IT IS ACCOMPLISHED

Or at least we think it is. Chief Justice John Roberts got nervous and flubbed the oath, so maybe technically it never happened at all.

Commander-in-Chief Obama.

Well.

COUNTDOWN TO A
FOUR-YEAR-LONG
MAD HATTER'S TEA PARTY (updated)


In 24 hours from just about now, we will have a new President

LET THE OBAMINAUGURAMA BEGIN

On November 5th I declared myself to be speechless, and I find this is the case once again, as we grow closer and closer to the moment where the rise of the oceans will be completely unaffected, and the planet will be in no danger of healing any too soon -- the moment when Barack Hussein Obama will assume the mantle of American leadership and ascend to the pantheon of American history.

Meanwhile, according to the Onion, ziss is ze time on Schprockets ven vee danz!

Congress Debates Adding Elaborate Dance To Obama's Inauguration Ceremony

On the subject of pantheons, of course, only gods belong there. If you're wondering whether that would be the appropriate place for the newbie, well, just ask him -- he hasn't even taken the oath of office yet and already he thinks he's Abraham Lincoln. When he starts to stumble -- and he will -- my God, he's given himself an extra long way to fall.

But apparently the occasion calls for some serious

GUSHING: See this article by Lorne Gunter at the National Post.

SLOBBERING: See this book by Bernie Goldberg, late of CBS

[KOOL-AID break............]

At Sunday's Lincoln Memorial rock concert, some very, very important people lent their voices to the celebrations, to tell us just how momentous was this day and how happy we should be -- better, smarter folks than you and I, to be sure: Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx, Steve Carrell.

Steve F***ing Carrell, I'm telling you!!!!!

That Great American, Paul Hewson (otherwise known as Irish U2 vocalist Bono) recalled how Martin Luther King had spoken of his dream on these steps 43 (er, he stands corrected: 46) years ago. "Let freedom ring," said he. "On Tuesday, that dream comes to pass."

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but as I recall Dr. King's dream went something like this:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Is that what just happened here, over the past two years of eternal campaigning? Is that what happened on November 4? A man rose to the apex of American political power on the "content of his character" rather than the colour of his skin? [Dare I say it?] No -- I think not.

In fact the evidence suggests that Mr. Obama rose largely because his character was unknown (or suppressed) -- and because the same could be said of the content of his policies. He remains a cipher. Our most pressing question now: is this an accident born of his inexperience and unpreparedness? or is it the result of a deliberate strategy on his part to conceal, and to hoodwink a nation?

[Before the concert, Hewson/Bono told NBC's Brian Williams that when Obama swears his oath on Lincoln's bible, it will prove that "America exists." Begging your pardon, sir, we're here, we're queer (in the dictionary sense), we're not going away -- we have never gone away. Tell Saddam Hussein that America's existence has been in doubt these past eight years. Sheesh. What arrogant B.S.]

There are other pressing questions. Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard boils them down rather well, to four Fears -- here:

He doesn't know what he's talking about. (numbers, numbers, everywhere)
He's a pushover. (Pelosi will eat him for lunch)
He's another Jimmy Carter on foreign and national security policy. (diplomacy as panacea)
He has nerves of jello. (how deep is the 'calm'?)

Over at Commentary Magazine, Abe Greenwald has a less charitable, and much less optimistic take on the nature of the new administration. He claims that we are about to see implemented "The Doctrine of Fakism" at every level. I am inclined to agree with him. It hit me between the brows when I heard the Secretary of State Designate (looking tired and de-botoxed) declare that United States foreign policy must henceforth be an exercise in "smart power" -- I nearly lost my lunch. Are we really going to have to listen to this kind vacuous jargon for the next four years, our eyes trained in horrified fascination on the spectacle of overpaid elected officials treating this nonsense as if it has meaning, not to mention utility? Sweet Jesu -- take me now.


Update:
OH CANADA -- WHO KNEW YOU HAD A QUOTA
ON LEFT-WING EXTREMISTS AND WASHED-UP TERRORISTS?

How did I miss this? How did I not sniff it in the air, a crisp, fresh northern wind that said, "BILL AYERS HAS BEEN BARRED FROM ENTERING THE COUNTRY."

I don't know what possessed the folks at the border, but they stymied America's attempt to get revenge for all that garbage we're shipping to Michigan.

Obama buddy (and never doubt it -- he WAS -- is?) William Ayers, 1960's Weather Underground terrorist-honcho, was scheduled to spew his disingenuous nonsense at the University of Toronto, but was sent back to Chicago with his tail between his legs. (There has been no mention of what he did with his horns....)

Wolfe the Dauntless would be proud.


Sunday was also Sanctity of Human Life Day, as declared by the outgoing President. Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted. That point of light will likely go out all over America in pretty short order. In the meantime, remind yourself what's at stake, courtesy of Deacon Greg and Catholic Media House here.

also updated: Vice-President Elect Joe Biden, or rather his lovely wife Jill, stuffed the Vice-presidential foot firmly in mouth by revealing (again) that Jabberin' Joe had been offered his choice of Veep or Secretary of State, and made his selection. Oops. We're not supposed to know this. More to the point, Hillary Clinton isn't supposed to know this. Know what? I have no idea. I just know it's going to be fun waiting to see how long it takes before Vice-President Joe is transported to a secure undisclosed location for no apparent reason.

WHITHER HISTORY? TRUTH OR RAPE?

