December 23, 2004

Start (or continue) a 21st Century Christmas tradition and gather your kids around the computer to track Santa at this NORAD site as he delivers toys to all the good little girls and boys around the world on Christmas Eve!Welcome to the 2004 NORAD Tracks Santa Website

"The Fourth Estates' fortunes have waned.
What happened to the news?
And what is EPIC?"
Click to watch this Must See video on where New Media may very well be going:
EPIC 2014

Tip of the Santa hat to Lucianne, who got it from NRO's The Corner--needless to say, it's a meme about THE meme.

December 22, 2004

Families anxious for news from Iraq

Brothers, wives and mothers in Virginia waited anxiously for news of their loved ones stationed in Mosul, Iraq, where a large explosion shredded their tented mess hall yesterday, leaving dead and injured in pools of blood.

Families probably will be notified today or tomorrow, tragically close to Christmas, about whether their relatives died or were injured in the horrific attack.
[I know your prayers conveying your sorrow and sympathy and asking that the bereaved be sent a Comforter were sent up with mine starting yesterday. Let's keep up coming.--Jen]

Soldiers from the Virginia National Guard Battalion were just sitting down for lunch with members of the Washington state-based Stryker Brigade, Iraqi national guard and U.S. civilian contractors when the blast struck.
[Re American civilian contractors: 4 employees of the supposedly-evil Halliburton were among the dead.--J.T.]
[...]
 President Bush yesterday expressed "sorrow and sadness" over the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Mosul, but urged family members not to lose sight of the importance of establishing democracy in Iraq.
    
"I just want them to know that the mission is a vital mission for peace," he said after visiting wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. "The idea of a democracy taking hold in what was a place of tyranny and hatred and destruction is such a hopeful moment in the history of the world."
    
But Mr. Bush acknowledged that this holiday season particularly will be a time of sorrow for the families of troops killed in yesterday's attack on a mess hall tent near Mosul.
   
 "Any time of the year, it's a time of sorrow and sadness when we lose a loss of life," he said outside the hospital, where he was accompanied by first lady Laura Bush. "This time of year is particularly sorrowful for the families as we head into the Christmas season.
[Having lost my dad at Christmas, I know how true this is and given that Christmas is a time for joy and merriment, it makes feeling sadness, sorrow and loss that much worse, it seems.
There's never a "good time" for our fine men and women to be killed in battle, but I know it will be even harder for the families and loved ones of yesterday's fallen to hear this news.
May God be with them and hold them all in the palm of His hand, especially the little ones.
This is why Christ came to us, though, to overcome Death and the grave.--Jen]

"We pray for them," he added. "We send our heartfelt condolences to the loved ones who suffer today."
    
Despite the tragedy, Mr. Bush made it clear that he has no intention of pulling troops out of Iraq.
    
"This is a very important and vital mission," he said. "I'm confident democracy will prevail in Iraq. I know a free Iraq will lead to a more peaceful world."
[...]
The 276th Engineer Battalion/Virginia National Guard, a unit that can trace its lineage to the First Virginia Regiment of Volunteers formed in 1652, had been getting ready to come home early next year after long grueling months in Iraq.
    
George Washington and Patrick Henry were two of the unit's early commanders. Henry created the unit's motto, "Liberty or Death."

"Give me liberty or give me death."--How appropriate.
Our soldiers and citizens were murdered by an IslamoFacist suicide bomber and what the IslamoNazis hate really is Liberty, whether it be in Iraq, Afghanistan, France or right here in America.
These casualties of war, as despiccable and horrifying as they are, shouldn't be used as the excuse for the US and her allies to "pull out" of Iraq; quite the contrary.
So that the deaths of our troops and civilian contractors who are rebuilding Iraq won't be meaningless and towards the end that we're wiping out Islamist terrorism and murder in Iraq before it can fester and reach into the USA again, we have every reason to stay the course and pursue freedom and democracy in Babylon with everything we've got and do that we must, as President Bush and our soldiers already know.
My first thought when I heard of the attack most certainly wasn't "The U.S. should pull her troops out of Iraq." but instead that the viciousness of these murders showed how badly the Evildoers don't want that democratic election to take place in Iraq next month.
As PM Ayad Allawi says in Thursday's (tomorrow's) WSJ: "Ballots will prove to be more powerful than bullets."

We can all pitch in here on the homefront, though and help these military families stay in touch with their loved ones in the military by donating to Operation Uplink, a terrific program of the VFW's to support our troops in a meaningful way and a worthy recipient of your Christmas and end-of-the-year, tax-deductible giving dollars.

White Christmas? Close enough
I know this is no big deal to people who live in colder climes like the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or the Colorado Rockies, but it's a rare Christmas treat for us here in Texas!
It snowed lightly, but steadily all afternoon and I felt as if I were in the middle of a Christmas special watching the cat shake snow off of her paws and the sparrows peck greedily at the feeder under a curtain of snowflakes and viewing our neighbors' Christmas lights blink on and off in the newly created Winter Wonderland.

