Snoopy's Christmas

Today is the start of the Christmas season for me. As a kid, this was the weekend we'd get the tree. Almost always the weekend closest to my mum's birthday, which is today. Happy Birthday, Mom. We love you!

One of my very favorite Christmas songs and some scenes from "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Glad it's chilly today, think I'll go make enchilada casserole like Grandma Elsie taught me. Y'all have a fine weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

This might not be good news for Yours Truly

12/10/2009, MIDNIGHT UPDATE (from Binyamin's trusty assistant): In a few hours, Binyamin will send out a letter to his friends and supporters about his condition and JWR's future. He has no intention of placing semi-private info on the JWR front page. We had orginally considered recording his words but soon realised it would be impossible, as he is too weak. So we are instead sending his note via e-mail to those who are subscribed to the daily JWR update. (To be added, please click here.).

Binyamin is afraid that his writing skills will fall short. I assured him that the message he wished to convey will come through loud and clear.

Here are seven columns for your reading pleasure: Victor Davis Hanson, Bob Tyrrell, Larry Elder, Dick Morris, Ann Coulter, Cal Thomas. and George Will.

Messages can be sent to schmooze@jewishworldreview.com

I do hope Binyamin gets well and strong soon. I miss him - and I don't even know him. His kindness and integrity come through in his work, though, and I wish him and his family and friends all the best during this time.

I get great pleasure from reading JewishWorldReview.com. I've learned SO much over the years since my friend 'Red' (now expatriate in Texas) sent me a link to the site. Seems a long time ago now... I use Binyamin's material almost daily to post links on this blog. Will keep you posted.

Got all three crumb-crunchers again today, then taking a friend to my favorite meeting. Busy day. Cloudy, might rain s'more. Glad I'm here for it. Thanks for stopping by!

It's Tuesday - with Thomas!

I feel like a pile of garbage again this morning...but the cough has become "productive," if that's not too much information...still hurts, still have just enough fever to be in a foul mood, with a headache I could do SO much better without. Ah well. Got NOTHING done here over the weekend, so spent yesterday with 3 curtain-climbers and an extra-large helping of laundry and dishes. Why is it that one less person in the house causes twice as much cleanup to be done when the one less person gets back? Sheesh...

Thomas Sowell's column today comes from JewishWorldReview.com, even though Binyamin is still very ill. He has imposed upon his assistant* to update a very few of his columnists, and to my great delight, Thomas Sowell is one of them!

Read the column to find the answer to the burning question - How can there be more unemployment after so many jobs have been "created"?

I also reprint here the most recent update from Binyamin's assistant, with a request that you add them all to your prayer list.

12/8/2009, MIDNIGHT UPDATE (from Binyamin's trusty assistant): Binyamin remains VERY ill. He is in need of your prayers and has asked that you do an extra act of kindness in his merit. "Something; anything," as he described it. Binyamin, mindful of his beloved readers as ever, also asked that I publish a couple of articles to prevent "JWR Withdrawl". Here are three: Wesley Pruden, Cal Thomas:, and Thomas Sowell.

Messages can be sent to schmooze@jewishworldreview.com

*"Able assistant" would no doubt do anything Binyamin asks that is within his/her power, believing it to be no imposition.

Remember Pearl Harbor

Read Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.

Read Infamous Day: Marines at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941.

USS West Virginia - repaired and returned to duty



USS Arizona - lost with 1177 of her crew


Ford Island taken in October 1941 - the view the Japanese pilots would have seen


While a Marine, foreground, looks skyward, the torpedoed battleship California (BB-44) lists to port. In the left background flies "Old Glory," raised by PFCs Frank Dudovick and James D. Young, and Pvt Paul O. Zeller, USMCR.
National Archives Photo 80-G-32463



Beneath a leaden sky on 8 December 1941, Marines at NAS Kaneohe Bay fire a volley over the common grave of 15 officers and men killed during the Japanese raid the previous day. Note sandbagged position atop the sandy rise at right.
National Archives Photo 80-G-32854



A 91-year-old Veteran in Alabama talks about the attack on Pearl Harbor and other bases on Oahu.

It was a day that changed his life forever, a 91-year-old Enterprise veteran remembered Friday about Dec. 7, 1941.

Chester Faulkner was a 23-year-old Army Infantry soldier stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii when the Army post and nearby Navy base at Pearl Harbor were attacked that Sunday morning. “I was still in bed,” said Faulker, who was the squad’s leader at the time. “The windows started rattling so hard.”



