And tonight, we go to bed in our rooms and think great things - 24 December 2007

While it will have long passed into 25 December by the time this entry is posted, the Eve of a holiday is always a thing to behold - the anticipation of the festival to come, especially the ones where you exchange gifts and eat delicious foods. Had dinner and dessert with a co-worker, her family, and her boyfriend tonight, and many laughs were had by all. My klutz side showed through twice, but all that came of that was a broken wine glass, and that was on the second try. Tomorrow (later today) I’ll have a munch and brunch with a different co-worker. I talked to family today, so all was good. Got two more packages today, some of which I opened and loved, some of which I set aside.

ldragoon wants females to give themselves a present for this Christmas Day - give some love to your boobs. However they may be, big, small, asymmetrical, whatever. Love your boobs.

For those wanting a taste of the original “sad girls in snow”, ADV is permitting Anime New Network to stream the first episode of the Kanon anime. I can tell it was developed from a visual novel, and having hung around ADV’s voice cast, it’s getting a lot easier to pick out certain very distinctive voices in the crowd. (I actually said “Hi, Greg” when Greg Ayers’s character shows up.)

Our dispatch from the War (on Christmas) Department suggests any possibility that the Christmas festival was appropriately sedate and Christianized could just be bullsh*t. Going from one revel to another with a Jesus veneer, and then off into commercialism and excesses of partying. If anyone thought they had it, they didn’t. And with anarchists and self-promoters sneaking their goods onto department store racks and other places where they’re not necessarily wanted, but also not noticed, there’s probably no control on the holiday anyway. With regard to war and Christmas, even throughout time, letters home from soldiers stay the same. They all want to be home, participating in traditions and family gatherings. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could all spend their holidays at home?

Jeff Jacoby says it clearly and plainly - "honor killings" cannot be permitted to continue anywhere in the world. For every “Qatif girl” spared (and she wasn’t even referred to by name), there are several others killed by mobs or their own family members for acting in an un-Islamic manner, according to their killers. The medievalist in me cringes watching this, because this has been done before, with similarly bad results. It’s not hard to see these strains of Islam at the equivalent of the Inquisition and Crusades in European history. Living that far in the past is incompatible with the world today. When pressure is put on, things change. Pressure now needs to be applied persistently to get that part of Islam to modernize, moderate, and recognize the insanity of killing someone for a perceived moral failing.

As with just about everything else in this administration, warnings were delivered about the expanded use of security contractors in Iraq, citing problems with a lack of regulation or oversight. Those warnings were ignored. And we’ve seen the results. One might think that after ignoring warnings about the thing that started the whole mess, the Bush administration would have figured out that at least paying attention to the warnings being given was worthwhile. Apparently not.

*ring... ring....* Fuck Hoover! Apparently, J. Edgar wanted to suspend habeas corpus and arrest nearly twelve thousand people suspected of disloyalty to the United States. Thank Prime that this Administration wants nothing to do with the suspension of our legal rights and indefinite detention.

In domestic politics, The General’s Inner Frenchman seizes control and says if you're actually a liberal, Obama's need to compromise with Republicans and Hillary's corporate mindset are not going to be your allies in the White House. Liberals and progressives voting for a liberal and progressive candidate would be fantastic. Although I worry who would be elected if everyone voted their conscience, it would at least be nice to see where the people stand on things. It could mean that the most conservative and religious nut gets elected to office and hell breaks loose, but then we’d know where we stand. But with the way Congress passes resolutions that clearly praise Christianity and do everything sort of establishing law that Christianity is the religion of America, and out on the campaign trail, Ms. Clinton also campaigns as a candidate interested in families and females, it’s hard enough to tell where the candidates stand, so I suppose the voting electorate could be forgiven a bit for being confused. And previous confusion may be playing into Mike Huckabee’s hands, according to Chris Hedges at Common Dreams. Previously thought of as stooges and useful idiots, the evangelical Christian Dominionist right is mobilizing. And Huckabee is their man. Which is why other Republicans and conservatives are scrambling to try and promote another candidate into prominence. Mike Huckabee does things like take a page out of the Ron Paul playbook, bringing back the idea of a flat tax, but not on income. Huckabee endorses the idea of a single 23% sales tax as a replacement for all forms of income tax. Taxing items bought rather than income earned might simplify the tax code. Might also make revenues drop severely for all forms of government. Might also crash the economy as people readjust their spending. Someone more palatable to the other conservatives, like say, Mayor 9/11, is still having trouble with his polling numbers. Apparently, running on the strength that you were the mayor when a disaster struck really doesn’t cut it in politics. Not to mention, most disasters this decade have been handled poorly, so saying you were there when things went to sh*t is probably not a good thing for your political aspirations.

