I read somewhere the suggestion that Memorial Day has been trivialized by making it a Monday holiday. I don't think that's exactly true. I think we've trivialized all our holidays. Monday holidays are convenient for just about everyone, including business. A holiday on a Tuesday or Thursday invites a four day weekend. Memorial Day is much more of a start of summer celebration now. The 4th of July used to serve the purpose, believe or not. Beyond that, Memorial Day cannot be turned into anything other than another retail shopping occasion. Shopping is the #1 hobby. It feeds on every other hobby.

Let's say that the objective of a war is the defeat of an enemy. It may or may not include the occupation of territory.

Let's say that the measure of "success" in a war is how much closer a warring side is to the defeat of an enemy & the end of combat. The "light at the end of the tunnel" as General Westmoreland so infamously said about Vietnam in 1968.

Unexpectedly, I became a little bit teary-eyed. I was standing at the Ward No. 3 District No. 5 table in School No. 12, signing my name when it hit me. I said to the pollworkers, "You know, I've been dreaming of this day for years."

One of the Civil war topics I enjoy reading about & discussing is the question of why poor, hard scrabble white Southerners flocked to defend & die for a relatively small, wealthy, slave-owning class that considered them "trash." Blacks had nothing, the average rural white Southerner had next-to-nothing, & both were under the heel of economic oppression. I'm not saying that the life of a northern factory worker was so great, but the northern worker had a freedom & mobility that didn't exist in the South. Northeastern family farmers were migrating west to homestead, not transplant the plantation system.

Promoted by Rain

None of these senators has endorsed a candidate. It would be good if Sen. Schumer & Sen.  Feinstein, Clinton supporters, also spoke out against the lies. Expect nothing from Sen. Lieberman, in Florida campaigning for John McCain.

Quiet day. More often now the relative quietness of Christmas is noted, as it's the sole remaining 24 hours on the calendar with that quality. A remarkably "Silent Night" outside that carries well into the day. Probably due less to the message & meaning of Christmas than to the seasonal hysteria spending itself like a wave crashing on the shore. At some point, the presents must be given & the appetitites satiated. The madness is the antithesis of The Nativity. Too much of everything. Even too much religion.

Promoted by Rain [editor's note, by PoliSigh] and me.

Open a little window every day. No peeking ahead.

Oy veh! If you can stomach it, this has be  about the most insane rant  ever from that paragon of Christian mercy, Rush Limbaugh.  Complaining about Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, leader of the Anglican Communion (who's  proven to be a bit of a wuss anyway),  Rush takes on the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, Blaise Pascal, the first law of thermodynamics, homeless people in Buffalo, Stephen Hawking, saturated fats, & uses "gazillions" as a number. It  would be hilarious if he didn't mean every word of it. Rush should offer up his fat head for a pinata on Three Kings Day.

Many people in supermarket tonight buying large frozen turkeys. That seemed like a gamble; what if turkeys had sold out? Listening to a ridiculous radio ad for wonderful, fresh, wholesome farm turkeys, with the noise of thousands of birds gobbling in the background, I wondered how they were prepared for human consumption.

Promoted by Rain until after the vigil

We tend to think of "witnessing" in the larger meanings of the word; witnessing for religious faith, witnessing for the oppressed & voiceless, witnessing in the legal sense.  Somewhere I read that when two Irish clans met on a battlefield, their respective bards were sent to a nearby hill under protection. If one clan were annihilated, its history & heroic final fight would be honored & live on through poetry & song. The poets were witnesses. Such great responsibilities. But don't  we often  fail  to witness what is most ordinary in our lives? By witnessing, & remembering those things or occasions, however mundane, we give them significance.

From The Observer.

TONY BLAIR yesterday used his last official foreign engagement before leaving office to tell Pope Benedict he wanted to become a Roman Catholic, a Vatican source said last night.

But, in talks lasting more than half an hour, the outgoing Prime Minister was left in no doubt that the Pope took a dim view of his record in office. A statement issued afterwards by the Vatican said there had been a 'frank exchange of views'.

This is highly unusual language for the Vatican, which habitually describes meetings between the pontiff and other heads of state and government as 'cordial'. 'Frank' is code for unstinting criticism.

Gold Star Mother, to you
the honor of a white Cadillac
at the front of the parade.

Your slow steps
escorting the wreath
up the gray slate path
to the war monument
by the public library.

Each clang of the fire engine bell
is the face of someone's son.

Four old soldiers aim
rifles at the blue sky,
a nervous boy plays "Taps."

They rest there for weeks,
your ribbons & fading flowers.