Hanukah is problematic. It’s celebration is driven greatly by the very thing its creators sought to suppress: assimilation. For much of Jewish history, the festival of lights was a minor, at-home holiday. Then Jews in Post WWII America were faced with the in-your-face extravaganza of the very American Thanksgiving-to-Christmas season.

And all Hanukah broke loose.

The attempt to Christmastize Hanukah by instituting gift giving on eight nights as a way to appease young, and not so young children has been a dismal failure. Do a survey of 10 Jewish children selected at random and ask them to say the first thing that comes into their heads when you say Hanukah and they answer: presents!

Then there is the issue of which true story of the holiday you wish to deal with. Is it the miracle of the oil? Is it the miracle of the outnumbered Maccabees defeating the Syrian Greeks? Or, is that the war was really internal, a civil war between wealthy, assimilated Jews fighting against traditional, separatists Jews?

Want to get in to a real argument? Bring up the last one.

My Soundtrack: Insistor by Tapes ‘N Tapes on WOXY.

40 years ago I was 10 and something special happened on television. Charlie Brown, depressed by all the commercialism surrounding Christmas, searched for and found the true meaning of the holiday. The show broke so much gr0und that I don’t think television executives understood what had been wrought. Thank goodness.

From A Charlie Brown Christmas:

Charlie Brown: (shouting in desperation) Isn’t there anyone out there who can tell me what Christmas is all about?

Linus Van Pelt : Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you. Lights, please. (A spotlight shines on Linus.) And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men. That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Merry Christmas everyone!

My Soundtrack: Linus and Lucy by Vince Guaraldi.

As I sit here on Chrismas Eve, surrounded by my family and looking at a tree equally surrounded by presents, my thoughts turn to happiness. The reason we say that it is better to give than to recieve is because what we get back isn’t stuff. Stuff requires transportation. Stuff needs storage, cleaning and polishing. Stuff sucks.

That’s one of the reasons that I get BuJews. During 15 years of Walkabout, the two spirituality systems that made the most sense to me were Budhism and Judaism. My melding of the two is about 80/20 with Judaism getting the high end. The tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan is a perfect example of why I, and so many others, are drawn to the teachings of the Buddha.

From the 4 October New York Times:

What is happiness? In the United States and in many other industrialized countries, it is often equated with money.

Economists measure consumer confidence on the assumption that the resulting figure says something about progress and public welfare. The gross domestic product, or GDP, is routinely used as shorthand for the well-being of a nation.

But the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has been trying out a different idea.

In 1972, concerned about the problems afflicting other developing countries that focused only on economic growth, Bhutan’s newly crowned leader, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, decided to make his nation’s priority not its GDP but its GNH, or gross national happiness.

OK. I’ll wait a moment while you wipe the sprayed coffee of the table and yourself.

— Jeopardy-music interlude —

Back? All clean? Good.

King Wangchuck seems to have his head screwed on a lot more tightly than some better known world leaders I know.

The goal of life should not be limited to production, consumption, more production and more consumption, said Thakur S. Powdyel, a senior official in the Bhutanese Ministry of Education. There is no necessary relationship between the level of possession and the level of well-being.

Do you suppose being trapped in a Wal Mart this Christmas Eve would make Powdyel’s head explode?

My Soundtrack: Nobody’s Fault But My Own by Beck on WOXY.

The best helicopter gunship in the world, flown by the best pilots in the world, the British Army, against the best handling car in the world, driven by an idiot. When you have the ultimate toys at your disposal, this is how you want to spend your time. For all you weapon-porn types, don’t worry, it really isn’t a fair test.

I expect the numbers will drop after my friends on the right discover this MSNBC poll and start encouraging all of their conservative friends to vote for their favorite president. But for right now, it’s nice to see 85 percent of those taking part in the poll voting to begin impeachment hearings on President George Bush.

From MSNBC:

…the disturbing image of the White House as a series of nesting dolls, with Cheney-Bush at the tiny secret center, sifting information that most of the rest of the people around them didn”t even know existed. And that image, in turn, will dominate and define the year 2006 – and, I predict, make it the angriest, most divisive season of political theater since the days of Richard Nixon.

My Soundtrack: Supercede by South on WOXY.

I love it when people who preach get caught with their hand in the cookie jar and then attempt to justify their actions by exclaiming: But you did it too! That’s the tack being taken by the sycophants of President George Bush. Except, like their tarnished hero, they’re choosing to shave the truth and outright lie to make their point.

Writes Joe Conason:

In his signature style, Drudge has sought to suggest that Bush has done nothing that Democratic presidents didn’t do, which may reflect his own continuing obsession with Bill Clinton. The Internet gossip’s headline this week blared, Clinton Executive Order: Secret Search on Americans Without Court Order…

He went on to link to a National Review Online article that made much of a Clinton order in 1994 authorizing warrantless searches. But it is important to connect the dots, as the president would say, in Drudge’s ellipsis points.

