A Child's Christmas

A replay tale, using Uber's latest Christmas print.




I remember the sticky pine wreath and tree sap, weeping through my mittens, leaving little black fuzz on my fingers and a pleasant smell on my mind. Crazy Mistletoe traps hovered over doors, snatching perfectly sane adults in their grasp, only to urge them to pull me into a conspiracy of kisses. Yams, hams and Rankin Bass Christmas classic clay animation classics, with endless sequential stories of optimistic triumph over holiday tribulation, marched along the beating drum of carols and musical tributes. Where did mom hide those presents? Can I guess what's in this box?

There I was, Christmas eve, waiting in my grandmother's house for Santa's arrival. A brisk winter wind would usher the gnarled fingers from that craggy old oak, across a roof shingle or two. I would whisper over to my sister.

"Did you hear that?!"

I gasped, slipping from underneath the quilt, and padding to the window. I could feel the frigid breath of winter crystals kissing my cheek, through the leaky, creaky window sash, as I pressed on the glass, trying to purchase a glimpse.

"Shhhh! Quiet! Get back to bed!"

My sister would caution me, reminding me that if Santa detected my awakened state, he would hurry off to the next house, leaving us unadorned by gifts. She was bigger, but none the wiser. She also reminded me that if I scared St. Nick off, she would quickly cast my broken body on her scales of sibling justice, for my curious folly.

To my relief, the next morning, there was that brand new box full of Tinkertoys, the Erector set or a dazzling box of Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots. Stumbling in excitement and pajamas, in the midst of the smell of Christmas morning bacon sizzling, hot buttered toast, steaming rich cocoa and pancakes, we would shower each other in the confetti of exhausted bows and paper. Gramps would have to shoo us into the television den, since our rough housing had upended Gram's ashtray, bringing a brief orange shower down on her seasoned wood floor, still fuming from an early wash of Murphy's Oil soap, wicking between the cracks.

As I get older, the things I cherish about Christmas are those very things that make tradition so important to people. I don't care much about gifts these days. The sounds, the tastes, the ornaments, music and gentle touches of the holiday mean much more to me now.

I know many people never grow out of selfishness. I know many people have painful Christmas holiday memories, often brought on by self-imposed emotional obligations. I have been through enough of those years, sometimes ruined by my own selfishness. It's all part of accepting the perpetual imperfection of our lives, I suppose.

Ultimately, isn't selflessness and human imperfection the lesson taught to us, by the human being who's name and birth are celebrated every Christmas?

The Uber Snow Princess

An Uber Inspired Christmas Poem by Insolublog


We ring at the store
We sing about yore
We bring to our floors
Our dances and chores

With brothers and sisters
With ills on the mend
We talk of fresh blisters
With workers and friends

A much needed pause
Soon arrives in the year
It gives us good cause
To embrace some good cheer

A wonderful night
Quickly approaches
We rush about town
In our metal glass coaches

Lulled by our dreaming
Oft we forget
Rapt by our scheming
We lapse in regret

A jeweled northern star
On a crisp Christmas night
From a journey so far
We see the bright light

In a night with no wind
Serene and subdued
Our eyes cast above
To drink in her mood

A glitter cascade
Of soft crystal grace
Each touch a bright kiss
As she brushes our face

She plays every note
And then it is gone
On the warmth of our skin
Every note in her song

Each feather so light
In each angel wing
Her song sung so silent
With respect to the King

Calm fills our souls
With each melting note
As it rolls down each cheek
Wicking into each coat

Our gaze moves away
From the heavenly dome
We arrive at our doors
Into the arms of our homes

Mom clears the wet chorus
Away from our face
And puts her own kiss
Right there in its place

We gather at home
And bundle ourselves
With warm food and drink
With our Santas and elves

Christmas spirit smites us
Holiday ignites us
With eager submission
The tradition unites us

The perfume of egg nog
Of pumpkin and pine
The flavor of cider
Of mellow sweet wine

All wrapped in our family
We warm to the glow
And sail through the evening
On the holiday flow

Exulted and sated
We rest in our beds
As the gentle Snow Princess
Sings over our heads



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A nice Gift

If you wish to give a nice gift of knowledge this season, might I suggest the following:




Yes, I know it is a PBS production. It also has a few characters I do not like very much. But you cannot learn anything from a source which presents only one view.