PBS Talking head Tavis Smiley wasted no time (we haven't even sworn the guy in yet!) in declaring that the election of Barack Obama demonstrates nothing about a "post-racial" era -- far from it, my friends, in that it merely shows that America is "less racist" than it used to be -- that this election is merely a "down payment" on reparation for slavery. Here's the tape, and one informed black dude's puzzled response at BlackInformant.com

Here's some more history that I ran across while feeling speechless and numb. It's the Leader of the Free World, striding into a situation where he is more vulnerable, in myriad ways, than any President has ever been. And he, and tens of thousands of Americans, show the world what we're made of. Watch and remember.

Mini-update: Forgot to mention -- when I watched the baseball game footage, I burst into tears for my country and said "What have we done? My God, what have we done?

THIS JUST IN:
SENTENCES OF RAMOS AND COMPEAN

COMMUTED

CHESLEY SULLENBERGER GLIDES TO GLORY

Graduated first in his class at the United States Air Force Academy, B.S., class of '73; seven years as an F-4 Phantom fighter jet pilot; M.S. and M.A. degrees; 28 years with U.S. Airways; and, at the time of his heroic float-landing, he is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley!) Center for Catastrophic Risk Management.
[Wiki bio here]

Also the last man off the sinking airbus of flight 1549.

Just another one of those dumb losers who join the United States military for want of something more useful and productive to do.

Sorry to disappoint you, Senator Charlie ("no bright young individual wants to fight...") Rangel, and Senator John Frickin ("study hard... or you get stuck in Iraq...") Kerry -- he's a better man than you are, Gunga Dingbat.

He's also the founder of Safety Reliability Methods, Inc. I suspect the customers will soon be lining up around the block.

Their motto: "Proven Performance, Dedicated Professional Service, Uniquely Qualified Experts."


No, really?

155 sets of happy feet walk on their way today, thanks to Sully. So nice to meet a guy named Sully who makes the world a better place. (Not like some other Sully's we could mention, but won't.)


FUN WITH PIE-CHARTS

Well, not pies exactly. Just some things that make you kinda go "Hm-m-m." [hat-tip: the ever reliable Gateway Pundit]

Just how dangerous is it to be in the U.S. armed forces under the evil George W. Bush (as opposed to....)?



Just how demanding and essential is the position of Vice President for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospital (relative to the increasing influence and earmark dollars of said Veep's nearest relative)?

(hint: Up until recently, this position was held by First Lady in Waiting Michelle Obama. The hospital has announced it has no plans to replace her.)

Now here's the real pie chart.

DATELINE, LONDON:

AND THE PENALTY FOR ASSAULTING A POLICE OFFICER WITH A TRAFFIC-CONE IS...?

-- OR --

HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF AGAINST A MAN ARMED WITH A POINTED STICK



Apparently England still swings like a pendulum do, and if the bobbies had bicycles they'd be fleeing two by two. Make your trips to Europe while you still can, culture fans, because at some point you're going to land there and find a smoking rubble with less of it left intact than if the Vikings had raided again.


[hat-tip/Gateway Pundit]


MEANWHILE BACK IN DISNEYLAND, D.C.:

They're gonna party like it's 1861 -- except for the slavery part, of course.

Jammie-Wearing Fool brings us up-to-date on plans for the Most Fabulous Inaugural Bash of the Entire 21st Century so far -- and you can quote me on that.

Let the Abe-apalooza for Obamaham begin!

PRESIDENT BUSH HOLDS FINAL PRESS CONFERENCE

BUSH GROVELS IN FRONT OF WASHINGTON PRESS CORPS SCUM,

LIKE THAT'S GOING TO MAKE THEM THINK BETTER OF HIM

I have nothing against the outgoing President beginning to engage in some deep reflection about the full picture of his record in office, and even to share it in televised interviews (although it is far too soon to be of maximum value). But to engage in confessional examinations before a roomful of hostile bloodsuckers who have, for the most part, consistently savaged him, lied about him, and betrayed the interests of the American people in the name of an inside scoop (with the added bonus of making Bush look incompetent and perhaps criminal), was a needless and inappropriate act of public penance, and served as an example of one the personal flaws which has plagued his ability to govern effectively.

I wish he hadn't done it, or at least had made his personal assessment brief, cool, and perfunctory, with the clear implication that he would reserve his deeper reflections for people who (a) read books, and (b) are open to learning from them -- qualities not evident in most of the members of the Washington press corpse.

That having been said, more thoughtful people are now pressed into hasty revision of the president's prematurely confessional swan song, among them Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, who crams quite a bit of wisdom into his Top Ten List here. Additionally, David Warren reflects on the fundamentals of the Bush years with considerable warmth -- available online tomorrow here, though I will take the liberty of sneak-previewing his typically bon mot, where he anticipates a week hence by raising "a quick toast to old Bush, and good luck to the new Obama (there seems to be a new one every day)." Heh.

Mr. Bush is who he is, and who he was, and that is often not a good thing for the rest of us, insofar as he is irrationally loyal to the undeserving or underqualified who are close at his side, and strangely myopic to the larger loyalty owed to the 350 million of his countrymen who stand at a distance and whose fate rides disproportionately on his solitary judgement; as he is loyal to principles arrived at instinctively and expressed simplistically, where events have called for lengthier exercise of more cool intelligence than heart, to arrive at complex principles far less founded (unfortunately) in faith in one's fellow man. (What better example could there be of misplaced faith than for Mr. Bush to bare his soul to a roomful of Washington reporters -- I almost said 'journalists! Ha! -- in hopes that they might gain a higher opinion of his legacy.)