The Clinton executive order permitted such searches only under certain very limited circumstances that are legal under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the very statute that Bush has admitted ignoring.

The Center for American Progress noted Wednesday what Drudge left out and what the National Review’s Byron York elided — namely, the difference between search or surveillance operations conducted against foreigners and those conducted against American citizens.

(Some people, York later noted in chiding exaggerations on both sides of the issue, have said that Bill Clinton signed an executive order authorizing such surveillance; he did not.)

The reason for all the scrambling, of course, is the danger that someone in Congress may discover a conscience and decide that a president who shreds the law might not be the kind of president that is good for the United States. Such an attitude might lead to gasp impeachment hearings.

Writes Michele Goldberg:

It may be exceedingly unlikely that President Bush will be impeached, but in the past few days, the I-word has become a topic of considered discussion among constitutional scholars, former intelligence officers and even a few politicians.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the word impeachment, curmudgeonly commentator Jack Cafferty said on CNN. Two congressional Democrats are using it. And they’re not the only ones.

Indeed, speaking on the Diane Rehm show on public radio, Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said, I think if we’re going to be intellectually honest here, this really is the kind of thing that Alexander Hamilton was referring to when impeachment was discussed.

Could the Jack Bauer defense be failing?

My Soundtrack: Disappearing Act by Grizzly Bear on WOXY.

I opened a copy of B B King Treasures at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Library this afternoon and saw the above label plastered over the music CD that was included in the book. I asked the librarian if the label was a result of the Sony rootkit debacle. She wasn’t sure.

She did say Sony had bought back all of the infected CDs from the libary, however.

Of course I know that there is no danger in playing the CD. Your equipment is only potentially damaged if you rip the CD and then burn a copy. But how many library patrons know that? How many are now going to not play library CD’s out of fear that their stereo will implode?

What Sony has done is trash its name — and potentially the recording industry — in one stupid, greedy act. I won’t be giving the company any more of my money.

My Soundtrack: Elephant by Page France on WOXY.

Before blogs there were newsletters. The Cleveland journalist who produced the newsletter that everyone in power hated and read religiously has takes on the anti-blogger this week. Roldo Bartimole writes: Dick Feagler spewed out loathing and mockery wholesale at a new and growing outlet of information — blogging.

Roldo is a perfect example of the value of our elders. His memory, which reaches back more than 40 years in Cleveland politics, enables him to sharply put into perspective the sputterings and pontifications of the likes of Feagler. His litany of Pee Dee and Press misdeeds is instructive and should serve to effectively send our Dick back to nattering about Mr. Jingaling.

On a related but very important note, last night at the blogger MeetUp, Marybeth Matthews let us know that Roldo intends to move beyond his weekly column and start serious blogging. His target: stories about the impoverished in Cleveland. Look for a launch in the very near future.

My Soundtrack: Pacemaker by Finest Dearest on WOXY.

When the ultra-conservative Washington Times piles on it’s a clear sign that President George Bush is in, as his daddy might suggest, deep doo doo. Bush has clearly forgotten that a significant core of his base is not made up of spineless whiners who want their president to protect them from the boogeyman by whatever means necessary.

Bruce Fein Writes:

President Bush presents a clear and present danger to the rule of law. He cannot be trusted to conduct the war against global terrorism with a decent respect for civil liberties and checks against executive abuses. Congress should swiftly enact a code that would require Mr. Bush to obtain legislative consent for every counterterrorism measure that would materially impair individual freedoms.

Can we hope for an approval raiting in the 20s?

My Soundtrack: I Turn My Camera On by Spoon on WOXY.

Every excuse that President George Bush has put forward for why he had to ignore the laws and Constitution he swore uphold and protect in order to keep us safe has been so lame that it’s hard to know where to begin. I have a suggestion: try impeachment hearings. When will White Middle Class Suburban Man get off his knees?

This morning I’m drinking coffee while reading about coffee, listening to songs about coffee and writing about coffee at the Phoenix On Lee coffee house where everyone is …getting agitated, hopped-up — they want to talk about things that bother them. Life is good. Jittery, but good. The song list is from Chris at Locust St.

Click through for the mp3’s.

Bob Dylan, One More Cup of Coffee; Emmett Miller, You’re the Cream in My Coffee; The Boswell Sisters, Coffee in the Morning and Kisses in the Night; Jaybird Coleman, Coffee Grinder Blues; Serge Gainsbourg, Couleur Cafe; J.S. Bach, Ei, Wie Schmeckt (from the Coffee Cantata); The Ink Spots, Java Jive; Tom T. Hall, Don’t Forget the Coffee Billy Joe; Lefty Frizzell, Cigarettes and Coffee Blues; Lightnin’ Hopkins, Coffee Blues; Peggy Lee, Black Coffee; Squeeze, Black Coffee in Bed; Duke Ellington, Cafe au Lait; MC Lyte, Cappuccino and The White Stripes, One More Cup of Coffee.

