Bah! Humbug.

I hate Christmas.

Well, that's not actually true. Spending time off work with friends and family is actually sort of fun. So really, I guess I just hate Christmas music. Actually, that's not true either. I guess I really just hate bad Christmas music and the obnoxious American habit of playing it non-stop for a full month. It's almost enough to make me agree with my commie friends that capitalism is evil. Almost.

Side note: Do they do this in Europe? I'm assuming non-western countries don't celebrate Christmas.

Let me reiterate. A few times a day, a few days a week, Christmas music is fine. Non-stop for a month? It's almost enough to make a man dream of a Christmas massacre. (Also a horrifically bad movie).

Which brings up the next reason I dread the season.

Covers.

Many of the classic Christmas songs are beautiful, even if they're not really my thing. Who can complain about Bing Crosby singing White Christmas? (Don't bring up his absolutely awful movie of the same name, though. Seriously, just don't go there.) Why does every no-talent Tom, Dick and Harry who's had their 5 minutes with a microphone and one mildly popular single feel a need to create their own crappy version of Christmas songs? Seriously, how many variations on Let it snow does the world need?

So I guess in closing JUST LEAVE CHRISTMAS ALLLLOOOONEE

The good, the bad and the Bush

(photo credit to The Weekly Standard

While waiting for an open server slot in Star Wars: The Old Republic, I was trolling the interwebs and saw this. While it warms the cockles of my cold, black conservative heart, it also annoys the hell out of me.

I do like that at least some in the world realize that Bush was capable of making quick decisions and acting decisively on them, unlike his replacement, who works at a much more, shall we say, scholarly pace. (And yes, that was also a major, and well deserved, criticism of Bush. Not interested in starting a Bush v Obama debate here).

On the other hand, I see 15-17 military aged males with nary a weapon in sight passively waiting for a deus ex machina (deus ex americana?) to arrive and solve all of their problems. In other words, they want American boys to do their fighting and dying for them. And then they will probably turn around and complain about those same American boys blowing things up in their country. War is messy, yo.

I can't help but compare them to a group of Britons in 1774, who decided that the government they lived under was no longer looking out for their needs, rebelled and formed a new country. Yes, they had major help from the French, and yes, without the French navy and French military experts the revolution would have ended with the hanging of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. But the first steps were taken by the colonists, the first shots were fired by them, and the majority of the fighting and dying was done by the rebels.

If you want us to save you, start by trying to save yourselves. Once you've shown that you're willing to put your own blood and skin on the line, them maybe we can talk about putting ours in.

Hi there

So this is a blog. Specifically, it's my blog. This is my place to ruminate about things that interest me, work, politics, religion, entertainment, books, nerdism in general and anything else that catches my fancy. My hope is that this will become a place to think and talk and compare ideas, and in that spirit I welcome thoughts, ideas, arguments and criticisms. The only restriction I plan to place is civility. Keep it friendly. If you don't, there's always the banhammer o'doom.