, which was attended by (among others) Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Errol Flynn, Ginger Rogers,Tyrone Power, Claudette Colbert, Dorothy Lamour, Robert Taylor, Joan Crawford,Sam Goldwyn and David O. Selznick!

Boxing Day B-Days

Today's Birthdays:

Actor Donald Moffat is 78. Actor Caroll Spinney (Big Bird on TV's "Sesame Street") is 75. Rhythm-and-blues singer Abdul "Duke" Fakir (The Four Tops) is 73. Record producer Phil Spector is 68. "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh is 63. Country musician Bob Carpenter (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 62. Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk is 61. All-Star baseball player Chris Chambliss is 60. Humorist David Sedaris is 52. Rock musician James Kottak (The Scorpions) is 46. Country musician Brian Westrum (Sons of the Desert) is 46. Rock musician Lars Ulrich (Metallica) is 45. Actress Nadia Dajani is 43. [No real idea who she is, but at least we aren't posting picures of women young enough to be our daughters. — Ed.]Rock musician J is 41. Country singer Audrey Wiggins is 41.

Associated Press

Entertainment Boxing Day

On December 26th, 1944, Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly in Chicago. In 1955, Decca Records released "See You Later, Alligator" by Bill Haley and the Comets. In 1957, Elvis Presley got a temporary draft deferment so he could finish the movie "King Creole." In 1963, Capitol Records released the single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles, which became the band's first number one hit in the US. In 1967, The Beatles film "Magical Mystery Tour" premiered on BBC television. In 1968, Led Zeppelin played its first US show, opening for Vanilla Fudge. In 1973, "The Exorcist" made its premiere nationwide.In 1974, comedian Jack Benny died. He was 80. [The King of Radio & Telebision for over thirty yrs. Here are Jack & the cast in April 1942, recording the "Jack Benny Show" before an audience of soldiers. — Ed.] In 1999, musician Curtis Mayfield died outside Atlanta at the age of 57. Associated Press

At Last, Another Day Closer To The End, & What's Happened On Boxing Day Throughout Western History

Today is Friday, Dec. 26, the 361st day of 2008. There are five days left in the year. The seven-day African-American holiday Kwanzaa begins today. This is Boxing Day. Today's Highlight in History: One hundred years ago, on Dec. 26, 1908, Jack Johnson became the first African-American boxer to win the world heavyweight championship as he defeated Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia. (Johnson's victory sparked a search for a "great white hope" who would reclaim the title; Jess Willard accomplished the feat in 1915.) On this date: In 1776, the British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the Revolutionary War. In 1799, former President George Washington was eulogized by Col. Henry Lee as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen." In 1917, during World War I, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation authorizing the government to take over operation of the nation's railroads. In 1941, Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.In 1944, during the World War II Battle of the Bulge, the embattled U.S. 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne, Belgium, was relieved by units of the 4th Armored Division. In 1947, heavy snow blanketed the Northeast, burying New York City under 26.4 inches of snow in 16 hours; the severe weather was blamed for some 80 deaths. In 1972, the 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, died in Kansas City, Mo., at age 88. In 1996, 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colo. (To date, the slaying remains unsolved, despite a widely publicized "confession" by John Mark Karr.) In 2004, more than 200,000 people, mostly in southern Asia, were killed by a tsunami triggered by a powerful earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean. In 2006, former President Gerald R. Ford died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 93. Ten years ago: President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, urged Congress to lower the blood-alcohol limit for drunken driving nationwide to .08 percent. Five years ago: An earthquake struck the historic Iranian city of Bam, killing at least 26,000 people. Three snowboarders were killed in an avalanche in Provo Canyon, Utah. [Equivalence of wog & snowboarder lives noted, AP. — Ed.] One year ago: Six people were found dead at a rural property east of Seattle; the property owners' daughter and her boyfriend were arrested. (Michele Anderson and Joseph McEnroe face charges of aggravated first-degree murder in the shootings of three generations of Anderson's family.) Francesca Lewis, the sole survivor of a plane crash in Panama, was reunited with her family after rescue workers brought the 12-year-old American girl out of a remote mountain area. Joe Dolan, one of Ireland's first pop music stars, died in suburban Dublin at age 68. Thought for Today: "What you cannot find on earth is not worth seeking." — Norman Douglas, Scottish author (1868-1952).

War W/o End, Amen

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Christmas Is A Killer

Eartha Kitt. Harold Pinter. Santa himself. And as one might expect, a bomb killed four people in Baghdad.

Moonlight On Vermont

Forty yrs. ago:

It hadn't been a very good year.

Nineteen-sixty-eight saw [...] the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, riots across the world and the My Lai massacre.

But on Christmas Eve, Americans turned on their TVs to see perhaps the first good news all year: The Apollo 8 astronauts [...] as they became the first humans to orbit the moon.

He Hasn't Brought It Back Yet, Either

They Call It Art

Do that click thing you do here for "fun" (for lack of a better word) paintings of this yr.'s candidates. A sample:Artiste Zina Saunders (Related to "Metal Mike" Saunders?) has a page.

