HAIR OF THE DOG - LLAMA HANGOVER CONTINUES!!!!

You know you got up early for this...

Merry Christmas, Bitches!!!!!!

DRAGGING THE DRUNKS OUT - FROM THE LLAMA OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY....

OK, time for you buggers to go home.

One last offering...

Love it or hate it. Paul McCartney is THE Beatle. Got a problem with that? Get yer own dang blog!!

Good Night everyone. Tomorrow (as early as humanly possible) the OFFICE PARTY HANGOVER begins. With "All I Want For Christmas (Is You)" - Love, Actually version. DAMMITT! MERRY F#$&&$@ Christmas!!!!

AND THE LLAMA OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY CONTINUES...

into the evening.

Merry Christmas!!!

AND NOW, THE OFFICIAL LLAMA CHRISTMAS OFFICE PARTY WILL COMMENCE...

I'll start us off...

Enjoy folks!!

UPDATE:
Dude. Ace likey much. Ditto on the mash-up. NSFW by any means.

Christmas Songs That Suck Hard

Capt. Ed at HotAir.com comments on a few of the Christmas songs we could do without. While I have to take exception to Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" (I'd rather replace that with "Feliz Navidad" by...anybody), I heartily concur with him on another former Beatle's holiday dirge - "Happy Xmas (War Is Over):

"Without the War Is Over chorus, it’s a weakly-written poetic attempt at a Hallmark card level. When it veers into War Is Over If You Want It and talk about “the yellow and red ones” [ed. note: my correction], it becomes a preachy political chant, and a mindlessly naive one at that, no surprise from John Lennon, who “Imagine”d an end to religion. War isn’t over just because we want it, as 9/11 proved. Sorry, but there are people in the world that want to kill other people, and believing that all we need to do is wish war away is stupid beyond belief."

One day when I am King, however, I will say First Amendment be damned for one exception: Bruce Springsteen's "Saaaaaaaaaant Claus is Comin' To Town" will be banned from the airwaves for-EVAH!!!!.

Open thread: What one holiday song would you destroy with the wave of a wand?

"Be Not Afraid"

from NRO.

Merry Christmas to All from the LLamas

and assorted free-loaders such as yours truly. May your Christmas be happy and holy. Safe travels for all on the road and in the skies.

My colleague to succeed HRC

I nominate the gal who occupies the office next to mine as the next senator from New York. With the exception of name recognition, she is more qualified than Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg to be a senator and has all of the necessary prerequisites: she is a woman, a mother, a liberal, a lawyer (and has actually practiced law for the last 25 years), voted (presumably) for The One in the last election, is devoted reader of the NYT despite living in Virginia, and has some family connections to New York City.

No? Well, then we should follow the suggestion of one wag and say hello to

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Senator J-Lo.

Christmas 2007

We landed in Kuwait on Christmas Eve on our way home and headed to a camp in the desert for several days before flying back to the States. We got settled in late in the evening and I called home shortly after midnight local time, meaning it was midmorning at Fort LMC. I missed my wife but got a hold of my mother who had been hanging on the end of her rosary beads throughout the deployment. Christmas Day was the first full day that I did not have to be worried about getting mortared, rocketed, shot, or blown up, much less making the wrong decision and getting one of my soldiers hurt. It was if the weight of the world was suddenly gone.

I will always remember the camp dining facility decorated for Christmas with every conceivable holiday food set out while carols played on the sound system. Most of all, I will remember flying into Norfolk a few days later, seeing Mrs. LMC and the kids at the airport, and the sight of the post headquarters decorated for the holidays as we pulled into the driveway. There is truly no place like home.

The next "Greatest Generation"

My Reserve command had a dining out last weekend in Charleston. The two-star observed in his prepared remarks that the younger crowd would likely prove to be the next "Greatest Generation." They enlisted knowing they would go to war and did so to be part of something greater than themselves. "They did not sign up for the college benefits" as he put it.

Don't panic

with your 401(k). This offers some money tips. Bottom line--get a grip, keep putting your money into the market and don't cash out if you have a long planning horizon. Getting out when the market is down is the worst part of market timing because you lock in your losses.

This week I received a call from the Morgan Stanley office downstairs to let me know that I have a new broker which was their way of telling me the MS babe who has been advising me for the last several years hit the road. This means my account is on its sixth or seventh advisor in the last three years. I probably move my account to USAA but otherwise stay in the market.

Hmmm. Funny How Priorities Change

MoveOn.org reports poll results in their latest e-blast. No, it's not a national poll but rather one asked of their membership to rank their "hot button" issues in order of hotness...or whatever.

