One of the things I greatly appreciate about b and the barflies is that they don’t save their moral outrage for the holidays, and they don’t put it on hold then, either.

Posted by: Honzo | Dec 24 2023 15:15 utc | 4

Happy holiday season to all the people of goodwill.
People of goodwill do exist, independently of their religion or absence of.

Posted by: W | Dec 24 2023 15:51 utc | 6

we had a procession here last week honoring our Lady Tonantzin the Virgin of Guadalupe, from a park winding thru the (mainly Mexican) neighborhoods and to a catholic church. There is a melding of native and christian beliefs in many indigenous communities. It provided a degree of hope to all who participated. May peace be with b and readers here, may there be peace in occupied Palestine.

Posted by: Osori | Dec 24 2023 16:08 utc | 8

Merry Christmas to All…
Yesterday I saw this web page with pictures of Christmas in many places in the world, and reflected how this is one aspect of European-Western culture which I find both beautiful and worthy. We are unpopular these days and demonized by all and sundry, having done our share of demonizing in times past, but not all about Western civilization is bad, indeed much was good, although that is the part that is fading the most it seems.
On that whimsical note, an erudite piece yesterday by the Christian Theologian David Bentley Hart about the passing of the West. In a post a few days ago I said that the Fall of the West began in 1914. He somewhat agrees, although places the roots of that fall in the Wars of Religion in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, which sounds right to me, after which came The Enlightenment which was anything but.
https://davidbentleyhart.substack.com/p/from-a-lost-world

A blessed Christmas to all who keep the feast; and many blessings to all, of whatever observance.
[2014:] This year, of course, we mark the centenary of the beginning of the end. It was in July of 1914 that European Civilization entered its final death throes, the last convulsions of which would not subside for more than thirty years. After that, not even the illusions remained. The great Western project of secular modernity that had begun with the wars of the emergent nation state back in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (conflicts that history, with her superb talent for hidden ironies, calls the “Wars of Religion”) had reached its logically ineluctable conclusion, carrying away the feeble remnants of Christendom on tides of human blood. Since then, the great moral mission of Western European society has been to arrange the debris in as attractive a style as possible, and to try to translate irreversible decline and disenchantment into some kind of humane ethos.
Even though, however, we cannot help but commemorate the start of the Great War this year, it is not an event we can really remember—and not only because practically no one is now alive who has any personal recollection of it. We owe some sort of reverent reflection to those who perished over the following four years (at least, I like to think we do), but the sheer scale of the cataclysm simply defies the scope of any rational imagination. There are those still among us, true, who have vivid memories of the utter brutality of the Second World War. My father, who passed away just this last year, lived through some of the most savage fighting in the European theater, during the push across France into Germany—in the Vosges Mountains, at Bitche, street to street in Heilbronn, and so on—and he experienced horrors that he never related to me or my brothers when we were growing up, but that left an indelible impress upon his mind. Yet even he, he told me more than once, found it impossible imaginatively to encompass the sheer barbarity and madness of the Great War.
For myself, in my private meditations, if I want to do some sort of justice to the memory of those whose lives were stolen away by the monstrous imbecility of the war that began in 1914, I have to think in epitomes. One can lament millions of deaths, but not really properly mourn them; it is possible, though, to fix one’s thoughts and, to some degree, one’s emotions on certain individuals. And lately, as I have been considering this approaching centennial, I have been thinking repeatedly about two figures, out of the very many who might have occurred to me: Henri Alban-Fournier (1886-1914), the French novelist who wrote under the name of Alain-Fournier, and George Butterworth (1885-1916), the English composer.
As their dates indicate, neither man lived long; and, consequently, neither left behind him a particularly weighty collection of completed works. Both produced art of extraordinarily wistful tenderness, in some ways unfinished or even immature, but perhaps for that very reason almost excruciatingly evocative; and everything they created bore unambiguous signs of genius. But there is not much of it. Alain-Fournier is remembered principally as the author of a single novel, Le Grand Meaulnes (1913), a small glittering masterpiece whose popularity has never waned in France, and a book that is among the most widely and frequently translated of the twentieth century. Butterworth’s entire published oeuvre consists in three short exquisitely lyrical orchestral pieces—Two English Idylls (1911), A Shropshire Lad (1911), and Banks of Green Willow (1913)—a song cycle of poems by W. E. Henley called Love Blows as the Wind Blows, which exists in three variants (1911-1914), and twenty-six other song-settings (many of poems by A. E. Housman); there also exists a suite for string quartet (1910), but it is never performed or recorded. One can read Alain-Fournier’s novel in an afternoon, and can listen to all of Butterworth’s music (including all three versions of the song cycle) in just under two hours. And yet it would be difficult to find two artists whose work more forcefully summons up a sense of what the Great War and its historical sequels destroyed forever.

