Happy Birthday, Alex!

Seen here with his mom, Aunt Dusia

Happy Birthday, Val!

Seen here several years ago with our grandmother

Vox Populi

From Newsweek's latest poll:

[M]ore than half the country (58 percent) say they wish the Bush presidency were simply over, a sentiment that is almost unanimous among Democrats (86 percent), and is shared by a clear majority (59 percent) of independents and even one in five (21 percent) Republicans. Half (49 percent) of all registered voters would rather see a Democrat elected president in 2008, compared to just 28 percent who’d prefer the GOP to remain in the White House.

The people have spoken.....but is anybody listening?

Good News

My mom had surgery today - she'd been diagnosed with endometrial cancer (low grade, the "good" kind) a few weeks ago. The pathology showed that it had not spread beyond the first third of her uterine muscle, so she needed no additional procedures (node dissection) and will need no additional therapy (radiation or chemo). She is, in a word, cured.

She still has post-operative recovery to do through, but the worst is (we hope) over. I'll try to get back to posting over the next few days.

Patriotism, Redefined

The "Dumbing Downwards" of American society continues. Patriotism once entailed fighting for one's country, sacrifice and service. Today, per Dear Leader, it consists of shopping and watching TV news.

How far we've fallen.

In that spirit, new Patriotic Posters! (Click to enlarge to readable size)

Webb Responds

Democratic Response to the State of the Union Address
Delivered by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.)

Good evening.

I'm Senator Jim Webb, from Virginia, where this year we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown - an event that marked the first step in the long journey that has made us the greatest and most prosperous nation on earth.

It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President's message, nor would it be useful. Let me simply say that we in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious about improving education and healthcare for all Americans, and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans.

Further, this is the seventh time the President has mentioned energy independence in his state of the union message, but for the first time this exchange is taking place in a Congress led by the Democratic Party. We are looking for affirmative solutions that will strengthen our nation by freeing us from our dependence on foreign oil, and spurring a wave of entrepreneurial growth in the form of alternate energy programs. We look forward to working with the President and his party to bring about these changes.

There are two areas where our respective parties have largely stood in contradiction, and I want to take a few minutes to address them tonight. The first relates to how we see the health of our economy - how we measure it, and how we ensure that its benefits are properly shared among all Americans. The second regards our foreign policy - how we might bring the war in Iraq to a proper conclusion that will also allow us to continue to fight the war against international terrorism, and to address other strategic concerns that our country faces around the world.

When one looks at the health of our economy, it's almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The stock market is at an all-time high, and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared. When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did; today, it's nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day.

Wages and salaries for our workers are at all-time lows as a percentage of national wealth, even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world. Medical costs have skyrocketed. College tuition rates are off the charts. Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas. Good American jobs are being sent along with them.

In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table. Our workers know this, through painful experience. Our white-collar professionals are beginning to understand it, as their jobs start disappearing also. And they expect, rightly, that in this age of globalization, their government has a duty to insist that their concerns be dealt with fairly in the international marketplace.

In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy - that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base. Not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today.

And under the leadership of the new Democratic Congress, we are on our way to doing so. The House just passed a minimum wage increase, the first in ten years, and the Senate will soon follow. We've introduced a broad legislative package designed to regain the trust of the American people. We've established a tone of cooperation and consensus that extends beyond party lines. We're working to get the right things done, for the right people and for the right reasons.

With respect to foreign policy, this country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years. Many, including myself, warned even before the war began that it was unnecessary, that it would take our energy and attention away from the larger war against terrorism, and that invading and occupying Iraq would leave us strategically vulnerable in the most violent and turbulent corner of the world.

I want to share with all of you a picture that I have carried with me for more than 50 years. This is my father, when he was a young Air Force captain, flying cargo planes during the Berlin Airlift. He sent us the picture from Germany, as we waited for him, back here at home. When I was a small boy, I used to take the picture to bed with me every night, because for more than three years my father was deployed, unable to live with us full-time, serving overseas or in bases where there was no family housing. I still keep it, to remind me of the sacrifices that my mother and others had to make, over and over again, as my father gladly served our country. I was proud to follow in his footsteps, serving as a Marine in Vietnam. My brother did as well, serving as a Marine helicopter pilot. My son has joined the tradition, now serving as an infantry Marine in Iraq.

Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we serve and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love our country. On the political issues - those matters of war and peace, and in some cases of life and death - we trusted the judgment of our national leaders. We hoped that they would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm's way.

We owed them our loyalty, as Americans, and we gave it. But they owed us - sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it.

The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable - and predicted - disarray that has followed.

The war's costs to our nation have been staggering.

Financially.

The damage to our reputation around the world.

The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism.

And especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve.

The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.

On both of these vital issues, our economy and our national security, it falls upon those of us in elected office to take action.

Regarding the economic imbalance in our country, I am reminded of the situation President Theodore Roosevelt faced in the early days of the 20th century. America was then, as now, drifting apart along class lines. The so-called robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the national wealth. The dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt.

Roosevelt spoke strongly against these divisions. He told his fellow Republicans that they must set themselves "as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other." And he did something about it.

As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. "When comes the end?" asked the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to an end.

These Presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight we are calling on this President to take similar action, in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.

Thank you for listening. And God bless America.

SOTU

Last night's State of the Union address was....well, I skipped it. I can't stand to watch Bush mangle the English language and lie at the same time (the only two tasks he can perform simultaneously). In case you missed it, too:

Supporting Our Troops

Bush talks the talk, but does not walk the walk. He and those on the right claim to support our troops, but they appear to do so only theoretically, and not in any practical manner. Moral support? Yes! Adequate equipment, decent food, decent pay? No! Yellow ribbons and patriotic blogging? Yes! Bringing the troops home (instead of sending them on a fourth tour of Iraq)? No! Enlisting to help the War effort? Hell No! And providing appropriate medical care and support to those injured in this Neocon War? Not really.

According to the Army Times:

Defense Department officials have laid off most of their case workers who help severely injured service members, sources said.

The case workers for the Military Severely Injured Center serve as advocates for wounded service members who have questions or issues related to benefits, financial resources and their successful return to duty or reintegration into civilian life — all forms of support other than medical care.

...The laid-off workers were told Wednesday to finish up their case work with severely injured troops, and that Friday would be their last day.

“I’m just livid about this,” said Janice Buckley, Washington state chapter president for Operation Homefront...

“They did a fabulous job for these families,” Buckley said. “The kind of work they do for these families who are hanging by a thread ... no other organization helped service members and their families like they did.”

The MSIC case workers provided the wounded service members with contacts and referrals to other organizations and agencies, ranging from the Department of Veterans Affairs to the Social Security Administration, depending on their individual needs. Operation Homefront often helps with the families' emergency financial needs.

Slap more yellow ribbon magnets on the SUV - that should make up for it!

Click on image to enlarge and to see the faces of his victims

Sanctity of Human Life

Irony is really and truly dead. Forget Kissinger's Peace Prize - Bush has declared today, January 21, 2007 to be "Sanctity of Human Life Day."


After all, every pre-implantation blastocyst is sacred.

Too bad post-natal life if not valued by this administration!

Politics, As Usual

According to CNN:

Party politics played a role in decisions over whether to take federal control of Louisiana and other areas affected by Hurricane Katrina, former FEMA director Michael Brown said Friday.

Some in the White House suggested only Louisiana should be federalized because it was run by a Democrat, Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Brown told a group of graduate students at a lecture on politics and emergency management at Metropolitan College of New York.

Brown said he had recommended to President Bush that all 90,000 square miles along the Gulf Coast affected by the hurricane be federalized, making the federal government in charge of all agencies responding to the disaster.

"Unbeknownst to me, certain people in the White House were thinking we had to federalize Louisiana because she's a white, female Democratic governor and we have a chance to rub her nose in it," he said.

Is there absolutely ANY decision ever made by the Bush administration which didn't involve politics and/or making the Democrats look bad?

If only they had put as much energy into actually HELPING the victims of Katrina.

Happy Birthday, Andy!

(Andy, about 18 months old, with my Aunt Nina)

Old photos yellow, get scratched, and, eventually, embarrass us. Happy birthday to my cousin Andy, seen here in earlier years.