Remember how the last five years have been about "end the war! end the war! end the war!!!"? Remember the contrived "rallies" in towns across the U.S. every Saturday at noon (which usually consisted of about twelve aging ex-hippies with obsequious placards - "honk if you want to end the war!")?

The way these moonbats carried on you'd think Iraq was the NUMBER ONE driving issue uniting the anti-Bush hordes.

Well, now that The One is about to take office the results are interesting:

"Hundreds of thousands of us nominated and voted, and now the results are in—we know where to focus MoveOn's efforts for the next year.

We asked you to vote for your three top goals, but after looking at the results, it's clear that four rose above and beyond the rest.

Here's how it worked out, in descending order:

1. Universal Health Care

2. Economic Recovery and Job Creation

3. Build a Green Economy and Stop Climate Change

4. End the War in Iraq"

Since they can't use the mission in Iraq as a club to beat the 43rd President over the head day after day to drive down his poll numbers it looks like the issue has outlived its usefulness.

Pathetic.

Jennifer Beals

Going strong and 45 today:

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Send us your favorite Christmas stories

and drop them in the Tasty Bits mail sack.

When Mommies Flip Out

This is a humorous article on mothers who panic over their child complaining of some ailment or another. My mother had no such inclinations--she did not get concerned unless one or more of the following was present: high fever, projectile vomiting, a lot of spots, respiratory distress, wounds requiring sutures, or broken bones. Otherwise, it was treated with a kiss and early bedtime. Think I'm kidding? I told her I could not see the chalkboard when I was in the fifth grade and was promptly sent to bed. A few months later, I came home with note from the school nurse which reported that I could read only the top line on the eye chart. Glasses have been part of my life ever since.

Upside in these tough times

The bankruptcy end of my practice was almost like Robbo's telecom work--a place to visit occasionally to recall the boom times. In other words, quiet for years. Not any more. Bankers with bad loans are like doctors who do their own deals--they will put my children through college.

Robbo started it

so whoever is going to write a ballad about these abs had better get started:

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Just Under The Wire, My Nomination For Asshats Of The Year 2008

This poor kid. Apparently, not only do they name their child after the most lethal mass murdering European dictator of the 20th century but they actually went and made a big stink because the local supermarket won't print that name on a happy birthday cake.

A supermarket is defending itself for refusing to a write out 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell's name on his birthday cake.

Deborah Campbell, 25, of nearby Hunterdon County, N.J., said she phoned in her order last week to the Greenwich ShopRite. When she told the bakery department she wanted her son's name spelled out, she was told to talk to a supervisor, who denied the request.

Karen Meleta, a ShopRite spokeswoman, said the store denied similar requests from the Campbells the last two years, including a request for a swastika.

"We reserve the right not to print anything on the cake that we deem to be inappropriate," Meleta said. "We considered this inappropriate."

Umm. There's a reason no one else in the world has that name. No one else would be sadistic enough to inflict it on their offspring! Plus, I don't believe him based on his other statements:

The Campbells' two other children are named JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, who turns 2 in a few months, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, who will be 1 in April.

Campbell said he was raised not to avoid people of other races but not to mix with them socially or romantically. But he said he would try to raise his children differently.

"Say he grows up and hangs out with black people. That's fine, I don't really care," he said. "That's his choice."

He said about 12 people attended the birthday party on Sunday, including several children of mixed race.

And, somehow, I don't think his little sister, Aryan Nation, will fare much better.

It doesn't take the Amazing Kreskin to guess that none of the 12 party attendees celebrate Hanukkah, does it?

h/t: BarStool Sports

The One does not like tough questions

Via Hot Air:

Time for an intervention

Mrs. LMC is reading Twilight which is all the rage in the 'hood around Fort LMC. No doubt she will want to see this:

Just hope she does not expect me to go.

Where's Robbo?

On the road for the next couple days, so nothing new from me.

Gary? LMC? Run with it, boys.....

OH.GOD.NOOOOOO!

Jonah at NRO tips us to this one: Star Wars: The Musical.

Oh for the freaking love of God. George "I will milk this one story for ALL that it's worth" Lucas has actually gone farther than I would have ever expected with this franchise.

A musical? A flogging MUSICAL???

And what kind of compromising photos of John Williams must Lucas have? The composer is complicit in this crap!

The production, which condenses more than 13 hours of film into 90 minutes, will be more like a classical music concert performed in front of a cinema screen, 27m (90ft) wide.

The audience at the 17,000-seat O2 Arena in southeast London will watch key scenes from the film as 86 musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play extracts from John Williams’s score.

The composer has reworked the music for the show, which will take place on April 10. Other shows may follow, depending on demand.

Another Planet, the company that is producing the show, said that the biggest challenge faced by Lucasfilm was condensing the footage so that the story remained intelligible.

