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DECEMBER 25, 2010

THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO DON'T LIKE CHRISTMAS, AND THEY HAVE NUKES – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:  From Britain's Telegraph:

South Korea has lit a massive steel Christmas tree that overlooks the world's most heavily armed border and is within sight of North Korea, prompting threats of attack from the communist state.

The lighting of the tree after a seven-year hiatus marked a pointed return to a tradition that is condemned in Pyongyang as propaganda. The provocative ceremony - which needed government permission to take place - was also a sign that President Lee Myung-bak's administration is serious about countering the North's aggression with measures of its own in the wake of an artillery attack that killed four South Koreans last month.

North Korea, officially atheist and with only a handful of sanctioned churches in Pyongyang with services for foreigners, warned that lighting the tree would constitute a "dangerous, rash act" with the potential to trigger a war.

COMMENT:  There are people who think like this.  We ignore them, or minimize the danger they pose, at our peril.

December 25, 2010      Permalink

TRACKING SANTA – AT 10:33 A.M. ET:  A fine Christmas story.  Did you know that NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, tracks Santa's progress?  Oh yes, oh yes.  They sure do.

Michelle Obama joined the folks at NORAD yesterday to help answer calls from kids who wanted to know where Santa was.  We commend her for that gesture.  There's a wonderful story in how the practice got started, as reported in The New York Times: 

The program began in 1955 after a youngster in Colorado Springs, Col., dialed a misprinted telephone number in a newspaper looking for Santa – and wound up getting a commander at NORAD’s predecessor agency. The commander gave the child Santa’s whereabouts, and a tradition was born.

Today, NORAD runs a Web site, http://www.noradsanta.org and a live operations center with more than 1,200 volunteers who receive hundreds of calls and e-mails from around the world looking for Mr. Claus.

COMMENT:  Now watch – "experts" will try to shut this down, claiming that we're misleading youth and warping their minds.  No chance, guys.  This will continue.

December 25, 2010     Permalink

A TRUE SWEETHEART – AT 10:15 A.M. ET:  Katherine Jenkins is the "sweetheart" of the British armed forces.  That's an informal title, held in World War II by the legendary Vera Lynn, whose renditions of songs like "We'll Meet Again" became revered symbols of the war effort.   

One role of the "sweetheart" is to travel around and entertain British troops.  Katherine Jenkins, who is an outstanding, classically trained vocalist, was on a plane a few days ago, ready for a long trip to Afghanistan.  But the plane was grounded by weather.  So, what did she do?  She got up and performed "Silent Night," a cappella.  It was taped.  I think you'll enjoy this.  It's here.

December 25, 2010       Permalink

ON GUARD – AT 10:06 A.M. ET:  As America celebrates today, let us not forget those who are on guard for us all over the world.

And that must include the antiterrorism forces in the United States, who are unquestionably on special alert today.  Please recall that it was one year ago, on Christmas, that a jihadist tried to bring down an airliner over Detroit.  If the bomb had gone off, the day would have ended in tragedy.  Fortunately, he did not succeed.

We hope there is no repetition. 

December 25, 2010     Permalink

DECEMBER 24, 2010

MEDICAL ADVICE – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:  Finally, the truth is out.  Read it and weep, or at least stand up.  From London's Telegraph:

Yoga may be good for your karma, but is terrible for your knees, an Indian orthopaedic surgeon has warned.

I'd heard whispers about this.

Dr Ashok Rajgopal says he has performed knee replacement surgery on a number of leading yoga gurus.
His warnings are a serious challenge to those who say yoga, which is now a multi-billion pound global industry, can ward off the effects of ageing and leave devotees feeling fitter, stronger and at peace with the world.

Some of its most charismatic teachers, like India's Baba Ramdev, who has built a worldwide empire through television appearances, believe its breathing exercises can even cure diseases like HIV Aids and cancer. In the United States alone, more than £4 billion a year is spent on yoga equipment and 15 million people are regular practitioners.

But according to Dr Rajgopal, the extreme stretching exercises at the heart of the discipline cause severe stress on joints, leading to arthritis.

He has seen a higher incidence of joint and bone ailments among yoga followers.

It's about time the first lady got on this.  Forget that childhood obesity stuff.  This is BIG.

We're happy to give you this medical alert.  Sit properly at holiday dinners.  If you see a relative meditating, stop him before he goes too far.  The threat of yoga is everywhere.

December 24, 2010       Permalink

HUMAN RIGHTS PHONIES – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  Urgent Agenda's intelligent, informed readership knows that "human rights" is one of the most twisted, misused phrases around.  "Human rights advocates" too often turn out to be old leftists spouting the "human rights" mantra from one side of their mouths, while defending the world's worst dictatorships from the other. 

Nowhere is the problem worse than in Hollywood, where phoniness is a way of life.  Believe me.  I've worked there.  You would sometimes yearn for someone who would just tell the truth about what he had for lunch. 

Andrew Breitbart's "Big Hollywood" has the story of the movie industry's latest flirtation with utter hypocrisy and fraudulent concern for "human rights."  It involves one of their own:

Afshan Azad, 22, who plays Padma Patil in the “Harry Potter” film series remains in hiding. She refused to appear in a London court and press charges, no doubt because she knows there’s no way the British police can protect her. It is open Islamic season on Ms. Azad.