I read Le Grand Meaulnes in French at age seventeen living in a chateau in the Loir et Cher (my refuge from English public school!). It left a lasting mood impression though I cannot recall a single detail of either plot or characters therein. The mood was indeed quintessence of nostalgia. Meanwhile, many aspects of European culture live on, as the lovely scenes captured on this linked thread vividly attest:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1738216361661231354.html

Posted by: Scorpion | Dec 24 2023 16:18 utc | 10

Best Wishes to All
May the Martyrs of Gaza Rest In Paradise

Posted by: ld | Dec 24 2023 16:27 utc | 12

Frohe Weihnachten!
Merry Christmas!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8

Posted by: Apollyon | Dec 24 2023 16:42 utc | 14

If Jesus was born today, there would be no demonic Islam and no Palestinians. Jews would have remained and lived uninterrupted for the last 2,000 years in land that God of Israel promised them.

Posted by: Rivers | Dec 24 2023 16:51 utc | 16

“If theere ever was a jesus he’d be turning in his grave”
He can’t turn in his grave as he rose from the dead.

Posted by: Apollyon | Dec 24 2023 16:53 utc | 18

Happy Xmas all!

Posted by: PalmaSailor | Dec 24 2023 16:58 utc | 20

Susan number 16
thank you, y bendiciones sobre ti y tus amadas.

Posted by: Osori | Dec 24 2023 17:08 utc | 22

Scorpion….
Another novel which I think beautifully explores what was lost in the insane conflagration which began in 1914 is Virginia Woolf’s To The Lighthouse..
Many of the men sacrificed by the UK were irreplaceable..Tolkien only survived because he was badly wounded at the Somme and invalided out..Of his Oxford friends, only one survived…
Posted by: pyrrhus | Dec 24 2023 16:57 utc | 24
Love that book.
WW1 was an insane affair however, unlike today’s wars, at least the Aristos fought on the front and died.

Posted by: canuck | Dec 24 2023 17:14 utc | 24

Wishing you all a peaceful holiday and a good Christmas.
Thanks to b.
Am grateful for this forum.

Posted by: Pq | Dec 24 2023 17:34 utc | 26

Thanks b.
Merry X-mas to you, too.
Sad times, indeed. No words.
Will you, won’t you, do you, don’t you know when a head’s dead
https://youtu.be/IKAmznY8NZs?feature=shared

Posted by: john | Dec 24 2023 17:44 utc | 28

God Jul & Gott Nytt År!

Posted by: blueswede 🎅 | Dec 24 2023 18:08 utc | 30

Many wishes to all barflies i know over the years , and the new ones which I still learn to know, have all Merry Christmas, and a better New year than this wretched 2023.
And many Thanks to our host and Best Wishes!

Posted by: fanto | Dec 24 2023 18:32 utc | 32

My Christmas wish is that commentators on the Ukrainian war, ( not b, but you know who you are), stop referring to the Ukrainian armed forces as “meat”; it is dehumanising and deeply insulting. It belongs in the same category as Israelis referring to Palestinians as “cockroaches “.
Many, if not the majority of Ukraine’s war dead never had a choice; grant them their humanity please.

Posted by: CitizenSmith | Dec 24 2023 18:49 utc | 34

Merry Christmas to all the folks at the bar from the Ozarks.
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Posted by: Ozark Grandpa | Dec 24 2023 19:12 utc | 36

Wishing all regular MoA barflies and readers a safe and holy Christmas in 2023.
Thanks B for all your posts and the hard work you have put into this blog over the past year. Hoping you have a relaxing time with you family over the next several days.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Dec 24 2023 19:51 utc | 38

Merry/Happy Christmas to our wise and gracious host and to all the barflies I have learned so much from these last two years. The world is a mess for sure, but I also see a lot of suffering right in front of my eyes,in my little corner of America, including friends and family members who are struggling. So please say a prayer for those of us living in the belly of the Beast, we need them too.
Peace and Joy,
Chris