Special News Flash from the Wall Street Journal! Political blogs get trolled! Zed Oh Em Gee!

Six weeks after being asked to provide information on how they spend donors' money, only two of six well-known megachurches have actually complied, with three more actively refusing or not keeping contact with the committee. I think the believers have a right to know how their collections and tithes are being spent, don’t you?

A good introduction (or expansion) of the idea of genetics and heritability, or something. In either case, Origins of Magic: review of genetic and epigenetic effects takes J.K. Rowling’s world of wizards and muggles and uses Muggle genetic science to point out how magical genes may have evolved or mutated into the genotype, resulting not only in wizards, but in elves and other magical humanoids. Probably a little light reading, but might make a very good way of introducing the idea of genetics to classes.

It’s really interesting to see that Google workers get time to work on their own projects. Probably keeps them from getting burnt out, and in the case of Google and the Wisdom of Clouds, one’s “20%” can turn into a full-time job backed by IBM and Google. This could be the future of all our computing, not just things like World Community Grid and/or Google. Gigantically networked clouds doing all sorts of distributed computing work. We still may have to wait for the end before UC can tell us the answer to the last question, though.

Long lines and quite the interest as absinthe has reappeared on the shelves of liquor stores. (You’ll need BugMeNot for the article...) Green fairy trips, ahoy. In other liquor-related news, the Washington Post says without saying that rich people moving in improves neighborhoods, all through the lens of a beverage store, which has been displaying pricier products, stopped the sale of forties, and otherwise retooling itself from selling to the poor who want cheap alcohol to the rich who can’t stand anything other than Grey Goose. The home-cooking restaurant nearby is going to close up when the lease expires, however, because all the people that would eat there are now going to Starbucks and Caribou Coffee to get their breakfasts. Others have found rents and taxes going up as the richer people take over.

Winning a Tasering in the faaaaaaaaaaaaaaace! today are the freakin' idiots who decided that students should be given electric shocks for misbehavior, and the parents who sued to have in continue after the practice was banned once. Yes, there has to be consent from student and parent for the shocks to be administered, but there’s very little science backing that shock therapy does anything at all for those at the school. This sounds remarkably like the same claims of ex-gay therapy - some seem to work and produce improvement, but there’s still a lot more there for which things aren’t doing anything at all, excepting perhaps repression to explode later.

Good for a laugh or a thought is looking back on the Pope's view of history, assuming that his statement about atheism having led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice is true.

But last for tonight: Happy Holidays, whatever your holidays may be. Peace on earth, good will toward men, and may we all realize our Buddha-nature in this lifetime.

The Sun Rises Again - 25 December 2007

Solstice was a few days ago, but for those who celebrate the Osiris/Mithras cult and all its derivatives, greetings of the festival of rebirth to you. Which, for some, is simply insufficient. It being a slow news day, and kind of thematic, the New York Times has decided to put a spotlight on the person that Bill’O probably considers his staunchest ally in the nonexistent War on Christmas. Who probably would have a look at this photograph of a church in touch with Christmas origins, and not see why people are having a good laugh at it. A much easier-to-understand joke involves a Christmas mistake of switched bags.

Of more interest to the world is that even after 25 years of fighting the War on Some Drugs, the price of Mexican marijuana in Houston hasn't changed much - which means it’s actually gotten cheaper with the way that the dollar has gone. Some things never change?

The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology suggests that a possible reason why we haven’t found anyone else in the universe yet is because they hit a barrier that wiped them out - something like nanoweapons. For now, we’re playing with directed sound to get in your head and beams to fry your skin. The first recorded use of nanoweapons may be the last, and there’s no guarantees all they will do is leave a crater behind.

Peace on earth, and to all people, good will.

Ron Paul is still unsuitable as a Presidential candidate. as he stands by statements and associations with groups interested in bringing back the order before the Civil Rights Act. We expect Mr. Paul to run as an independent, if he’s really serious, with as much stuff as has been put up on him. Huckabee’s candidacy, with the statement about his 23% sales tax and his evangelical roots should also be pushing him to the fringe, but then again, a lot of the other candidates don’t look good either. Will it be a matter of holding one’s nose and voting for the least offensive candidate?