(Alex, Andy and Bill, all January birthday boys)

Habeus Corpus

Apparently, Attorney General Gonzales has decided that the write of Habeus Corpus is just another of those "quaint" pre-911 traditions that no longer apply to our society. Or so he stated to the Senate Judiciary Committee:

GONZALES: I will go back and look at it. The fact that the Constitution — again, there is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution. There is a prohibition against taking it away. But it’s never been the case, and I’m not a Supreme —

SPECTER: Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. The constitution says you can’t take it away, except in the case of rebellion or invasion. Doesn’t that mean you have the right of habeas corpus, unless there is an invasion or rebellion?

GONZALES: I meant by that comment, the Constitution doesn’t say, “Every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right to habeas.” It doesn’t say that. It simply says the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended except by —

SPECTER: You may be treading on your interdiction and violating common sense, Mr. Attorney General.

"Habeus Corpus" is Latin for a court petition which orders that a person being detained be produced before a judge for a hearing to decide whether the detention is lawful. Habeas corpus is a basic individual right against arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. It has been a part of English common law since the Magna Carta, and is enshrined in our constitution, in Article One, Section 9 which states:

"The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."

The writ of habeas corpus is a proceeding in which a court inquires as to the legitimacy of a prisoner's custody. Typically, habeas corpus proceedings are to determine whether the court which imposed sentence on the defendant had jurisdiction and authority to do so, or whether the defendant's sentence has expired. Habeas corpus is also used as a legal avenue to challenge other types of custody such as pretrial detention.


Or it used to. Welcome to Bush's "new and improved" America. Remember the money quote:

"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier - just so long I'm the dictator."
--December 18, 2000

Liberals and Conservatives

Another bleeding heart liberal!

Psychology Today magazine has an interesting piece about what drives peoples' political preferences. We like to believe that we make reasoned decisions about such things; but, as I've always suspected, one's politics, like one's personality, are, to some degree, imprinted at birth.

There was a study done by two professors at Berkeley, where they followed children over a period of years.

In 1969, Berkeley professors Jack and Jeanne Block embarked on a study of childhood personality, asking nursery school teachers to rate children's temperaments. ....Twenty years later, they decided to compare the subjects' childhood personalities with their political preferences as adults. They found arresting patterns. As kids, liberals had developed close relationships with peers and were rated by their teachers as self-reliant, energetic, impulsive, and resilient. People who were conservative at age 23 had been described by their teachers as easily victimized, easily offended, indecisive, fearful, rigid, inhibited, and vulnerable at age 3. The reason for the difference, the Blocks hypothesized, was that insecure kids most needed the reassurance of tradition and authority, and they found it in conservative politics.

Karl Rove knows that quite well!

The article also notes other ways in which liberals and conservative differ:

Liberals are messier than conservatives, their rooms have more clutter and more color, and they tend to have more travel documents, maps of other countries, and flags from around the world.

Conservatives are neater, and their rooms are cleaner, better organized, more brightly lit, and more conventional.

Liberals have more books, and their books cover a greater variety of topics. And that's just a start.

Liberals are more optimistic.

Conservatives are more likely to be religious.

Liberals are more likely to like classical music and jazz, conservatives, country music.

Liberals are more likely to enjoy abstract art.

Conservative men are more likely than liberal men to prefer conventional forms of entertainment like TV and talk radio.

Liberal men like romantic comedies more than conservative men.

Liberal women are more likely than conservative women to enjoy books, poetry, writing in a diary, acting, and playing musical instruments.

My house is in a constant state of disarray. I have objects that I've collected on my travels all over the house, and the books are stacked almost three foot high along the upstairs corridor. I've got (somewhat abstract) paintings on my walls, lots of windows, lots of color. And I love all sorts of music, except teeny pop and modern country (love the old stuff, though). And I've got season tickets to the Detroit Symphony and Hilberry theater.

I wonder where I fit in?

Happy Birthday, Christobel!

aka Prof Saunders, seen here with Honey, the $10,000 (Australian) dog

Ice Storm

I woke up this morning to the shrill buzz of an alarm clock find that everything outdoors was covered with a thick coating of ice. It was dark out, so I couldn't appreciate it fully, but branches were bent down low to the earth, and quite a few had broken under the weight of the ice.