Nevertheless, some salient facts keep hanging around: Islamist terrorism has been rocked back on its heels (though BY NO MEANS eradicated) around the world, its infrastructure hobbled and its image bruised, as it is increasingly responsible for more savagery against Muslims than against infidels of every stripe.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch,

2678 DAYS WITHOUT A TERRORIST ATTACK ON UNITED STATES SOIL.

That will be 2685 by inauguration day, assuming our luck holds out for another week (not that "luck" has much to do with it -- some of it, at least, is owed to warrantless wiretaps and waterboarding, but mostly to the strength projected by the American military, which kicks ass with its left foot while building brotherhood with its right hand).

INAUGURAL THOUGHTS:

ON JANUARY 20th, WILL PRESIDENT OBAMA INAUGURATE AN END TO HIS CAMPAIGN'S CONSTANT SOLICITATION FOR MONEY???

Yes, friends, those of us who, out of curiosity or for whatever other reason, signed up for emails from the campaign of the new techno-savvy candidate on the block, are still receiving a stream of solicitations signed by David Plouffe, Michelle Obama, and the President-elect himself, advertising inaugural tee-shirts, mugs, and a lottery of sorts for seats at the inaugural table, all couched in pleas for additional money in the customary easy-fraud amount of $5. Only in the fine print at the bottom of the page does one discover that the "be our guest" contest does not, in fact, depend upon coughing up some moolah, but merely requires a small essay on "What the inauguration means to me."

So I did it, my friends (as somebody recently famous used to say every couple of minutes) -- I made my second $5 contribution to the Obama campaign, once again using my Canadian-based credit card with my Canadian address, and then entering into the online form a completely different set of completely bogus personal information -- fake name, address, phone number, email, employment info -- and hit the "contribute" button. And -- VOILA!-- to no one's great surprise, it is still possible to make a fraudulent online donation to Obama Corp. I'll check back after St. Agnes' Eve and let you know whether this practice perseveres into the Dawn of the New Administration, "when the rise of the oceans begins to slow and our planet begins to heal". (At least I thought I saw the oceans moving -- maybe I was just so wasted, man.....)

I had an Irish grandfather (he died in 1945) who had a few favourite sayings, one of which was "If a man asks to borrow $10, always give it to him: if he returns it, you've made a friend; if he doesn't, you've bought $10 worth of information." In the public interest, I have expended $10, and gotten $10 worth of juicy information. What with inflation in the past 60 years, I'm willing to shell out a few more five-dollarses to see just how long this Obama fraud farce goes on. Will keep you posted. And when they come to take me away, presumably one of you will post more than $5 for my bail.

SPEAKING OF GARY SINISE

(and I often am)

He is the happy and well-deserving recipient of one of this year's Presidential Citizen's Medals, as well as an AARP Inspire Award for his work onm Operation Iraqi Children, which he co-founded in 2004 to put much-needed school supplies and other basics (shoes, blankets) into the hands of American troops (an important part of the process) to distribute to children in the war-zone.

Good for Gary. Similar kudos should have long since been heaped upon Jim Hake of Spirit of America, who has spent the last five years doing the same thing on a much wider scale, giving everything you can possibly think of to people of all ages in Iraq and Aghanistan, with the support of thousands of donors, via the hands of American troops. Perhaps if he were a movie star and USO rock band regular, instead of a mere businessman, his efforts would have come to greater notice in the Oval Office.

This is not to take anything away from Sinise, who is definitely the Bob Hope of his generation (though much quieter and humbler, and therefore a lot less funny!). But the work of Spirit of America has been simply staggering, and, although Hake has once been introduced to Bush, his work has not received the attention it should have, both from the president and from the national media.

If I were writing Rich Lowry's column, I would have put this omission at the top of the Top Ten Failures list for Mr. Bush -- he could not have prevented September 11th [no, troofers, he could NOT], but he could have rallied the nation together to do something other than "go shopping", and Spirit of America is exactly what the nation needed.

Had this kind of charitable work received timely attention from the president -- had he gotten behind the effort publicly and persistently -- I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Bush's position in the nation's eyes might be higher today, and that his road might have been a bit less lonely and bumpy. Even regarding Gary Sinise, it is telling that his medal has been awarded in Mr. Bush's final month, when Gary has been the public face of OIC, and probably the biggest draw for the USO, for almost five years. Better late than never, but LATE it is.

A gentle snow has stopped here in the Great White North, where a couple of inches of Global Warming lie on the ground around us. We begin a new era, sailing into the wind without Bill Buckley at the helm and Fr. Neuhaus as chaplain, and much of the world seemingly gone mad (or "Koo Koo for Cocoa-Puff"). Fortunately, both Bill and the good Father are now in a better place, where they are assuredly trying to convince the Boss that there are enough Righteous Men down here on the big blue marble to keep it safe for another generation. Let's hope so.

'Cause there's gators out there.

2009 -- off to a flying start [updated*]

First Monday of the New Year I wake up suddenly from a long deep sleep, smack in the middle of a dream in which I am moving into a holiday rental apartment in some sunny European country, with my family, friends, people I've never met, and Christopher Hitchens. [finger warning]

I swear it's true. I referred to him by name, and it was all so real. I think he was even red-faced and smoking. I don't think this augurs well.

There's all sorts of stuff, political and cultural, going on that's worth keeping an eye on, but such trivial matters must give way to real earth-shaking news, or, more appropriately, First Things first.


Fr. Richard John Neuhaus has died.

Fr. Neuhaus is best known these days as the editor of what is arguably the finest English-language journal of thought now in print First Things, published by the Institute for Religion and Public Life. Among other things, Fr. Neuhaus coined the term "the Naked Public Square" in reference to the wave of protests and bannings of Nativity scenes on public property at Christmastime. This became the consummate expression of modern ignorance and confusion at the intersection of Church and State.

There will be many words spilled over the coming weeks to memorialize Fr. Neuhaus, most of them more eloquent and knowledgeable than mine. But here's my 2-cents' worth.

