(no subject)

So a thankfulness meme seems to be going around today, I'll give into my lemming side and join in. Well, mostly because I was meditating on this very subject last night. Things I'm thankful for:

Flanel sheets (there is nothing better in this weather)
Two wonderful, crazy, annoying, odd, magical cats
Being officially done with Xmas shopping, wrapping and organizing (woo!)
My wonderful, crazy, annoying, odd, magical family
Everyone who ever thought me interesting enough to Friend me
Dancing, my troupe and my incredible teacher
A job that has allowed me to fall in love with it and be more creative than I ever have before
My snug, but tidy little apartment
Enough money to pay the bills and buy nice things too
Peanut butter Chex Mix
tersa who's always happy to see me and makes me feel loved
cyranocyrano who always has a hug waiting for me
bonniebluebitch who I should talk to more often because she's wonderful
elo_sf who's so much like me it's both a little scary and delightful
phillipalden who's a profoundly good soul, and who I can talk politics with all I want :)
shadowchaser44 who keeps me supplied with excellent fic and videos
jimweasel who's just about the nicest guy I know
silkblade who I love to dance with
jakejr who is always there when I need her
rexluscus, caligryphy, cleolinda, and thetreacletart who I very much want to grow up to write like
aelfsciene who's sort the long lost blue-haired sister I never had
ravenmb who became a better friend than I ever expected or dared to hope for, and who writes me stories and scripts that leave me absolutely breathless

I think that list will do for a Monday morning :)

Well at least they're honest

You have to give points to Fox's John Gibson whose piece on the "War on Christmas"(tm) at least lays it all out:

GIBSON: The whole point of this is that the tradition, the religious tradition of this country is tolerance, and that the same sense of tolerance that’s been granted by the majority to the minority over the years ought to go the other way too. Minorities ought to have the same sense of tolerance about the majority religion — Christianity — that they’ve been granted about their religions over the years.

PARSHALL: Exactly. John, I have to tell you, let me linger for a minute on that word “tolerance.” Because first of all, the people who like to promulgate that concept are the worst violators. They cannot tolerate Christianity, as an example.

GIBSON: Absolutely. I know — I know that.

PARSHALL: And number two, I have to tell you, I don’t know when they held this election and decided that tolerance was a transcendent value. I serve a god who, with a finger of fire, wrote, he will have no other gods before him. And he doesn’t tolerate sin, which is why he sent his son to the cross, but all of a sudden now, we jump up and down and celebrate the idea of tolerance. I think tolerance means accommodation, but it doesn’t necessarily mean acquiescence or wholehearted acceptance.

GIBSON: No, no, no. If you figure that — listen, we get a little theological here, and it’s probably a bit over my head, but I would think if somebody is going to be — have to answer for following the wrong religion, they’re not going to have to answer to me. We know who they’re going to have to answer to.

PARSHALL: Right.

GIBSON: And that’s fine. Let ‘em. But in the meantime, as long as they’re civil and behave, we tolerate the presence of other religions around us without causing trouble, and I think most Americans are fine with that tradition.

via The Poorman
As a well-behaved pagan, I thank my Christian overlords for their continued tolerance of my "wrong" religion.

And from the "Gee, really?" file:

The former Sept. 11 commission is giving Congress and the White House poor marks on protecting the U.S. against an inevitable terror attack because of their failure to enact several strong security measures.

The 10-member panel, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, prepared to release a report Monday assessing how well their recommendations have been followed. They say the government deserves "more F's than A's" in responding to their 41 suggested changes.

"People are not paying attention," chairman Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, said Sunday. "God help us if we have another attack."

Since the commission's final report in July 2004, the government has enacted the centerpiece proposal to create a national intelligence director. But it has stalled on other ideas, including improving communication among emergency responders and shifting federal terrorism-fighting money so it goes to states based on risk level.

Bet all those Security Moms feel loads better now that Daddy McFlightsuit is watching over them with his steely-eyed squint. Or perhaps not.

(no subject)

Worst. President. EVAR:

This is what those historians said -- and it should be noted that some of the criticism about deficit spending and misuse of the military came from self-identified conservatives -- about the Bush record:

He has taken the country into an unwinnable war and alienated friend and foe alike in the process;

*He is bankrupting the country with a combination of aggressive military spending and reduced taxation of the rich;

*He has deliberately and dangerously attacked separation of church and state;

*He has repeatedly "misled," to use a kind word, the American people on affairs domestic and foreign;

*He has proved to be incompetent in affairs domestic (New Orleans) and foreign ( Iraq and the battle against al-Qaida);

*He has sacrificed American employment (including the toleration of pension and benefit elimination) to increase overall productivity;

*He is ignorantly hostile to science and technological progress;

*He has tolerated or ignored one of the republic's oldest problems, corporate cheating in supplying the military in wartime.



Quite an indictment. It is, of course, too early to evaluate a president. That, historically, takes decades, and views change over times as results and impact become more obvious. Besides, many of the historians note that however bad Bush seems, they have indeed since worse men around the White House. Some say Buchanan. Many say Vice President Dick Cheney.

Heh.

via Rising Hegemon