I have no words that can express the gratitude I feel for being a citizen of the country that produced such Men as were created that day. God Bless America, and REMEMBER Pearl Harbor.

A perfect Saturday morning...

I'm at Lovely Daughter's house. Been here since early this morning so they can go to eastern North Carolina and pick up a truck for Handsome Son-in-law so I can get my BroncoII back. They've never done a road trip alone together - and I am so envious! Well, except for the fact that I get to hang out with the Pixie all weekend, and the weather is particularly ugly for travel. They HOPE to get where they're going before kickoff of the SEC Championship game, as they are a family of Gator Fans. My kids will come home tomorrow, which should see better travel weather all around.

Anyway, I'm using her little netbook - which I adore, it's so cute - but keyboard is tiny and screen is VERY small compared to my desktop...so I'm making a lot of typos. My dyslexic fingers keep hitting enter 'up' when I want to hit 'shift.' Annoying. My Pixie is having some cereal for breakfast, and I need to get the laundry in the dryer.

As food for a rainy day thought, here's a a column by Rich Tucker about the Constitutional amendment that stands between BarryOCare and the destruction of medical "care" in our country. Are you a Tenther?

Y'all go have a terrific day now - just heard from my kids, they're almost to Florence, SC and it's stopped raining. In honour of the kids - and because I used to be one - here's something it took me nearly an hour to find - enjoy!



Thanks for stopping by!

Please pray for Binyamin L. Jolkovsky - updated Monday (7Dec09)

UPDATE from yesterday and today, on Binyamin L. Jolkovsky:

JWR UPDATE

12/6/2009, 7:10pm update (from Binyamin's trusty assistant): Binyamin has finally made it home! It's been a long and grueling hospital stay for him. While his keep-fighting-the-good-fight spirit is intact, he is physically exhausted. It is still very hard for him to hold conversations of more than a couple of minutes. He's convinced that he will publish by week's end. (I'm not so certain).

PLEASE continue your prayers for: Binyamin Leib ben (Hebrew: son of) Pesha

12/7/2009, 12:30pm update (from Binyamin's trusty assistant):Binyamin has decided that he will write a letter to his friends and supporters explaining his health condition and discussing his plans for JWR's future. He has no intention of placing semi-private info on the JWR front page. To receive the note, please click here., which will add you to the JWR daily update list.

Messages can be sent to schmooze@jewishworldreview.com

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Binyamin is the heart, soul and hands-on man behind JewishWorldReview.com. I link to the articles and columns he posts nearly every day. Binyamin is a kind and humble man, though I haven't met him personally - I know him only through emails and his columns and articles. He was taken to hospital on Tuesday, though he may be released as early as today, in time for Sabbath. Please add him to your prayers. Thank you.

The notice at JewishWorldReview.com, with yesterday's update:


JWR for the remainder of the week

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky was taken by ambulance to the hospital on December 1st 2009, and he may be there for a couple of days. He apologizes for not being able to publish during that time.

He asks for your patience and that you pray for him with his Hebrew name: Binyamin Leib ben (Hebrew: son of) Pesha.

Messages can be sent to schmooze@jewishworldreview.com

12/3/2009, 12:15am update (from Binyamin's trusty assistant): OK ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, quick update. Just off the phone with your fearless leader from his "suite" at the hospital. He's doing a lot better. If all goes according to plan, he anticipates being home on Friday before the Sabbath, but that's just an estimate. He did ask me to update two important stories for you though: George Will and Cal Thomas.

Binyamin is astounded, humbled, grateful and thankful by the volume of kind words wishing him well, and it's sure to help him on the road to recovery and back to his keyboard.

Please continue to have patience. He is very sorry to keep you waiting.

TODAY'S UPDATE from his Loyal Assistant:

12/4/2009, 8:30am update (from Binyamin's trusty assistant): Good morning all. Binyamin is still recuperating. I spoke with him only very briefly last night. The docs are still running some tests. Many of you have been asking me what's going on. I don't know much as BLJ hasn't been too specific. I don't like to pry as it isn't my place to be nosy. I, like the rest of you, am continuing to pray for his full recovery.

Messages can be sent to schmooze@jewishworldreview.com

LAST UPDATE before Sabbath begins:

12/4/2009, 3:00pm update (from Binyamin's trusty assistant): The Sabbath in Brooklyn rapidly approaches (the earliest of the year, by the way:4:06pm), and Binyamin will remain in the hospital. Have a good weekend, everyone.

