DECEMBER 25 UPDATE
COMMITMENT
Whitney Canion - '08 - Texas Glory Gold - Lefty Pitcher/Utility committed to Baylor University. Whitney attends high school at Aledo (4A) near Waco, TX.
Kristen Mihm, SoCal Sliderz Gold, 2007, OF/Catcher, signed a NLI to play for CSU-Northridge.
CHRISTMAS MESSAGES
Hopefully, during some part of the celebrations of this most joyous of holidays, we all will ponder the true messages associated with the birth of the Christ child. The hard facts are that too many people, young and old alike, are homeless, impoverished, hungry and ill-educated – not just in the Third World – but also in America, the land of plenty, the richest nation on earth.
We all hear the words spoken from the pulpits of all denominations – but do we listen? How many of us donated food or clothing or the price of shelter to those less fortunate? Pope Benedict XVI said people should direct their thoughts toward children forced to serve "as soldiers in a violent world, toward children who have to beg, toward children who suffer deprivation and hunger, toward children who are unloved.” Yet, even as the Pope and other religious and political leaders, including Queen Elizabeth II, spoke of peace, some Christians celebrated amid heightened security due to the threat of terror attacks. As one editorial noted: Peace on earth seemed a distant dream this Christmas. Police guarded churches in Pakistan and Indonesia, and in Bethlehem, there were no Christmas carols this year. The CIA and French intelligence opened Christmas Day warning of attacks on the Channel Tunnel.
CHRISTMAS AT ARLINGTON
END OF THE SOVIET ERA
On Christmas Day 1991, the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics collapsed into the dust bin of history. The last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, resigned on December 25, formally dissolving the USSR, seventy-four years after Tsar Nicholas II abdicated. Gorbachev had set the wheels in motion with his glastnost and perestoika reforms, but his openness also revealed the corruption, economic stagnation, and social unrest in a union held together by fear, torture, political and social repression under notorious dictators like Josef Stalin and Nikita Khruschev – and actually governed by a former head of the KGB – as it is now. The end game featured tanks surrounding the Kremlin. I recall standing on a bridge, mingling with ordinary Muscovites, as we watched tanks firing on the Duma on August 19. The land of Peter the Great once again became Russia, his fabled city once again was known as St Petersburgh. The Romanov dynasty is also history, but make no mistake, Putin wields as much absolute power as any czar autocrat. The press has been handicapped; political freedom repressed; alleged enemies are mysteriously murdered. Russia no longer has as much pure military power but Putin has a weapon even more powerful – economic leverage created by Russia’s vast resources of oil and natural gas which Putin is using as a formidable political tool. While everyday Russians enjoy much more freedom, the Orthodox Church has been resurrected, yet the polls are showing Russians are increasingly restless; 61 percent are said to regret the fall of the Soviet Union – even though the economy under Putin has grown from $200 billion to over $900 million. The once destitute government has paid off its debts. Europe’s largest shopping mall has opened. Ikea alone has 11 malls. Yet, the increasing control of the state over economic and political life is a cause for concern by thinking Russians who know that their increasingly Western-style economy has not nurtured democracy but spurred a return to state control. Ever the mystery/riddle/enigma famously described by Churchill, Russia remains the constant revolution described in Cold War political science classes by my professors as one nexus of the Mackinder heartland theory.
SNOWMEN
Calvin & Hobbes courtesy CJRittman
CHRISTMAS CAROLS FOR THE DISTURBED
Contributed by the coaching
staff at Virginia
* 1. Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?
* 2. Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are
* 3. Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas
* 4. Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me
* 5. Manic - Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets
and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees
and.....
* 6. Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me
* 7. Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an
Open Fire
* 8. Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm
Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why
* 9. Attention Deficit Disorder --- Silent night, Holy oooh look at the
Froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?
* 10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder --- Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells, Jingle,Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells , Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
MCCAIN SINGING STREISAND
Front Page won’t let me use videos but I wish I could. Pat Lucey sent me this video which is hilarious.
A TRULY BEAUTIFUL CARD
click on this link - then follow
the instructions that come up one
after another. This is really nice!
http://ecard.ashland.edu/2004admission/index.html
Thank you Ashland University and PRLucey