B. O. Moooslim UPDATE!!

More lies, as he eats pork!! When will the AmeriKKKan people wise up? This Obama guy is out-slicking Slick Willie Clinton.

Obamas to have turkey, ham for Christmas

By PHILIP ELLIOTT – 2 hours ago

HONOLULU (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama and his family planned a Christmas Day that includes opening presents in the morning and sharing a traditional turkey and ham dinner in the evening.

You can't believe a word that man says.

Coming next: Obama Goes to Church, Last Nail in His Coffin of Deception.

There You Have It

The incontrovertible evidence is in: Barack Obama, the 44th President-in-waiting, is, indeed, Muslim. What newer proof could we have? This! Now deny it, radical progressive Unreal Americans!!

(CNN) — While President-elect Barack Obama will certainly be making history when he takes the oath of office on January 20, he'll also be repeating it -- by placing his hand on the same Bible Abraham Lincoln used during the inauguration of 1861.

(The 1861 Lincoln Inaugural Bible against the backdrop of the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress.)

The Constitution does not require presidents to be sworn in on a Bible, though almost every chief executive since George Washington has chosen to do so.

See? See? He's lying again! Absolute proof! Oh, & Chicago political machine, if we didn't mention it!

How Long Must We Wait 'Til The Civil Unrest? Not as Long as One Might Expect

The foreclosed-upon masses have begun looting.
We imagine the wailing has been going on for some time now, so we only need shooting to complete the trifecta. Bankers take cover!

Another Angle on The Invocator

Max Blumenthal at The Nation looks into the mind of the goateed dude some call "America's Pastor," who finds himself in the darnedest places.Merry Christmas from "Pastor" Rick Warren!

Amusing Headline of An Indeterminate Time Period

Weapons, ammo, pants seized at Burress' NJ home

Get those pants!

In Entertainment Today, 25 December

In 1946, actor W.C. Fields died. He was 67. [Missed to this date. — Ed.] In 1959, future Beatles drummer Ringo Starr got his first set of drums as a Christmas present. He was working as an apprentice engineer at the time. In 1964, George Harrison's girlfriend, Patti Boyd, was attacked by jealous female fans at a Beatles show in London. [Didn't Eric Clapton attack her a few yrs. later? — Ed.] Forty years ago, in 1968, singer-guitarist Eric Bloom joined Blue Öyster Cult. [Except they were known as Soft White Underbelly in 1968, Associated Press! – Ed.] In 1976, The Eagles' album "Hotel California" went platinum. [We so despise the Eagles that we present this current photo of them, on death's door, & not a moment too soon. Look how old & wretched these bastards are. Yuck! — Ed.] In 1977, comedian Charlie Chaplin died in Switzerland at age 88. Thirty years ago, in 1978, Public Image Limited performed for the first time in London. In 1981, the J. Geils Band performed a Christmas concert for the inmates at a correction center near Boston. A few days later, their "Freeze Frame" album went gold. In 1991, Willie Nelson's 33-year-old son Billy was found dead at his home in suburban Nashville. A medical examiner ruled the death a suicide by hanging, & "The Prince of Tides," directed by Barbra Streisand, opened nationwide. In 1995, entertainer Dean Martin died of respiratory failure at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 78. Ten years ago, in 1998, guitarist Bryan MacLean of Love died of a heart attack in Los Angeles. He was 52. In 1999, comedian Jerry Seinfeld married public relations executive Jessica Sklar in New York. In 2006, James Brown died at an Atlanta hospital. He was 73. X-mess Birthdays: Singer Tony Martin is 95. Actor Dick Miller is 80. Actress Hanna Schygulla is 65. Rhythm-and-blues singer John Edwards (The Spinners) is 64. Actor Gary Sandy is 63. Singer Jimmy Buffett is 62. Football Hall-of-Famer Larry Csonka is 62. Country singer Barbara Mandrell is 60. Actress Sissy Spacek is 59. Actress CCH Pounder is 56. Singer Annie Lennox is 54. Reggae singer-musician Robin Campbell (UB40) is 54. Singer Shane MacGowan (The Popes) is 51. Baseball player Rickey Henderson is 50. Actress Klea Scott is 40. Singer Dido is 37.

