Relax, it's Christmas

Oh, no!! It's bad and it's getting worse!!!

LONDON, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- British scientists have calculated 2005 was the warmest year on record in the Northern Hemisphere, at least since records began being kept in the 1860s.
The United Kingdom's Met Office and the University of East Anglia say the data indicate more evidence of human-induced global warming, the BBC reported Friday.

The average temperature during 2005 in the Northern Hemisphere was 0.65 C above the average for 1961-90 -- the baseline against which scientists compare temperatures. The Northern Hemisphere Atlantic Ocean has also been the hottest on record.

"The data also show that the sea surface temperature in the northern hemisphere Atlantic is the highest since 1880," said David Viner, from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.

What about the southern hemisphere? Oh, it was COLDER, but that doesn't support our claim, so we're not going to bring that up. What about the average temprature in 2004, Hmm? Oh, it was colder, so we'll forget about that one. . . . .

A true story:

This piece, which sees wide circulation every Christmas time, is generally credited to "a Marine stationed in Okinawa, Japan" (or, since 11 September 2001, "a Marine stationed in Afghanistan"). More specifically, the poem is often attributed to an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel named Bruce Lovely, who purportedly penned it on Christmas Eve 1993 while stationed in Korea (and saw it printed under his name in the Ft. Leavenworth Lamp a few years later):

"I arrived in Korea in Jul 93 and was extremely impressed with the commitment of the soldiers I worked with and those that were prepared to give their lives to maintain the freedom of South Korea. To honor them, I wrote the poem and went around on Christmas Eve and put it under the doors of US soldiers assigned to Yongsan."

This attribution does a great disservice to the poem's true author, James M. Schmidt, who was a Lance Corporal stationed in Washington, D.C., when he wrote the poem back in 1986. As Corporal Schmidt told us in December 2002:
The true story is that while a Lance Corporal serving as Battalion Counter Sniper at the Marine Barracks 8th & I, Washington, DC, under Commandant P.X. Kelly and Battalion Commander D.J. Myers [in 1986], I wrote this poem to hang on the door of the Gym in the BEQ. When Colonel Myers came upon it, he read it and immediately had copies sent to each department at the Barracks and promptly dismissed the entire Battalion early for Christmas leave. The poem was placed that day in the Marine Corps Gazette, distributed worldwide and later submitted to Leatherneck Magazine.

Schmidt's original version, entitled "Merry Christmas, My Friend," was published in Leatherneck (Magazine of the Marines) in December 1991, a full two years before it was supposedly "written" by someone else on Christmas Eve 1993 (and had appeared in the Barracks publication Pass in Review four years before it was printed in Leatherneck).

As Leatherneck wrote of the poem's author in 2003:
"Merry Christmas, My Friend" has been a holiday favorite among "leatherneckphiles" for nearly the time it takes to complete a Marine Corps career. Few, however, know who wrote it and when. Former Corporal James M. Schmidt, stationed at Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C., pounded it out 17 years ago on a typewriter while awaiting the commanding officer's Christmas holiday decorations inspection . . . while other leathernecks strung lights for the Barracks' annual Christmas decoration contest, Schmidt contributed his poem to his section.

Over the years the text of "Merry Christmas, My Friend" has been altered to change Marine-specific wording into Army references (including the title: U.S. Marines do not refer to themselves as "soldiers") and to incorporate line-ending rhyme changes necessitated by those alterations. Reproduce below Corporal Schmidt's version as printed in Leatherneck back in 1991:

Merry Christmas, My Friend

Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone,
In a one bedroom house made of plaster & stone.

I had come down the chimney, with presents to give
and to see just who in this home did live

As I looked all about, a strange sight I did see,
no tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.
No stocking by the fire, just boots filled with sand.
On the wall hung pictures of a far distant land.

With medals and badges, awards of all kind,
a sobering thought soon came to my mind.
For this house was different, unlike any I'd seen.
This was the home of a U.S. Marine.

I'd heard stories about them, I had to see more,
so I walked down the hall and pushed open the door.
And there he lay sleeping, silent, alone,
Curled up on the floor in his one-bedroom home.

He seemed so gentle, his face so serene,
Not how I pictured a U.S. Marine.
Was this the hero, of whom I’d just read?
Curled up in his poncho, a floor for his bed?