What has she done to bring down the wrath of Allah? Ms. Azad’s boyfriend is Hindi, a non-Muslim...

...Just so we understand what’s going on: this is the norm in the Muslim world. Women who dare enter a relationship with non-Muslims are fair game for an honor killing, usually proceeded by various forms of unspeakable torture.

Hollywood reacts to the horror.  Not:

You would think that Ms. Azad’s case would sweep through Hollywood like a prairie fire, with celebrities stepping forward to condemn Islam’s war against women and offer support to this unfortunate young actress and the millions of Muslim women who live in perpetual fear of their lives. And hey, Hollywood is stuffed with card carrying feminists. So doesn’t it make sense that western women—specifically liberals who are always lecturing cave dwelling conservatives about social justice and human rights—would surge forward like an angry wave in support of their sister?

But gee willikers, listen to the silence...

...talk to film people about the oppression of women in the Muslim world, specifically honor killings, and you’ll be met with either blank stares or a stumbling explanation about the moral complexities of judging third world cultures.

In short, western liberals in Hollywood and elsewhere, most notably so-called feminists, have abandoned the human rights of Muslim women in the name of multicultural gibberish. It’s okay to let women be slaughtered by their fanatic families because we, as depraved western oppressors, have no right to tell the natives how to live.

Finally...

And now that one of Hollywood’s own, Afshan Azad, 22, a fine young actress, is in hiding because her father and brother are determined to murder her, well, I’m sure Hollywood will sigh with compassion, and then move on because the part can always be recast.

This moral nothingness perfectly compliments the barbarism of the Islamist world. One cannot survive without the other. They are, in clinical terms, enablers.

COMMENT:  Another term would be "collaborators."  The phoniness, of course, extends well beyond Hollywood, and into the academic world, also silent about the horrors experienced by Muslim women.  It isn't part of the script, not part of the party line. 

I actually heard, with my own ears, people in Hollywood say about five years ago that they wouldn't take a stand against Muslim oppression because that would "help Bush."  I kid you not.  With my own ears.

Those are the people who are feeding "entertainment" to our kids.

December 24, 2010      Permalink

A PASSING – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  We note the passing, at Christmas time, of Fred Foy, a man with a special relationship to kids.  Never heard of him?  Think maybe he was a member of the Foy vaudeville family?  No, no, he wasn't.  Fred Foy, who died this week, at 89, was a radio announcer.

But what he announced was listened to, intently, by a generation of kids:

"A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty Hi-Yo, Silver! ..."

Fred Foy announced "The Lone Ranger," one of the greatest, and longest-running, radio adventure shows ever. My, how we would sit at those old Emerson and Philco radios and wait for Fred to tell us that the Ranger, and his trusty native-American sidekick, Tonto, were galloping our way.

These days, the show would be considered politically incorrect.  But to us, the Lone Ranger and Tonto were heroes, moral and otherwise.

The wonderful thing about radio is that it stimulated a child's imagination.  We had to imagine what people looked like, what things looked like.  The sound effects people provided the clapping of a horse's hoofs, but we had to imagine the horse.  That ended with television, and I guess it was inevitable.  But I remember my Radio Workshop teacher in junior high school, Vera Larner, telling us how sad it was. 

So, adios Fred.  We'll never forget that voice, or one of the best-written introductions to a radio show...ever.

The obit is here.

December 24, 2010      Permalink

CHRISTMAS EVE – AT 8:34 A.M. ET:  I have seen many Christmases and Christmas eves.  You don't have to be a religious Christian to appreciate and honor the spiritual meaning of the day.

I recall, as a child, when a perfectly appropriate Christmas gift was a five-dollar snow shovel, and recipients were appreciative.  Today we see television ads for Mercedes automobiles, a difficult item to put under a tree.

It is a commonplace to bemoan the "commercialism" of Christmas, but I must make this observation:  I have never seen a Christmas season as devoid of religious meaning, as cold (in attitude) and as strictly commercial as this one.  We are, as a society, heading in the wrong direction.  Oh yes, I know, I know, the secularists argue that we're just more "inclusive," and less "offensive" these days.  Are we really?

I didn't see much offense, as a little boy, when Perry Como would devote his weekly television show to Christmas music.  The Constitution survived and there were no riots in the streets.  Yes, some religious leaders would occasionally make foolish or insensitive statements, but name an age when some religious leaders haven't acted badly.  The great majority of leaders and people acted well.  In fact, it is the ones who didn't act well who got singled out.

Some argue that we should de-emphasize religious observance because religion celebrates events that cannot be "proved."  But true religion is never about "what."  It's about "who and "why."  Religious stories are stories of faith, from which we can take lessons of morality and behavior.  Please remember that the concept of "peace on Earth and good will toward men" did not begin in a "peace studies" class at Northwestern.  It began as a religious concept.

I hope we can, in the future, do better.  That doesn't mean following, or respecting, the religious bomb throwers.  It does mean that religious holidays should be honored, and celebrated, not because they can be misused, but because they contain within them the bedrock of our civilization.  And that civilization is worth defending.

December 24, 2010     Permalink