Behold the holiday cometh!

I don't know why I started that way, it just seemed the thing to say (whoa, that rhymed - that was perfectly timed. Hey, it happened again - who'd have thought so then? Hey! Well, never mind...).

I am in good spirits, for no apparent reason other than I am a child of the King, Christmas is almost a week away, shopping has been done for awhile, and all is well in the Doulos world.

It's the rest of the world that concerns me!


I'm carefully watching the Patriot Act reauthorization circus. The House disappointingly passed it yesterday, and it moved on to the Senate for consideration today.
Actually, I just checked on it, and it's a dead horse. Not to be denied though, I'll proceed to beat it for a few minutes.

Having held a sensitive clearance for several years, I fully understand the clandestine society of the intelligence community. I am not enough of an extreme Federalist Patriot to demand full disclosure of governmental workings. I personally know enough of what happens behind the scenes to know that the average American would be appalled at some of what our government calls legitimate activities.
At the same time, I would fully expect some measure, however small, of justification for maintaining such an invasive (and unconstitutional) "blank check" of intrusion into the daily lives of Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public. Perhaps I've missed it, but all I've heard in defense of the (laughingly called) Patriot Act is vague, general, vacuous, lame statements (with no specifics whatsoever) of how many American lives have been saved by the law-enforcement tools authorized by this travesty.
Sorry - I'm not from Missouri, but pretend that I am, anyway. Show me! If national security reasons prohibit details too specific, I understand, but there has been no attempt to defend it other than what equates to, "We're the government - trust us". Ain't gonna happen, Cap'n! Not with this patriot.

As if to prove the point, the story has broken (I believe the timing is a little too perfect) that the FBI utilized spy satellites after the Oklahoma City bombings (pre-Patriot Act), and the NSA spied on thousands of Americans with only the scantiest of justification.

I rest my case.


In case government nosiness isn't enough, we have some liberal elements of our fellow citizens that are attempting to impose their will upon the rest of us.

We have one group presuming to "speak" for polar bears. This is all based, of course, upon assumptions of global warming, which has yet to be scientifically proven in the first place. We then further compound the outing of our stupidity by the fact there is no count available of the bears, before or after these imagined events. Something tells me this should be a fairly quick court case -- but then again, it's in a San Francisco court, which is in the ninth circuit. Perhaps there are results to be feared, after all.

Since polar bears can't object to being "spoken for", cases such as that are almost to be expected. However, the liberal "butt-in-skis" have capitalized upon previous successes and are attempting to further build upon their "we-know-better-than-you-so-shut-up-and-let-us-help-you" dynasty. I'm not a smoker, but this tragedy has me incensed (pun intended)!
Get out of my life!! Mind your business!! Butt out (pun intended again)!!


You know, in all the other happy events, I completely missed the opportunity to make an entry at the conclusion of "The Biggest Loser". If you recall, back on the September 21st entry, I identified Matt as our family favorite, and Nick as having issues.
How nice for our posterity that at the finale, Matt won and Nick didn't bother to attend! I'm a bit disappointed with the rumors that Matt is now dating Suzy, one of the other finalists. I'll leave that alone...


I will send along wishes once more of a wonderful Holy-Day season for each of you. Some of you we'll see soon, others even sooner, but see each of you we shall!