December 19, 2004

Here in the States:
In the war against Christmas, it is time for the faithful to fight back
In Great Britain:
Have a very PC Christmas: Britons scare over 'erosion' of Christian holiday
And in Australia, too (where as my smart man notes, they sing "White Christmas" earnestly when it's the middle of summer!):
Xmas cheer is Australian: expert
I'm sending out Christmas cards this years that say "Merry Christmas!" which is, like increasingly everything I do these days, a political statement.
What a world--Bah humbug!
I hope you'll join me and these Christian Americans, Brits and Aussies in remembering the real Reason for the Season--the birth of our Lord Jesus.
Do wish your fellow men and women of good will a "Merry Christmas!" (and not the bland, meaningless "Happy Holidays!"), put up that creche, Nativity or manger scene on the front lawn and in a prominent place inside and corral a group of neighbors (preferably children and young people) to go round your neighborhood to sing real Christmas carols this week like "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem" (And please don't wuss out and sing "winter festival", PC-approved tunes instead like "Winter Wonderland" or "Let it Snow").
On Saturday, we'll sing "Joy to the World!" Why?
Because the Lord is come for the 2004 time!

Woman Said to Show Off Stolen Baby
I hate dwelling on the gruesome murder of the murder and God knows the perpetrator must be seriously deranged, but thank Heaven they found the baby alive and in good health!

The family was not speaking to reporters, but Victoria Jo's father, Zeb Stinnett, issued a brief statement calling her "a miracle."

"I want to thank family, friends, Amber Alert and law enforcement officials for their support during this time," he said.

Texans should feel proud;
the Amber Alert was conceived right here in north Texas!
Wasn't it intriguing to watch the MSM have problems with calling the baby a "fetus" when it had left the maternal womb and become a baby?
All I know is this: the Left--meaning the media and the Democrats--will have more trouble than ever pushing their agenda of late-term, partial birth abortion on demand after little Victoria Jo Stinnett was found thriving and viable after only 8 months in her poor, now departed mother's womb!

President George W. Bush and Laura Bush watch the lighting of the Menorah at the White House Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004. "We are honored to celebrate the miracle of Hanukkah in the White House this evening," said the President.

Jewish radio talk show host Dennis Prager was invited to a very special presidential holiday party:
Born-Again President -- White House Hanukkah

"Only in America."
That's what I kept repeating to myself last week when I celebrated Hanukkah at a White House party attended by President and Mrs. Bush.
Only in America does a president light a menorah while a Jewish choral group sings Hebrew songs and the Marine band plays American songs. Only in America do Jews feel so honored as Jews and yet so completely part of the larger culture, fully Jewish and fully part of the greater nationality. Non-American Jews (including even Canadians) are often amazed at how completely American Jews in the U.S. feel. We take it for granted, but as a former college lecturer in Jewish history, I know that this is unique.

It is an incredible blessing to be an American Jew
or "Jewish American" — both terms are accurate). We are doubly blessed. An Israeli interviewer once asked if I were first a Jew or an American, "I have two fathers," I said. "George Washington and the patriarch Abraham." So to be one of about 200 Jews invited to celebrate Hanukkah at the White House with the president of the United States was about as profound a personal moment as I have experienced. My two loves -- America and Judaism -- in one place, reinforcing each other.

I suspect that this feeling was shared by just about every Jew present, including bearded Orthodox rabbis heretofore not prone to affirming any non-Jewish national identity. As a yeshiva graduate, I never thought I would live to see identifying Jews, let alone Orthodox rabbis, so happy to be in a room with a menorah and a Christmas tree. Yet that signified a sea change taking place in American Jewish life — the realization that Christianity is no longer the enemy or the great Other but, for the first time in 2,000 years, a great ally.
[...]
But American Christianity has never been like European Christianity in its attitude toward Jews and Judaism. Jews have been equals and honored as such from even before the creation of the United States. Many of the founders studied Hebrew; Thomas Jefferson wanted the Seal of the United States to depict the Jews' exodus from Egypt; Yale University's insignia is in Hebrew; a verse from the Torah (Leviticus) is inscribed on the Liberty Bell; a rabbi attended George Washington's inauguration — the list of pro-Jewish expressions in U.S. history is endless. But perhaps most telling is the fact that although there have been any number of Christian countries and there are many secular ones today, it is the U.S. that calls itself Judeo-Christian.

It is not often that the orthodox of any faith, and certainly within Judaism, are at the vanguard of a movement of change. But the number of ultra-Orthodox at the White House, and their passionate support for an evangelical Christian named George W. Bush, made manifest what is already known: Orthodox Jews understand that the Jews' greatest allies are the only other group in the world to believe that the Torah is from God — conservative Christians.

And the sea change is affecting not only Orthodox Jews. Rabbi Eli Herscher, head rabbi of my synagogue, the Stephen S. Wise Temple, one of the two largest Reform synagogues in America, was at the party. He proudly told me that he, a lifelong Democrat, voted for Bush.