I took my kid to see "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and had to endure that monstrosity. But apparently, this clusterf*&% even has Jar-Jar Binks in it!!

Is there no end to this madness?

YIPS! from Robbo: Welcome Ace Nation! (Feel free to poke around as long as you're over here.) And thankee to Russ for the plug.

It seems to me that whatever else, a show like this positively must include a ballad to Natalie Portman's abs if it expects to stand a chance.

Yip! Yip! Yip!

The World Seen Through Unicorn-Colored Glasses

I barely ever glance at dead-tree papers anymore. So I don't know whether Garry Trudeau's latest from this past weekend is out of the ordinary or par for his particular course. I DO know that his Volvo Marxist smugness approaches the toxic. But I wonder whether he feels compelled to take a gratuitous swipe at Sarah Barracuda out of fear of the future.

Incidentally, what do YOU think of when you see the term "community organizer"? Me, I see Communist block captains, with rigid schedules of indoctrination meetings and rallies, and elaborate blackmail and kick-back rackets, backed by legions of spies and gangs of bully-boy enforcers.

Pro Bono Assistance for Father Justice

This op-ed from WSJ makes an excellent point: defending Club Gitmo detainees is this generation's version of Radical Chic. The piece notes that white shoe law firms devotes almost limitless resources against the sixty or so DOJ attorneys who deal with terrorism cases. It suggests pro bono assistance in reviewing and answering the voluminous amicus briefs filed in these cases. It is almost impossible in my provincial experience to have a rational discussion on detainee detention and interrogation with many lawyers who do not understand the threat we are facing and who do not understand the limits of law and courts in the prosecution of war.

I never saw this flick

Eighties retro reunion, at the recommendation of Mrs. LMC:

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Helen Slater, age 45 today and I have no idea how she is holding up.

Apropos of nothing. . .

other than simply, I feel like it:

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The antidote to the Colin Powell blues

can be found at your one-stop shop for the 2009 Sarah Palin calendar. I ordered two for Fort LMC: one for home and one for the office to annoy the NYT-reading libs. One more will be sent to my father-in-law who was once told that he would be the first lined up against the wall when the feminist revolution comes.

We Got Cow

A mooooving little YouTube:

A Riot Ist Ein Ugly Tink. Unt. I Zink It Ist About Time Dot Ve Hoff Von!!!

The Dee Cee Council, in its infinite wisdom, is going ahead with its plan to let bars stay open all night for the Inauguration:

Opposition to District legislation allowing bars and restaurants to stay open 24 hours during inauguration week has emerged from local churches to the halls of Congress, but the D.C. Council seems reluctant to budge.

The legislation “is not unprecedented,” said a Wednesday statement from council Chairman Vincent Gray replying to a request to reverse the law from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Robert F. Bennett, R-Utah.

Gray cited New Year’s Eve as “a night of large crowds and celebrations” when the city allows liquor to be sold until 4 a.m., but said he “[looks] forward to further dialogue with the senators on this issue.”

The legislation, passed quickly on Dec. 2 and sponsored by Councilman Jim Graham, will keep bars, restaurants and nightclubs open around the clock and able to serve liquor until 5 a.m.

“We believe that the benefits of this emergency legislation, passed with little public notice, are far outweighed by its possible consequences,” said the letter sent Tuesday by the two senators. Feinstein is the chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, and Bennett is a member.

On Wednesday, the Downtown Cluster of Congregations wrote a letter to Mayor Adrian Fenty expressing opposition, partially on the grounds that the extended bar hours apply to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

“Are such expanded hours of alcohol service in the spirit of that holiday?” Executive Director Terry Lynch wrote.

Marcello Muzzatti, president of the D.C. Fraternal Order of Police representing all police in the city, both metropolitan and federal, said his members will already be “stressed to the max” covering the inauguration apart from all-night drinking in every corner of the city.

“Is the money to be made worth it if one person drives home drunk and kills a kid on his way to school in the morning?” Muzzatti said. “I don’t see where the security is going to come from.”

William Schultheis, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in a Northeast neighborhood straddling the bar-friendly H Street corridor and more dangerous stretches east of 15th Street NE, said his constituents have been plagued recently by an upsurge in street robberies.

“We want to be good neighbors” to the businesses, Schultheis said, “but there is a concern for adequate police presence at a time we’re experiencing increased crime.”

This, if I may say so, is complete insanity.

What Did The President-Elect Know And When Did He Know It?

Apparently, more than he claims. When you send your soon to be Chief of Staff as your proxy it's the same thing as "having contact".

So much for Hope and Change, eh?

Wanted: A Few Good Moonbats

Once again, the organization that calls itself "MoveOn" just can't seem to.

