Per Genghis:

I'm having a PC meltdown tonight (something screwy with the BIOS).

Obviously, this is God's way of telling Genghis to not take any face time away from the baby Jesus tonight.

However, being a miserable agnostic, I can safely ignore such celestial interventions and fill your screens with crap.

Merry f'n Christmas everybody!

(I moved the Christmas video after the jump because CDR M reminded me it has a naughty word in it. And we run a clean, family-oriented ship around these parts, by gum. To prove it, here's somebody's grandmother making Christmas dinner that I found on Webshots.)

Is that a toque? No matter, it's still wholesome, even if Canadian.

Still Need a Last-Last-Minute Christmas Present? Give the Gift of a Home Colonoscopy!

Introducing the USB Home Endoscope. It claims to be "plug & play" (huh huh) and to have a "flexible design" (uh huh huh huh).

I shall name him ... the iCouric.

It provides a 640x480 image, which is about where digital cameras were circa 1994. Obviously, anal photography has much room to grow.

More holiday cheer after the jump... more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:30 PM | Comments (384)
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Christmas Eve 1968.

Thanks to Nathan Wutzel for the reminder.

Posted by: DrewM at 05:32 PM | Comments (65)
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Because nothing says Christmas like watching the Dallas Cowboys jump ugly on the Arizona (formerly St. Louis) Cardinals.

CDR M sends his regards, and by regards I mean Christmasy cheerleaders.

Cowboys.

UPDATE: Also, I have no idea what I'm talking about. This game is tomorrow. So, uh, OPEN THREAD. WITH CHEERLEADERS. more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 02:44 PM | Comments (128)
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Wait, this can't be real. I thought religious holidays were sacred or something.

Oh, right, just for us.

A source familiar with the police investigation told CNN that India's Ministry of Home Affairs issued a bulletin earlier this week to police departments around India warning of possible terror attacks in Mumbai and Ahmadabad, further north in the western state of Gujarat.

Specific to Mumbai, the bulletin called for beefed up security at luxury hotels, tourist hubs, churches and consulates, especially those of the United States and European nations, the source said.

The bulletin warned of possible carjackings and vehicle-borne explosives.

Mumbai police were restricting traffic starting Thursday in and around the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, one of the landmarks that had come under attack in 2008, several Indian newspapers reported.

I know this is the sort of thing one says when angry, but the fact is, Pakistan supports this through its Al Qaeda/Lashar-e-Tayyiba lovin' ISI. At some point, not sure when, but it will become unavoidable and necessary -- Pakistan will simply have to be nuked.

At some point it's necessary. At some point all the excuses, and all of the mercy, simply runs out.

Posted by: Ace at 09:14 AM | Comments (224)
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It's Christmas Eve so the competition for moving stories will be stiff but n:twit:rtbutton"> this one is going to be right up there.

Sorry, I don't remember where I saw this first but it's all over Twitter.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:22 AM | Comments (91)
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So, explain to me again why it was so critical for US diplomacy and Obama's standing to rush the START treaty through the lame duck session?

Russian lawmakers gave preliminary approval Friday to an arms agreement with the United States, but signaled they would slow progress on the so-called New START treaty to a crawl after it was rushed through Congress earlier this week with some 11th-hour arm-twisting by President Obama. 

The treaty cleared an initial hurdle through Moscow's lower house of parliament, but a senior lawmaker said the treaty won't get full approval until at least next month. 

Konstantin Kosachev, head of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee, said that the treaty would need a total of three required readings before it can be fully ratified. He said full ratification could only happen next month "at the earliest." 

And, of course, the Clowns of Congress felt it absolutely had to be completed in this lame duck session. I may send a letter with a copy of this article to every RINO who supported START. ..fritz..

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:15 AM | Comments (108)
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One person can make a difference. But most of the time they probably shouldn't.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:38 AM | Comments (104)
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Happy Thursday and Merry Christmas all.

I'll be traveling tomorrow and genghis may or may not will be able to host the ONT so all you openblogger-types who are interested in covering the ONT for next few days send me an email at my address - which is carefully hidden someplace in this post.