Actual Events that Occured on Christmas Day by The Associated Press

AP - 1 hour 20 minutes ago
Today is Thursday, Dec. 25, the 360th day of 2008. There are six days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
One Hundred and Ninety years ago, in 1818, "Silent Night," written by Franz Gruber and Father Joseph Mohr, was performed for the first time, at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
On this date:
In 336, the first recorded celebration of Christmas on Dec. 25 took place in Rome.
In 1066, William the Conqueror was crowned king of England. [Marking the first step in a long struggle to civilization by the English. — Ed.]
In 1776, Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, N.J.
In 1926, Hirohito became emperor of Japan, succeeding his father, Emperor Yoshihito. (Hirohito was formally enthroned almost two years later.)
In 1941, during World War II, Japan announced the surrender of the British-Canadian garrison at Hong Kong.
In 1989, ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed following a popular uprising. [Off w/ their heads! — Ed.]
In 1991, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on television to announce his resignation as the eighth and final leader of a communist superpower that had already gone out of existence.
Ten years ago: British mogul Richard Branson, American millionaire Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand of Sweden gave up their attempt to make the first non-stop, round-the-world balloon flight seven days into their journey, ditching off Hawaii.
Five years ago: Sixteen people were killed by mudslides that swept over campgrounds in California's San Bernardino Valley. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf survived a second assassination bid in 11 days, but 16 other people, including three suicide bombers, were killed. A plane crashed after taking off from Benin, killing at least 130 of the 161 people aboard. Europe's tiny Mars lander, the Beagle 2, was supposed to go into orbit around the Red Planet, but the craft was lost.
In 2006, James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul," died of heart failure in Atlanta at age 73.
One year ago: A tiger at the San Francisco Zoo escaped her enclosure and killed a park visitor; two brothers also were mauled, but survived. Russia's military successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads. A ruptured gasoline pipeline exploded near Nigeria's main city of Lagos, killing at least 40 people.
Thought for Today: "My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?" — Bob Hope, American comedian (1903-2003).

Buffoonery for 24 December: Bad Day for Doobie Bros.

In 1954, singer Johnny Ace shot himself and died while playing Russian roulette backstage at a show in Houston. His song "Pledging My Love" became a hit the next year. In 1961, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by The Tokens became the first African song to reach number one on the American pop charts. In 1965, The Beatles earned a gold record for the album "Rubber Soul," just two-and-a-half weeks after it was released. In 1972, police in Miami cut short a concert by Manfred Mann and his Earth Band. Fans rioted for about two hours while the band members hid in a dressing room. In 1973, Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers was arrested in Visalia, California, for marijuana possession. In 1978, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltskog of ABBA separated after seven years of marriage. In 1984, actor Peter Lawford died. He was 61. In 1990, actors Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman got married in Colorado. They had met while filming "Days of Thunder." They've since divorced. In 1992, former Doobie Brothers percussionist Bobby LaKind died after a long battle with cancer. He was 47. In 1997, the Gin Blossoms announced their breakup. Associated Press

This Date in History - 24 December: The Ace of Spades Is 63

The Associated Press – Wed Dec 24, 12:01 am ET Today is Wednesday, Dec. 24, the 359th day of 2008. There are seven days left in the year. This is Christmas Eve. Today's Highlight in History: Forty years ago, in 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve telecast that featured live images of Earth. On this date: In 1524, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama — who had discovered a sea route around Africa to India — died in Cochin, India. In 1814, the War of 1812 officially ended as the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium. In 1851, fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying about 35,000 volumes. In 1865, several veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tenn., called the Ku Klux Klan. In 1871, Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" had its world premiere in Cairo, Egypt. In 1908, citing morality concerns, New York Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. temporarily closed the city's movie theaters. (The action gave rise to creation of a motion picture censorship board.) In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces as part of Operation Overlord. In 1951, Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors," the first opera written specifically for television, was first broadcast by NBC-TV. In 1980, Americans remembered the U.S. hostages in Iran by burning candles or shining lights for 417 seconds — one second for each day of captivity. In 1993, the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale, who blended Christian and psychiatric principles into a message of "positive thinking," died in Pawling, N.Y., at age 95. Ten years ago: Ignoring NATO warnings, Serb tanks and troops struck an ethnic Albanian stronghold in Kosovo. Most of California's citrus crop was considered ruined after three straight nights of freezing cold. Five years ago: A roadside bomb exploded north of Baghdad, killing three U.S. soldiers in the deadliest attack on Americans to that time following Saddam Hussein's capture. Talk show host David Letterman visited U.S. troops in Baghdad. Air France canceled several flights to the United States after U.S. officials passed on what were termed "credible" security threats. One year ago: President Bush made Christmas Eve calls to 10 U.S. troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other spots around the world, thanking them for their sacrifice and wishing them a happy holiday. French news cameraman Gwen Le Gouil, abducted by Somali gunmen Dec. 16 outside the town of Bossaso, was released. Today's Birthdays: Songwriter-bandleader Dave Bartholomew is 88. Author Mary Higgins Clark is 81. Federal health administrator Anthony S. Fauci is 68. Recording company executive Mike Curb is 64. Rock singer-musician Lemmy (Motorhead) is 63.Actor Grand L. Bush is 53. Actor Clarence Gilyard is 53. Actress Stephanie Hodge is 52. The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is 51. Rock musician Ian Burden (The Human League) is 51. Designer Kate Spade is 46. Rock singer Mary Ramsey (10,000 Maniacs) is 45. Actor Mark Valley is 44. Actor Diedrich Bader is 42. Singer Ricky Martin is 37. "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest is 34. Thought for Today: "Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." — The Rev. Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993). [This stupid son of a bitch should have died much, much sooner. — Ed.]

Dennis Prager: The Housewives' Friend

When a Woman Isn't in the Mood: Part I Don't most states have marital rape laws these days? (No need to add anything to this, right? We mean, we're not actually going to read it, & we're sure as shit it will be commented on. Some might imagine that D. P. was trying to stir up trouble.)