Messages can be sent to schmooze@jewishworldreview.com

My Favorite President...in this century

From my email this afternoon:

In Dothan, Alabama a man had a TV on in his office when the news of the Ft. Hood base shootings came on. The husband of one of his employees was stationed there. He called her into his office and the minute he told her what was going on, she got a text message from her husband saying, "I am okay."

The cell phone started ringing right after that. It was an ER nurse. She said, "I'm the one who just sent you a text, not your husband." She thought the message would be comforting, but she immediately knew she had to let the wife know what was going on. She said, "I am sorry but your husband has been shot 4 times and he is in surgery."

The wife left Dothan and drove all night.

Miraculously, her husband will recover and was awake when his wife arrived. Here is a photo of them along with a couple who came by to visit with the wounded and their families privately. They had told the base commander to keep their visit secret as they wanted no press coverage. Guess that's why you didn't read about it. Class tells, doesn't it?





For "the rest of the story" see Snopes.com.

It's not a "consensus" in any sense of the word...much less SCIENTIFIC consensus! (with update)

Thanks to SJDoc, one commenter at Townhall.com, for my headline. Jillian Bandes' column is another in a long line of reminders that Congressional majority Dems are as much obstacles as Congressional minority Dems. Obstruction is their best talent, it seems. Paying heed to the Constitution? Not so much.

Hosting a hearing on global warming with no dissenting opinions made Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), the ranking Republican on the Committee, think the Democrats and the Obama administration were just as complicit in the global warming scandal sparked by Climategate as the Climategate scientists themselves.

“What the hearings showed is that the President’s science advisors are at the bottom of the whole climate change debate,” said Sensenbrenner.


Do you still believe that Your Elected Representatives and the Current Occupant really represent your interests and the interests of this Nation? Do you think BarryO the Ditherer and His Merry Band of CongressWeasels even remember the Oath they swore when they took office?

In case they need a reminder of what they said, here's the President's version:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

And here's the one Your Elected Representatives take:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Yeah. I didn't think so.

UPDATE! Sometimes I should read the things in my sidebar before I post. Via my friends and fellow grouches at GrouchyConservativePundits comes this - from the Washington Times.

The numbers matter. Under pressure in 2007, NASA recalculated its data and found that 1934, not 1998, was the hottest year in its records for the contiguous 48 states. NASA later changed its data again, and now 1998 and 2006 are tied for the hottest years, with 1934 listed as slightly cooler.

You knew this was coming, didn't you?

The Wisdom of Thomas Sowell - "Some people are so busy being clever that they don't have time enough to be wise."

Yesterday was Tuesday - I bet you already knew that. I've been feeling like dog meat, plus busy, so didn't get my usual Thomas Sowell Tuesday column link posted...not that you can't find it without me, of course!

I feel even worse today, but Thomas Sowell's column is another of his Random Thoughts, and I just LOVE those. So, here's the link at JewishWorldReview.com, and an example - or two - from the column.

Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and they are a menace to everyone else's freedom.

...

People who are urging us to do things to win the approval of other countries seem to put an excessive value on other country's approval, as distinguished from their respect that we can lose by such bowing to "world opinion." Do the world champion New York Yankees try to curry favor with teams that are also-rans?

Time for more coffee, aspirin, decongestant and shower before my Pixie gets here for the day. Thanks for stopping by!

Pillage the Village!

From the Courier-Mail in Australia:

THE people of Bergen rolled out the cookie dough on Monday as local police tried to sniff out vandals who destroyed the Norwegian city's traditional Christmas decoration -- a town of gingerbread houses.
On Saturday, vandals entered a massive tent in central Bergen and crushed most of the 650-cookie-house town, topping off the ruins with paint and fire extinguisher foam.

Police in Norway's second largest city asked the public to offer information that could lead to the perpetrators.

"The people who did this must be full of gingerbread dust, They will smell a long way," police inspector Erik Sveaas told news agency NTB.

Local media reported that the destruction had shocked the residents of Bergen, a picturesque city on the North Sea coast where children decorate hundreds of gingerbread houses every year before Christmas.

Steinar Kristoffersen, who runs the Bergen Sentrum foundation behind "the worlds largest and greatest gingerbread town", said the opening of the exhibit will be postponed well into next week due to the vandalism.

"We are rebuilding the whole landscape and are receiving a lot of gingerbread houses. Many want to lend a hand," Kristoffersen told Reuters.

In an Internet campaign, some petitioners suggested the perpetrators be pilloried, but local Bishop Halvor Nordhaug cooled the atmosphere and told local paper Bergens Tidende: "We must not lynch anyone over a few gingerbread houses."

