purpleglitter just ending a four day weekend and trash day shifted to Wednesday combined to completely addle my internal clock. The trash came and went and I completely missed it. What's worse, this week is recycling pickup. Recycling pickup in Arlington only happens every other week, so missing it causes things to really pile up. Fun fun, I guess I'll move it down to the basement for storage until it can be picked up — which won't be until after New Years.

This has been a wonderful and merry Christmas so far. purpleglitter got me wonderful gifts, including a new birding camera — the same model as the broken one, so that it will work with my telephoto lens.

My parents gave me a brass clock once owned by my great-grandfather. It's an old electric clock and wasn't made with the ability to start up on its own. A knob in the back must be spun just right so that it "catches", then the electric power will take over. The neat thing about the clock is that it will run backwards if the knob is spun backwards. I used to always set it running backward when I was a kid, and it is running backwards in my livingroom now.

The information coming out about Blackwater just keeps getting worse and worse.

A few weeks ago, we hear that Blackwater massacred at least 11 Iraqi civilians.

Then we find out that there were 6 other Blackwater shootings this year.

Then we find out that a Blackwater employee drunkenly shot and killed one of Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi's bodyguards last Christmas Eve, only to be silently whisked back to the United States by the State Department — never to be held criminally responsible for the murder.

Then we find out that Blackwater (not Iran) has been arming the Iraqi militias.

Then we find out that there have been 195 Blackwater shootings since 2005, and in 162 of them Blackwater fired first.

Blackwater has been operating above the law, not accountable to anyone — and the State Department has been complicit in their actions. The Iraqi government has asked that Blackwater leave the country, but the U.S. State Department told them that is not possible. As a result, the Iraqi government has accepted the foreign-hired mercenaries will stay and that it is powerless to do anything about them. Is that how a sovereign government behaves? Powerless to prosecute, expel, or even question foreign mercenary groups that prey on it's citizens?

The Iraqi government is in not sovereign, its actions have to be approved by the United States, it is nothing more than a puppet. When Americans complain about the Iraqi government being ineffective, they are really complaining about our government's puppeteering being ineffective.

ganked from many:

On the twelfth day of Christmas, neitherday sent to me...

Twelve squirrels suffering

Eleven strings writing

Ten crows a-kissing

Nine cats birdwatching

Eight trees a-scrying

Seven cigars a-walking

Six politics a-nothing

Five ci-i-i-ivil liberties

Four zebra finches

Three haunted houses

Two psych wards

...and a luna in an astronomy.

Get your own Twelve Days:

To Dennis Prager:

If you can't swear on the bible, you have no business being in American politics. You have no business being part of America. Ditto for taking the pledge of allegiance. Hell, if you can't be bothered to put up a Christmas tree this season, why don't you just leave.

If you can't or won't follow the religious customs of the country you're living in, you have no business being part of it. Take for example the Roman Empire. If the Christians of Rome couldn't offer the traditional Roman sacrifices, they had no business being part of the Empire. The Christians were not unduly persecuted or "oppressed" by the Romans: Emperors like Decius were merely working to preserve traditional values.

</sarcasm>

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission - both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state - especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life. The game, slated for release by October 2006 in advance of the Christmas shopping rush, has been previewed at video game exhibitions, and reviewed by major newspapers and magazines. But until now, no fan or critic has pointed out the controversial game's connection to Mr. Warren or his dominionist agenda. ... According to Mr. Warren, the establishment of this earthly kingdom requires "foot soldiers." As part of his plan, Mr. Warren said he would encourage laypeople to "adopt" needy villages overseas in order to plant churches, expand business opportunities, educate children, influence governments, and overthrow corrupt political leaders, whom he described as "little Saddams." Mr. Warren said his purpose is to enlist "one billion foot soldiers for the Kingdom of God" in the developing world. And the stadium crowd roared its approval. Celebrants included Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, a tiny east African country that lost hundreds of thousands of people when it suffered genocide in 1994. Catholic and Protestant clergy have been convicted in connection with that genocide. Yet Mr. Kagame announced that he would allow Mr. Warren to turn his country into the first purpose driven nation. The following month, 16 Rwandan religious leaders arrived in Orange County to begin religious training at Saddleback Church. Mr. Warren has said that his global initiative was developed "underground" and in "stealth". Presumably, this was done with the assistance of Mr. Carver, who directs the Purpose Driven Church in all its activities outside North America. full article

I hear time and time again the Islam is the religion of violence. Islam is the religion that endangers the world. The only reason the fundamentalist Christians have not resorted to terrorism more then they have (and, yes there have been plenty of terrorist attacks by fundamentalist Christians) is that they often have access to more "acceptable" avenues to pursue their agenda, as carpet bombing civilian populations with white phosphorus is deemed more acceptable than a suicide attack. If fundamentalist Christians lose their political prestige you can expect a series of terrorist attacks from their ranks. "Last Days Crusade" would be a likely organizational name.