Fr. Richard Neuhaus, was once Pastor Neuhaus, a Lutheran minister as his father was before him. This was one of his many conversions. Born in Ontario, he became an American citizen. Active in the anti-war and civil rights movements (you can see him at Dr. King's elbow in various snaps of the Selma march), he retained those principles and watched the movements abandon him as they morphed into Free Love and Black Power.

His most powerful epiphany came when, as pastor to a largely minority Lutheran church in Brooklyn, he looked out onto his faithful congregation and realized that the "quality of life" arguments being made in favour of abortion and euthanasia would have excluded in some measure almost everyone sitting in his church -- all of them endured some hardships which the Culture of Death would declare to constitute a life not worth living. This, for him, remained the civil rights issue of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Not long after this, Fr. Neuhaus found his home in the Catholic Church, but never lost his attachment to the spirit of Ecumenism and interfaith dialogue based on these universal principles. I had the privilege of meeting Fr. Neuhaus a couple of times, and hearing him speak. His talk for the Toronto St. Thomas More Lawyers Guild dinner was typically sharp and intelligent and substantive and inspiring.

But most memorable for me was his speech to an annual pro-life conference. Many of those in attendance were under-impressed. They said it didn't tell them anything new, or particularly deep. They had been looking for the intellectual Fr. Neuhaus. What they got was the pentecostal Lutheran preacher. For my part, I LOVED IT.

[*update: listen to the closing minutes here]

I would never have imagined that this often drily humorous, brainy, and pithy man had an "I have a dream" streak a mile wide rumbling inside of him. It was sheer delight to hear it. And when I finally saw the film of him dodging Bull Connor's dogs and thugs, the portrait was complete, and coherent. Without having known him well or read everything he wrote (not even close), I feel I have had a glimpse of who he really was.

As for the future, the United States has just elected as president a politician probably unmatched, over so short a career, in his dedication to the legislative furthering of the Culture of Death. Barack Obama is, beyond any possible question, the Abortion President, capital A. Never in the history of the country has a voice like Fr. Neuhaus's been needed more, and yet we are to move forward into this battle without him. How will we manage?

I suspect that our prayers for this good man will now be largely superfluous. Better to ask that he will pray for us.

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus 1936-2009

Requiescat in Pace



AT LEAST SOME THINGS ARE STILL SAME-OLD SAME-OLD:

Harry Reid is still nuts.



I agree on that last point, Harry.

But it's not just his military effectiveness that makes General David Petraeus my PERSON OF THE YEAR for 2008 -- it's how he changed the equation, and changed history, for all of us (and I mean ALL).



Months before the battle had really begun in earnest, Harry declared the war itself to be "lost". He was in abundant, if not good, company. But he and his company were wrong then, and remained wrong right up until a few minutes ago when the attempt to re-write history, and to credit the win to The Obamessiah, surged (as 'twere) into full swing.

Chronology: the "surge" strategy was adopted and began to play out in January of 2007 -- that is, the scheduled troop build-up of an additional 30,000 began at a trickle, [to continue until completed in June]. AQI reacted with the predicted mini-surge of their own, and on February 7 they flailed out desperately in the direction of a CH-46 piloted by Marine Lt. Jared Landaker, my son's Quantico room-mate, and ended his life along with all others aboard -- an act they turned into a sick ullulating-Allahu-akbar music video.

As events played out, following that particular flail AQI began to head down the straight road to being last-gasping dead-enders. Still, it was a road lined with land-mines of defeatism detonated almost daily by increasingly desperate congressional Democrats and their willing accomplices in the mainstream press and the Hollywood film machine.

During the period of the surge build-up, General Petraeus, along with Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, reported to Congress in July of 2007 and again in September of that year. The July report was preceeded by a panicked Democratic congress denying the surge's success, and trying to pass withdrawal date legislation to counter the threat of a positive report splitting the party. Ah yes -- could there be anything worse for the Democrats than that the American military might be winning?

The September report was preceeded by by the heinous slanders of Moveon.org's "General Betray-us" ad, and the spectacle of then-President-presumptive Hillary Rod'em Cowboy essentially calling the general a liar to his face. The entire period of January to September (as I waited for my son to deploy to Iraq in October) was a pageant of Democratic strategies to denigrate the American military and the Iraqi people at every turn, and to collapse the Iraq war effort before it could be turned into victory.

Most of the poseurs in this pageant made impossible proposals that would have left our military ridiculously vulnerable to slaughter-in-retreat. But the more they spluttered and fumed, the more they were frustrated by the word leaking out that the corner had been turned in Iraq and that peace was in danger of breaking out all over.

Petraeus and Crocker arrived in Washington in September, to sit in the hot-seat with every Democrat gun-site trained on them. They stood their ground. They spoke the truth, unadorned with excessive optimism but unapologetic about the prospects for success. They maintained more dignity in one fingernail than the entire Democratic caucus could muster in its collective flesh on a good day. Together they punched a giganticus hole in the defeatist balloon, and went back to walking the dusty path to victory.

That was 2007. Why is Petraeus the Man of 2008? Because, for better or for worse, his successful strategy shaped the politics of this election year. At first he gave John McCain his most winning issue (support for the surge) and weakened the effect of Barack Obama's important anti-war credentials. This left Hillary somewhere in the serious, moderately hawkish middle.

But in the end the success of the surge robbed all three candidates of what everyone had assumed would be THE issue for 2008 -- it fell off the front pages for lack of death and destruction to report, and McCain's prescience lost its punch. Suppression of battlefield realities also permitted Obama to charm his way centerward with candyfloss pronouncements on much less strident and divisive issues than war. By the time the conventions rolled around, it was all about the cult of personality. A week or so later it was all about the pocketbook and the stock market.