Bishop Nordhaug, not to put too fine a point on it, but there is little similarity between pillory and lynch. VERY little. One causes embarrassment, which might be fitting here, dontcha think? Though these days it might be seen as Hate Speech! The term you used, Bishop Nordhaug, is a form Capitol Punishment, which we already know is illegal in Norway.

UPDATE! Now that I think about it, I don't know which I'm most embarrassed about - that 1/4 of the blood in my veins comes from the same punks who thought it was funny to destroy a gingerbread village...or the clueless twit who equates a session in the stocks with lynching.

What, in the name of God, do you think the results will be of this "spectacle of deliberation?"

What, exactly, does that mean? Is it supposed to be impressive? Because to This Ordinary American it sounds like BLATHER. BarryO the Ditherer is a "spectacle of deliberation?" No, it's his pondering, his thinking, his deliberation! WHAT is taking him so damn long to make this damn decision? My guess, which is worth what you pay for it, of course, is as James Taranto mentions in Best of the Web Today - he doesn't want to DISPLEASE anyone? WHICH ANYONE?

I believe this smacks of an inability to make up his damn mind, possibly because he is overwhelmed at the scope of the Office he holds, and the decisions - which are HIS - he must make that put him in a bad light with the very people whose approval he craves most. Socialist/Communist leaders and organizers around the world will NOT approve of the very thing the Men in charge of the WAR have told their C-in-C they need.

BarryO is not a leader - not even with a small 'l.' He can tell the peons in Chicago where to line up for their handouts, he can supply them with the phone numbers to call their elected officials and spout the Party Line. But a leader is something he never was and never will be. He is, at most, a puppet, a figurehead. And in my online dictionary, one synonym for each of those terms is the other term. Other synonyms - nonentity, mouthpiece, dupe, pawn...nothing.

"It is about the accumulation of power by any means necessary."

I have been attacked by a cold, and I feel like last week's lunch. I made two big pots of turkey noodle soup over the weekend, though, and they were SO good. One is almost finished at this house, and the other is being lunch at work for Lovely Daughter. I have more carcass, think this one will probably make turkey rice soup...cuz I'm out of noodles.

I've read Arnold Ahlert's letters to the editor and comments at The American Spectator. JewishWorldReview.com picked him up as a new contributor a few months back and I am pleased as I can be.

Mr. Ahlert's most recent column is SO good, I wish I could reprint the whole thing. Some exerpts:

On the reaction of Old Media to word that the "scientists" involved in pushing the idea of 'global warming' might not be in consensus AND might fudge data?

The reaction to these revelations? Perhaps as revealing, if not more so, than the revelations themselves. Much like the ACORN scandal, the mainstream media—once again with the exception of Fox News—has either avoided the story completely, or sought to focus on the manner in which the emails were procured. This last bit is pivotal, because it is the basis by which the intrepid folks at the New York Times and other media sources have determined that they will withhold the damning evidence from the public: stolen material is unfit for print or broadcast.

Apparently this is a spanking new standard for the Times, whose appetite for disseminating purloined or secret stuff goes back at least as far as the top secret, "not intended for publication" Pentagon Papers in 1971, all the way through to revealing top-secret info about how the Bush administration conducted various aspects of the war on terror.

Mr. Ahlert points out that many Americans simply don't know what they don't know - and what they don't know is a n 800-pound gorilla:

Which brings us to the 800-pound gorilla: you can't learn what you haven't been taught. Or worse, you can't make informed decisions when those decisions have already be made for you by an educational establishment which has been in the liberal tank for decades. With respect to this particular subject, how many school age children have been forced to watch Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" and given the impression that a blowhard politician with no scientific credentials whatsoever, a man whose own lifestyle contradicts everything he ostensibly believes in, is the last word on the subject? How many kids have been told global warming is "settled science" without offering them a scintilla of contrasting information? How many have been brainwashed into believing that "living green" is tantamount to the religious mandate to "go and sin no more?"

Every effort mankind has ever undertaken to obliterate individual freedom and increase the power of the state has always included the inculcation of children too young to think independently. This one is no different. If America is going to right itself, the war for our children's hearts and minds must be won.

But in order to win it, more people have to realize it exists. More importantly, they have to do something about it. This is a difficult undertaking for parents who are the front-liners in this fight. At the end of a busy day, very few people want to know—exactly—what their children are learning in school. Unfortunately, such apathy is the mother's milk of progressives for whom raising a generation of school children who disdain American exceptionalism is a prime directive. People with no particular pride in their country are a much more malleable bunch than those with a real understanding of self-reliance, Constitutionalism, and historical perspective.