My Soundtrack: We Are All Made Of Stars by Moby on WOXY.

Round and round; bow and kiss
I try to teach her caution;
she tries to teach me risk.

From Father’s Song by Gregory Orr.

More pictures…

I’ve probably ridden or driven under this bridge in my home town a couple of thousand times. When it collapsed at 2 a.m. Monday morning there weren’t any cars on the road and the only damage was to property. Eight loaded coal cars jumped the tracks and spilled onto Virginia Street. This is big news in sleepy Marietta.

From The Marietta Times:

Bridge Not At Fault For Accident;
Special Report: CSX Train Wreck — Railroad Offers Few Answers; and
Special Report: CSX Train Wreck — Lucky Timing Along Virginia Street.

My Soundtrack: Secret Someones by Laura Veirs on WOXY.

First it was an attempt to assasinate the president. Then it was a nuclear weapon. Then a plague and then another nuke. But Jack Baur, working on the edge, and sometimes over the edge, manages to save the country and civilization as we know it. Is this the model for the Republican Party? Doing what we expect it to do to keep us safe?

...it’s almost always better to be tagged as the party that might go too far than as the party that won’t go far enough — which is how the Democrats are perceived these days. This explains why the GOP can weather controversy after controversy, from Iran-Contra down through Iraq War intelligence and the secret prisons and CIA waterboarding, and still hang on to the public trust on foreign affairs — because in each case, they’re perceived as having gone too far with good intentions, 24-style, and in an arena that most Americans perceive as being slightly outside the law anyway.

Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!

My Soundtrack: Ultimatum by The Long Winters on WOXY.

If you were traumitized by your Barbie doll –‘fess up, did you shave Barbie’s hair, cut off her limbs or toss her in the microwave? — then DykeDolls may offer you the chance to recover your inner child in a more orientation-friendly environment. Bobbie comes in Doc Holiday, Rockabilly and Diesel Dyke (think Gina Gershon in Bound) sets.

Each 12-inch doll comes ready to play with vibrator, leather strap-on and dildo. If you would like to add more pleasurable toys, see our add-ons page. Also included in the package is a certificate of authenticity and and two DykeDoll stickers.

Dolls are also available without toys.

Thank goodness.

My Soundtrack: A Song Is Not The Song Of The World by Castanets on WOXY.

Via Jill at Writes Like She Talks we learn that, despite Pat Robertson’s best threats, intelligence is alive and well in Dover, Pennsylvania. While Judge Jones’ 139-page decision may be downloaded — the pipe is clogged at 1316 EST — the judge writes on page 89 of his opinion in the Intelligent Design trial that:

It is our view that a reasonable, objective observer would, after reviewing both the voluminous record in this case, and our narrative, reach the inescapable conclusion that ID is an interesting theological argument, but that it is not science.

I wish I could say that this should end the debate, but it won’t. The fight will and must continue. But today is a victory.

[Update — 1337 — As I would expect, PZ Myers has an excellent post with great quotes from Judge Jones. Read also: The Bottom Line In Dover and Unconstitutional To Teach ID As An Alternative To Evolution In A Public School Science Classroom.

And PZ signs off with an enthusiastic: Merry Kitzmas everyone!]

My Soundtrack: Hounds Of War by The Subjects on WOXY.

John Campanelli, who compiles the Pee Dee’s Blogosphere snippets from local blogs had an interesting (Freudian?) repeat on Sunday: I have two pairs — count ’em TWO — of Cookie Monster skivvies. Now, do you suppose it’s the Cookie Monster or the skivvies (I haven’t heard that term since my Navy days) that caught John’s attention?

Last night Ohioans got a close look at a process that many probably didn’t even know existed when our own Tim Russo hit the road for Cowtown Columbus with his cell phone and lap top to blog the Ohio Democratic Party election for chairman. The promised wifi wasn’t there, but Russo, with a little technology help from George Nemeth, worked it out.

Bring Fitzmas cheer!

[Update — 0935 EST — be sure to click on the star for a special treat]

There was time when you could hire professional mourners for a funeral (think Oliver Twist). Now, for the lame blogger, you can hire professional commenters and posters for your blog. I can’t imagine what kind of pathetic, lame-ass loser would be willing to pay people money just so that he could have some traffic on his blog.

From Post On My Forum:

…we will assign posters to your website. We select the posters based on your forum topic and your specifications, and then provide you with the names they”ll be using to post on your forum. Our posters are experienced, educated, unique individuals. They are people who enjoy forums and are part of some of the best communities on the internet. Hence, not only are they proficient at writing, they are also experienced in building thriving communities.

Wait until our Dick hears about this.

My Soundtrack: The Hidden Track by Earlimart on WOXY.