Modern Christmas Carols

So the other day Dennis Prager was complaining that there just don't seem to be any new Christmas carols appearing these days. Well I think there are but we just don't notice them as much since they tend to be in newer genres of pop music and aren't associated with popular movies or musicals. So here are a couple I think are worthy of being declared modern carols. Feel free to suggest your own in the comments.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:18 PM | Comments (523)
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A great slobbering love affair, with himself.

Seven weeks earlier to the day, the president faced harsh questions about his leadership as he took responsibility for Democrats' loss of the House in the previous day's election. But the man who faced reporters Tuesday afternoon in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building was treated by his questioners as a conquering colossus - and Obama didn't mind wearing those shoes.

"A lot of folks in this town predicted that, after the midterm elections, Washington would be headed for more partisanship and more gridlock," he said to a roomful of people who had predicted just that. "And instead, this has been a season of progress for the American people."

He bestowed superlatives on his accomplishments:

"The most productive post-election period we've had in decades."

"The most productive two years that we've had in generations."

"The most significant arms-control agreement in nearly two decades."

"The biggest upgrade of America's food-safety laws since the Great Depression."

"Al-Qaeda is more hunkered down than they have been since the original invasion of Afghanistan in 2001."

More! Most! Biggest! And when he wasn't praising his accomplishments, he was praising himself: "One thing I hope people have seen during this lame-duck, I am persistent. I am persistent. You know, if I believe in something strongly, I stay on it."

Careful, Mr. President. What got Obama in trouble in the first place were the extraordinarily high expectations that the nation had for his administration - and that Obama's campaign had encouraged.

Old and busted: Message: I care.

New hotness: Message: I rock.

I have a theory; hear me out.

My theory is this: This Obama fellow is rather taken with himself.

Positively smitten.

Thanks to rdbrewer.

Posted by: Ace at 02:18 PM | Comments (209)
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Except for the small bump in overall costs, it's a good idea, as Congressmen now represent so many people they're sort of insulated from them. Plus, having so few Congressmen produces more hard calls. For example, last time we reapportioned, either Utah or North Carolina, but not both, was to pick up an additional seat; the difference between one seat getting it or the other came down to something silly like 500 people's worth of difference in total state population. I think Utah lost, after a court fight, contending its high number of missionaries serving overseas were not counted in the census. Too bad. They still lost out.

Anyway, with more Congressmen, the pain of just missing out like this is lessened.

535 is a good number to shoot for, or even up to a round 600.

Good idea I think. This has nothing to do with either partisan advantage or state clout: Neither would be much affected.

I think this would be great, just because it would improve most people's representation qualitatively. Quantitatively, though, the benefits are not so evident. I think the folks who have discussed this idea are confused on a number of levels. For one thing, Wyoming is not the most overrepresented state -- by a long way, that distinction goes to Rhode Island, with its two districts, average population 528,000. (As we'll see in a moment, you could add 100 seats to the Congress and Rhode Island, with two seats, would still be overrepresented.)

Second, their discussion seems to suggest that an enlargement of the House would benefit Democrats because it would add clout to larger states like California. This is incorrect. In fact, it would probably make little difference for either party. And large states like California and Texas are the least likely to benefit (or suffer) greatly from a change in the House's size. Their large numbers of districts guarantee that they are always close to mean representation, no matter how large the House gets, because they can add them at smaller increments without upsetting the average too badly.

In other words, over- or under-representation is mostly about the cut-offs, the rounding, if you will, and neither smaller states nor larger states, nor Democratic ones or Republican ones, ever know how they're going to fare with respect to rounding/cut-offs after their exact population is put through a strict mathematical formula. Might come out better in this ten year window; might come out worse in this one. It's unpredictable and therefore fair in that respect (as is the current system -- but with fewer Congressmen, there's more unfairness, as it hurts more to just miss that cut-off).

Posted by: Ace at 01:36 PM | Comments (125)
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