A long, difficult, and often tedious journey has begun for us - I hope the old dogs are up to learning new tricks - so the next generations will be taught properly.

Another short trip in the WayBack machine...

Lazy Saturday morning 'round Pixie Place. So, before I get in the shower so I can go get some groceries (going to make turkey noodle soup) when My Chief gets home from work (he's already been here 3 times) - how 'bout some classic television from my younger days. No, I was NOT a child when this show aired. It wasn't meant for children.


Every season had a different opening sequence, but Season One doesn't sound good, so I got this one instead.

Then, one of my favorite bits from the show - and I know I'm not the only one who liked these guys!


UPDATE: Waiting for Lovely Daughter to come get me so we can take her daddy his keys. This is the 2nd time he's had reason to like me having my own transportation since I gave my BroncoII to Handsome Son-in-law. Y'all have a fine day, I'll let you know how the soup turns out when I finally get to the store!

Five Day Forecast on wokv.com

Five Day Forecast on wokv.com

It's real dry. WeatherGuessers call it "fire weather."

And I don't care what AccuWeather says - 41 - I just watched frost form on the roof of the house and the car in the driveway under the big magnolia tree across the street.

It was free and she was determined!

It seems to me most women these days take a sick day when they have a headache or cramps - they won't cook, much less move out of the house to get the food. So I have a grudging admiration for this woman.

The woman also gave some people the opportunity to do good and help someone in distress. Might be a lesson there...

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. ~Aesop

It is literally true, as the thankless say, that they have nothing to be thankful for. He who sits by the fire, thankless for the fire, is just as if he had no fire. Nothing is possessed save in appreciation, of which thankfulness is the indispensable ingredient. But a thankful heart hath a continual feast. ~W.J. Cameron

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God has two dwellings; one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart. ~Izaak Walton
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For what I give, not what I take,
For battle, not for victory,
My prayer of thanks I make.
~Odell Shepard
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Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~Melody Beattie
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We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton Wilder
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A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. ~Cicero
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God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward

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THANK YOU, G-D, for the men and women who put on the uniform of the Armed Forces of the United States, to stand in harm's way around the world, in defense of our Home. I am humbled by their Service.

To all my family and friends who read this blog, from the Old Retired Petty Officer (aka Pixie's Great Uncle) and Lovely Daughter to the commenters from Blair Nation - thank you for allowing me to share a small part of your life, thanks for stopping by, and if you'll excuse me now, I have a turkey to get in the oven! Hope to see you again real soon!

AGW - A Great Waste (of Taxpayer Money)

Yes, I've been following the kerfuffle about the lies, damn lies, and little white lies printed and spoken to "prove" something that facts, figures, and REAL science do not prove. SwampWoman at A1A South uses her talents to explain an opinion much better than I could. Swiped her title, too, because in this case, imitation is the best way to flatter and say thank you.

I'm also working my way through the analysis Boy On A Bike is doing Down Under. He's so good at keeping this simple enough for an uneducated ordinary ol broad like me to understand that I just cannot imagine how the wool has been pulled over the eyes of the world for so long...which tells me there's likely collusion. What's that old line - follow the Money. Cliches are often truth, aren't they?

Thomas Sowell on Tuesday!

From Thomas Sowell's column today:

No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems-- of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind.

...

What is stupid is believing that politicians are trying to solve our problems, instead of theirs.

And from the comments, with MANY thanks to PB in WA:

Put a human in a situation where he votes for his own raises and can custom-design his medical, retirement & other perks, and on top of that gets to decide what everyone else is allowed under law, and you pretty much have a monster on your hands, one who will never relinquish what he has been handed.


House full of little ones again soon, y'all have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Works for me

With Laughter O God, as the day returns and brings us the silly Rounds of irritating duties, help me perform Them with laughter and a kind face. Let cheerfulness overflow in my work; Give me joy during my business all this day; Bring me to my resting bed tired and content And grant me the gift of sleep.--Adapted from writing by Robert Louis Stevenson

Some American History

My first love wasn't motorcycles. It was airplanes.

THIS airplane, in particular.


If you read the comments, disregard skipjack's opinions - anyone who considers being on an airliner to be 'flying' isn't worth listening to. In my opinion, that is.

An old home movie...


The sound of the engine and the wind in these just about breaks my heart...