This is an excellent entertaining and informative synopsis of the global macroeconomic view of things.

Disc 1: The Battle of Ideas

This is a thorough in its presentation of classic liberal Keynesian economics and the pure free market views of Freidrich Von Hayek. Learn the ultimate folly of government control on prices and markets, designed to carry us out of recessions. Learn why it did not work for Carter. Learn how Hayek is finally getting credit for a view that was criticized for a lifetime. Ah, yes. The arrogance of those in the know. You will see it in action. It reminds me of the global warming alarmists now, and the global cooling alarmists then.

Disc 2: The Agony of Reform

Learn how economic shock therapy had dramatic curative effects on Poland and Brazil. Find out how and why it failed in others. Find out how countries are dealing with irrational political fear and resistance to specialization and change. Find out where some of those fears are justified.

Disc 3: The New Rules of the Game

Discover some of the new problems of global economics. Review the power and political motivations of multinationals. See borders and nations become blurred. Discover new perils, like the international market 'contagion' that brought about a potential depression level disaster, during the Asian market bubble collapse of the 90s.

Great stuff.

The Race has Begun

I have a definition of racism that is an extension of the language in the Constitution.

If you make any personal decision in your life, that is made solely on the criteria of skin color and/or cultural background, excluding all other criteria, it is a racist decision.

Voting for a fellow black person, solely because they are black, is a racist decision. The motivation is racist. It fits the definition. If a white person stepped forward and declared the same motive, for another white person,it would be quickly labeled thus. If a white person votes for a black person solely because they are black, out of sympathy or guilt or whatever, it is a racist decision.

Voting for a hispanic person, solely because you think that voting for a hispanic person advances the cause of hispanic people, is a racist decision. It fits the definition. The motivation is racist. If a hispanic person did this, they would be excoriated by other hispanics for being a tool of whites. They would be right. When a white person does it, they should be excoriated for being a slave to some bogus politically correct guilt conscience, implanted into their psyche, by a racist liberal mindset.

If you promote a person solely on skin color, it is a racist decision. It fits the definition. Nobody wants to be operated on by a surgeon who got his diploma handed over by a affirmative action policy. Nobody wants their anti-lock brakes or their airbags designed by anyone who was given a better grade, based on skin tone, instead of engineering acumen. Racism hurts everyone. Affirmative action, as is practiced today, is affirmative racism. It makes liberals feel good, while it hurts the public as a body, and destroys the achievement of minorities who try to excel, purely based on character content and merit based excellence.

Everybody should be measured by performance excellence and achievement. Honor rolls are not criminal acts. They are metric mandates for a healthy nation and culture. This does not mean under-achievers are discarded.

Some people are better at the game of life than others. Live with that fact. Nature intended it that way, so competition would move us all forward. It is a law of nature, so in the long run, it will not be ignored.

People that excel, should be rewarded, praised, lauded and ushered into their specialty, without delay. Their achievement should not be moderated, mediated and attenuated to rescue the feelings of others from comparison.

Personal responsibility is fast becoming a passing fad in this country. I cannot express how extraordinarily dangerous this trend is. The Chinese, the Indians and the Asian capitalists and even the terrorists will not look upon our struggling heroin addicted misunderstood population of artistic celebrities and homeless types with the jaded eyes of secular humanism. They will take all of the power in this world. They will seize the energy, the technologies, the markets and all of the physical and intellectual property. It is as simple as that.

This sudden rise in Obama's popularity is beginning to look exactly like the same template Deval Patrick used, here in Assachusetts, to become governor. Here you have a completely empty and image driven platform, coated in multi-cultural teflon. Race is now a tool that will be pimped, ad nauseum, for points at the polls. It is leverage. In spite of the MLK dream of people being judged by character content, the new racists, like Jackson, Sharpton and their army of guilt driven liberals, will now use their racism as a tool for political leverage.