One big branch had fallen partially across my neighbor's driveway. I tried to pull it off, but it was too heavy, so there I was, at 5:54 a.m., breaking off smaller branches, one by one, to clear off their driveway. It's one of the responsibilities of owning a tree, I suppose. Like a pet or small child, you have to clean up after it.

Then I got to chip enough ice off of my Jeep so I could get in and see out of the windshield. Oddly, there was no ice on the roads.

Ice storms are not very common here in Michigan, at least not in mid-winter. The weather conditions have to be just right - warm enough for the precipitation to come down as rain, but cold enough for it to freeze. A bit too warm,an dyou get rain; a bit too cold, and you get snow. The ice often doesn't stay around very long, usually melting when the sun comes out.

Not so today. It got a bit colder as the day went on, and so the gorgeous ice remained, covering even individual honeysuckle vines and blades of grass. And then it snowed, big fluffy flakes. I guess winter is really here - sort of.

Gratitude

From yesterday's 60 Minutes interview:

PELLEY: Do you think you owe the Iraqi people an apology for not doing a better job?

BUSH: That we didn't do a better job or they didn't do a better job?

PELLEY: Well, that the United States did not do a better job in providing security after the invasion.

BUSH: Not at all. I am proud of the efforts we did. We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude, and I believe most Iraqis express that. I mean, the people understand that we've endured great sacrifice to help them. That's the problem here in America. They wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that's significant enough in Iraq.

PELLEY: Americans wonder whether . . .

BUSH: Yeah, they wonder whether or not the Iraqis are willing to do hard work necessary to get this democratic experience to survive. That's what they want.

That's the problem with those Iraqis. They're not grateful enough!

Happy Birthday, Bill!

Happy birthday to my favorite (and only) brother!

The Gang the Couldn't Shoot Straight

The US government, in its continuing Global War on Terror, frequently announces the deaths of senior al Qaeda members (usually the third in command). These pronouncements receive a lot of press.

What receives little, if any press, is the announcement, a few days later, that, well, we DIDN'T actually kill (fill name of high value target in blank).

So it was again in the glorious Somalia campaign. It had been announced that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Abu Taha al-Sudan and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, all linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2002 Mombasa hotel attack, had been killed. Bush had managed to do what Clinton couldn't - get those responsible for terror attacks against the USA.

Except he didn't.

The US air strike on Somalia failed to kill any of the three top al-Qaida members accused of terror attacks in east Africa.

A senior US official said yesterday that Sunday night's attack had killed between eight and 10 "al-Qaida affiliates" near the southern tip of Somalia.

But he said that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Abu Taha al-Sudan and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan....were still on the run. "Fazul is not dead," said the official, contradicting earlier reports. "The three high-value targets are still of interest to us."

Washington had accused the Council of Islamic Courts movement in Somalia of shielding the three men, who are believed to be leaders of the al-Qaida cell in east Africa. Their alleged influence on the Islamic Courts hierarchy is the main reason for US antipathy towards the Islamists, who rose to power in Mogadishu last June.

....."We have reason to believe that there were significant al-Qaida affiliated people with that group [that was attacked]," said the official, who talked to reporters in Nairobi on condition of anonymity. "No civilians were killed or injured." But he refused to name those who had been killed, or to confirm how they were identified, leaving it unclear how the US could be sure the victims were linked to terrorism.

So it goes. They're all probably relaxing in a luxury hotel in Saudi Arabia with Osama.

UPDATE: According to the Independent:

The herdsmen had gathered with their animals around large fires at night to ward off mosquitoes. But lit up by the flames, they became latest victims of America's war on terror.

It was their tragedy to be misidentified in a secret operation by special forces attempting to kill three top al-Qa'ida leaders in south-ern Somalia.

Oxfam yesterday confirmed at least 70 nomads in the Afmadow district near the border with Kenya had been killed. The nomads were bombed at night and during the day while searching for water sources. Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Kenya has acknowledged that the onslaught on Islamist fighters failed to kill any of the three prime targets wanted for their alleged role in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

Heckuva job, Bushie!