Penelope Trunk, in the Boston Globe, passes on one piece of good advice in a mountain of questionable stuff. the good advice? Graduate school is not for everyone, so evaluate and talk to people who have been there and done that to see whether you really want to press on. The questionable stuff? Going for an MBA is a no-brainer in the affirmative, for other professions, not so good (and in law, one should check marketing skills as well as legal ones), and for humanities degrees, where teaching is the likely result, Penelope says not to bother, as “Baby boomers have a lock on tenure-track jobs, and those boomers aren’t going anywhere any time soon.” A true statement, but if my recall is correct, having one’s MAC means a better base salary and pay grade possibilities. So it might be worth it, once you can get hired. Going for an Ed.D might not be the right idea, though. In my case, it was MLS or bust, so I didn’t have much of a choice.

And rounding out the very short news entry, a nearly-complete survival kit that fits in a mint tin, one that fits in a deer-hunting pouch, and one that fits in a medium-size fanny pack. The smaller ones lack shelter units and protection, and the big one isn’t exactly going to have a tent inside it, so finding protection and natural shelter will have to be part of the idea if you should need such a kit. And the two smallest kits do not have a food supply with them, so you’d better hope the fish bite or you find some washable, edible berries/shoots/plants.

Regarding the Saturnalia, though, I’m embarrassed to say that I received presents from places I wasn’t expecting, and thus had nothing to exchange there. And furthermore, all that I really could and did give out this year were cards, and a few gifts bought for exchanges. I know that for most, the giving is the important part, and that I cannot reciprocate is immaterial. Still, there’s always a little twinge there when it happens. Dome time down the road, I’ll do it to someone else and the debt will be paid. Can’t say that I’ve had enough of a sense of self-worth to really feel comfortable with the idea that my companionship is a great thing and a wonderful gift given. I’ll chalk it up to having moved in the last few months and try not to feel too bad about it. Besides, my presents from home are going to be my stuff arriving in boxes, so I’m not going to complain too much if there isn’t anything new.

I got a blanket, a set of knives, a box of prizes, chocolate and then some, an absolutely adorable book bag with a dragon on the front, the beanie baby Scorch (a fuzzy dragon), a fuzzy lion, a movie pass, tea (English Breakfast and Oolong), tea mugs, balsamic vinegar, a soup cookbook, a Babar book that I was going to buy tomorrow from the friends of the library, a movie pass with enough for tickets and concessions, the third volume of .hack//GU, of which I don’t have the first two volumes, some money to go bookbuying with, and some money to go buy myself things like bookcases with. So it was still a good gift-receiving period for me. I keep saying that when I get a bit more self-sufficient, I’ll be able to give gifts... it’s been quite a few years that I’ve been saying that. Maybe next year I will have finally managed to make that into a reality. We can only hope.

So begins that first day of a twelve day journey for magoi in Persia, having noticed a very odd celestial sighting and deciding that the matter warranted further investigation and observation. According to the popular legend, they will find the star pointing at a stable in Roman Judea, and declare the child born there to be a descendant of kings. Wishing to stamp out any talk of insurrection and rebellion, throughout the existence of this particular child, the Roman authorities will attempt to ascertain the identity of the “king” of one of the rebellious religious monotheist sects and execute him. Unfortunately, rebels hide the child until he is grown, and then reintroduce him into Judea as a prophet of their god. He accumulates a following rapidly with his teachings, a populist appeal that says society and government should take care of their people, rather than taxing them dry and not caring about their welfare. Fearing a rebellion in his name, Roman authorities arrange for him to be arrested on terrorism charges and swiftly execute him after a show trial. This puts down the rebellion, but the legend of the now-martyred Jew survives and is passed from person to person in secret. Biding their time, meeting in secret, eventually they are able to place one sympathetic to them in the highest office of the land, and now protected by the state, begin a bloody and repressive revenge on the people that they feel oppressed them. Thoroughly convinced of the rightness of their cause, their campaign to stamp out any dissent continues even to this day, one thousand, six hundred years after the first of the cultists came to power. Many say peace and do war. However, as with any institution, a subversive element has appeared, even within their power structure. They have decided that the teachings of the Jew they consider a facet of their god are correct and should be listened to more than the vengeful leaders of their sect. They work within their own system, trying to gather others both inside and outside the system so they can exert influence and pressure and eventually topple the leaders that have done great harm in the name of their god. We wish them good skill and fortune in their endeavours. The subverters have not yet reached critical mass, but their ranks grow every day. Perhaps the final triumph of their effort will be when we suddenly stop noticing their presence in places they shouldn’t be. Or maybe it will be just a faint part of a hymn...

Gloria in excélsis Deo
Et in terra pax homínibus.