They've won their solid Congressional majority and helped take back the White House for Democrats. But rather than move on, they're moving ahead - with a Leftist political and social agenda that needs money to keep it going.

It also needs recruits and their latest email spells it out:

"To push a bold, progressive agenda through Congress, President Obama is going to need our help. Industry lobbyists and conservative insiders are lining up to block progress on our issues—so we've got our work cut out for us.

To get ready, we're holding Congressional Action Trainings on January 11. We'll go over what MoveOn members need to know to help pass health care, clean energy, and other priority legislation.

These trainings are critical to kicking off the new year right, and we're still looking for someone to host one. We'll give you all the materials you need...

...Here's why this training is so important: In Washington, powerful interests—lobbyists for oil companies, drug manufacturers, and HMOs—are already rallying their forces against Obama's agenda for change.

We've got to counter them with our biggest year of congressional pressure ever. We need to show Congress the overwhelming public mandate for a new clean-energy economy, health care for all, a unicorn in every garage and an end to the war in Iraq."

Now mid-term elections are set for 2010 and - historically - every party that holds the White House loses seats in the mid-terms. Every time. Sometimes it's only a few and sometimes it's a buttload (like 1994).

So go ahead guys, push that hard Left agenda with all your might. Recruit more moonbats to get in voters' faces. Raise your voices to new decibel levels. The harder you push, the worse luck the Dems will have in 2010.

Friday Morning Shadenfraude

Obama's Chief of Staff to be, Rahm Emanuel may have had conversations with Blago over the open Senate seat.

Will The One throw him under the bus? Boy, would I love to see this arrogant piece of crap have to withdraw his name in disgrace.

Silver Lining?

Surely in the midst of our economic troubles it's good news that people are starting to rein in their debt?

WASHINGTON – U.S. households, hit by declining home values and stock market losses, have cut back on their debt levels for the first time on record as loans remain scarce amid what appears to be a deepening recession.

The Federal Reserve on Thursday released it latest quarterly look at consumer and business finances showing that households reduced their debt levels by 0.8 percent at an annual rate in the July-September period, the first drop on records that go back more than 50 years.

The decline in household debt levels is evidence of the severe credit squeeze that is occurring as banks, saddled by billions of dollars of losses in mortgage debt, have tightened lending standards and made it harder for people to get loans.

Mortgage debt fell at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the third quarter, the largest decline on record. Mortgage debt had fallen at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the second quarter. Those two quarterly declines are the first such drops in the Fed survey that dates back to 1952.

In past periods of tight credit, mortgage and total household debt have never declined, although the debt growth usually slowed.

Goes to show that fear can be a powerful motivator, I suppose.

But I wouldn't be surprised if, once the current situation straightens itself out - or at least is perceived to be straightening itself out, people didn't go right back to spending like sailors on shore leave.

Beware The Doghouse

For those of you who don't wander over to my other digs, I thought this double-post-worthy:

I’m a proud member of the underground resistance to the Hallmark/FTD/Kay’s Jewelers Axis of Commercial Holiday Extortion, but I have to admit that this is pretty durn funny.

Blago-Gate, Or All The President-Elect's Men

Okay, I'll ask it.

What did he know and when did he know it?

I'll ask it again.

What did President-Elect Obama know and when did he know it?

Actually, I'm not all that interested in the real answer. I just like asking the question.

What question? WHAT DID HE KNOW AND WHEN DID HE KNOW IT?

Gee, this fun. I mean, it's just dripping with scrumptious ironic goodness isn't it?

I'm going to ask that question a lot in the coming weeks and months. Why? Because it will so chafe the Lefty loons and Obama-bots who mindlessly chanted "O-bam-a, O-bam-a, O-bam-a..." that I can't resist reveling in their irritation.

Irritation at what?

The question: What did he know and when did he know it?

FITZ!!

I've Got A Baaaad Feeling About This

Read:

Meanwhile, an area where too many in the mainstream media have been oddly AWOL is in the response to the attack on Mumbai, India, two weeks ago by a squad of Pakistan-based terrorists, who killed nearly 200 people. Reaction in the U.S. was somewhat muted because the protracted standoff occurred over the Thanksgiving holiday, when many Americans were traveling or absorbed in family business. But I was troubled by a persistent soft-pedaling of the identification of the attackers as Muslims --as if the mere reporting of that fact would be offensive and politically incorrect.

Because seven years have passed since 9/11 without another attack on native soil, many Americans, particularly urban professionals, seem to have been lulled into a false feeling of security. But jihadism as a world movement -- even if its membership is a tiny fraction of young Muslim men -- will continue to pose a serious threat to every open democratic society over the next century and more. Anyone who has studied ancient history knows that great civilizations, from Egypt and Persia to Rome and Byzantium, broke down in stages separated in some cases by many superficially tranquil decades. Because of the unprecedented fragility of our intertwined power grid and complex transportation system, the technological West is highly vulnerable to sabotage and chaos.