Chickenshit of The Year

If you're the kind of dipstick who enjoys voting in on-line polls, or wishes you could vote somebody off the island in the Oscar™©® or any other show bidnis popularity contest, here's your opportunity.

Annals of Anti-Theism

LONDON (Reuters) – The world's troubles are rooted in a rejection of God

Heard this kind of crap anywhere before? Sure you have, all the fucking time from the expensively suited charlatans of American religiosity. This time the source is slightly different, but essentially the same. (Cheaper suit, though.)

and if Jesus Christ lived today he would stand up against bullying powers, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will tell Britons on Christmas Day.

Granted, that part's a bit different. Our religious fuhrers would probably say that ol' Jeezis would be standing up against the powers that are relentlessly bullying Anglo male heterosexuals here in the United Snakes. (Oddly enough, Iran says there are no 'mos in Iran to persecute their heteros, having apparently taken care of that problem through hangings. Don't give Pastor Rick any ideas.) It may already have started, but prepare yourselves for a fit of fury from the fascists about this:

The message will be broadcast on Channel 4 Thursday evening as an alternative to the traditional Christmas television and radio address from Queen Elizabeth.

That should be good for about five yrs. of the finest outrage at the Beeb as "appeasers" & "race traitors." It probably won't be too much longer until someone on the right calls for nuking Europe just to keep the whiteys from all being raped, sold into slavery or whatever other pathetically masochistic fantasies of authoritarianism the conservative mind indulges in. Pathetic exit line from Ahmadinejad:

"The prerequisite to this change is a change in goals, intentions and directions. If tyrannical goals are repackaged in an attractive and deceptive package and imposed on nations again, the people, awakened, will stand up against them."

Please. "The people" (world-wide, here, there & everywhere) are in a coma. If they did awaken, it would be a medical/psychological miracle. And they still wouldn't stand up for or against squat.

...Deaming of a Wet Crizzmus, Just Like the Ones We Used To Know

Crizzmus?

Ho ho ho.

See also.

Obama the Snowman Was a very scary soul With a marijuana pipe And two eyes made out of skoal [WTF?] Obama the Snowman Is a Kenyan they say He liked his white nose snow But the Americans know How he stole their country one day

Peace on Earth, Good Will to All.

Shut Up, You're Just Digging Your Grave Deeper

From Human Events:

GIZZI: Who is your role model? PALIN: Susan B. Anthony. I have great respect there for the history. She was a pro-life feminist and those things that she stood for, and she was so far ahead of her time. It amazes me.

Take a page from Ms. Antony's book & try to speak in complete sentences, w/ something resembling grammar. ("Pro-life feminist." Like abortion was a big deal then.) 

Gov. Palin's big campaign regret? She didn't give enough interviews.

PALIN: The biggest mistake made was that I could have called more shots on this: the opportunities that were not seized to speak to more Americans via media. I was not allowed to do very many interviews, and the interviews that I did were not necessarily those I would have chosen. But I was so thankful to have the opportunity to run with John McCain that I was not going to argue with the strategy decisions that some of his people were making regarding the media contacts. But if I would have been in charge, I would have wanted to speak to more reporters because that’s how you get your message out to the electorate.

Sorry, Sarah, but you should thank the non-existent gawd whose direction you claim to seek that those people had the good sense to keep you as far from any questions as they could. A couple more "Huh?" interviews & you would have been off the McCain campaign faster than Thomas Eagleton left McGovern.

We're a bit curious as to whether Gov. Palin has ever read a transcript of her interviews & other extemporaneous statements. And, if she has (can) read them, if she has any understanding of why they make her a national laughing-stock. 

Sleepy Afternoon of the Long Knives in the AEI Offices

The economy is thinning the stipends for fascist pseudo-intellectuals. Neo-cons at the American Enterprise Institute are being "viciously" purged, in an orgy of non-responsibility reminiscent of a Stalinist purge. Except for the murders & stuff. But really, it's "vicious." ("You hit me w/ a flower...") And what else would one expect from a pile of old Stalinists & their children?

Least likely to be missed is deluded paranoid Michael Ledeen, allegedly one of the perpetrators of the yellowcake uranium forgeries that helped G.W. Bush to send this nation into a downward spiral many yrs. earlier than it otherwise would have. 

Not to worry, though. This collection of chickenhawks will doubtless find other barnyards in which to scratch around & crow loudly about how brave & manly AmeriKKKa is, & how they are the bravest & manliest, because its so very difficult to send other men to their deaths, even in as noble a cause as protecting oil co. profits.

Space/Time Wasted

Again, some s. o. b. who wakes up hrs. before we do beats us to the punch on Bill Kristol. And notes the cynical ploy of liberal bible The NYT.

precisely why he was hired in the first place -- not for quality insight, but for the clicks that come from hosting a weekly intellectual highway accident.

Lazy late-riser that we are, we were only going to grab the last paragraph from Bloody Bill's column & point it out as extra stupid & meaningless, but the reminder that Bill is strictly 'phoning it in makes his last chunk just a bit ironic.

