I am perverse

'Deed I am. I don't like, or approve of, or donate to, the Red Cross. I'm wishing someone would sue them for false advertising and make them either take the 'Cross' out of their name altogether, or insert 'Double' in front of it.

And yet I get unspeakable pleasure watching this number rise.

"That unit is a woman."

"A mass of conflicting impulses."

O Yeah. Now I remember why I used to be feminist.

Because Superman was an asshole.

Polipundit links up with Accordion Guy to introduce us to a 1959 blog. Very cute, very fun so far as the word 'blog' goes.

But, ya know what? Superman was a smug, smarmy saboteur. Lois had her situation under control (sort of), and because Superman's precious little ego was hurt, he fucked with her. Not in a fun, carnal way - in a nasty, slimy, underhanded manipulative way.

I was just thinking yesterday about how long it's been since I heard the term 'delicate male ego.' Oooooo, we had to be so careful of the delicate male ego. Really, truly, I kid you not. Girls were actually told (and tragically, some believed it) to appear dumber and clumsier than they were, so as not to tread upon the delicate male ego. I was lucky in my tender years - my dear old Dad pointed out the obvious:

"If you have to pretend to be less than you are to attract a man, you'll spend your life stagnant and undeveloped to please an insecure, inferior man who's not worth pleasing."

Thanks, Dad.

Gosh, I'd like to kick Superman in the nuts right about now. My inner feminist is raging. Feminism's gone overboard in many spots, but it surely was needed way back when.

Harold Fish has still not gone to trial. Since it's a trumped-up charge initiated by a vicious mob, perhaps it's just as well.

I keep him in my prayers.

And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, everyone.

Merry Christmas!

Hap-Hap-Happy Birds

It's enough to make me wish I was technically competent so I could record this and let you hear it. There's about 90 gazillion birds singing up a storm outside my window.

I was going to say that they sound as happy as larks, but then I realized that would be a silly thing to say.

Origin of the word "Christmas'

This is for the people who are coming here by search engine.

Christ's mass. A day set aside for contemplation of God's gift to us - His Son. Sometimes (cough, cough) gifts are exchanged among humans as a sort of tribute to the gift we received from God.

Sometimes abbreviated Xmas. In a bunch of languages, the X is pronounced Kh, (the hard C is Christ with a little more throat thrown in), so the 'X' is just an acronym for Christ, same as the 'U' is USA stands for United. Additionally, the X is also a symbol for the cross, which Christ died on for your sins. So Xmas is not sacreligious sacril disrepectful towards the Christian religion.

The Naughty Seasonal Post

On Dasher, on Dancer, on Comet and . . . hey! What happened to Comet?

It's too cold to blog.

Private Citizens fill gap left by Government

Raise a glass to The Coalition to Prevent Assault Weapon Violence, who've stepped in to help pick up the slack now that the AWB has expired. It's citizen-leaders like these that make America great.

hat tip: Robert at The Backroad Blog.

An ounce of prevention, and all that

There's an interesting discussion going on at Geocaching.com, one with arguments and concerns that will probably sound familiar to gun owners.

The original poster brings up the 'what if' possibility of the government trying to ban or regulate geocaching. The most common response is that geocaching will simply go underground if need be. People would try to follow the letter of the law, but circumvent the spirit. Good for them. But the posting developed into a long, thoughtful discussion of could it happen, how could it happen, why would it happen, can we prevent it and how? Maybe it's a discussion gun owners should have had in 1934.

Mom told me about a letter to 'Dear Abby' or one of her equivalents, in which the writer suggested hunters abandon hunting those poor widdle animals and go geocaching instead. I suspect there's a tremendous difference between hunting a moving creature and hunting a stationary box, but leaving the merits of the letter-writer's argument aside, it's just interesting that that type of mind (animal rights fluffy-fluff) would be involved in geocaching.

OK, so I'm making a big leap here - automatically placing 'animal rights' people inside the 'gun-grabber' box. But it seems a fairly safe assumption to make 9 times out of 10. I wonder, would a left-leaning geocacher start to understand gun-owner concerns if Big Gov put the screws on geocaching as it has on guns?