The tragic fate of so many innocent victims in Mumbai deserves our pity. But what should live in special infamy was the ruthless execution of the Lubavitcher rabbi, Gavriel Hertzberg, and his lovely wife, Rivka, who was 5 months pregnant. These were two idealistic young people of obvious warmth and humanity, who sought only to serve. The rescue by their Indian nanny of their orphaned 2-year-old son, Moshe, crying and smeared with his parents' blood, is already legendary. Was this zeroing in on the Chabad Jewish Center in Mumbai about Israel, or was it simply a gruesome eruption of the medieval tradition of anti-Semitism? Why have Muslim organizations, very quick to protest insulting cartoons, been mostly silent about the atrocities in Mumbai?

The slaughter of the Hertzbergs and other Jews at Chabad House should be a wake-up call to Western liberals who believe that jihadism can be defeated through reason and happy talk. Only other Muslims can launch the stringent internal reform necessary to stomp this barbaric extremism out. But the events in Mumbai confirmed my opinion about the looming problem of a nuclear Iran: I continue to believe that Israel, whose security is directly threatened, has every right to take preemptive military action against Iran.

Pop quiz: Who wrote this? Victor Davis Hanson? Hitch? Steyn?

Nope, Camille Paglia.

Paglia goes off the rails sometimes, but on the long view of history she's solid. (Read the rest of the article. She also pummels people who look down their noses at Sarah Barracuda.)

I flag this today because recently I have started to get a creepy feeling on the back of my neck that we, as a society, are getting lazy and complaisant as 9/11 sinks farther down the memory hole and that this attitude is going to come back to bite us and bite us hard in the not too distant future.

The Perfect Gift

Ladies, not sure what to get your man for Christmas? Stop wondering, the search is over: the 2009 Sarah Palin calendar!

Yips! from Robbo: I hope the Missus is taking notes....

The Chicago Way

Required viewing for Patrick Fitzgerald:

Factoid

The U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago has one of the largest public corruption units of any in the United States, because of cases like this one involving the current Illinois governor.

Can The One Rework The Miracle Of The Loaves And Fishes?

I readily believe the reports that the Inauguration is going to be an absolute nightmare here in Your Nation's Capital:

Area business and government leaders warned Monday that the District is not prepared to handle the record crowds expected to converge on the capital for Barack Obama's presidential inauguration.

At a briefing organized by the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the leaders expressed concern that the District will be overwhelmed by the influx and that visitors will find shortfalls in everything from milk and bread to parking for an estimated 10,000 buses. Even cell phone reception could be hampered by a lack of transmission towers.

Between 4 million and 5 million visitors are expected during the four-day inaugural celebration next month. That number represents about 20 percent of the 20 million visitors who came to Washington during all of last year, said Board of Trade President Jim Dinegar.

As a result, Mr. Dinegar said, the inauguration will be "a logistical nightmare."

As many as 5,000 buses have been registered to enter the District that week, and the city is trying to prepare for an additional 5,000, Mr. Dinegar said.

Metro will open at 4 a.m. on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, said Steve Kral, senior policy adviser to the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, but business leaders worried that the extra hour will not be enough to handle the high volume of visitors.

Employees for caterers, hotels, vendors and other service industries will need to start their commutes even earlier to beat the crowds and clear security checkpoints, which the Secret Service has yet to fully map out, Mr. Kral said.

Restaurants can expect delays in food deliveries, hotel guests can expect slow broadband Internet service during peak hours, and tourists can expect to encounter crowds of evening commuters as they make their way to inaugural balls at rush hour, said Charlie Fisher, vice president for strategic advisory services for James Lee Witt Associates, a Washington-based disaster preparedness and response firm.

Mr. Fisher advises area residents to stay home if possible during the celebration rather than trying to navigate through the crowds, and suggested working from home on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 19 as well as on Inauguration Day to avoid the crush of visitors.

You're damned right I'm going to stay home! And I'm going to stockpile supplies ahead of time.

On the other hand, it occurred to me last evening that I ought to get myself as many glass jars as I can lay my hooves on and work the crowds hawking gen-u-ine Inaugur-Air ("Own some of the breath of The One!").

I jest, but would people buy them? You betcha! Indeed, I probably could put the Llama-ettes through college on the proceeds!

Gratuitous Fins Posting

Fins Tied For First, Baybee!

Go-to Miami Herald columnist Armando Salguero has this to say:

So when will the doubters learn? When will the unbelievers get religion?