Petraeus kept his steady hand on the tiller and engineered a brilliant counterinsurgency, and the now almost secret victory in Iraq transformed the 2008 political landscape for both parties, with all that this implies for the immediate global future as approached by the new leader of the free world (Inshallah?!).

That's Part One of my Man of the Year argument. Part Two is much shorter: think how DRAMATICALLY the political landscape, both national and global, would have been transformed had Petraeus been permitted to implement his counterinsurgency strategy when he first recommended it. I BELIEVE THAT WAS SOMEWHERE AROUND 2004. I suspect we might now have a Republican president, and it wouldn't be John McCain.

Cheezus....


SPEAKING OF THE HOLLYWOOD FILM MACHINE

Between September of 2007 and May of 2008, the following feature films (fiction, and I mean it) were put into commercial release for the delectation of the public:

In the Valley of Elah
Rendition
Redacted
Lions for Lambs
Grace is Gone
Stop-Loss
The Battle for Haditha

In the "documentary" category, between March 2005 and January 2008, we had:

Gunner Palace
Iraq in Fragments
Home of the Brave
No End in Sight
Taxi to the Dark Side

[confession time: of these, the only one of the twelve I've seen is Gunner Palace, which was well-done but achieved its goal of being disturbing by profiling only metal-head army privates]

This list of Iraq-war-related films is not definitive, but includes most of the high-profile ones-- to the extent that their box-office returns can be said to reflect any profile at all. The statistics are telling:

Total domestic box office for all twelve films combined -- $45.6 million

That's 54% of the domestic box office for The Passion of the Christ on its opening weekend alone.

That's 64% of the domestic box office for Finding Nemo on its opening weekend alone.

That's less than each of the opening weekends of the three parts of Lord of the Rings.

I'm just sayin'.

I left out of this calculation the film Jarhead, which was released in November 2005, but was ostensibly about the first Gulf War in 1990-91 (yeah, right). That film grossed a respectable $62.6 million -- $10 million less than it cost to make. Fortunately it made another $34 million and change in foreign distribution, and so was saved from ending in the red.

By recycling the previous war, Jarhead was able to get the jump on other productions, and catch its audience in a foul mood about a present war going badly. But it also gave the first taste of how far Hollywood would go to dump on the American fighting man. By the time the anti-war film machine got primed with fresher material, the American public had no appetite for what Hollywood was selling.

Speaking of "in the red" (and in Hollywood we're always at least in the pinko), the only films among the listed dozen to have supplied their budget figures to Box Office Mojo were Stop-Loss and Lions for Lambs. The former made less than half its cost back, and the latter made a profit only because its foreign box office was more than three times its domestic gross.

That, of course, is one of the great scandals of this film-wing of the leftist propaganda machine -- it sells better to our tepid "allies" and enemies than it does to the home front, sometimes substantially -- foreign distribution of Redacted, for example, out-grossed the domestic box office by 11 to 1!
[Bringing total revenue to a whopping great $780,000!!!!! Boy, was that a stinker!]


IN THE PIPELINE -- I hope?

In 2006 Warner Brothers/Valhalla Motion Pictures/Legendary Pictures snagged the rights to do a flick of Col. Matthew Bogdanos' book Thieves of Baghdad. Haven't been heard from on this subject since, as far as I can tell.

We're ready now -- the public has demonstrated (1) zero appetite for trash-the-troops movies; (2) big appetite for support-the-troops, support-the-Iraqis, support-the-mission fare.

So let's get on the project, people!!! I nominate Gary Sinise to star.


SPEAKING OF GARY SINISE:

GARY IN IRAQ/LT. DAN BAND ROCKS THE TROOPS
special program this Saturday on FoxNews at 9:00 p.m. eastern. Be there.

LAST SUNDAY OF ADVENT


And therefore rather too late to give my annual 'How to Put the Merry Back into Christmas -- Recovering Advent' sermon, but the reader can still benefit from a few of the recommendations, especially about music. Check out the archives here.





Been crazy-town busy, and am nearly partied out (yeah, I know, that's not really the spirit of Advent, but we all get calendar crunch this time of year), so blogging has fallen off the map.



Will return soon, when time allows, and provide all my thoroughly unsentimental, totally geopolitical strategery-based reasons why the man who didn't even make it to Time Magazine's Top Five is, in fact, the Indisputable Man of the Year, General David Petraeus, lynchpin of EVERYTHING that's happened this election season. It's brilliant. Fasten your seatbelts.


Must go. Plane to catch tomorrow a.m.


In the meantime, watch out for wolves.

MARK STEYN'S BEEN READING MY EMAIL

Apparently we both received the same piece of advert-spam from Amazon.com's music department, which offered a bevy of musical selections to celebrate THE TWELVE DAYS OF HOLIDAY. [screen cap here]

Now Amazon is almost a weekly visitor to our front door, so it's very difficult to think about boycotting its cornucopia of delights, but I have to admit that this craven crumple at the altar of Political Correctness got me seriously cheesed.

While I was contemplating what to do between now and Twelfth Night, Mark Steyn got on the case ["Don we now our vague apparel"], and I'm sure there were countless others who didn't need Steyn to lead them towards posting a complaint to Amazon's management.

The upshot is that it didn't take Amazon long to realize their mistake, and they are now advertising gifts for the TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS. Having drawn attention to the original travesty, Steyn began to regret the speedy return to sanity on Amazon's part, because the Bad Idea had been such fodder for parody, as follows:

Seven Customer Care Representatives A-leaping [Mark Steyn]

Following my post yesterday on Amazon.com's bizarre "Twelve Days Of Holiday" campaign, an unseasonably intemperate reader wrote:

Don't like Amazon? Don't shop at it then, you clot. Nobody really gives a damn if some online retailer is insufficiently Christian for your tastes. Nobody.