Posted by: KMRIA | Dec 24 2023 20:03 utc | 40

Ozark Christmas Card for the barflies: https://folkpotpourri.com/christmas-tree-in-the-ozark-woods/

Posted by: Ozark Grandpa | Dec 24 2023 20:09 utc | 42

The US public in particular needs to be made aware that the Palestinian Christian community exists. How about a “Help Christians in Palestine” infomercial like you see all the time late night?…

Posted by: Inkan1969 | Dec 24 2023 20:36 utc | 44

…..and a Merry Christmas to all barflies….. ya’ll keep the place hoppin’
Cheers M
Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Dec 24 2023 14:41 utc | 1
That’s the spirit! Merry Christmas to the bar and to all a good night. Drinks on me you savy, intelligent, freedom loving spirits struggling for truth in a dark age.
Have a drink tonight and have no compunction about educating any youth you encounter over the holidays. They need to know the truth about Ukraine, Israel, and US imperialism!

Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Dec 24 2023 23:24 utc | 46

Gaza is the Ghost of Christmas Present, appropriately modeled by a Bethlehem church as Jesus in the rubble, this terrible year.
The Ghost of Christmas Past is what the season once meant to children such as myself: wonderful legends of a mythological essence called human kindness. The scintillating magic of traditional forms — Bach on a cathedral organ. Unforgettable, and also forgotten.
The Ghost of Christmas Future? That would be Christmas 2024. People get ready.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 24 2023 23:38 utc | 48

@60 Juliania
Amen
The martyred children are now and forever in His care. It’s the living ones who still suffer. A tribute to them from an old man whose only help is a few words – but maybe words of hope and encouragement. May God bless them all. https://folkpotpourri.com/the-lonely-tears-of-palestine/

Posted by: Ozark Grandpa | Dec 25 2023 0:19 utc | 50

The hamartia of the tragedy of our race is the Fall. The catharsis is the Crucifixion. As we celebrate the First Advent of our Lord, the Infinite as the Infant, and embrace the joy of that promise fulfilled; so let us have hope in His Second Advent in which all things in Him will be made New. Until then, we must live in the tension of a fallen creation with the attendant evils. Let us recognize them and call them out so that Truth, Beauty and Goodness can shine through. Merry Christmas to all of the barflies!!!

Posted by: Robert Peters | Dec 25 2023 1:33 utc | 52

Hamas would have hidden rocket launchers in the manger and used the baby Jesus as a human shield.
Posted by: Rivers | Dec 24 2023 18:12 utc | 37

You murdering filth simply cannot help yourselves can you? Celebrate the death of children all you like. It will not bring the victory you seek.

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Dec 25 2023 3:04 utc | 54

When the Guardian and B are one the same Meme you should know something is wrong!
Are they are both tentacles of the same octopus? These animals are quite intelligent, can camouflage very well, throw up ink cloud screens to obscure.
The globalist WEF was betting on the CPC fueled by ME oil with the BIS, Wall street and the City as financiers. Ukraine was a nice distraction but war on Arabs or Chinese are a big No-No in their set up.
Operation Paperclip in 1945 was THE trick that kept Nazism alive: not only scientists were imported into the USA but many others into the FBI and pre CIA. The results are visible today in the US election battle and in the anti Israel swing.

Posted by: Antonym | Dec 25 2023 3:11 utc | 56

A lesbian nativity scene in in the province of Avellino, Italy, with “tens-of-thousands” protesting to the Vatican as RT reports. IMO, the myth is that Mary is a virgin who was somehow impregnated implying that the God responsible must be male. But does that actually hold since God supposedly created all and everything including the various genders Nature displays and thus could easily impregnate most anything it desired. The upshot is Mary didn’t even need Joseph and could easily have had a woman partner. But then I’m not religious, so I’m open to that sort of myth. I liked George Lucas’s idea that the body itself generated Shmi’s pregnancy with Nature itself being Force/God. How many virgin birth myths preceded that ascribed to Mary and Joseph, and in how many different cultures?