I’ve never heard Dick Cheney quote Kipling. But I suspect he might like Kipling, and that Kipling would admire him — a man who has never gone out of his way to look too good, nor talk too wise, but who has always, in four decades of public service, sought “to fill the unforgiving minute/With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run.”

Poor Bill. Can't even fill the unforgiving column before Christmas w/ sixty seconds of anything.

Maybe Torture Isn't So Bad An Idea After All

It'd be funny except, just as in Depression I, all you old people are about to be eating pet food again. But for the Bush Admin., whose gross & often deliberate incompetence & non-regulation has exponentially hurried the inevitable, can't get here too soon for us, end of America, to then accuse liberal bible The New York Times of "gross negligence" is, is...oh, crap. Physical violence of the most savage kind wreaked on everyone to the left of us wouldn't be satisfying enough.

Rick Warren/B. Obama/Anti-Christ Connection?

Pastor Rick's not fooling Pastor Harry/CH of PHL-INT. And Harry may be correct. How do we know Rick Warren isn't the anti-Christ? Other, of course, than the non-existence of a "Christ." And the inability of the U. N. to do anything effective. (You'll have to check Pastor Harry's site. Something to do w/ a U. N.-appointed messiah/A-C. We're still thinking Barack Obama's the anti-Christ, but maybe he's just Pastor Rick's helper. So hard to keep up these days.) 

"Spiritual Lostness"

From Pastor Rick's personal website.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Church is everywhere in the world. There are villages that have little else, but they do have a church. Rick Warren --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Church is the most magnificent concept ever created. It has survived persistent abuse, horrifying persecution, and widespread neglect. Yet despite its faults (due to our sinfulness), it is still God’s chosen instrument of blessing and has been for 2,000 years.

The Church will last for eternity, and because it is God’s instrument for ministry here on Earth, it is truly the greatest force on the face of the Earth. That’s why I believe tackling the world’s biggest problems – the giants of spiritual lostness, egocentric leadership, poverty, disease, and ignorance – can only be done through the Church.

Let's see here. Egocentric leadership? Certainly not a problem w/ "The Church." No one could possibly get the impression that this tub of lard would just love to have a "Church" that rules the world while he's the Pope thereof, could one? This toad has such a huge ego that he can walk around decrying poverty & disease, yet obviously eats enough to feed a starving village, & hasn't the discipline to trim down a few stone. Ignorance? That's "The Church's" specialty. Promoting it, that is. We're not going near "Spiritual Lostness?" Seriously, can any one even define this alleged "spirituality?" We suspect that if it exists, it has more to do w/ spirits of alcohol than ghosts. And "lostness?" Work on your English before you start working on the rest of the world, porky.

Yet somehow, despite the "persistent abuse" & "horrifying persecution" that the Christian church has inflicted on its fellow humanoids (think Crusades & Inquisition, for starters) it has survived. 

And Rick (or his Holy Ghost Writer) states "The Church will last for eternity," then goes on to list eight "distinct advantages" the "Church" has over gov't. & business, the eighth of which is: 

8. The Church provides for God’s conclusion. Since we believe the Bible is God’s Word, we already know the end of history. Jesus said in Matthew 24: “The good news about God’s Kingdom will be preached in all the world to every nation, and then the end will come.” It is inevitable and unavoidable.

So much for the eternity of the "Church." But what is the big fucking deal? All of these freaks continually proclaim the imminent end of the fucking world (Of which we are entirely in favor, so we hate these bozos w/ an extra passion, for having led us on again & again.) so why do we have to fix the world in the first place, if it's all about to go up in flames? How these fucks will end ignorance when they can't master logic is beyond us.

It wasn't Orwell who invented Newspeak.

Gawd DAMN AmeriKKKa!!!!

From Aravosis of AMERICAblog, an excellent question:

Why is Rick Warren's work on AIDS in Africa, a mostly heterosexual disease over there, indicative of his love for American gays? And something interesting about Fat Boy Warren's Church of Hate website. It changes, just like magic! We thought the religious, the right, & the religious right were all about sticking firmly to their time-tested principles, standing up for what they believe, & so forth. Seldom do they define their principles & beliefs, but considering how much they talk about standing up & sticking to, you'd think that consistency was the greatest virtue. Right until Big Brother tells them what actually happened, & what the new principles & beliefs are.

Laura Bush: Underwhelming

The New Yorker talks w/ publishers about Pickles' potential book.

“She was not forthcoming about anything that I would consider controversial,” the publisher who met with her said. “We questioned her rigorously, but it was one-word answers. I considered it the worst, or the most frustrating, meeting of its sort that I’ve ever had.” He added, “But she really couldn’t have been nicer.” He said that his company would not be making an offer on the book, which was expected to sell for a couple of million dollars.

“I chose not to meet with her,” a publisher at another company said. “I got the impression that everyone was totally underwhelmed by her. That’s why there’s so little buzz.”

