PN:
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
A tad premature perhaps, but the early bird certainly has the choice of worms….
Best wishes imaginable to everyone for a healthy, adventurous, prosperous New Year!
Joe and I will review the year our own selves next rant (0115). Until then, here is Dave Barry with his hilarious review of 2014:
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article4940373.html
From Rex Murphy, the year in activist feminism:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/12/27/rex-murphy-the-year-in-activist-feminsm/
Winter Solstice and Saturnalia
Christian celebrations surrounding “the birth of Christ” were not part of the year 0 entertainment roll-out. Conversely, the 12 days of Christmas, the magi, the three very experienced men, the away in the manger moment, the virgin birth, all this twaddle took hundreds of years of development: scripting, re-scripting, writing and re-writing. There is much artwork dedicated to pictorializing these “facts” only because the Polaroid camera was not yet invented, and just because.
So too is there artwork memorializing some really wonderful revelry that pre-dates the Christian hooha by hundreds of years. Saturnalia is the festival in late December of the Romans. It is pre-dated by those good old Greeks celebrating Kronia.
Here are some marvelous renditions of what Saturnalia celebration involved: gambling, partying, carrying-ons, and what-not-ery from 17 to 24 December. They must have had nice weather in their part of the world. Short on clothing. Something we Canadians can’t do outside during the season –
It keeps getting bigger and bigger……….
The Yellow Lab
The best dog I’ve ever known was Victoria Belle, a yellow Labrador who graced our Oyama lives for just short of 12 years. She died at the vet clinic 4 Christmases ago, ridden with cancer. Still miss her. The link below shows the ingenuity and intelligence of this beautiful breed doing what they do best: scrounge for food:
Here’s Belle from Christmas of 2005 –
CANADA / COMMONWEALTH
The Queen’s Christmas message:
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Racial Tension
This woman has more balls than the mayor of NYC and his BFF Al Sharpton combined. –
Listen to her passionate rant of clear-headed reasoning as she condemns the recent murder of two New York City police:
Amen sister! What a refreshing bit of reality – there are people like her who never get on the main stream media to unleash their rage AGAINST the evil. Joe and I would wager she expresses the thoughts (ever so eloquently) of the majority of “black” people in the entire country. You won’t see her on CBC or CBS or CNN or MSNBC or Globe. where the “Reverend” Al Sharpton or the other “Reverend” Jesse Jackson pollute the airwaves. You might see her on Fox News and Sun News here in Canada. Her voice is heard on the Internet. Thank you, smart people, for the greatest tool of “social justice” ever devised. It will remain so as long as there is a digital network relatively unhampered by political intervention (read: controlled by government for our “protection” as done in China, Cuba, the entire middle east excepting Israel, North Korea, et cetera).
I would vote for her. She will be labeled “Uncle Tom(ette)” or any number of epithets for not “keeping it real”, for not embracing hatred and racism, for not blaming Whitey for her problems. She’s my kind of gal. Joe loves her too.
George W. Bush
The following link is to a testimony of W.’s character, and that of his lovely wife Laura. The why? of staying at Camp David for Christmas before leaving Washington:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/25/joseph-curl-christmastime-george-w-bush-was-santa-/
This behavior is not anomalous in that there are dozens and dozens more instances when George W. (and Laura) have shown and continue to show their humanity. Wounded Warrior Ride is an example::
The man walks the walk. As it was stated so eloquently in the movie “Second Hand Lions”, those are the things worth believing in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXn5-r8mj-s
Meanwhile, in a more recent administration –
Can you believe Sony? Do you believe it was the Norks? Who is responsible for this manipulation, and why?……
POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID
PHILOSOPHY, PHILOSOPHERS, SMART THINKING
THE CULTURE (THERE IS ONLY ONE)
Fishing for Ice
Ice fishing was something my dad used to do. It is very popular everywhere there is ice on lakes thick enough to support humans. This year has lake Superior mostly frozen (thank God for Global Warming® – just think how cold it would be without it!!). These two men have caught the granddaddy of lake trout 20 MILES from shore where the ice is about 20 inches thick. Their enthusiasm is very contagious. Watch the video here:
http://launch.newsinc.com/share.html?trackingGroup=90119&siteSection=theblaze&videoId=28282441
Here’s a picture from the link for the link handicapped –
Hannah Stilley, born 1746, photographed 1840 (94 years of age). probably the earliest born human captured on film –
Detroit Michigan in 1916 –
The above from Diogenes’ Middle Finger http://suckersonparade.blogspot.ca/ –
“Here we have a picture of Detroit Michigan, back when it was a hideous cesspool that lacked any semblance of diversity. Just look, this is Detroit in 1916. Don’t you feel disgusted?
You don’t see a single African-American expressing their culture. All the women are dress modestly in public because the white patriarchy insisted, believing leaving something to the imagination was a good thing or something silly like that. Not one gay porn shop in sight. Hell, no gays anywhere expressing their love, having to practice their lifestyle in private, and in the dark recesses of society. And no uncommitted interracial couples with their many bi-racial children walking through the crowded street.
And don’t get me started on all the blatantly disgusting normative capitalist signs everywhere. Even the streets are revolting clean because of the white patriarchy’s lackeys, the city’s oppressive law enforcement that prowled the streets on foot with billy clubs in hand.
It saddens me to look at this picture, then I look at modern Detroit, an interracial paradise of tolerance and diversity, and I breathe a sigh of relief. We liberals and progressives are going to fix the rest of America, just like we did Detroit.”
GUNS, GUNNERS, GUNNERY
Joe and I endorse the following video message. Empowering women MUST INCLUDE the right to bear arms:
THE RELIGION OF PEACE (ON ALL OF US)
A short history of recent civilization –
SUNDAY SERMON
Christopher Hitchens and rabbi Shmuley give their perspective of spirituality and afterlife:
WEATHER (OR NOT)
This week was mild. No snow on Christmas day. It started Boxing Day. And didn’t stop. About a foot as of Sunday evening, still snowing very fine cold snow. I think the temperature is going to tank, soon. Many below zeros coming up.
The view out my computer room window at noon –
This isn’t fair. I want my mommy…….
Joe (Snowbound) Mekanic
p.s. Ramirez is boundless –