The Imperial President

On January 8, 2007, Tony Snow, the President's pres secretary said, in a news conference:

"The President has the ability to exercise his own authority if he thinks Congress has voted the wrong way."

Read that again to get the full import.

According to the US constitution, the Congress write the laws, and the Administrative branch (President and his bureaucrats) administers/implements the laws. That's how it has been, with a few hiccups (Nixon), since our nation was founded.

But that's not enough for Dear Leader. He believes that he has the right to overrule anyone he disagrees with. Anyone. This is the man who, on December 18, 2000, famously said

"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier - just so long I'm the dictator."

And he is behaving as though he is.

According to the constitution, the president can veto laws he thinks Congress voted the wrong way on. That is his right. But, if they override his veto, it is not within his authority to ignore that law. This is so fundamental that it should not have to be spelled out.

Bush and his lawyers disagee. If Bush doesn't like a law Congress has passed, he just ignores it and does as he pleases. He even has the temerity to sign bills into law, and the attach a signing statement reinterpreting them as he wishes, often as exactly the opposite of what Congress wrote and intended.

Bush recently claimed the right to violate the new postal reform bill - right after he signed it into effect. He can open anyone's mail and read it, if he or his advisors think there is a vague national security risk.

And now he plans to send thousands more troops to Iraq, despite the fact that the Congress and the citizens of this country don't want him to.

Laws don't apply to him. He has executive authority, he is the imperial president, and a strong believer in the divine right of kings presidents.

Strategery

With all the hew and cry about Bush's New Way Forward, one would think a great amount of thought and planning had gone into the strategy:

President Bush announced tonight that he was sending more than 20,000 American troops to Iraq to quell the sectarian violence there, as he conceded for the first time that he had provided neither enough troops nor enough resources to halt the country's descent into chaos over the past year, and that he had pursued a strategy based on fundamentally flawed assumptions about the power of the shaky Iraqi government.

....The president put it far more bluntly when leaders of Congress came to visit Mr. Bush at the White House earlier today. “I said to Maliki this has to work or you’re out,” the president told the Congressional leaders, according to two officials who were in the room. Pressed on why he thought this strategy would succeed where previous efforts had failed, Mr. Bush shot back: "Because it has to."

So that's what it comes down to - magical thinking. If you really believe, Tinkerbell will live, pigs will fly, and we will have victory in Iraq!!

Happy Birthday Nick!

It Really Was All About the Oil

In the run-up to the second Iraq war, those of us who claimed it was a war for oil were labeled "crazy left wing conspiracy theorists." Be cause it wasn't about oil, the administration assured us. It was about the imminent danger posed to the USA by Saddam's WMD.

Except it wasn't. There weren't any.

So then it became about revenge for 9-11.

Except there were no links between Saddam and al Qaeda.

Then it became about toppling an evil dictator, a "bad, bad man," and freeing the people of Iraq.

Yet he's gone and we're still there.

Then it became about spreading democracy.

There were elections. The Iraqis elected a government. And another. Three times now.

And yet we're still there.

So what is our occupation of Iraq really about? And why are we still there? What is left undone?

According to the Independent:

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.

The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.

Oil industry executives and analysts say the law, which would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years, is the only way to get Iraq's oil industry back on its feet after years of sanctions, war and loss of expertise. But it will operate through "production-sharing agreements" (or PSAs) which are highly unusual in the Middle East, where the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's two largest producers, is state controlled.

Opponents say Iraq, where oil accounts for 95 per cent of the economy, is being forced to surrender an unacceptable degree of sovereignty.

Might this have something to do with those secret Energy Task Force meetings that Cheney held 2001, and refuses to talk about? Was it then that spoils of war were divided?

Because it seems that I was right. The left was right. And Billy Bragg was right.

It really was just about the price of oil.

Free download of the song here.

Christmas Tree

Click on the photo for a larger view

It's always been difficult to photograph my tree - it's at its best in low light, and a large part of the charm is the little white lights, their reflections in the glass ornaments, and the gently moving tinsel.

I set up my tripod, and took a few shots. This is the best so far.

Enjoy.