His head was clean-shaven, his weathered face tan.
I soon understood, this was more than a man.
For I realized the families that I saw that night,
owed their lives to these men, who were willing to fight.

Soon around the Nation, the children would play,
And grown-ups would celebrate on a bright Christmas day.
They all enjoyed freedom, each month and all year,
because of Marines like this one lying here.

I couldn’t help wonder how many lay alone,
on a cold Christmas Eve, in a land far from home.
Just the very thought brought a tear to my eye.
I dropped to my knees and I started to cry.

He must have awoken, for I heard a rough voice,
"Santa, don't cry, this life is my choice
I fight for freedom, I don't ask for more.
My life is my God, my country, my Corps."

With that he rolled over, drifted off into sleep,
I couldn't control it, I continued to weep.

I watched him for hours, so silent and still.
I noticed he shivered from the cold night's chill.
So I took off my jacket, the one made of red,
and covered this Marine from his toes to his head.
Then I put on his T-shirt of scarlet and gold,
with an eagle, globe and anchor emblazoned so bold.
And although it barely fit me, I began to swell with pride,
and for one shining moment, I was Marine Corps deep inside.

I didn't want to leave him so quiet in the night,
this guardian of honor so willing to fight.
But half asleep he rolled over, and in a voice clean and pure,
said "Carry on, Santa, it's Christmas Day, all secure."
One look at my watch and I knew he was right,
Merry Christmas my friend, Semper Fi and goodnight.

By Jeff Jacoby

Stanley "Tookie" Williams is scheduled to die by lethal injection in California's San Quentin prison next Tuesday.

His death will occur nearly 27 years after he brutally murdered Albert Owens, a 7-Eleven clerk in Whittier, Calif., and three members of the Yang family -- Yen-I Yang, Tsai-Shai Yang, and their daughter, Yee-Chen Lin -- at the Brookhaven Motel in Los Angeles.

Unlike the peaceful, painless demise awaiting Williams, the deaths of his victims were horrific: He shot each of them at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun, shattering their bodies so that they died in agony. Their suffering amused him. "You should have heard the way he sounded when I shot him," Williams bragged after killing Albert Owens.

According to the district attorney's summary of the evidence, "Williams then made gurgling or growling noises and laughed hysterically about Owens's death." As cofounder of the deadly Crips street gang in 1971, Williams's criminal legacy goes well beyond the four murders for which he was convicted. The gang violence he unleashed 34 years ago has destroyed thousands of lives and left countless other victims scarred by rape, assault, and armed robbery.

Though he now claims to have reformed and has written books with an antigang message, he has never admitted his guilt or expressed any remorse for the slaughter of Albert Owens and the Yang family. If his supposed contrition amounts to anything more than lip service, he has yet to prove it.

Williams adamantly refuses to be debriefed by police about the Crips and their operations or to provide any information that could help bring other killers to justice.

In fact, officials at San Quentin have said he continues to orchestrate gang activity from behind bars. Incredibly, this thug is the object of the left's latest craze.

For many anti-death penalty fundamentalists, it is not enough to oppose the execution of a savage killer -- the killer must be extolled as a noble soul whose death would be a loss for humanity. Thus Hollywood has honored Williams with a made-for-TV movie. The media have weighed in with sympathetic stories.

A slew of celebrities, including such moral giants as Tom Hayden and Snoop Dogg, are clamoring for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency and spare Williams's life. And all but forgotten amid this orgy of adulation are the victims Williams so cruelly murdered nearly three decades ago. What is it that makes victims so easy to forget?

When Kenneth Boyd was executed in North Carolina last week, it was reported everywhere that he was the 1,000th murderer to be put to death since the resumption of capital punishment in 1976.

But how many stories devoted more than a passing mention to the two people Boyd sent to early graves -- his estranged wife, Julie Curry Boyd, and her father, Thomas Curry? Why doesn't the media's round-number fetish extend to the victims of homicide as well as the perpetrators? If the 1,000th execution made headlines, why didn't the 1,000th murder? Or the 10,000th? Or the 100,000th?

Actually there have been close to 600,000 homicides in the United States since 1976, and the total climbs by roughly 15,000 each year. Where is the uproar over those round numbers? Where are the protests, the petitions, the Hollywood rallies aimed at stopping those deaths?

