This is the day I discovered Miguel Povada, a flamenco singer. He is simply The Best.

1) It’s A Wonderful Life

2) “Hip”/“Woke” clergy and theologians who portray Our Blessed Mother Mary as homeless or unwed in order to validate their political agendas.

3) Tinkling chimes.

4) Santa Claus praying at the Manger in a lighted Nativity Scene in a front yard. I suppose it has instructional value for small children, but so does reading The Nativity Story to the little ones.

That’s all really. I like Christmas. On the one hand, Christmas lasts too long. On the other hand it doesn’t last long enough.

#2 Son is a grown-ass adult, 34 years old. And yet… He asks me to make sure he’s up when he has to leave early for a road trip to DC. This is completely understandable. The commuter traffic on I-95 is bad. It rivals Los Angeles in the congested nastiness.

Of course, I wake up at 3:00AM to call him at 4:30 AM. I watch TV on You Tube. The Russian Orthodox Liturgy is my favourite, because the music and the icons are beautiful and reverent. You see a side of Russia that isn’t shown on Western media outlets. A mother holding her child during the Liturgy doesn’t match our impression of a ruthless and bloodthirsty people. I know. It could all be propaganda, as if we aren’t fully taken in by Ukrainian propaganda regularly presented on our media.

America has been in the war business for most of my life, and next month, I will be 72. Congress just passed an $858 billion Defence Authorisation Act. You don’t authorise that much money, unless you expect to hurt some people and break some things. Either our military will do the dirty work, or our proxies, e.g. the Ukrainians, will.

Damn right it’s creepy. But it keeps the wheels of war turning. This will give us ideas for movies, novels, television shows and fancy computer games. Playing those games, our young people will practice killing without remorse. Then, when they eventually go to war, they can’t handle the psychological trauma of the real thing. So they blow their brains out the first chance they get.

And we can maintain the delusion that we’re good for another fiscal year.

Sex is only kinky if you buy your gloves and lube at the veterinary section of your farm supply store.

Baseball players wear caps. There are caps based upon the design of the baseball cap, e.g. the MAGA cap of Donald Trump fame. It is NOT a hat.

Consider the cowboy hat. It has a different look than a baseball cap. We don’t call them cowboy caps.

I think all these Ivy League geniuses that hang out in newsrooms should have learned the difference between a cap and and a hat. 🧢 🎩 .

American Football players wear helmets when they play, not hats.

Rant over.

Right now I’m watching trains in a Railfan “Grab Bag”. I have been awake about 90 minutes. I should be in bed. Last night, I made plans for today that would require a good night’s sleep. And now I want to sleep and have my emotional pain to subside.

Those who engage in “gain of function” research are committing a crime against humanity. So if you, Dr Smarty Pants Researcher, engage in this research, you might end up in jail, rather than at Stockholm, for the Nobel Awards Banquet.

Scientists do this because there is money for the research. And prestige, should you accomplish a breakthrough. And if you kill a few million people, Oh well.

There was a whole series of “Doctors Trials at Nürnberg, where a few Doctors were hanged for their “research”. I’m not saying anybody should swing for this, but somehow, the scientists need to be held accountable for screwing over innocent people in order to improve their Curriculum Vitae.

But I’m not holding my breath.

This is not a rant against a secular Christmas or a lamentation over the loss of the Solemnity of The Incarnation. Both the secular and sacred fit together without conflict.

Black Friday, I’ve learned, is acknowledged the Western ( Industrialised) World. It’s the day the big retailers start turning a profit, moving to the black side of the profit/loss statement.

My strange mind wants to suggest to TCM, the classic movie channel, that an Al Jolson retrospective might fit nicely with Black Friday. That is, if you like a hearty dollop of dark comedy to season your day.

But the shopping season grinds on. At this point we expect it. The lighthearted nature of the season carries the undertone of cynicism. “Have fun while you spend your money, but spend your money whether you’re having fun or not.”

When I got old, I realised I have more stuff than I can possibly use. When my brother died, we threw out untold numbers of festive gifts, mouldy cakes, rancid coffee, wine turned to vinegar

Don’t play the Black Friday game. Make a list, buy your stuff. Have fun.

I will not be watching the World Cup.

Back in October, 1957, the Russians put an artificial satellite into Earth orbit. Sputnik transmitted a radio signal until its battery went dead and stayed in orbit until January 1958, when it fell to Earth in another win for gravity.

Everybody in the USA, it seemed to my six year old mind, freaked out. The Communists had a leg up on us. Our Nazi rocket 🚀 scientists were lagging behind the Russian Nazi rocket 🚀 scientists.

Pretty soon we were seeing books published with titles like What Ivan Knows That Johnny Doesn’t. The Commies had advantages galore that we lacked. I don’t remember what the advantages were exactly. The truth was that I didn’t care. I was more concerned with printing with the fat pencil ✏️ and colouring inside the lines with the fat crayons 🖍. But the adults were scared shitless about the Commies/Russkies.

My Uncle Bob took this aspect of the Cold War in stride and named his family’s dog Sputnik. That’s all I can recall about this mutt, his name.

But back in the day, we were scared of The Russians, just as we are right now. Some things never change. But the weapons and their accoutrements do change and we have to buy them.