Svyat Vechir

Tonight, for those of us still on the Julian calendar, is Christmas Eve. Throughout Ukraine (and the world) families are preparing their Svyat Vechir feast. Some will gather as family; others, particularly in the diaspora, will gather together at a church hall for a communal supper after Christmas Eve service.

I'll be at my parents' house.

For the Ukrainian people Christmas is the most important family (as opposed to religious) holiday of the whole year. It is celebrated solemnly, as well as merrily, according to ancient customs that have come down through the ages and are still observed today.

Ukrainian Christmas customs are based not only on Christian traditions, but to a great degree on those of the pre-Christian, pagan culture and religion. The Ukrainian society was basically agrarian at that time and had developed an appropriate pagan culture, elements of which have survived to this day. The ancient pagan Feasts of Winter Solstice and Feasts of Fertility became part of Christian Christmas customs. This is perhaps why Ukrainian Christmas customs are unique and deeply symbolic.

Ukrainian Christmas festivities begin on January 6, Christmas Eve, and end on the Feast of the Epiphany. The rituals of the Christmas Eve are dedicated to God, to the welfare of the family, and to the remembrance of the ancestors.



With the appearance of the first star, which is believed to be the Star of Bethlehem, the family gathers to begin supper. They would have fasted all day in preparation for this feast, so it is a particularly anticipated one.

Preparations

Although there were regional variations, the rituals of Christmas followed a set pattern in former days. Except for the preparation of the ‘holy supper,’ all work is halted during the day, and the head of the household sees to it that everything is in order and that the entire family is at home.

Towards the evening the head of the house goes to the threshing floor to get a bundle of hay and a sheaf of rye, barley, or buckwheat; with a prayer he brings them into the house, spread the hay, and placed the sheaf of grain (the didukh) in the place of honor (under the icons). In Ukraine, this is a very important Christmas tradition, because the stalks of grain symbolize all the ancestors of the family, and it is believed that their spirits reside in it during the holidays.

For Christmas Eve Supper or Sviata Vecheria, the table is covered with two tablecloths, one for the ancestors of the family, the second for the living members. In pagan times ancestors were considered to be benevolent spirits, who, when properly respected, brought good fortune to the living family members. Under the table, as well as under the tablecloths, some hay is spread to remember that Christ was born in a manger. The table always has one extra place-setting for the deceased family members, whose souls, according to belief, come on Christmas Eve and partake of the food.

Garlic is placed at the four corners of the table while iron objects — an ax and a plowshare (or the plow itself) —and a yoke, a horse collar, or pieces of harness, are placed under the table. A pot of kutia is placed high up on the shelf in the corner of honor; the pot is topped with a loaf of bread (knysh) and a lighted candle.

A kolach (Christmas bread) is placed in the center of the table. This bread is braided into a ring, and three such rings are placed one on top of the other, with a candle in the center of the top one. The three rings symbolize the Trinity and the circular form represents Eternity.

After all the preparations have been completed, the father offers each member of the family a piece of bread dipped in honey, which had been previously blessed in church. He then leads the family in prayer. After the prayer the father extends his best wishes to everyone with the greeting «Христос раждається» (Christ is born), and the family sits down to a twelve-course meatless Christmas Eve Supper.

Svyata Vecherya

There are twelve courses in the Supper, because according to the Christian tradition each course is dedicated to one of Christ's Apostles. According to the ancient pagan belief, each course stood was for every full moon during the course of the year. The courses are meatless because there is a period of fasting required by the Church until Christmas Day. However, for the pagans the meatless dishes were a form of bloodless sacrifice to the gods.

The order of the dishes and even the dishes themselves are not uniform everywhere, for every region adheres to its own tradition. In the Hutsul region, for example, the dishes are served in the following order: beans, fish, boiled potato dumplings (pyrohy or varenyky), cabbage rolls (holubtsi), dzobavka or kutia (cooked whole-wheat grains, honey, and ground poppy seeds), potatoes mashed with garlic, stewed fruit, lohaza (peas with oil or honey), plums with beans, pyrohy stuffed with poppy seeds, soup containing sauerkraut juice and groats (rosivnytsia), millet porridge, and boiled corn (kokot).