Oh, I don't know. The "Twelve Days Of Holiday" promotion has now been amended to "The Twelve Days Of [click here for offensive C-word]". So, if I'm a clot, I'm Rudolph the Red-Nosed Clot in whose wake you run-of-the-sleigh clots follow.

To be honest, I mildly regret this instant corporate capitulation as sometime Cornerite Michael Graham has started up a poll to find out your favorite "Twelve Days Of Holiday" song. As I write, the runaway winner is "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Thursday".

[UPDATE: Things are going from bad to Norse:

Some may find it offensive to officially promote the Norse gods, so I believe it would be best to quit using terminology such as "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday" and "Friday" for our weekdays. Clearly, "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Thursday" is highly offensive to those who do not worship Thor, and thus a more appropriate holiday song should be "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like The Fifth Day of the Week".

But only if you assume the week begins on Sunday, as so many C-word obsessives do. Another reader writes:

Surely we should avoid offending those who do not worship Thor, god of thunder. So it should be “It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like the 4th day of the week”.

How about "It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Lunchtime"?

HIATUS:

Blogging slowdown due to fog (in my head) in Newfoundland. Readying the old homestead for Yule-tide.

THANKSGIVING DAY

TISSUES AND ISSUES

If Obama stays the course, there’s a chance, slim but real, that a democratic Iraq will emerge from what now looks like a disaster.

Is that right?

So said the crusty George Jonas in yesterday's National Post. Some people -- Iraqi people -- have other ideas, about words like "slim" and "disaster".


Here's the Thanksgiving circular from Families United For Our Troops and Their Mission. It's about the many faces of our victory in Iraq. Tissue alert: if this one doesn't get to you, you're made of stone.

A Thanksgiving Blessing

As Thanksgiving approaches, I am reminded of the many families who will be missing a loved one at the table. We will reflect on Thanksgivings past and the joy and laughter they brought to the gathering. On Derek’s last Thanksgiving at my home, there were 14 around our table. I remember breaking down as I said grace and asked everyone to remember our troops and keep them safe. Derek followed me into the kitchen to give me a hug. His eyes were warm and bright when he said, “Just remember, if I go anywhere, I’m going home.” In those words, I have found comfort.

Our blessings go out in particular this holiday to the brave Blue Star families, the PGR, our military, and our loyal troop supporters that have come to our side in mutual understanding and strength. I must confess that I never knew I was a Blue Star parent. Derek was a member of a Special Ops group that number less than 400 worldwide. I didn’t know where or when he was deployed. On our ride across country this summer for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, we found support and new friendships through both Families United and these groups.

Last week, I was offered a wonderful opportunity that has given all of our families’ reason to be thankful. Merrilee Carlson and myself had the joy of experiencing the rewards of our efforts in Iraq. On Wednesday, November 12th, I was invited to DC to take part in a joint wreath laying ceremony. My son is buried at Arlington Cemetery with three other Americans, and one Iraqi Captain. An Iraqi General stood with an American General and placed the wreath together on the common grave. “Together they fought, and together they died”, were the words expressed by the Iraqi General.


A delegation of about 15 Iraqis attended the ceremony to honor all of our sons and daughters that have given their lives for freedom. That evening we attended a dinner hosted by the Iraqis. I consider it a gift that I can now sit between an Iraqi General and the Iraqi Ambassador and share laughter and conversation.

Ambassador Sumaida’ie’s words in an article written on April 10th of this year, ring true to this date.

“Having intervened and committed itself so deeply, the U.S. is debating the level and cost of its engagement. I submit that it cannot afford to lose this fight to its enemies. The destinies of the U.S. and Iraq have become intertwined and their national interests very closely linked.”

We stand at a crossroads in our country this Thanksgiving. In honor of my son, and all of our military families, we will pray that our leadership finds the strength and courage they need to allow our troops to complete their mission.

Our Thanksgiving table was always filled with lively debate, and that is the beauty of our freedom. Derek alluded to this in part of an address he wrote to his team.

“Our team has not always seen eye to eye. It’s hard for people to agree on everything, actually it’s (darn) near impossible. I know for a fact if I was surrounded by 14 Argels, we definitely would have a hard time getting (stuff) done. I could argue with myself for days on end, but that’s why I’m glad we have such a diverse group of men…Remember your training, your accomplishments, and each other. You will see combat, you will see death, and you will deal it. Take ease in knowing that your country, your friends, your family, your team and myself believe in what you can do. Success!”

Our success and continued support depends on the friendships and relationships forged during this time. This week we will give thanks for those friendships with allies, love from our families, the sacrifice of our troops and the continued successes in their mission. I pray that each of your families find the strength and courage this Thanksgiving that our troops exemplify.

Deb Argel-Bastian
In honor of my son, Capt. Derek Argel
Deployed to heaven, Memorial Day 2005

STILL --
IRAQ LAURELS ARE NOT FOR SITTING ON

Just in case anybody [not least, the President-elect, who must now be painfully aware that he's playing in the big-leagues] thought that the terrorist crazies of the world are going to let the Iraq set-back discourage them for the long-term, a new tumor has erupted in Mumbai, India, where at least 100 were killed and hundreds more have been wounded or taken hostage in a well-coordinated series of attacks across the city. Al Qaeda has been dealt a massive blow by the loss in Iraq and the severe disruption of its funding and communication networks (no thanks to the American Congress update: and the New York Times, may I add...), but the spiritual and psychological poisoning of a whole generation of Muslims by their fanatical terrorist mentors is by no means purged.