''They won't,'' cornerback Andre' Goodman said with a wide grin. ``And that's OK. After the season we had last year, we don't expect them to.''

That would be a mistake. This team, imperfect as it is, has already proven itself to be for real. So jump on that bandwagon, doubters. It would be the wise thing to do.

''If they don't it doesn't matter,'' Allen said. ``The only thing that matters is the guys in this room and we've been believers since the beginning. It's cool. We believe in ourselves.''

You better believe they do.

Regular Llama readers know that Robbo has been a dedicated fan all through the years, even during last season's humiliation. I have never bad-mouthed the team, never prophesied their doom, never announced that I was giving up on them and shifting my allegiance elsewhere.

But I confess that I still have trouble jumping on the bandwagon: When the 'Fins surprised the entire planet by beating the Pats early in the season, I worried that it was just because of some silly retro-high school gimmick plays that caught NE flatfooted, and feared that after a week or two, everyone else would have figured how to counter and squash the 'Fins accordingly.

I want to say that I was wrong. I want to get excited about playoff contention. I want to think that the 'Fins have returned to the elite status that they used to enjoy as a matter of course.

But....I'm.....still.....having.....trouble........

As Carol Burnett used to say in her bag-lady act, "I been hurt a lot."

No, for now I think I'm just going to savor each sweet win as it comes and not worry too much about the future.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Dammit!

What's the Christmas season in Llama-land without a rant from Robbo, right?

This weekend, I suddenly realized that not only do the people up the street infest their lawn with blow-up Christmas decorations every year, the number of these decorations is growing. Exponentially. Like bacteria. They must have at least eight of the damned things up this season.

I had hopes that the strong winds we had yesterday might blow some of these abominations away, but the fellah is to clever for that: He deflates them when conditions look to be getting bad, blowing them back up when calmer weather returns.

You know, I had an opportunity this past summah to take Dad's old BB gun from storage up in Maine and sneak it back to Orgle Manor. I didn't do it largely because the car was already jammed with other hand-me-down bric-a-brac, detection by the Missus would have been immediate and rejection would have been final and without appeal. (Doesn't mean I can't have another try next year.)

At the time I was considering appropriating the firearm, I was thinking of the rabbits in my garden. I now realize that it would have another beneficial use as well........

Survival Tips For Those Holiday Mixers

Tip # 1: Have fun with the name badge -

Random Commuter Observation

Brrrrrrr....

Bitter cold in Your Nations' Capital today. As I walked up from the Metro, the prospect of having to drive all the way to Florida for Christmas somehow didn't seem all that burdensome.

The One's election was not the start of a movement

Look no further than last week's runoff elections. Saxbe Chambliss crushed his opponent by twenty points (with Sarah 'Cuda's help) and a liberal district in New Orleans elected a conservative Republican, ousting William Jefferson (D-LA). The buzz at NRO is that once Obama's name was not on the ballot, his acolytes stayed home. For one who is supposed to have nearly mystical political skills, one wonders why The One did not spend some time campaigning in Georgia to help pad the Democrat majority in the Senate.

Car Talk

Whether it's because I criticized the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in a post below or whether it's because it's been over a month since the election and some guy still hasn't received his unicorn and lollipop tree, I don't know, but the fact remains that my jeep was burglarized in the Metro parking lot some time yesterday.

The thief knew exactly what he was doing: Quick slash through the canvas on the driver's side door, reach in to unlock, jimmy open the (locked) glove box and center consol, proceed to plunder. Of course, I'm not half fool enough to leave anything valuable in so flimsy a container, and all the guy got away with was a couple rolls of quarters that I keep for emergency toll booth use. For some reason, he didn't bother with the radio or my CD's.

Still, these little acts of random barbarity are very, very annoying.

When I called Metro security this morning - not because I expected to get anything, but just because I thought they might want to know for security purposes - the fellah explained that they couldn't take vandalism reports over the phone in a voice that came as close to saying, "Screw you, pal" as one can without using the actual words.

Whatever.

The slash in the door canvas is about ten inches long. I wish the guy had struck a couple months earlier, as I just recently put a new top on. I'll be damned if I'm going to do that again any time soon, so I'm just going to duct tape the thing from the inside for now.

What are your favorite ads from "back in the day"?

What are the ads you remember most? This one from the hegemon of the soft drink world comes to mind:

Long Live The King!

The U.K. Telegraph reports on bed-wetting over the latest Burger King ad campaign:

In teaser adverts promoting its "Whopper Virgins" challenge, the fast food chain describes how it sought out farmers in rural Romania, Thai villagers and residents of Greenland's icy tundra to compare its signature burger with arch rival McDonalds'.

