Christmas Blogging Part 2: Scooter's Family

On the 26th, it was time for Scooter's family Christmas. John and Ellen came to town again this year, so Eryn and Oliver didn't have to get dragged down to Tucson. I'm sure the airlines appreciate their efforts.

Traditional Christmas fondue (alcohol and cheese--what could be better?) John has to make this face to digest cheese.



Eryn does not need pants to open presents. Jackie and Andrew dressed Oliver in blaze orange to prevent his being shot with Scott's Pigapult, but the gambit failed, and Uncle Scott nailed him in the face shortly afer this photo was taken.



Allison and Ceri gave Eryn a leotard and tutu, both pink. Eryn was uncertain at first, but once the tutu was on, she was NOT taking it off. Allison's lucky I don't publish that lovely photo of her with her "bump" showing in retaliation for the tutu.



Oliver wanted to know why he didn't get a blue tutu.



Put the bike together NOW, Daddy. Now! Now! Now!



Allison read the traditional Korean Christmas tale, Don't Wake the Puppies.



The next morning, Eryn had figured out pedaling. We're in trouble now.

Christmas Blogging Part 1: My Family

A healthy Christmas breakfast includes the licorice Santa brought:



Eryn followed this with a cookies for lunch at Grandma and Grandpa's house:




Okay, this was the actual meal, where my parents forced us to eat on the steps because "That's where smartypantses eat." Eryn said her first two-word sentence! "More ham."



Then Santa showed up and did some kidwrangling:










Present time! Laurie helped 8 1/2-month-old Max open his very first gift:



And Millie could open twice as many jars as she could when she opened the first one:

Priorities

CNN Headline News last night:

Homophobic racist football player dies: 2 minutes
Referee gets tackled in football game: 2 replays
44,000 people die in huge earthquake/tsunami disaster in Asia: 20 seconds

TIME is George's Bitch

GWB is the Time Man of the Year.

I'm not kidding; why do you ask?

This excerpt from Reuters is particularly enlightening, in terms of underscoring Time's bitchiosity:

President Bush's bold, uncompromising leadership and his clear-cut election victory made him Time magazine's ``Person of the Year'' for 2004, its managing editor said on Sunday.

Time chose Bush ``for sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his 10-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters this time around that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years,'' Jim Kelly wrote in the magazine.


For those of you who are confused about some of the statements above, here's a key:

"bold".....arrogant

"uncompromising leadership".......ignoring (and sometimes mocking) anyone he perceives to disagree with him

"clear-cut election victory"..........mandate--oh, wait--holy directive--no, that's not it: terrifying narrow victory (yeah, that's it)

"sticking to his guns"........inflexibly maintaining his misguided course even in the face of new and alarming information; ignoring reality

"reshaping the rules of politics"........doing whatever the hell he wants, despite having promised to collaborate with moderates and liberals

Read a book

I've been reading House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties, looking to get a bead on where Michael Moore gleaned his supposition that the Bush family and the royal Saudies and the bin Laden (or Binladen) families have been connected for decades. Mostly, it is making me feel my extraordinary impotence in the political system, peppered with moments of sheer disgust. One of those moments came on pp. 79-80:

The bipartisan bill [the Prevention of Genocide Act, 1988] passed the Senate unanimously just one day after it was introduced. But thanks to Colin Powell and Dick Cheney, it never became law. "Secretary of State Colin Powell was then the national security adviser who orchistrated Ronald Reagan's decision to give Hussein a pass for gassing the Kurds," Galbraith wrote. "Dick Cheney, then a prominent Republican congressman...could have helped pass the sanctions legislation, but did not."

(Peter Galbraith: senior advisor to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee)

The Act stated simply that the U.S should: "impose sanctions on Iraq as long as Iraq continues to use chemical weapons and to pursue a campaign of genocide against the Kurdish people." The Senate passed it unanimously (UNANIMOUSLY!), and the first Bush administration squashed it? Later that year, Iran and Iraq declared a cease fire. Five days after that, Hussein used chemical weapons in Iraqi Kurdistan. President George H.W. Bush's reaction? He facilitated more loans to Hussein's regime and its development of nuclear capability, use of chemical weapons, and other military buildup. Good plan, George.

And why? Well, to protect U.S oil interests in Saudi Arabia, of course. Makes perfect sense. Enable the psycho, get cheap oil. Nevermind about what the psycho will do later. Later isn't our problem. (Oops.)

Falwell on Blitzer

--said "Blow them all away, in the name of the Lord."

Hm, sounds a lot like militant Islamic rhetoric.