The economy may be riding a roller-coaster, but one cost remains inelastic: the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

Prayers for our friends in India this day.



THANKSGIVING:

Born of American Puritan values, seedbed of the great American Protestant Ethic.

Or was it?

Taylor Marsh at Credo [via the Anchoress] tells us that the FIRST first American Thanksgiving took place among the Spanish in St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and the celebrations were kicked off with a Catholic Mass. Likewise the second recorded formal Thanksgiving celebration, declared by Don Juan de Oñate (explorer, conqueror, and scourge of the Acoma Indians) in Texas in 1598.


And if that don't beat all, it seems that Squanto -- English-speaking Patuxet Indian who became an ambassador from the Wampanoag tribe to the Pilgrims, and whose assistance with subsistence gave the struggling Pilgrims something to be thankful for -- had earlier embraced Catholicism while in Spain, having been freed from slavery by a community of Franciscan friars.



And, as Marsh reminds us, “Thanksgiving” in Greek is Eucharistia.

So there.






And now back to our regularly scheduled Pilgrim.

WHEN YOU NAME NAMES

It always happens: when you start making a list, you leave something off. Better just to make generalizations.

My V.I. Day post gave a general thank-you to "Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen" without naming anybody in particular. Now, I'm sure that the General of the Hour would consider himself privileged to be counted as one of those soldiers -- but it nevertheless needs to be said that credit for Victory in Iraq requires us to list the following names:

Petraeus, Petraeus, Petraeus, Petraeus, Petraeus, Petraeus, Petraeus, Petraeus, Petraeus, Petraeus,........

And did I mention

PETRAEUS?

Thanks, Peaches.


I also gave a general thank-you to "steadfast, occasionally visionary, politicians" and to our "Coalition partners". There are a couple of names required in those categories too, though in March of 2003, and for a considerable time afterward, neither of these would have considered themselves either as politicians or members of any coalition that included Americans. How times have changed.


There is Nouri Al Maliki, the soft-spoken first Prime Minister of the New Iraq, who sometimes seems soft-headed too, but has managed, against great odds and mortal dangers, to keep his hand on the rudder of his country's future, with spectacular results (despite the herculean efforts of American congressional Democrats to thwart, undermine, and insult his achievements).

There is also Sheikh Abdl Sattar Abu Risha, first leader of the Anbar Awakening. He was assassinated for it in September 2007, but is honoured in the continuity of his leadership example carried through to this day by other Anbar sheikhs (again, despite partisan congressional efforts to downplay or deny the historic allegiance between these Iraqi tribes and their American occupiers, towards a lasting peace).

History shall remember their courage.


Also among our Coalition Partners can be included (but impossible to list) the people of Iraq who began their career as free agents more than five years ago with desperately infantile and self-destructive looting of their own infrastructure, because under Saddam nothing had ever really been "their own" -- and who now have pledged not just their blood and labour but their maturity and self-discipline as a culture to overcome the fears and hatreds of the past, and to make peace with the invaders who, we must openly admit, broke a lot of bones and hearts and pottery in order to break the Iraqis' chains.

The Iraqi people, as a group, have suffered every conceivable kind of insult at the hands of the haters of George W. Bush, especially those in elected office -- those who, in a relentless quest to saddle the president with a disaster, have denied the reality of every particle of cooperation, progress and normalization which has proceeded, first in fits and starts and finally in a tidal-wave, over the past five years.

And among all the politicians who slagged the Iraqi government and ignored its heroic track toward democracy, even as they slagged and slandered the American military (who are, in fact, the most expert diplomatic corps in the history of human society), no one has gone to greater lengths to flip the bird to the whole country of Iraq than our current Vice-President-elect, Jabbering Joe Biden.

The Senator from Delaware pretended he was the only adult in the room by proposing, from way out in left field, that Iraq be partitioned into three self-governing provinces based on ethnicity and religion.

Ignoring the fact that there are more ethnicities at work than just three; that they do not live in easily-defined separate regions; that they are intermarried in great numbers both among ethnicities and religious factions; that if there is any governmental tradition "natural" to this ancient region, after millennia of waves and waves of invasion, it is by tribe rather than geographical or other type of boundary line; and (most importantly) that no one had even bothered to consult the Iraqis themselves about Biden's scheme for their future, the Senator from Unaware touted his flagrantly imperialist agenda from mid-2006 right through the Democratic primary season, as if it had been delivered straight down from (as 'twere) Mt. Sinai.

[Footnote: when the Iraqis were permitted a response to the idea, they hated it. HUGE.]

So let's not forget the immortal words of Idiot Joe in his Wapo op-ed of 2006:

Unfortunately, this administration does not have a coherent plan or any discernible strategy for success in Iraq. Its strategy is to prevent defeat and hand the problem off when it leaves office.

Here's your hand-off Joe: it's called VICTORY. Catch it if you can.

On this day for names, I reflect on one more leader of troops into battle, a man I've met and heard speak a couple of times, a man who, in times of trouble, I would follow without hesitation. Lt. Col. Bryan McCoy, author of The Passion of Command -- and boy does he have it.

Most often I think of him in a context which I did not personally witness. He was part of a CNN broadcast of April 9, 2003, the transcript of which is still available on the 'net here. Its subject was the fact -- the FACT -- that the invading American army was welcomed into Iraq as LIBERATORS, as witnessed by CNN reporters Ben Wedeman and Christiane Amanpour, plus Al Jazeera's Dima Khatib, Cox News' Craig Nelson, Abu Dhabi News' Jasim Al Azzawi, L.A. Times' Robin Wright, Lebanese Broadcasting's Tani Mehanna, and American Army Generals Wesley Clark and David Range, all interviewed by Larry King in the heady atmosphere of a "jubilant" Iraq.