"What happens if you take Transylvanian farmers who have never eaten a burger and ask them to compare Whopper versus Big Mac in the world's purest taste test?" one of the adverts asks. "Will they prefer the Whopper? These are the Whopper Virgins."

The "undeniable" results of the chain's "unbiased" global research – which involved "13 planes, two dog sleds and one helicopter" – will be unveiled in a documentary next week, according to whoppervirgins.com, the website promoting the campaign.

"If you want a real opinion about a burger, ask someone who doesn't even have a word for burger," states the site to a haunting theme of drums and pan pipes. "Watch the whopper virgins take their first bite."

But critics have slammed the campaign as insulting and exploitative.

"It's outrageous," Sharon Akabas of the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University, told the New York Daily News. "What's next? Are we going to start taking guns out to some of these remote places and ask them which one they like better?"

Marilyn Borchardt, development director for Food First, called the campaign insensitive.

"The ad's not even acknowledging that there's even hunger in any of these places," she told the Daily News.

The campaign has also stirred up a welter of online commentary. Brian Morrissey, writing on Adfreak.com, likens the campaign to colonialism and declares it "embarrassing and emblematic of how ignorant Americans still seem to the rest of the world."

"It doesn't get much more offensive than this," noted The Inquisitor blog. "If visiting poor people in remote locations, some who would be at best surviving on below poverty levels and throwing a burger in their faces isn't bad enough, it gets better, because they also ask the Whopper Virgins to compare the taste of the Whopper to a McDonalds Big Mac as well.

"It's hard to place exactly where this begins on the level of wrongness."

I've seen these ads a time or two and, frankly, didn't give them that much thought. But I love the fact that they're getting this kind of rise out of this kind of professional fussy-pants.

Just to show that there is nothing new under the sun, who out there remembers the "You're imperiling U.S./Soviet relations with your insensitivity!" flak that Wendy's got with this golden oldie?

Heh.

It's........ALIIIIIVE!!!!

The Metro Silver Line is back from the dead:

The Federal Transit Administration has approved its share for the extension of Metrorail to Dulles International Airport, a move that almost guarantees the $5.2 billion project will become a reality.

Approval of the money now goes onto to Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and the Office of Management and Budget, but most officials involved in the project say the transit agency’s approval was the major obstacle. After those approvals, Congress must then approve the money.

The planned Silver Line would run 23 miles from Falls Church to the bustling Tysons Corner on its way to Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County.

The first stage, which extends to Tysons Corner, is expected to be completed in 2013. The second phase would be finished two years later. (The Washington Post)

I know this is of absolutely no interest whatsoever to our readers outside the NoVA area, but I am of decidedly mixed views about it. If you clicky through to the WaPo article, you can read about all the Happy Megalopolis of the Future plans for Tyson's Corner. Orgle Manor is located within a couple of Elway touchdown bombs of the place, so presumably all this future desirability will rub off on our property value. On the other hand, good God almighty is the place going to be a freakin' mess for the foreseeable future! Especially given that the current plan is to put the extension on a damned elevated track, instead of, as wanted by many of us locals, in a tunnel.

Darth Rove on the Obama fundraising blowout

Rove nails it--the margin of Obama's fundraising advantage was stunning and will likely end public financing in presidential campaigns. Via NRO and OpinionJournal.

Random Commuter Observation

You know you've been doing the same commute too long when you start recognizing the cars around you.

This morning I found myself in front of a black Mercedes driven by a forty-something woman with what, even from my distance, plainly was artificially blond hair.

I remember this woman distinctly because one morning this summer I watched agog through my rear-view mirror as she changed clothes while cruising along at 45 mph behind me. What with having both hands often off the wheel and, at several points, her face covered by her exercise tee and then her blouse, she was all over the road.

This morning there was no clothes-changing. Instead, she had advanced to the make-up stage. Still all over the road, though.

"Now What Do We Do?"

That thread title is a line from the movie "The Candidate" starring Robert Redford, made back in the 1970's when challenging the establishment was all in vogue. Redford's character, Bill McKay, is the son of former Governor who runs for a Senate seat in CA that is considered hopeless against the incumbent. So he runs, on a lark, with the idea that he has nothing to lose and can therefore say whatever he wants on the campaign trail. The problem is, he unexpectedly wins.

At the end of the film, he turns to his advisers and asks in a bemused and flippant tone, "Well, now what do we do?".

Dick Morris speculates that the incoming President may have found himself in a similar situation (an idea that has been in the back of my mind for some time). He asks what Obama's cabinet choices, Hillary in particular, says about him:

I believe that it reveals that he is a man who never really expected to be president and now is rather awed by what he has achieved. Here's a guy who was on a very successful book tour in late 2006 before his success at signings went to his head. As long as he seemed able to draw and dazzle crowds, he figured, why not run for president? Knowing he'd probably lose, he saw no harm in trying. Then, as his candidacy developed more momentum with each speech, he moved closer and closer to the White House. But, on arrival, he doesn't know quite what to do with the power. So he is assembling around him the permanent government of the Democratic Party in the hopes that they will know what to do.

