Tue, Dec 22nd - 9:15PM

O Emmanuel, our King and Giver of Law:
Come to save us, Lord our God!

Durant's Rousseau and Revolution, p. 643
262.5 miles
rain, wind

108 recordings of 39 types.

On all these pagan holidays I miss Gerhard.

The last couple of days we had a couple of incidents with dreadful noises coming from machinery. The first was our CD changer, which was awful. Finally Rich took it apart and found a broken CD (fortunately not one I love) and now it works again.  Then yesterday I was vacuuming. All of a sudden, a terrible grinding noise.  I turned it off and turned it upside down, and out came two screws and a couple of other pieces of metal, which I carried off to Rich. But the vacuum still made noise, so he came in and took it apart and twirled the brush, couldn't find anything.  But it sounded fine. Once it was back together, I vacuumed again, and SAW a screw get swallowed. It was right where Rich had been working with the vacuum, so it was probably the noisy culprit. Currently, the vacuum sounds fine. I don't have any idea where all this hardware is coming from, probably all the painting and projects.

Pagan came over today and we went to lunch at La Rosa Blanca, yum, and then went to pick up a solstice cache.  We'd passed a thrift shop so he wanted to see it. It's quite pricy, and has a surfeit of apostrophe's [sic]. I did find, however, an expandable wooden trivet that's quite nice.

Change nobody believes in..

This centralized system means above all fewer choices; what works for the political class must work for everyone. With formerly private insurers converted into public utilities, for instance, they'll inevitably be banned from selling products like health savings accounts that encourage more cost-conscious decisions.
...
Yet some 98% of the total cost comes after 2014—remind us why there must absolutely be a vote this week—and most of the taxes start in 2010. That includes the payroll tax increase for individuals earning more than $200,000 that rose to 0.9 from 0.5 percentage points in Mr. Reid's final machinations. Job creation, here we come.

Rasmussen: -17: 46/53

Heh.

Never mind the recidivism rate.

Ben Nelson didn't make any friends in Nebraska with his bribe.

Tea Parties, go home.

TEA Parties nation-wide have found that calling, writing, and showing up in person in D.C. has the same impact as a hiccup in a hurricane. After turning out thousands of citizens at rallies, overwhelming the Senate phone lines and crashing Congress’ e-mail system, our elected representatives are poised to enact the greatest expansion of government in history.

Tue, Dec 22nd - 9:11AM

O Key of David, opening the gates of
God's eternal Kingdom: Come
and free the prisoners of darkness!

Durant's Rousseau and Revolution, p. 643
262.5 miles
rain, cold

I stagger out first thing in the morning to take my blood pressure. Oh, look, there's something on the floor... This is what I get for starting to clean out the pantry. I did the top shelf and left all the bottles on the table last night.  Spooky, of course, just HAD to get onto the garden window on the side where all the plants are, not on the side where cats are welcome. So he knocked down a Christmas cactus. It fell onto the table where the bottles did their domino act... fortunately, all that fell onto the floor was rice vinegar, which leaked out a bit. Fairly easy to clean.  The plant is OK, too.

103 recordings of 33 types.

Disaster shall befall you
which you cannot allay.
Suddenly there shall come upon you
ruin which you will not expect.
Isaiah 47:11

Sorta fits the health care fiasco. Rasmussen: -15: 46/53

Overreaching leaves 0bama with few friends, Kathleen Parker

things seem to have turned for Obama. Left-leaning Democrats suddenly are wondering: Who is this guy? What happened to the liberal dream-maker who was going to provide health care to every person in the country while hand-feeding grateful polar bears basking on vast expanses of restored sea ice? ...
But the health-care rift is only a symptom of a more serious disease afflicting this administration. It isn't so much hubris, though that is part of the problem. It isn't even narcissism, primarily. Obama's fever is grandiosity -- an inflated self-confidence and a sense of power exceeding one's means. ...
The image that comes to mind is of a dog racing down the beach to chase a flock of seagulls.

The growing sense now is that Obama is desperate -- for any kind of bill. What matters is checking the box next to "health care reform" and declaring some kind of victory.

Dems break it, they own it.

Mr. President, you can't do everything.

I think it's safe to say Roger Kimball is NOT a fan.

I suspect that the “tea parties” of the last several months will look like modest dress rehearsals once people get a handle on what the Obama-Pelosi-Reid triumvirate are attempting to do to us.

Body language :Ann Althouse comments on 0bama's meeting with the Chinese premier.

The look on Wen's face is tight. You could say it's a skeptical look but I think it's more contempt or superiority.

Wen, a much smaller man than Obama, looms over him.

This is not a reassuring photo. The leaders of our friends and rivals are getting to know President Obama. They are not impressed.

I watched  The Man who saved Christmas.  It "takes liberties" with the story of A.C. Gilbert, but still there's history there I didn't know.  There's a museum in Salem Oregon I now want to see.

Tonight we went to the neighbors' party. It was great fun, as usual. When we were singing carols and songs I particularly noticed "Here Comes Santa Claus." Back in Laramie, when I was a kid, this was the theme song for the "talk to Santa" program.  You could tell Santa was talking from the North Pole because of the wind and the static: kids would call in with their lists and Santa asked if they were good or bad. This was about 15 minutes a day during December. I never called in, but it was great to listen to.

Kathryn Lopez: the same fed govt that is shut down monday due to snow from saturday is going to take over health care in america, for the record.

Big Government:
The Grinches further claim Medicare is the epitome of success and cost effectiveness and a program we should all look forward to joining. In fact, one of their “potential” presents, still on the drawing board, is to “allow” everyone 55-64 years of age the “opportunity” to join Medicare.  This is the same Medicare that:

Was established in 1965
Cost $ 3 Billion in 1966
Cost $325 Billion in 2005
Cost $408 Billion in 2009 (12 % increase every year for 43 years)
From 2000-2007 paid DEAD physicians 478,500 claims totaling $92 Million  (U.S. Senate Permanent Committee on Investigation)

Cash for Cloture: 0bamacare Bill is so bad it has to be rammed through in the middle of the night.

Lets face it, this was too valuable to the progressives to fail, a chance to take over every aspect of our lives, to decide who lives and who dies, and the best part for liberals a chance to add over a trillion dollars to our tax burdens.  Where else but in this progressive run America could a tax be put on pacemakers and wheelchairs.