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The Blogmanac: "On This Day" ... and much more
Think universally. Act terrestrially.
For in a hard-working society, it is rare and even subversive to celebrate too much, to revel and keep on reveling: to stop whatever you're doing and rave, pray, throw things, go into trances, jump over bonfires, drape yourself in flowers, stay up all night, and scoop the froth from the sea.
Anneli Rufus*
We wish Blogmanac readers the very best of the season and a safe and blessed holiday. We'll be back after Christmas posting as usual.
Thank you for visiting through 2004, for your comments and support. And to the exactly 200 subscribers (as of today) who are getting the Blogmanac via email, thank you for subscribing and expect our team to work hard in 2005 to bring you the best each day.
If it's not too cold (or hot, depending where you live), step outside on Christmas night and take in the beams of the full moon that will shine on every child, mother, father, politician, soldier and refugee, rich and starving person on our small planet.
By Patrick J. Buchanan " ... Rumsfeld is being set up to take the fall for what could become a debacle in Iraq. As the plotters, planners and propagandists of this war, the neocons know that if Iraq goes the way of Vietnam, there will be a search conducted for those who misled us and, yes, lied us into war, and why they did it. Rumsfeld has become designated scapegoat.
"To neocons, this war was never about weapons of mass destruction or any alleged Iraqi ties to Sept. 11. That was merely to mobilize the masses for war. Their real reason was empire and making the Middle East safe for Israel ...." Source
"LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair has won a key vote in his bid to reintroduce identity cards, seen by the government as a key weapon in its anti-terror campaign.
"Members of parliament voted on Monday by 385 votes to 93 in favour of bringing back the cards, more than 50 years after wartime leader Winston Churchill abolished them." Source: Yahoo News
Here we are at Yule, the Winter Solstice if you're in the Northern Hemisphere (midsummer for southerners like yours truly).
We are still having some Blogger problems and have to be very minimal in posts here just now. If you would like to read more about Yule, in the Book of Days, click here, and we'll be back in full operation mode as soon as humanly possible. Thanks for your patience.
CLOSE SHOT - Rummy is standing by the railing, staring morosely into the water. The snow is falling hard. Feeling a tap on his shoulder, he wheels around and wrestles an old man with wings into a headlock.
OLD MAN: Ouch! Tut, tut. When will you learn that force doesn't solve everything?
RUMMY: Who the dickens are you?
OLD MAN: Clarence, Angel First Class. I've been sent down to help you.
RUMMY, squinting: You're off your nut, you old fruitcake. You can't help me. I was a matinee idol in this town, a studmuffin. Now everyone's turned on me - Trent Lott, Chuck Hagel and that dadburn McCain.
CLARENCE: No more self-pity, son. I'm going to show you what the world would have been like if you'd never been born.
Clarence, who can fly now, takes Rummy's hand and they soar over the icy Potomac to the Pentagon. Beneath the glass on the desk of the defense secretary is a list of members of Congress and their phone numbers.
RUMMY: Who put that there?
CLARENCE: Sam Nunn. He's the defense secretary. Sam consults with Congress. Never acts arrogant or misleads them. He didn't banish the generals who challenged him - he promoted 'em. And, of course, he caught Osama back in '01. He threw 100,000 troops into Afghanistan on 9/11 and sealed the borders. Our Special Forces trapped the evildoer and his top lieutenants at Tora Bora. You weren't at that cabinet meeting the day after 9/11, so nobody suggested going after Saddam. No American troops died or were maimed in Iraq. No American soldiers tortured Iraqis in Abu Ghraib. No Iraqi explosives fell into the hands of terrorists. There's no office of disinformation to twist perception abroad. We're not on the cusp of an Iraq run by Muslim clerics tied to Iran. Here's Sam. He's with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
GENERAL SHINSEKI: We got some good news today on the National Guard, sir. Recruiting is up 40 percent. With the money we saved killing that useless missile defense system, we up-armored all our Humvees.
RUMMY, fists and jaw clenched: Grrrrrrr...I want to see Wolfie!
CLARENCE: Sam never hired any of those wacko neocons. Wolfowitz is a woolly headed professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a consultant to Ariel Sharon. Richard Perle was never in charge of the Defense Policy Board, so he was unable to enrich himself through government connections, or help Ahmad Chalabi con the administration. Perle stayed an honest man, running a chain of soufflé shops. His soufflés were so fluffy he became known as the Prince of Lightness. Doug Feith never worked here, either, so he never set up the Office of Special Plans to spin tall tales about W.M.D. and Qaeda ties to Saddam. And he never bungled the occupation because there was no occupation. Without you to swoon over in a book, neocon doyenne Midge Decter became a fallen woman, like Violet.
RUMMY, dyspeptic: Holy mackerel! Take me to Dick!
CLARENCE: Dick and Lynne run a bait, tackle and baton-twirling shop in Casper, Wyo. You didn't exist, so you never gave him those jobs in the Nixon and Ford administrations, and he never ran for Congress or worked for Bush 41 or anointed himself 43's vice president. W. chose Chuck Hagel as his running mate. So without you and Dick there to dominate him, he was guided by his dad and Brent Scowcroft, who kept Condi in line. Colin Powell was never cut off at the knees and the U.N. and allies were never bullied. There was never any crazy fever about Iraq or unilateralism or "Old Europe." Here's Colin now, heading for the Oval Office.
POWELL: Merry Christmas, Mr. President. With the help of our allies around the world, we have won the war on terror. And Saddam has been overthrown. Once Hans Blix exposed the fact that Saddam had no weapons, the tyrant was a goner. No Arab dictator can afford to be humilated by a Swedish disarmament lawyer.
RUMMY: Goodness gracious, I've heard enough now. I'm going home. Unless you're going to tell me my wife is an old maid, because I wasn't around to marry her.
CLARENCE: Oh, no. Joyce lives across the street from your old house on Kalorama Road. She's happily married to the French ambassador.
Afrikander – "Een Plesierige Kerfees" Arabic – "I'd Miilad Said Oua Sana Saida" Argentine – "Felices Pasquas Y felices ano Nuevo" Armenian – "Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand" Basque – Eguberri on Bohemian – "Vesele Vanoce" Breton – "Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat" Bulgarian – "Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo" Chinese – [Mandarin] – "Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan" Chinese – [Cantonese] – "Saint Dan Fai Lok" Cornish – "Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth" More (scroll down)
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EXTERIOR BRIDGE OVER POTOMAC RIVER - NIGHT