This Date in History - Dec. 22, by The Associated Press

The Associated Press

Monday, December 22, 2008; 12:01 AM
Today is Monday, Dec. 22, the 357th day of 2008. There are nine days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
In 1858, opera composer Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy.
On this date:
In 1775, Esek Hopkins was appointed the commander-in-chief of the Continental Navy.
In 1808, Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, and Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68, also known as the "Pastoral Symphony," had their world premieres in Vienna, Austria.
In 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman wrote a message to President Abraham Lincoln which said in part: "I beg to present you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah."
In 1894, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. (Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.)
In 1922, M. "Chas." Bouffant's immediate male ancestor was born.
In 1944, during the World War II Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe rejected a German demand for surrender, writing "Nuts!" in his official reply.
In 1968, Julie Nixon married David Eisenhower in a private ceremony in New York.
In 1977, three dozen people were killed when a 250-foot-high grain elevator at the Continental Grain Company plant in Westwego, La., exploded.
In 1984, New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot and wounded four youths on a Manhattan subway, claiming they were about to rob him.
In 1988, Brazilian environmentalist Chico Mendes was shot and killed. (A rancher, Darly Alves da Silva, was sentenced in 1990 to 19 years in jail for ordering Mendes slain.)
In 2001, Richard C. Reid, a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and other passengers. (Reid is serving a life sentence.)
Ten years ago: A Chinese dissident (Qin Yongmin) was sentenced to prison for trying to organize an opposition party. (Qin remains in prison.)
Five years ago: A magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit California's central coast, killing two people. A federal judge ruled the Pentagon couldn't enforce mandatory anthrax vaccinations for military personnel. Colombian rebels freed four Israelis and a Briton held hostage for 101 days.
One year ago: A jury in Riverhead, N.Y., convicted John White, a black man, of second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Daniel Cicciaro, a white teenager, during a confrontation outside White's house. (The 17-year-old was shot in the face after he showed up with two carloads of friends to confront White's son after a dispute at a party.)
Today's Birthdays: Former House Speaker Jim Wright is 86. ABC News correspondent Diane Sawyer is 63. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Steve Carlton is 64. Baseball All-Star Steve Garvey is 60. Golfer Jan Stephenson is 57.
Thought for Today: "Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor." — Attributed to Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603). [Holy crap, how'd she figure us out? — Ed.]
From the World of Distraction on Today's Date:
In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono met for an hour with Canada's prime minister. Earlier that day, they had met with Canada's minister of health to discuss drug abuse.
In 1973, Stephen Stills lost a paternity suit brought on by a Mill Valley, California, woman. The child had been born about two years earlier.
In 1976, singer Isaac Hayes declared bankruptcy.
In 1978, Kenney Jones became the drummer for The Who, replacing Keith Moon, who died four months earlier.
In 1979, the first of four "Concerts for the People of Kampuchea" was held in London. Performers included The Clash, Paul McCartney, The Pretenders and The Who.
In 1983, actors Parker Stevenson and Kirstie Alley got married. They have since split up.
In 1988, Morissey performed for the first time as a solo act in England.
In 1990, Pearl Jam performed for the first time together, under the name Mookie Blaylock, as the opening act for Alice In Chains in Seattle.
In 1995, actress Butterfly McQueen died of burns suffered when her house outside Augusta, Georgia, caught on fire. She was 84. She's probably best known for playing Prissy in "Gone With The Wind."
In 2000, Madonna married Guy Ritchie at a church in Scotland.
In 2002, singer-guitarist Joe Strummer of The Clash died of sudden cardiac arrest at his home in southwest England. He was 50.
Today's Show Biz Birthdays: Actress Barbara Billingsley is 93. Seen below trying to look sexy on the "Beaver" set, & some yrs. later, still w/ the pearl necklace.Actor Hector Elizondo is 72. Country singer Red Steagall is 70. Rock singer-musician Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick) is 62. Singer Robin Gibb is 59. Actress BernNadette Stanis is 55. Rapper Luther Campbell is 48. Country singer-musician Chuck Mead (BR5-49) is 48. Actor Ralph Fiennes is 46. Actress Lauralee Bell is 40. Country singer Lori McKenna is 40. Actress Dina Meyer is 40.Associated Press

Resource Competition Divides Along Religio-Fascist Lines

How did this happen?

Aleosan, Philippines – On a muddy, shaded track between fertile farmlands, 30 men lounge in flip-flops and tattered camoflauge [sic], displaying their beaten-up M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles.

They call themselves ilaga or "rats" in a local Philippines dialect. They're vigilantes: Christian farmers who have taken up arms to protect their land and families against Muslim rebels in this troubled corner of the southern Philippines.

Ah, here's how it happened: Indigenous suck-ups to the Spanish colonizers (to the extent of adopting the imperial religion & even "Christian" names) did a bit of colonizing themselves.

The town of Aleosan lies on the faultline of communal divisions in Mindanao. The Moros – as Muslims here call themselves – regard this and surrounding areas as part of their ancestral homeland. But much of Aleosan's land has now been owned and farmed for decades by Christians from the central Philippines, who settled here after World War II with government encouragement.

To add to the fun, 

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim civilians remain in makeshift camps, afraid to return to their homes. And Malaysian monitors who helped enforce a cease-fire left Nov. 30 after their mandate expired.