I'm not saying all Christian are violent, the same as not all Muslims are violent. What I am saying is that Christianity holds no moral high ground over Islam. Both have factions that want to kill all the infidels. Fundamentalism is the problem, not any particular religion.

I had a good Christmas with purpleglitter. "Santa" brought me all several exciting things including a cane and a viola. Many people have been suggesting I get a cane for many months now, and the one I got yesterday is quite stylish and has two secret compartments, one containing a brandy vial which I will use to keep some sort of concentrated energy drink from the Reliable Market and the other containing a built in compass which I can store a small pillbox for meds above. I am, however, most excited about the viola. Ever since I tried my hand at purpleglitter's violin, I've felt a calling to play the viola. For now I will learn the techniques, but I want to eventually play unscripted as I do on the piano/keyboard.

We had sparkling lemon Italian soda and sparkling cranberry juice and watched a Christmas Story on the television and yibber yabbed for hours. I also talked to a great many people on the phone, including my paternal grandfather whom I haven't talked to in years.

I made a huge dinner that purpleglitter thoughtly enjoyed. We started out with a salad with chards of many colours topped with shiitake mushroom and sesame vinaigrette and move on to mushroom turnovers, pesto-stuffed tortellini with vodka sauce topped with provolone, fontina, and kasseri cheeses baked to a golden brown, and roasted corn all followed by key lime pie for dessert. Decidedly decadent compared to our normal fare.

I'm very thankful I got to spend and enjoy yesterday with purpleglitter, she is my favorite piece of string.

I grew up in a predominately atheist household. We celebrated Christmas because my parents came from families that celebrated Christmas. However, we celebrated it as an entirely secular holiday. "Merry Christmas" was a standard winter greeting.

On both the winter solstice and the summer solstice, I would also occasionally say "Happy Solstice". However, at that point growing up I had no idea that the solstice was actually considered by anyone a holiday of any sort. I just knew that something was going on in the sky and it was called the solstice and it seemed like a good idea to wish people a happy one.

I am no longer an atheist, and while I may draw some of my beliefs and practices from pagan traditions, I am far from what one would consider pagan. I have my own complex mixed up spirituality drawn from many religions and philosophies with a good deal of my own stuff thrown in, and take pride in the fact that I truly follow no prescribed spiritual belief system.

In that light, I have come to view the solstice as an ideal winter holiday for one reason: no matter what your religious beliefs are, something actually happens every year on the winter solstice. Anyone who would dispute that something occurs is more ridiculous than the flat earthers.

So, in a completely astronomical context:

HAPPY SOLSTICE!

Poll #625560
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Which of the following greetings will you likely use this month?

I saw a squirrel outside the living room windows carrying a Christmas cookie with tons of green and white icing to it's nest along the power lines. A few minutes later, I saw the same squirrel carrying another Christmas cookie. It must have found a stash. It's going to have a nest full of cookies. Lucky squirrel.

purpleglitter put up pictures of my purses here and the recipe database (pre-filled with recipes) is up here.

Christmas was great. Spent the day with purpleglitter and merryperseis. We sat around our foundling tree in the morning and opened presents while drinking tea and cocoa. I got a bunch of purses purpleglitter made by hand for me. purpleglitter also got me a subscription to Scientific American, soap, and made me a recipe database. merryperseis gave candy and a pre-registration to Anime Boston and candles. From merryperseis's mom I got a small stuffed Canadian goose, which completely my collection of totem animals (my other totem animals are the raccoon, squirrel, and skunk).

For Christmas dinner, merryperseis took purpleglitter and I out to the Chai Café for Indian food. Not traditional, I know, but Indian food is fabulous for any occasion. After dinner we headed over to purpleglitter's apartment to watch Rudolph, during which I fell asleep.

All in all I had a wonderful Christmas.

Had a wonderful Christmas Eve. Trash picked a Christmas tree, already decorated with tinsel. Carried it home and set it up in an upturned drum. After putting up the tree, purpleglitter, merryperseis, and I drove around and looked at the light displays. Discovered Lexington sucks for Christmas lights. The place to be is Somerville. After spending several hours looking at (and listening to!) christmas displays we headed for home to cuddle into our beds.

purpleglitter and I cleaned several rooms of the house_of_clocks today.