Resolved:

- Complete my manuscript (one of them, anyway, whichever gets done first) and submit it to a publisher by summer’s end.
- Blog less often and better more often.
- Stop procrastinating so much, especially about that first one.
- Read more.  Including all four Gospels and more stuff by Martin Marcus Borg.
- Gym.  Thrice a week.  Religiously.
- [...]

Chris Hedges speaks to my condition.

Again.  Us usual.
Why I Am a Socialist by Chris Hedges
(TruthDig) December 29 – The corporate forces that are looting the Treasury and have plunged us into a depression will not be contained by the two main political parties. The Democratic and Republican parties have become little more than squalid clubs of privilege and wealth, whores [...]

The war at home, v. 18.

Buried deep within the front section of my local newspaper yesterday…
WASHINGTON (AP) December 29 – The number of young black men and teenagers who either killed or were killed in shootings has risen at an alarming rate since 2000, a new study shows.
The study, to be released Monday by criminologists at Northeastern University in Boston, [...]

Consider the Alternative.

[ As of 1/19:  We're now up to 26 participants.]
Friends: YOU’VE GOT ONE MORE DAY!
On January 20, 2009, President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in as our next president.  Many of us look forward to this day as a moment of new hope, new direction, and positive change.
Unfortunately, many of us also view this day [...]

Just stop it.

With maybe a couple exceptions, you probably can’t tell which of these pictures represent Palestinians who’ve been bombed by Israel or Israelis who’ve been rocketed by Palestinians.
That was the point.
I usually don’t blog about what’s happening in Gaza and the West Bank because posting about it tends to bring out the anti-Semitic types from both [...]

Yes, I do believe in miracles.

A whole bunch of various stars had to fall into a very particular alignment yesterday in order for our maddeningly inconsistent Philadelphia Eagles to make the NFL playoffs.
And the Eagles themselves had to win.
And, amazingly, they did.  The stars, that is.  And they did.  The Eagles, that is.
It helps that the teams that had to [...]

Today’s outrage from Darfur: 12/29/08.

You DO remember Darfur, don’t you?
Up to 6000 child soldiers recruited in Darfur: U.N.
KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) December 23 – Up to 6,000 child soldiers, some as young as 11, have been recruited by rebels and government forces in Sudan’s Darfur conflict, the United Nations said.
Youngsters have repeatedly been seen carrying weapons, even though Sudanese law [...]

“The party of Lincoln”?

I wasn’t going to post today.  Honest.
Today was going to be for going to Meeting, visiting my sister and my niece at the Jersey shore for lunch, watching the Eagles play out what’s left of their (brutal) season, and maybe grading some essays.
Then I saw this headline on The Huffington Post yesterday:
“RNC candidate distributes controversial Obama [...]

Poem.

Blues
I am lazy, the laziest
girl in the world. I sleep during
the day when I want to, ’til
my face is creased and swollen,
’til my lips are dry and hot. I
eat as I please: cookies and milk
after lunch, butter and sour cream
on my baked potato, foods that
slothful people eat, that turn
yellow and opaque beneath the skin.
Sometimes come [...]

Post-Christmas question:

I was going to ask you all “Whatcha get?” but then I thought that might kinda sound a bit greedy-grubby of me.
Although I am curious…
So I will ask, Did you receive a gift this year that came as total and complete and wonderful surprise?  Something that had a little extra meaning?
I ask because First-Born Son [...]

Cool Saturday sounds.

Eartha Kitt: “I Want to Be Evil.”
The world is a little less fun – and a little less sexy – without her today.

Merry Christmas.

Dar Williams: “The Christians and the Pagans.”
I {{heart}} her.
A safe and happy one to you and yours.

Christmas poem.

Noël 
When snow is shaken
From the balsam trees
And they’re cut down
And brought into our houses
When clustered sparks
Of many-colored fire
Appear at night
In ordinary windows
We hear and sing
The customary carols
They bring us ragged miracles
And hay and candles
And flowering weeds of poetry
That are loved all the more
Because they are so common
But there are carols
That carry [...]

The reason for the season.

Advent Conspiracy
(h/t to Blue Gal via Crooks & Liars)
Oh, and then there’s this, too…

Just sayin’…

The high cost of military recruiting.

It’s a job that kills.  In more ways than one.
Four recruiter suicides lead to Army probe
HENDERSON, Texas (AP) December 22 – Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, a strapping Iraq combat veteran, spent the last, miserable months of his life as an Army recruiter, cold-calling dozens of people a day from his strip-mall office and sitting [...]

Wrong. In so many ways.

Another story about something I posted about a while back.  And it’s still nauseating me…
Kids Learn That Killing Is Fun at the Army’s Lethal New Theme Park by Penny Coleman
(AlterNet) December 19 – The Army Experience Center, located in the Franklin Mills Mall just north of Philadelphia, bills itself as a “state-of-the-art educational facility that [...]

People Have the Power, v. 9.

I hope Katha Pollitt doesn’t mind me posting this in its entirety:
‘Tis The Season to Be Generous by Katha Pollitt
(The Nation) December 17 – Money’s tight this year, I know. But tradition is tradition. So here’s my annual list of suggestions for your end-of-year donations. Read on to learn about some great groups that help [...]

Prepare to be angry.

Very, very  angry.
Watch this.

Read this.
Sign this.
Don’t just sit there.  Do something.
Write a letter.  To somebody. 
Spread the word.  Post this video.
Do something.
Today.

Bang your head.

But carefully.
Guess I have to buy my kid a neck brace:
PARIS (AFP) December 18 — WARNING: Headbanging to Metallica, Motorhead, or Megadeth could be hazardous to your health.
So concludes the first-ever study, published Thursday, of the fin-de-siecle dance style in which afficionados of heavy metal jerk their heads up and down to a fast and [...]

In case you missed it…

Some actual good news – even if it comes as too little and way too late, from Rwanda:
Rwanda military official gets life in prison for genocide
(Los Angeles Times) December 18 – The ringleader of the 1994 Rwanda genocide was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for his role in the early days of an ethnic [...]