Remind anyone of anything?

A very tiny bit of humor in all of this.

After being burned by the Supreme Court, the MILF now has little faith that the Philippines government is a reliable negotiating partner. "We can resume talks," said MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu. "But we doubt very much [that] we can achieve a satisfactory and viable outcome."

Uh, that's Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Mr. Cabaya agrees. He says he can accept giving the Muslims more land and autonomy, but he thinks the proposed deal went too far. "I think the conflict will be worse if demands of the MILF are met, because their demand is [for] a separate state," says Cabaya. "It's being disguised as autonomy, but in essence it's a separate state."

Break up old colonial borders? Bad idea. For some.

Religio-Fascism On Its Jackbooted March Across The Face of Humanity

(0:53) of "raw" video of Hindu nationalists trashing a Nokia store somewhere in India, because a Nokia mobile navigation system shows Kashmir as Pakistani territory. Who says Mooooslims are the only crazy religious group? 

Closely consider the phrase "Hindu Nationalists." Anything wrong w/ that? 

More Fun w/ Shoes & Pies

...No Shoes, & Then I Met A Man Who Had No Feet.

AP Counts It, Then Announces It as "News." The Treasonous Perfidy!

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,210 AP - Sat Dec 20, 8:25 PM ET As of Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008, at least 4,210 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Non-U. S. forces in Iraq: After the Dec. 31 expiration of the U.N. mandate authorizing military operations in Iraq, the only coalition troops to remain will be the U.S., Britain, Australia, El Salvador, Estonia and Romania. Britain plans to withdraw its [4,000] troops by the end of May.

Australia has 1,000 troops in Iraq, followed by Romania with 501, El Salvador with 200 and Estonia with 40.

Does the phrase "Coalition of the Willing" come to mind?

The Lighter Side of Two Wks. of Demonstrations

The youth, & otherwise ("Otherwise? Otherwise, who has the time, or the energy? Ay.")* have been at it in Greece for two wks. now. There, value is assigned to human life. Plenty talk of valuing life in America, yet murder, by the police & everyone else, is a daily, hourly occurrence in the land of the free. The general reaction? "Meh, whaddaya expect?" (Abortion, of course, is another matter.)

And people, just look at the fun they're having in Greece! This is just the overnight report:

Hundreds of people gathered late Saturday in the Exarchia district at the site of the December 6 shooting of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos for a protest organised by youths occupying Athens Polytechnic.

Protesters hurled firebombs at police who responded with tear gas. A group threw stones and Molotov cocktails at police and set fire to garbage bins, acts often seen in Exarchia since the boy's killing.

You're saying that it's become performance art, somewhere on the formalized to ritualized scale?

Police also clashed with protesters after a separate demonstration against racism that was attended by around 200 people in Syntagma Square.

"Migrants are killed, schoolchildren are killed," said banners carried by the protesters who marched to the Greek parliament.

Protesters threw garbage at police who ringed a Christmas tree on the main square. The tree was brought in last week after the original was torched at the height of unrest following the schoolboy's death.

Later, a group threw a petrol bomb at a building housing a banking services company, although there was only minor damage and the fire was quickly brought under control.

In Nea Philadelfia, a western suburb of Athens, demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails at the police academy and torched six police vehicles parked nearby, without causing any casualties, police said.

Another group of youths set fire to garbage cans in the northern suburb of Aghia Paraskevi.

[...]

In the northern city of Thessaloniki, youths occupied a hall being used for a film festival while others pelted the city mayor with pastries, police said.

Masked youths Friday attacked the French cultural institute in Athens after about 1,000 students and communist activists staged a march to condemn a second shooting on Wednesday in which the son of a teacher's union official was slightly wounded.

Protesters demanding justice over Grigoropoulos's death continue to occupy hundreds of schools and many universities across Greece.

The Athens Polytechnic, site of a 1973 student uprising that hastened the fall of military dictatorship in Greece, is among the occupied campuses.

And Europe is becoming a true community.

German police on Saturday arrested 10 people and suffered four injuries in fighting with demonstrators staging a rally in Hamburg in support of the Greek protests, officials said.

About 1,300 police were mobilised to monitor the approximately 1,000 demonstrators who marched to the Greek consulate in the northern port city.

Tear it up, righteous youth from the cradle of democracy! (It needed a cradle for some time after the ancient Greeks birthed it, as it was a weak & fitful concept.) Squash the fascist insect!! At least keep pelting police w/ garbage & mayors w/ pastries. And don't let that new X-mess tree go unburned. 

Hoping this advice is worth every drachma you paid for it, we remain,

M. Bouffant, Armchair General of the Revolution,

*who appears to be channeling an inner wretch rather than an inner child. Or may be channeling a second childhood sort of an inner child. 

It's That Wonderful Time of the Year

Inflated Telebision

As people who are actually paid (we're betting not as much as guessed) for public typing say, "expect light blogging." The management at the Neon Motel has installed a digital telebision set in the monastic cell whence we type, which may be distracting for a day or two. 