I understand that some people think capital punishment is wrong as a matter of principle. What I cannot understand is how anyone can be more outraged by the lawful execution each year of a few dozen murderers than by the annual slaughter of thousands of victims at the hands of such murderers.

Opponents of capital punishment make much of the theoretical possibility that an innocent defendant might be killed. What they never acknowledge is that the abolition of capital punishment guarantees that innocent victims will die. That isn't only because executing murderers has a powerful deterrent effect, as a number of recent studies confirm. It is also because prison bars can't keep some killers from killing again.

In its latest roundup of death penalty statistics, "Capital Punishment, 2004," the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics notes that at least 101 murderers now on death row were already in prison when they murdered their victims; at least 44 others were prison escapees. Lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key may sound appealing. But some murderers will always escape and murder again. Others will kill in prison.

Ultimately, the case for putting murderers like Williams and Boyd to death isn't just a practical one, strong though the practical arguments are. It is also a moral one. When the state executes a murderer, it is making a statement about the demands of justice and the sanctity of human life -- a statement as old as Genesis, and as essential as ever.

GOP telling it how it is

A top GOP operative said that the Republican National Committee will provide state parties with a web video prior to release tomorrow afternoon that shows a white flag waving over images of Democrat leaders making anti-war remarks.

The ad is in response to the controversial comments Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean and 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry made earlier in the week. A Democratic strategist who had the web ad described to her said, “This is way over the top but we have no one to blame but Dean, Kerry and others who continue to pander to the anti-war activists within our party.”

The web video advances the Republican contention that the Democrats only have a “retreat and defeat” message on the war in Iraq. The video highlights the effect Democrats can have on the morale of U.S. soldiers. One Republican strategist familiar with the ad said, “The Democrats, especially Howard Dean have a way of trying to turn the tables and say ‘that’s not what I meant’ – its just those ‘evil Republicans’

This video will make them crazy – it reinforces what they really believe with what they actually said – and that is devastating for the Democratic Party.”

How long does infamy last?

On Dec. 7, 1941, six Japanese aircraft carriers positioned 200 miles north of Oahu launched 181 attack planes toward the slowly waking port of Pearl Harbor and at U.S. military airfields elsewhere on the island. The two- stage attack killed 2,403 Americans, including 68 civilians -- men, women and children.

Infamy, yes. Memory, maybe not.

The anniversary of such an event should not pass unnoticed. I looked for stories today on the CNN and Fox websites. Nothing. I looked in Newsday, the New York Times and the Washington Post. Nothing.

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to the Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. While this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or armed attack."

Attacked - suddenly, no warning - by a nation we were not at war with. Sound familiar?
I would hate to think that 60 years from now the anniversary September 11, 2001 will be noted by nothing more than small paragraphs in small town newspapers.

It seems almost absurd that this day, this date of infamy, would see the front page of media websites and newspapers boast headlines about Steven Spielberg's latest, and the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death with no mention at all of Pearl Harbor. I thought one of the things we - meaning all Americans - took from that terrible incident was this: Never Forget.

So have we forgotten? Will we eventually forget 9/11 as well? Perhaps many years from now the 3,000 dead will, like the nearly 2,500 dead in 1941, be just a faded memory that gets a cursory recognition on the scrolling headline underneath the latest Hollywood scandal playing out on your 24 hour news channel.

If so, we have learned nothing from Pearl Harbor and nothing from September 11th.

Never forget.

The good news that you don't hear about.

About 1 000 Iraqis, mostly Shi'ites, rallied in central Baghdad to condemn "terrorism" against Iraqis and United States "liberation" forces on Friday as four Iraqis and a US soldier died in a bomb attack elsewhere in the capital. Dozens of children aged between five and 10 marched at the front of the protest, with flowers in their hands, under white banners proclaiming in red letters: "Children - innocent victims of terrorism" and: "Terrorism blocks any future for children". Organiser Sabih Hassan, head of a child protection association set up since the US-led invasion, said they had all "become orphans because of terrorism". Hassan said the march, the second here in a week, was against "all operations, including those targeting Americans". "Our children have a vital need for peace and security".