If this guy is nominated, Condi may have to be the anitdote, whether we like it or not, to expose this ugly trend in the system.

Of course, this will, by my own definition, be a racist decision. That is just too damn bad.


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Bringing the politics of WOJ to the Andover Public schools

UPDATE Jul-26-2007:

The title has been altered from the original. Read the comments for a discussion between a commenter (Matthew), former student of the professor and myself on the subject of Francis.

Original Content:

Dread Pundit Bluto is reporting on the activities of a teacher, Ron Francis, who works in the town I live in, Andover Massachusetts. He is paid by my tax dollar and is using his science teaching position as a platform to convey the anti-Israel anti-American propaganda of a radical group called Wheels of Justice, which describe Palestine and Iraq as occupied territories.

This is a clip from their "Mission" statement:

To speak honestly and openly about Palestine/Israel, one must recognize that the Israeli military occupation continues a legacy that began in 1947 with the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to make room for the State of Israel. The violence suffered by Israelis and Palestinians will continue as long the roots of the conflict remain-colonization, occupation, displacement, apartheid and the denial of the right of Palestinian refugees.

Here are their 'Action Focus' bullets:

Promote solidarity with Iraqis and Palestinians under war and occupation.

This means get the suicide bombers together, so they can share tips on the best cell phones and plastic explosives to use in killing evil American and Israeli occupiers, in the name of peace of course.

Cultivate, promote and take nonviolent direct action for peace and justice.

Cultivation of young minds is like agriculture. WoJ will bring the fertilizer. Once your kids head pops out of the soil, a terrorist reaper will come by to collect it.

Build and strengthen networks of action groups in states visited.

Good idea. Maybe we can break the network up into little chunks called 'cells'. Then we can give each cell a special task to get the job done. WoJ will take the non-violent part, and well...

Engage in advocacy with elected and appointed officials; challenge pro-war and pro-occupation officials in public.

We can start this process by labeling those who oppose us as pro-war, instead of supporting peace through victory. We can also label them as pro-occupation instead of people against the idea of terrorists controlling half of the worlds oil wealth. This way, we get to challenge them on our terms.

Engage in mass media campaigns.

We can start by getting Reuters to photoshop more of those Palestinians suffering in the streets.

Raise material support for home rebuilding, refugee aid, and advocacy work.

Of course. God knows how much material is collapsed and how many innocent refugees are created every time a suicide bomber re-ignites hostilities with his/her religious peace mandate. But hey, if Hamas and Hezbolla can win hearts and minds through social welfare, why not WoJ and Ron Francis?


To pawn this type of delusion on the minds of kids, in a U.S. public school setting, after all of the concessions and olive branches extended in the name of this farcical peace process, is just too much to bear. Basically it means eliminate Israel. They are a colonist occupier. Your kids should be made aware of this. Forget the Arabs using the Palestinians as suicidal cannon fodder. Poo poo. We all know it is the evil Jews and their evil American henchmen. After all we are about peace, so it must be good.

Of course, the ACLU is defending this insufferable moron's right to poison the minds of children at my expense.

FYI:

Town of Andover

Dr. Claudia Bach
Superintendent of Schools
36R Bartlet Street

Andover, MA 01810

978-623-8501

cbach@aps1.net

Enjoy.

Oh yeah... Don't forget to vote:



Point Five
Radioactive Liberty

Bringing some Balance to Life

Bear with me on the sparse posting, as the family fun just keeps on coming. I hope to be Trekking soon. Meanwhile, someone I know, who should have known better, sent an interesting link to a tale about the man who built coral castle in Florida.

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa071999.htm

The mystery is surrounded by the usual calls of paranormal feats of fantasy and imagination. This single man, Edward Leedskalnin, managed this work alone. Amazing.