Or not. The greatest result of this technological marvel seems to be an addition to the already infinite-seeming supply of infomercials, more Korean, Japanese & Chinese drama (not nearly enough of it w/ English sub-titles) at least two channels offering PBS quality (pablum for two-yr.-olds) animated programming for children, added channels for public television offerings too boring to have been shown on general broadcast before, & two local weather channels. Inflation at work.

Bouffant's Believe It Or Shove It!

Take it or leave it, Alley Oop is still published, after 75 yrs. And he still has friends, as he has to remind us each wk.

Today in History - Dec. 21

By The AP - 1 hour 53 minutes ago
Today is Sunday, Dec. 21, the 356th day of 2008. There are 10 days left in the year. Winter will arrive at 7:04 a.m. Eastern time. The Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, begins at sunset.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Dec. 21, 1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.
On this date:
In 1804, British statesman Benjamin Disraeli was born in London.
In 1940, author F. Scott Fitzgerald died in Hollywood, Calif., at age 44.
In 1945, Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.
Sixty years ago, in 1948, the state of Eire, or Ireland, passed an act declaring itself a republic.
Fifty years ago, in 1958, Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France.
Forty years ago, in 1968, Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.
In 1971, the U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as Secretary-General.
In 1976, the Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant broke apart near Nantucket Island, off Massachusetts, almost a week after running aground, spilling 7 1/2 million gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.
Twenty years ago, in 1988, 270 people were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground.
Ten years ago: Israel's parliament voted overwhelmingly for early elections, signaling the demise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ailing hard-line government. A Chinese court sentenced two dissidents (Xu Wenli, Wang Youcai) to long prison terms for trying to organize an opposition party. (Xu was released in December 2002; Wang, in March 2004.)
Five years ago: The government raised the national threat level to orange, indicating a high risk of terrorist attack. (It was lowered back to yellow on Jan. 9, 2004.) More than 150 people were killed in mudslides in the Philippines. Soviet diplomat Oleg Troyanovsky died at age 84.
One year ago: A suicide attacker detonated a bomb at a mosque outside the home of Pakistan's former interior minister, killing at least 50 people.
Today's Birthdays: Country singer Freddie Hart is 82. Actor Ed Nelson is 80. Talk show host Phil Donahue is 73. Movie director John Avildsen is 73. Actress Jane Fonda is 71. [Here she is in Cleveland, Oh., a bit over 38 yrs. ago, resisting. 5' 8" & 126#. Mm. — Sexist Pig Editor.]Singer Carla Thomas is 66. Musician Albert Lee is 65. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is 64. Actor Samuel L. Jackson is 60. Movie producer Jeffrey Katzenberg is 58. Singer Betty Wright is 55. Tennis Hall-of-Famer Chris Evert is 54. Actress Jane Kaczmarek is 53. Country singer Lee Roy Parnell is 52. Entertainer Jim Rose is 52. Actor-comedian Ray Romano is 51. Country singer Christy Forester (The Forester Sisters) is 46. Rock musician Murph (The Lemonheads; Dinosaur Jr.) is 44. Actor-comedian Andy Dick is 43. Rock musician Gabrielle Glaser is 43. Actor Kiefer Sutherland is 42. Actress Karri Turner is 42. Actress Khrystyne Haje is 40. Actress Julie Delpy is 39. Singer-musician Brett Scallions is 37.
Thought for Today: "Many human beings say that they enjoy the winter, but what they really enjoy is feeling proof against it." — Richard Adams, English author.

And in the World of Entertainment on This Date:
On December 21st, 1933, five-year-old Shirley Temple signed a movie contract with Fox. Her age was later changed to make her appear a year younger. 
In 1937, Disney released the movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the first full-length animated film in Technicolor. 
In 1964, the book "Ode to a High-Flying Bird" by Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts was published. It was a tribute to jazz great Charlie Parker.
In 1968, Janis Joplin made her first appearance after leaving Big Brother and the Holding Company. She performed in Memphis at the second annual "Yuletide Thing" event sponsored by Stax-Volt Records. Also in 1968, Crosby, Stills and Nash performed together for the first time. 
In 1970, Elvis Presley paid a visit to President Nixon at the White House. 
In 1979, Chicago, The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt played the first of two concerts to raise campaign money for California governor Jerry Brown, Ronstadt's then-boyfriend. 
In 1991, actress Jane Fonda married broadcasting executive Ted Turner on his ranch in Florida. It was her 54th birthday. They've since split up. 
In 1996, singer Tony Bennett was rushed to a hospital in Washington after his hernia erupted while visiting the White House for a holiday dinner. He had to have emergency surgery but recovered without problems. Also in 1996, singer Lionel Richie married former dancer and fashion designer Diane Alexander in New York. 
In 2005, Elton John and his longtime partner, David Furnish, held a civil union ceremony in Windsor, England, the first day that same-sex partnerships became legal in Britain. Also in 2005, singer Howie Day was arrested for rowdy behavior on a flight from Dallas to Boston. He was sentenced to probation and rehab and was ordered to write letters of apology to the crew and passengers. [Who the fuck is Howie Day? — Ed.]