Most Jews, including some at this celebration, still instinctively vote Democrat. For most Jews, secular liberalism, not Judaism, is their religion, and their social values are derived from liberal editorial pages rather than from the Torah. Additionally, for many older Jews, Franklin D. Roosevelt is constantly running for reelection. (As a Jew born after the Holocaust, I have never understood the American Jewish adulation of FDR, who failed Jewry miserably when Jews most needed help.)
[I second this emotion.
I guess we'll never know when--or even if--FDR learned about the Holocaust and the extent of the torture and murder of Jews in the Nazi death camps, but even in the '30's, he supported strict immigration laws against European Jews seeking asylum from persecution in both Germany and Eastern Europe.--J.T.]

But that generation of Jews, may God bless them for their many wonderful accomplishments, is passing on, and among younger Jews there is far greater receptivity to the conservative belief in American exceptionality than to the liberal belief in U.N., French-German and world opinion.
[...]
So it was quite a night, that Hanukkah night at the White House, with hundreds of fellow Jews from all over the U.S., from ultra-Orthodox to ultra-secular, celebrating America, its Judeo-Christian value system and its Republican president. Increasingly the White House's greatest challenge will be how to narrow the Hanukkah party list to just 200.

I listen to (at least part of) Dennis Prager's show every weekday and I can hear him saying these things.
(Unfortunately, he's in the same time slot as Rush and it's almost impossible to choose between the 2 men.)
The Lord will continue to bless America and President Bush for their embrace, love for and support of the nation of Israel, both here at home and in the Holy Land.
I personally can think of numberless, wonderful American citizens and friends who are Jewish and I know that they are as much a part of this country as I am.
I'd like to wish my Jewish readers a belated Happy Hanukkah and I hope that you all celebrated the miracle of the temple oil, exchanged gifts and spun the dreidel with great hope, health and joy!

Old soldiers return to remember Bulge

Amid snow flurries and a chilling wind,
[How appropriate! The winter of 1944 was one of the coldest on record in Europe.--Jen]
Belgium's King Albert II yesterday honored U.S. soldiers who died fighting Nazi Germany 60 years ago in the Battle of the Bulge, the largest land battle for American forces in World War II.
[...]
The king, joined by Speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican, led a commemoration and laid wreaths at the vast Mardasson memorial on the edge of town. The ceremony paid homage to the 19,000 American soldiers killed and about 61,000 wounded in the largest land battle for U.S. forces in World War II. The fighting also claimed 120,000 German lives.
[Thus carrying out Gen. George Patton's admonition to kill a lot more of the enemy than allowing the enemy to kill more of our guys.
Odds of 6:1 works for me!--J.T.]
[...]
The day began with a parade of veterans, marching bands, World War II-era jeeps, trucks and ambulances through Bastogne. The vehicles rumbled past the town's central square, named for Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, acting commander of the 101st Airborne, whose paratroopers repulsed repeated attacks.
   
 On Dec. 22, 1944, Gen. McAuliffe was given two hours to surrender by the Germans or face "total annihilation." His now-famous reply: "Nuts."
[Love it, love it, love it!]
    
A commemorative throwing of nuts was also to take place at the square.
[...]
Organizers also offered guided walks along the defensive perimeter south of Bastogne that was relieved by Gen. George S. Patton's 3rd Army, which rushed north from France to help defeat the Germans.
[My dad and my boyfriend's dad were a part of this--Hooah for them and all the other thousands of American GIs who fought so bravely to defeat the evil Reich!]
The battle raged for six weeks across the Ardennes hills of southern Belgium and Luxembourg, but Bastogne, a town of 14,000, bore the brunt of the fighting.

The battle drew in more than a million troops — 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans and 55,000 Britons — who fought in bitter cold from Dec. 16, 1944, to Jan. 25, 1945.
    
"The American veterans who have returned 60 years later to the battle site represent those who gave their lives on our soil so that today we can live free," Bastogne Mayor Philippe Collard said in French at a memorial honoring Gen. Patton.

The mayor added in English:"We will never forget. You are home here."

Well, we worry that some of the Belgians have forgotten about what they owe to the USA and the importance of liberation to bring democracy, given that they joined the Axis of Weasels 2 years ago and opposed OIF!
As President Bush told Jacques ChIRAQ on D-Day, we'd come to Europe's aid again to defend their freedom, but let's pray to God we don't have to!

May the Lord continue to rest the souls of the fallen in the Battle of the Bulge (and the other battles of WWII) and to all those fine men who fought, and especially those who were injured, Job Well Done!
And even though our men in this battle didn't have warm-enough uniforms or ones designed in white for camouflage in winter, or enough ammo, or warm boots and socks or hot food, they didn't whine or complain about it to the press or to Rummy's counterpart in 1994 via the Media--except to each other--and for that, I think the Lord should doubly bless the fighting men of the Greatest Generation and may they be an example to our troops today!