The 4th Infantry Division Headquarters is located in one of Saddam's former palaces. On arrival of the 4th ID, there were two statues of Saddam on horseback at the entrance of this palace. These original statues were removed by explosives in early July of 2003. The statues were cut up into pieces and taken to a local Iraqi artist named Kalat. Interestingly, he was one of the same artists who was forced to create the original statues. Kalat reshaped the bronze into the likeness of an American soldier being comforted by a small Iraqi girl, as he mourns a fallen comrade. The sculpture is a scene witnessed by many in Iraq, a soldier before a memorial of boots, rifle and helmet, his head resting in the hollow of his hand. The presence of the little Iraqi girl helps to remind us all of the reason for these sacrifices. The cost of this statue was paid for through small donations from the 4th ID. Imagine that our soldiers, who have already given so much, have so little, and yet care so deeply.





ABU GHRAIB, IRAQ - OCT 9: 82nd Airborne distribute school supplies and sports equipment to Iraqi school children (Photo by Scott Nelson/Getty Images)


ABU GHRAIB, IRAQ - Oct. 9 2005: US Aarmy 325th Military Intelligence Seargent Angela Vasquez, from Granite City, IL distributes candy to Iraqi schoolgirls during an Oct. civil affairs mission to the Sheik Tharee primary school in Abu Ghraib. Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne, 418th Intelligence Battalions organized a distribution of school supplies donated by schools in the American cities of Ocala, FL and Las Vagas, NV to over 500 primary school students at two local schools today in Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. The donated supplies include pens, notepads, candy, pencils, chalk, sports equipment, and erasers. (Photo by Scott Nelson/Getty Images)


TIKRIT, IRAQ: In this image release Jan. 15 2005 by MNF-I, Major Frank DeCarlo from the 350th Tactical Psychological Operations Company, attached to the 1st Infantry division, hands out candy and coloring books to local Iraqi children in the town of Tikrit.


ABU GHRAIB, IRAQ - Oct. 9: A U.S. Army 82nd Airborne soldier delivers school supplies and candy to Iraqi schoolgirls (Photos by Scott Nelson/Getty Images)


A US Soldier gives candy to Iraqi children standing in line to buy gas canisters in Baghdad. (KARIM SAHIB/AFP/Getty Images)


SAMARRA, IRAQ: US Army Reservist Maj. Steve Sposito of Manahawkin, Long Beach, adorns his protective vest as he distributes supplies and candy to Iraqi children at a school close to the northern town of Samarra. (CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP/Getty Images)

WARNING: Duct tape zone

A pair of teachers in Madison, WI started a project for their 3rd graders (get that? 3RD GRADE). The project calls for them to send out letters asking for the end of the war in Iraq, because we need peace.

Guess what, morons!! We are at war, to keep peace. If we don't take the War against Terrorism to them, they will bring it to us. How soon we forget September 11th, 2001.

Here's the letter sent home to the parents.


Dear Parents,
The Frank Allis third grade will be writing letters to encourage an end to the war in Iraq. The letter writing will teach civic responsibility, a social studies standard, while providing an authentic opportunity to improve composition skills and handwriting. Here is an outline of the project:
Letter 1 - To parents, outlining the project and requesting 10 postage stamps and 12 envelopes.
Letter 2 - To other students at our school, urging them to join our press for peace.
Letter 3 - To other third graders at schools within our district, urging them to join our press for peace.
Letter 4 - To other third graders within our county, urging them to join our press for peace.
Letter 5 - To other third graders within our state, urging them to join our press for peace.
Letter 6 - To third graders in other states, urging them to join our press for peace.
Letter 7 - To third graders in other countries, urging them to join our press for peace.
Letter 8 - To our state's senators in Washington, urging them to press for peace.
Letter 9 - To our state's representatives in the House, urging them to press for peace.
Letter 10 - To the president of the United States, urging him to press for peace.
Letter 11 - To the secretary of the United Nations, urging him to press for peace.
Letter 12 - To the media, telling them about our letters so far, and urging their audience to press for peace.

If the war has not ended by the 12th day, then we will start the whole sequence over again, writing to students in middle school, high school, and college. To paraphrase Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of interested individuals can change the world - indeed, they are the only ones who ever have."

Please send 10 postage stamps (or $3.60) and 12 envelopes to school with your child so that we can begin this important assignment. Thank you.

(If you would prefer that your child not participate in this assignment, please indicate that and an alternative assignment will be given.)

Thank you for your support. The third grade staff: (signatures)


School is a place of learning, not Politics.