• An obelisk he raised weighs 28 tons.
• The wall surrounding Coral Castle stands 8 ft. tall and consists of large blocks each weighing several tons.
• Large stone crescents are perched atop 20-ft.-high walls.
• A 9-ton swinging gate that moves at the touch of a finger guards the eastern wall.
• The largest rock on the property weighs an estimated 35 tons.
• Some stones are twice the weight of the largest blocks in the Great Pyramid at Giza.

Well people were so impressed, they had to come up with some impressive hypothesis. Some of these include observations like:

• The singing of levitation spells
• Invisible patterns of energy lines surrounding the Earth which concentrates points of telluric power where they intersect. (Whatever the hell that means.)
• Measurements from the Coral Castle position to the zero-degree and 90-degree longitude lines, when they passed through the equator, also yielded harmonics related to light and gravity.
• And so on...

Now, yours truly just does not buy any of this new age crap. I must say, the concept of a single person achieving the tasks listed above is impressive for sure. I was convinced he used physics to do it.

Well, it does look like someone else proved that simple physics is capable, given the correct sequencing and planning. Some of you may have seen him on Discovery. Since I do not watch much TV, I may be behind the eight ball. His name is W.T. Wallington, a carpenter. He is not a rocket scientist, but a person with years of trade experience, and a boat load of curiosity. Go visit his site here,

http://www.theforgottentechnology.com

Watch the elegantly simple principles of balance, counterbalance, pivot and leverage move enormous masses with minimal labor. No magic lines of force. No mysterious fantasmagorical magic spells. No advanced computer mathematics. He just used simple principles, and empirical experimentation. Check out the rolling square block and the counter weight methods. He also observed that the larger the mass, the easier it is to achieve a useable point of counterbalance.

He has some moving pictures on the site. Firefox has some difficulty. I.E. and Safari seem to work with a bit of cajoling.

This is why I have enormous respect for people outside of academia. This is why so many people, who get out there and roll up their sleeves, are so important to our innovative spirit. I am convinced this is how the Egyptians got the job done.

By the way, your continued support is greatly appreciated.



Here are a couple of additional voting booths, since you asked nicely:

Point Five
Radioactive Liberty

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Humbly nominated

Here I was, talking about unloading my stress on those around me, and you guys and gals went off and nominated me for the Best of the Top 3501 - 5000 Weblog awards.



I just want to thank all of you, my friends, for making my day.

Other friends on the short list:

Point Five
Radioactive Liberty


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Tough time Dealing with this Season

It is a depressing list.

• My father just started kidney dialysis one week ago.
• The layoffs at work have left a tempest of loose ends, which may never be tied up.
• My best friend is melting down over his own horrendous year of family crisis management. I cannot do anything but offer my support.
  
• We are about to be assaulted with the worst political situation this state has seen in years.
• Terror and dhimmitude lurk around the corner.
• My diabetes medication prevents me from having a drink to kill this stress. I have taken up the Saxophone, as a distraction, having never played an instrument before.
• The neuropathy in my feet has been making a return performance. This makes me sleepless and more irritable.
  

I am finding it damn difficult to be optimistic.

I just lashed out at a clerk at Barnes and Noble today. I should not have.

Would you like to renew your frequent readers card, sir?

Absolutely not.

May I ask why, sir?

Because when I walk up to your register, I see you have a pyramid of offensive crap like this.. ( I hold up a box desk calendar, of 'Bushisms' ) on sale, for holiday shoppers. I am damn sick of it, lady. I am sick of this store. I only want this one book, since I do not wish to wait for the mail. And I never, ever, want to be associated with your frequent readers club, again.

Oooh, kay. I'm sorry you are upset sir. Thank you for shopping here, today.

I got half of the way home and I started to feel sick. I just slathered a considerable wad of my emotional balm on a person who did not deserve it. I do not like it when people do that to me. It is not her store. She may not approve of the way the items are stacked. I strongly felt like going back to apologize, but I did not take action to do it. This is one of those events that will be stuck in my regret cache for years to come.

Now I am here, laying it all on my readers. Sorry.