A family Christmas story

Sorry, it's been so long since I've written anything new- busy time of year and all that. Since Christmas is primarily about family I thought I'd share a little story about mine. Now, as a general rule I don't blog much about friends, family, or co-workers. And the reason is, I think it rude to discuss personal interactions with the omniverse, at least without the expressed permission of those involved. Moreover, this is not a truly annonymous blog as many of you know. That having been said, I invoke the "Jackass" rule (from MTV's old Jackass show) that basically says parents are likely to forgive you, not matter what transgressions you make. The only other party possibly slandered in this post, is safely annonymous, and I'm sure stoic enough to enjoy the story for what it is.

Two weeks ago, I was pleased to receive a gift in the mail from an old high school friend. She had sent me a Christmas mix from her and her husband. Since I mostly listen to music at work, the CD went in my jacket pocket, and unfortunately it went unlistened to for most of the holiday season.

Fast forward to 2 days ago. The family (mom, dad, sister, grandma, and me) are driving to a party when my sister laments that we don't have Christmas music to listen to on the way. Brain flash! I happen to have a Christmas CD in my pocket! So in it goes. The first song on the CD is called "The Christians and the Pagans" which as far as I can tell is a folksie little tiddy about how the Christians decided to convert the pagans by hosting Christmas near the winter solstace, and singing about how one God or many, we're all cool people. It has choice lines such as "My mommy says your mommy's a witch". I can't say I got that 100% right because about 70 seconds into the song, my sister and I started cracking up laughing. The somewhat more conservative catholic adults in the front politely decided to skip forward to the next song.

After the party. We're driving home and continuing with the CD. It's sometime after "I've got my love to keep me warm" and possibly even up to "The Atheist Christmas Carol" when my mom mutters "Your friend [name omitted] certainly does have ecclectic taste."
I started laughing a little bit.
Grandma shouts up to the front: "What did you say?" (Grandma hears well for being in her 80's, but doesn't always catch everything.)
Mom, then a little flustered, becomes more blunt: "This is the worst Christmas CD I've ever heard!"
I stared laughing a lot.
Mom expounds some: "It's worse than Alvin and the Chipmunks!"
I laughed so hard I cried.

So, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and hope they get to spend some time with their friends and family. And to everyone out there, whatever your tastes, and however you view the holidays: may they be times of hope, love, and cheer.

-Lanky

(side note to annonymous friend: despite artistic differences, my mom still thinks the world of you.)

Torture Bill en Route

Via Carpetbagger,

The house passed a resolution to support McCain's anti-torture bill verbatim. It passed 308-122 (more than enough to beat a veto). So the administration is going to have to suck it up and play along. He's the roll call.

On hundred twenty one Republicans and one Democrat opposed the bill. I'm curious. What is up with Marshall, the one Democrat?

More money than brains

Here's a perfect Christmas gift for the wealthy vapid. This piece features traditional red laquer over Japanese hardwood and is elegantly suspended by a black silk cord. Your's from Tiffany and Co for a mere $190. (plus tax and shipping)

What a deal, huh? It's a fucking wooden disc that's painted red and hung on a string. For only $190! Maybe you're the type of fool who will drop a pile of money on garbage just because it's name-brand. If so, act now...they may sell out. There hasn't been a "deal" like this since a bunch of natives got a whole bag of beads for a junky island we call Manhattan.

Over-worked Congress works on priorities

Congress is having a rough go of it working on their exit plan for the 2005 session. Usually they'd be off doing whatever they do when they aren't "in-session", but this year they have a busy agenda.

Check out this bill, "freezing or cutting back spending on medical research and education and nearing agreement on cuts to the Medicaid health care program for the poor." Now it happens that Lanky is supported by medical research spending, but really I don't care. The budget should be balanced. It should be balanced with both cuts and tax increases. However, we should also have a little transparency here. Our biggest elective expenditure is the war in Iraq, which since 2003 has cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

So, because we've spent hundreds of billions of dollars in war, we cut back on research to cure disease. If that's cool with you, it's cool with me. Money is finite and it's up to our elected officials to determine how it is spent.

I'm just tired of people pretending we can wage war forever on a credit card without any opportunity costs. How many petri dishes you can get for a cruise missle? I wonder if my congressman even knows. Bet it never crossed his mind when he voted for war.

Well, I'm sure the war will be worth the hundreds of billions of dollars once the Iraqis are free and thankful to us. They will be thankful won't they? It will have been a worthy expenditure of a few hundred billion. Don't we still appreciate what the French did for us?

(oh i forgot to address the Medicaid cuts. Advice to the poor: join the Army, it's got better benefits and job security than education.)

The presidential comeback

Bush approval rating bounces back up 5 points to 42%. While his aides are pushing the press to make a story of it, Bush himself had a different take: "Don't call it a comeback, I been here for years, rockin my peers and puttin suckas in fear." The recently subdued Bush has recovered some of his characteristic swagger, responding to one reporter's question with a beligerent quip "Mama said knock you out."

Credit where due

As strange as it is that the President taking questions is news, he did and it is. Right here in moderately chilly Philadelphia, the Pres took unscripted questions from people who don't work for him.

Some of the questions were chilly too. Surprisingly, he answered them well. All prior reservations aside, let it be known:

He did good.

Tis the season to be busy

So busy lately, I haven't had much time to blog. You may have heard the rumor about Rummy resigning and Lieberman replacing him. I have no idea if that's true or not, but I'm not convinced it's a good political move to put a person of Jewish faith in charge of the war in Iraq. Theoretically, one's faith shouldn't matter a whit, realistically though, our Iraqi "allies" are unlikely to see it that way.

Rummy misses by a mile

via Sullivan, here's an interesting didactic from our Secretary of Defense at The Belgavia Dispatch.

Rumsfeld on the Shia "security force abuses" (not yet officially deathsquads):

SEC. RUMSFELD: I -- my sense is I don't know. And it's obviously something that one has to be attentive to. It's obviously something that the -- General Casey and his troops are attentive to and have to be concerned about. It -- I'm not going to be judging it from 4,000 miles away -- how many miles away?
--
GEN. PACE: It's a long ways.
SEC. RUMSFELD: It's a long way -- 5,000, 6,000 maybe.

Excuse me...what the fuck is the point? It doesn't matter how far away it is!!!! We as a country have 160,000 troops deployed in a war zone. If you're in charge of the military, that's probably the most important mission on your agenda. So stop coming up with quirky little excuses for why you can't do your job, and do it. Or resign.

Women vs Men Names in Music

Sorry for not posting much...I ran out of nice things to say, so decided to say nothing at all. (actually, I've just been busy)

I did want to share my deep thought of the day from yesterday. I noticed that there are dozens of songs romanitcizing a particular woman: Jenny I got your number, My Sharona, Anna Begins, Darling Nikki, etc...etc...

Female singers on the other hand, tend to use a generic "he/him/my guy" and don't contextualize to an individual. (noteworthy exception: Bobbie McGee)

I'm sure this says something deep and meaningful about society or the differences between the sexes, but I haven't figured out what.