What if, what if? I'd hate to find out the hard way, by seeing govt actually tax and regulate geocaching to death. But it would be interesting to watch in an alternate universe.

Weedon Island Mangrove Tunnel



Besides great kayaking, Weedon Island is also reknowned for the first discovery/classification of the Weeden Island Culture, a culture in existence about 1,700 to 1,000 years ago in the Northern Florida/Georgia area and responsible for 'construction of some of the earliest dated flat-topped platform (or temple) mounds' in North America. The name 'Weedon/Weeden' got misspelled somewhere along the way. Ironically, Weedon Island is at the very outer reaches of Weeden Island culture.

You're Betty Grable!


What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Ah, Betty! or sometimes Bette

"The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there"

Have a Coalition Christmas!

Who's in the Coalition of the Willing, and what kind of neat stuff can we buy from them?

A train or wine buff (& the two are not mutually exclusive) might enjoy this Amtrak wine carafe set, made in the Czech Republic. James, posting at Chicago Boyz, (busy man, that James!) also points to CZ Firearms from the Czech Republic. Mmmmm, firearms. If you happen to be the recipient of these Czech wine carafes and Czech guns, remember not to use them both at the same time!


For a variety pack of United Kingdom stuff, try Hamper.com of Oxfordshire, UK, Bespoke Hampers for Corporate Clients and Winner of the Queen's Award for Enterprise International Trade 2003!

omigod look at the baubles from Poland. I want it. If you want to add to the flavor, put your recipient's Polish name day on their tag.

This Slovakian Renaissance vase is less flamboyant than the Polish, but quite elegant and a bit unusual. This would be nice to float roses in.


For your most demanding mustard needs, naturally nothing will do but the finest. And lucky for you, mustard from Azerbaijan is available from the Mount Horeb Mustard Museu . . there's a mustard museum?? Ye gads, they offer "free, confidential, condiment counseling." Sorry, I digress . . but, um, what sort of deep, dark, confidential condiment secrets do people have??

Finally, when your back hurts from all that shopping, you'll need a little massage. Shop Australia online for a little
Emu massage oil.


& there's STILL all these other countries to go shopping in:

Spain
Portugal
Denmark
Norway
Netherlands
Iceland
Italy

Baltic States:
Estonia #
Latvia #
Lithuania #

Central Europe:

Balkans:
Albania #
Macedonia #
Romania #
Warm, fuzzy, gramma-knitted sweaters from Bulgaria

Turkey puts out some very nice copper and brass items. I actually purchased one of these copper samovars about a month back. It's great fun if you're a serious tea drinker, and fascinating simply because it's the most efficient wood/charcoal stove in existence. Russia claims to be the inventor of the samovar, but it may actually have originated in Azerbaijan.

Croatia #
Slovenia #

Eastern Europe
Ukraine


Moldova needs all the help it can get. The only product I could find from Moldova is wine, which seems to be available from a New Jersey dealer. I can't stand wine, and I may buy a couple bottles for myself. Lord have mercy. I've been poor and down, but never had to consider selling my kidney just to get by. More on Moldova here. Ya know, the whole idea behind this post may seem silly, or frivolous, or oh-so-american-consumer . . . maybe it is, whatever. It started out as just as fun way to learn about some of these countries . . but . . hell, if you do nothing else, if you care about nothing else, sneer if you like, but say a prayer for Moldova anyway. You don't have to believe in God to pray; God believes in you.

More on Moldova and its wine here. On e-bay, there seem to be lot of Moldovan coins and stamps for sale.




Japan
South Korea
Singapore
Philippines
Afghanistan
Kazakhstan
Uzbekistan
Georgia
Marshall Islands
Micronesia
Solomon Islands
Mongolia
Tonga
Thailand

United States of America

South and Central America:
El Salvador
Colombia
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Honduras

I hunted for Palau, but apparently the island itself is such a lovely gift that it has no need to manufacture anything for export. They'll be having an Underwater Photography event in March '05, and celebrating 11 years of independence in Oct. '05.

Costa Rican Peaberry coffee is superb, by the way. Beats Colombian hands down, no contest.