Now, none of these voices was drunk with triumph -- all were temperate about what the future held -- but there was no question whatsoever that, at the moment of the taking of Baghdad, the Americans were being welcomed as Liberators throughout Iraq and parts of the wider region.

Then there was Col. McCoy's voice, that of a man who had fought his way into the country for 21 days, the latter half of them spent in full-blast battle rattle. He had already lost some of "his boys." It was Col. McCoy's boys who helped the locals bring down Saddam's statue in Baghdad's Firdos square (and no, they didn't "raise an American flag," they wiped Saddam's face with it -- nor did they try to claim that the square was packed with thousands when it wasn't, nor did they have to egg on the crowd to attack the statue -- they just helped complete the task the crowd was ill-equipped to do themselves).

But the idea that the military on the ground ever thought this job was going to be a "cakewalk" is belied by McCoy's answers to Larry King. Finally, in response to King's classic lazy-journalist question: "What about this venture has surprised you the most?" McCoy said,

What has surprised me the most is the closer we got to Baghdad, the more effusive the people were about welcoming us here. We thought it would be the opposite. It would be the closer we got to Baghdad, the less welcome we would be.

McCoy's realistic expectations echo the anti-rosy assessment of then two-star General David Petraeus a couple of weeks before , "Tell me how this ends? eight years and eight divisions?"

Well, Peaches, we're starting to know. Apparently, it ends well -- providing the folks in Washington don't screw it up again.


IT ENDS LIKE THIS:
TOUCHING THE FACE OF GRACE

Over at primo Milblog Mudville Gazette this story is passed along from CJ at A Soldier's Perspective (with the appropriate "tissue alert.") It's called Touching the Face of Grace and I present it here in full, because that's what it merits.

CJ writes:

I found this essay, written by the father of a deployed Soldier, on the American Legion website. It was introduced into the Congressional Record by Frank R. Wolf, R-Va, on September 16th. It's a very touching and inspirational story should be required reading by the defeatists in Congress. Here it is:

“Whatever your political take on the war in Iraq, nothing can alter it more than having a loved one in the midst of it. Nor is anyone’s current perspective balanced until they hear at least some things from a soldier’s point of view.

“My wife and I learned these truths when our son, a 2004 Handley graduate, decided to join the Army in 2006. His reasoning was simple: he wasn’t comfortable knowing that thousands of others his age were sacrificing their own freedoms to protect his. When he signed up to join those thousands, it changed our perspective as well.

“Up to that point, it had always been other people’s sons and daughters doing the fighting. Now it would be our own child. Naturally, no one wants their child to volunteer to go in harm’s way for freedom’s sake. It was something of a conviction, though, when my wife and I had to ask ourselves why it shouldn’t be our own son in the Middle East, why we should be spared the rituals of anxiety, prayer, hope and waiting that tens of thousands of other families over here have already endured.

“In early June, we flew to Fort Hood, Texas, to see our son deploy for a 15-month tour in Iraq. Again, one’s perspective is limited until one attends a deploying ceremony for a unit of soldiers. Spouses, children, parents, siblings and friends, all crowding a gym, all clinging closely to their treasures in uniform, accompanied by flags, prayers, cheers and tears. Our son had joined a ‘band of brothers.’ My wife and I had joined the ‘band of others’ who would be waiting at home. Both those going, and those left behind, carry the war on terror in a personal way.

“Still, those of us left behind need to see something of what our soldiers see, and not only what is offered us in the news. To that end, here is one story our son, Luke, shared with us by phone that must be shared with anyone who claims an interest in what our soldiers are doing in the Middle East.

“Stationed outside a city on the Tigris River, Luke had accompanied his colonel into town as part of a security team, while the colonel spoke with a local sheik. While standing guard, Luke noticed a woman approaching from behind and cautiously turned in her direction, his rifle at the ready.

“An interpreter told our son it was OK – the woman just wanted to touch a soldier. Still uneasy, Luke stood still while the woman reached out her hand and touched his face, tears in her eyes.

“Looking to the interpreter for meaning, our son was told that the woman simply ‘wanted to touch the face of grace.’ It seems this trembling woman, like most of the people in her town, looked upon our soldiers as angels of grace, sent by God to protect her from the violence and oppression her people had come to know up to then. Learning this, our son squeezed and kissed the woman’s hand, and she left, weeping.

“The ‘face of grace.’ How many of us, safe at home debating the politics of the war on terror, have ever seen our soldiers in such a light? How many of us have even read such an uplifting newspaper account of our soldiers?

“To be sure, our soldiers are not virtuous simply by being soldiers. At home in their ‘civvies’ they are as un-angelic as the rest of us. Yet when they voluntarily get into ‘full battle rattle’ (as they call their battle gear) in a hot and hostile land, their job is both protective and sacrificial – as angelic a purpose as humans can take on.

“People like this woman, having suffered years of oppression and fear, have eyes and a heart to see this, and the desire to “‘touch the face of grace.’ Do we have the ability to see our soldiers in the same way? And not merely our soldiers: Can we see the ‘face of grace’ in the police who protect us in every town, day and night? Or in the fire and rescue teams who are ‘soldiers’ in their own right?

“My wife and I obviously pray that our son and his ‘band of brothers’ will come safely home to their personal ‘band of others.’ After listening to our son’s experience, though, we have added the prayer that Americans in every community will be given the eyes and heart to see the ‘Face of Grace’ in all who protect our lives and freedoms – especially in soldiers like our son.”