Just in case you were wondering why we're still having trouble with that "PEACE ON EARTH" thing....

Priests brawl at Bethlehem birthplace of Jesus
[hat-tip: Breitbart.com]

As they say in the world's Parliaments [ you know, "Parliament" -- that glorious gift of British "Imperialism" to the entire globe] :
SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!

There's a reason why my most profound spiritual experience in the city of Jerusalem was visiting the Western Wall and the archaeological site at the base of the Temple Mount: because, as important as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is for the Christian, it was tainted by these same inter-Christian tensions and rivalries, such as competitive simultaneous Masses between the Copts and the RC's-- not to mention the fact that the Christian custodians seemed more interested in marking out their own territory than in maintaining any sense of reverence among the cell-phone-toating, underdressed tourists.



Meanwhile, back in the war zone where American "Imperialism" has ruined everything for everybody.....

Shiite tribal leaders attended Christmas Mass in Iraq [hat-tip: Gateway Pundit]

Alleluiah, Hosanna, and OOH-RAH.


Meanwhile, back in nuclear Pakistan,
to no one's great surprise
Benazir Bhutto assassinated.


Religion of Pieces chalks up another one.

Drive-by Media To-Do List, Item (1):

Figure out how to blame George Bush.

CHRISTMAS IN THE HOLY LANDS

Even as the Vatican is doing a funk'n'bunk-- stiffing persecuted Middle Eastern Christians and moving the living Nativity scene from Bethlehem to Nazareth [hat-tip: DavidWarrenonline]-- over in the original Holy Land (Ur of the Chaldees), Christians are re-staking their 2000-year-old claims and re-filling the churches of Baghdad. [Hat-tip: JammieWearingFool, via Instapundit]


May the Prince of peace stand guard at their doors.

SOMETHING I WISH I WERE SINGING THIS CHRISTMAS.

...Come to think of it, I WISH I WERE SINGING THIS CHRISTMAS-- PERIOD.

Life is too short to explain that just now [the story of the Great Choir Massacre of '07 will have to wait] -- so listen and enjoy, in these last days of Advent.




"I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS,
IF ONLY IN MY DREAMS..."

How many of us grew up listening to Der Bingle singing that song, and never knew that it referred to the troops of World War II. Now I know -- in every sense of the word.


Cincinnatus blogs from Al Asad, at the near edge of the original Holy Land, and gives us a new take on the seed of Abraham, promised by God to be more numerous than the stars.

Well, there's been little to report because little out of the ordinary has been going on here the last few weeks. The day guys go out and fly their missions, and then the sun sets and every few days (or nights, "days" for me since I'm up for 14 hours, but . . . I'm not going to explain it anymore, because it makes my head hurt and my brain is starting to reject the programming) I launch and spend a few hours staring at the green world around me through my goggles.

Last night was about as uneventful as it gets, especially considering we went out on an eastern route we're not allowed to fly during the day that takes us within sight of the lights of Baghdad. And lights there are, in the city itself and extending north along both the rivers that run through it. Mesopotamia is lit up like a Christmas tree (or the hajj equivalent, this time of year) through our night vision goggles, though not like cities and towns are back at home. At home, urban centers are these big blobs through the goggles, sometimes big and sometimes small, but generally kind of circular in shape. Out here, night shows you how much of a river culture Iraq truly is: cultural lighting is almost continuous as it spreads out along the rivers from the seat of the old caliphate, but it rarely extends more than a half-mile from either river-bank.

The night sky is also a veritable blaze of light, given that we rarely see clouds and there's nothing on the horizon to obstruct one's view. Sure, it's all green in the NVGs, but you can see thousands more stars than back in the real world, and the goggles help amplify the light from shooting stars that you'd never see unaided. Last night they were falling everywhere, the bigger ones leaving a trail of fire in the heavens that lingered on our artificial eyes. It was a night where little on the ground (except the landing phase) was as interesting as the patterns on the tapestry above.

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson gets up-and-down reviews as a campaigner, but when the rest of the field, both parties, are making goofballs of themselves trying to win votes with Christmas themes, Fred just says what should be uppermost in the mind this Christmas whether your loved one is Over There or not.





Newsflash: CANADA SET TO FLEX ITS
HUMAN RIGHTS MUZZLE

Story here.

FREE MARK STEYN!!!!

HEH.

ANDY BOROWITZ strikes again:

Kim Jong-Il Kicks Iran out of Axis of Evil

Nukeless Nation Just ‘Not Evil Enough,’ says Korean madman

With a National Intelligence Estimate revealing that Iran halted its nuclear arms program in 2003, North Korean president Kim Jong-Il ejected Iran from the Axis of Evil, calling them "not evil enough."

"I can't tell you how many times Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looked me in the eye, told me he was developing nuclear weapons, and cackled like a madman," Kim said. "That man does not deserve to cackle."

Read the rest here.


FURTHER FUNNIES

from Michael Ramirez, Investor's Business Daily political cartoonist.




Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment:



And not so funny:

"I'll see your Muhammady Bear,
and raise you a Digital Deserty Marine Bear"

...who, according to Marine General James Mattis , thinks it might be "fun" to terminate with extreme prejudice "guys who slap women around for 5 years because they didn't wear a veil"-- or maybe folks who want to flog and jail a woman for letting her student name a stuffed animal after himself. (Anybody flogging the kid for violating the tenets of his own religion? After all, he's old enough to train as a suicide bomber.)

Flogging -- now what does that actually look like again? Oh yeah, it was in that movie everybody got so excited about a few years ago, where Jesus took a whuppin': "Blood, flesh, bone, teeth, eyes, eye sockets, ribs, limbs -- the man is skinned alive, taken apart." Fiction? Tell it to this guy:

[This year's line of Highly Controversial Muhammady Bears on view here.]



UPDATE: IN ORDER TO DO THIS....



....YOU'D HAVE TO FIND IT FIRST



Brian de Palma's execrable anti-military hate-film Redacted opened in fifteen whole theatres (!) on the weekend of November 16, and the 5-million-dollar film made a whopping great $25,000. [then down to nine theatres for week two, making only $10,000, then in ten theatres for week three, making $5,500] That should just about cover the catering and limousines for the various pampered participants. No, on second thought, that's about the value of one or two Oscar-presenter loot bags.

However, I'm sure it was worth it all if the director could bask in this kind of critical acclaim. (more here and here -- hat-tips Boston Globe, Maxim, and Slate.com)