And he's in charge.

I really hope I'm wrong here, for the sake of the country. But, honestly, I'm not very confident and the future of a nation at war, in a rough economy, may very well depend more on the President' men than on the President himself.

Say a prayer.

YIPS! from Robbo: Overheard at Starbuck's this morning from a pair of older guys sitting in the corner: "Look at all these young, fresh, exuberant Obama people. They don't have a freakin' clue - it's gonna be nothing more than Clinton II, this time without the intern."

"Ivy-covered hedge funds"

College endowment investments take a hit. Harvard took a 22 percent haircut. Apparently, Harvard and a number of other schools had particuarly aggressive portfolios. Link via the Phi Beta Cons at NRO.

Bailing out of the stock market

A number of my relations have moved their holdings out of the market for the safety of bonds, CDs, and money market accounts. It does not seem like such a great idea since getting out when the market is down is locking in your losses, the worst part of market timing. But what do I know?

What more needs to be said?

Marisa Tomei, 44 today:

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Moonbat street theatre: "Operation First Casualty"

This comes via Little Green Footballs.

Haflrsre Brrzzsoiet, Osture Oggnsrss!

Ozzie Ozzy (insert satanic hand-signal to Groovy Vic here) Osbourne cracks the big 6-0 today.

Now before your collective jaws come crashing down on your desks, let me make it abundantly clear that I have never heard one note of Osbourne's music, nor have I ever watched any of the "reality tee vee" stuff that has propelled his more recent popularity. To the extent that I give the man any thought, it is to pity his trainwreck of an existence.

Having said that, I must also say that I find those Sprint ads where he has to text message because nobody can understand what he's mumbling to be quite amusing.

Waaaaay back in 1982, Osbourne came to San Antonio for a concert. The same evening we happened to be going to see a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni. The convention center arena and symphony hall were right next to each other in those days and shared a parking lot. You can imagine the bipolar nature of the crowd on the sidewalks.

This was right after Osbourne had suddenly garnered national attention from allegedly biting the head off a bat on stage. There were bats in the theatre that night and I distinctly recollect them flitting about during the Mozart, particularly in the graveyard scene. The connection was not lost on the audience and I heard numerous chuckles, mentions of the name Ozzy and cracks about "the ones that got away".

1992 Reloaded in Georgia

Saxby Chambliss beats Jim Martin.

Fred tells it like it is, on the economy

Via Hot Air:

Shmokin' as she hits the big 4-0

Brains and beauty, LMC fav Lucy Liu:

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Who Loves Ya, Pizza Man?

This evening I happened to stumble across an early episode of Newhart (and by early, I mean the Kirk and Leslie days). In it, Bob (I mean "Dick") and the boys go off to a Celtics' game. In the meantime, the girls back at the inn get a call from a Daniel Travanti requesting a room for the night. They spend the bulk of the episode angsting over whether it really is the Daniel J. Travanti. In the end, of course, they fall asleep, just as Daniel makes a cameo. Har, har.

Anyhoo, this got me reflecting on how Daniel J. Travanti was The Man at one point back in the early to mid-80's. How funny it seems in retrospect, since not one in fifty kids these days would have any clue a-tall as to who he is.

Well, okay, actually it got me reflecting more on Travanti's shmokin' hot foil back in those days, the smart, sultry Veronica Hamel. For me, at any rate, she was the first indication of the whole "within certain boundaries, the sky's the limit" ah, way of seeing things - tightly wound on the surface but boiling just underneath. (I very dimly recollect a whole lapsed-Catholic vibe about the whole relationship. Don't roll your eyes - I was only in my late teens at the time. B'lieve me, such thoughts would never enter my mind now. Never.)

Anyhoo, Ms. Hamel is in her mid-60's now and I couldn't find a pic that was both recent and hot, so I post this older one for your enjoyment.

Gratuitous Fins Posting

I never suspected that I would be using the words "Dolphins" and "play-off hunt" in the same sentence this year, but there it is.

Random Political Observation

Well, I suppose that I need to hang up my Karnac hat because I never thought The One would actually nominate She Who Must Not Be Named for Sec. State. That is one seriously large caliber cannon loose on a not-especially strong deck.

In fact, what with all the Clinton retreads and the Repub(s) with which he's manning his ship of state, I honestly don't know what The One has in mind.

On the other hand, I think we should start a pool: Date and time the first KosKid refers to The One as Uncle Tom.