In the diaspora, the first course is often kutia. Then comes borshch (beet soup) with vushka (boiled dumplings filled with chopped mushrooms and onions). This is followed by a variety of fish - baked, broiled, fried, cold in aspic, fish balls, marinated herring and so on. Then come varenyky (boiled dumplings filled with cabbage, potatoes, buckwheat grains, or prunes. There are also holubtsi (stuffed cabbage), and the supper ends with uzvar.

There are many rituals associated with the meal as well. Traditionally, when the kutia is served, the head of the house takes the first spoonful, opens the window or went out into the yard, sometimes with an ax in his hand, and invites the 'frost to eat kutia.' On re-entering the house, he threows the first spoonful to the ceiling: an adhesion of many grains signifies a rich harvest and augurs a good swarming of bees. The head of the house then takes some food from every dish and, placing it with some flour in a trough, carries it out to the cattle and gives it to them to eat.

At the evening meal fortunes are told.

After the meal three spoonfuls of each dish are placed on a separate plate for the souls of the dead relatives and spoons are left for them.



(Note: some of the text above was taken from the Brama web site, who in turn got it from the Ukrainian Museum. Other bits came from the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, a much better source, but much longer. Being too lazy to write more today, I have mixed it up for you to read.)

3000

....is not a very big number, at least according to right wingers and some in the AP. They wonder why Americans are so upset about ONLY 3000 American war dead, when, in some major battles in WWII, more than that were lost in a single day. Americans have become wusses (cowards) they declaim, ensconced safely behind their keyboards.

There are two reasons why.

First, Americans OPPOSE this war, and they do so with a supermajority (over 70% at this time). It's one thing to have our servicemen and women die fighting to protect their native land and way of life from aggressors. It is another thing to have them die fighting for uncertain reasons in a foreign land. Colonial wars have never been popular on the home front.

Second, those who support this war and its escalation are those who, so to speak, don't have a dog in this fight. They're not at the front. Their relatives aren't at the front. Their friends and neighbors aren't at the front. "It's a volunteer army," they say. "We don't have to go. We're more valuable here at home, shoring up support for the war." Meanwhile, those who answered their nation's call for service are being sent on a second, or third, or even fourth tour of duty, often years after their enlistment was up.

Stop loss. Recall. Ready Reserve. National Guard.

How long before they have to call up the Boy Scouts and the VFW, anything to avoid a draft that might force the children of the rich and the powerful to partake in the war their fathers so eagerly started and supported?

There are many parallels to Viet Nam. Stephen Pizzo pointed out this one at SmirkingChimp:

An audio tape of Lyndon Johnson speaking to aides in the Oval Office in early 1966 has Johnson admitting that the Vietnam war was unwinnable and that he'd love to figure how to get out. But, he quickly added that there would be no American military defeat on his watch.

A look at the casualties on the day of that early 1966 conversation is instructive; the US had lost just a over 3000 troops in Vietnam. But, instead of ending a war he knew could not be won, Johnson “surged.” (Actually they used the right term in those days, “escalation.”)

In that same conversation Johnson worried out loud that, "if Congress knew what I know, they'd cut off funding," for the war.

By the end of 1966 killed in action casualties were over 5000. The next year over 14,000 more died. Ten years after that conversationaton 57,000 additional US soldiers were dead, and it was left to Gerald Ford to accept reality and bring all remaining US troops home.

But reality continues to elude those who still the support the war. "Leaving is losing" says our War-Time President.

Others have experienced an even greater loss.

3000.

Because even one unnecessary death is one too many. Especially when it is someone you know and love.

About Time

The 52th Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi, the most powerful woman in America, and second in line for the Presidency.

Comments

When I first started my blog, I allowed comments to be unmoderated. Wow. That was a mistake. Russian brides, cheap viagra, come-ons to insurance sites. It was a mess.

So I added moderation.

And no one wrote.

I thought it was because it was too cumbersome.

Today, by mistake, I discovered it was becasue I had to go to the comments - unlike my posts, they didn't come to me. I clicked the moderation tab, and a whole bunch of them popped up.

Most were for Russian brides, cheap viagra, come-ons to insurance sites. But there were a few real ones.

So they've been moderated and posted. And I will try to respond to those who wrote with questions ASAP.

January 2007