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 25 2023 4:05 utc | 58

From karlof’s link above I somehow ended up at an earlier article https://karlof1.substack.com/p/svr-chief-sergey-naryshkin-2024-is, a speech by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Chief Sergei Naryshkin. I confess I didn’t read the article when karlof published it because of the ghastly cut of the man’s suit. Off the rack in a clearance bin of a discount store like Feilene’s Basement in Boston.
But of course he has some interesting things to say, including some prognostications for what will happen in the West in 2024:

Now a few words about the situation inside the Euro-Atlantic bloc itself. In the coming year, we will certainly see an increase in the level of social and political disunity in the United States and Europe on a number of topics, starting from support for Ukraine and ending with the promotion of LGBT stories. …
I believe that in 2024, most of the electoral campaigns in the West – from elections to the European Parliament to the presidential elections in the United States — will take place in an atmosphere of fierce confrontation between globalists on the one hand and adherents of realism in foreign policy and traditional values in social life on the other side. And although it hardly makes sense to predict the specific results of future campaigns now, it is possible to predict with absolute accuracy that Western politicians will habitually try to blame Russia, as well as China and other states that have the courage to present their own alternative to the totalitarian state to the world for the inevitable increase in internal tensions in their countries—a liberal “concentration camp”—a vision of the present and the future.

His vocabulary has to be picked through. ‘Globalists’ are US elites bent on totalitarianism arrayed against a ‘realist’ global coalition of civilization states. But what about the globalist cabal working to supersede nation states and establish a totalitarian new world order? Is he saying the WEF/WHO/UN stuff is all an American-only Hegemonic agenda which their multipolarist group is against? So how come BRICS Declarations reference WEF and UN agreements like Agenda 2030 etc?
He deplores the ‘Anglo-Saxons’. But Tolkien was the last chair of ‘Anglo-Saxon Studies’ (name since changed), an arcane field about matters long before the Renaissance. This sounds like a weasel-word designed to demonize whites by excluding the Judaic quotient in the more typically used ‘Judeo-Christian’. What other reason can there be for using the out-dated, arcane term ‘Anglo-Saxon’?
They also – understandably! – have a gripe about the Empire’s rules-based order but only offer in its stead something based on ‘sovereignty and international law’. Duh, that’s a ‘rules-based order’ too. They just want a different one, so why not just say so? Why so many virtue-signalling platitudes? BTW, what ‘rules-based-order’ means is that there is no Emperor or Tyrant in charge but an agreement among peers following rules which may or may not be written out. It’s neither a new notion nor are they proposing anything specific, just feel-good platitudinous waffle.
Sorry, too much virtue-signalling, not enough pragmatics. Yes, the US Empire is bad (though maybe not really the US at all). We get that. Now what?

Posted by: Scorpion | Dec 25 2023 4:27 utc | 60

How many virgin birth myths preceded that ascribed to Mary and Joseph, and in how many different cultures?
Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 25 2023 4:05 utc | 73
A: Uncountable. Prolific for centuries.

Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Dec 25 2023 5:12 utc | 62

A big thank you and season’s greetings to b, and to all the barflies for the location, and veritable banquet of ideas and thought that we find here.
This is one of the few islands of relative sanity left in the West (to my mind at least), and it’s importance and relevance cannot be overstated in times such as these.
May 2024 be a year of hope, as a stark counter to the year that was.
Peace to all.
Freedom for Palestine!
Freedom for Julian Assange!
Peace to the reunited oblasts!

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Dec 25 2023 5:37 utc | 64

I confess I didn’t read the article when karlof published it because of the ghastly cut of the man’s suit. Off the rack in a clearance bin of a discount store like Feilene’s Basement in Boston.
Such gens as these exist only because of our host stocking the bar and tossing the worst of us drunks out. By the way – Scorpion, you win the thread !

Posted by: Exile | Dec 25 2023 5:50 utc | 66

@Exile 85
Do you think Rivers even knows that Jesus is the second most revered prophet in Islam?

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Dec 25 2023 6:41 utc | 68

Thank you b, and for keeping this space open for discussion. Merry Christmas to you and all barflies

Posted by: tumbril | Dec 25 2023 9:14 utc | 70

For the “Virgin Birth”..Maybe born under the sign of Virgo, as the Heavens was the calendar of the time.
Best to you all.
Thanks for the wisdom most of you speak and may the Universe/God watch over you all. Merry Christmas.

Posted by: heavymetal101 | Dec 25 2023 11:52 utc | 72

Posted by: canuck | Dec 24 2023 14:48 utc | 2
The daughter in law being furious was the sweetener? 🙂
Posted by: Stephane | Dec 24 2023 21:59 utc | 45
She’s a good mom, a decent woman and quite artistic; however she is a world class bitch.

Posted by: canuck | Dec 25 2023 13:03 utc | 74

Fröhliche Weihnachten
Nollaig Shona Dhuit!
Feliz Navidad
Mo’adim Lesimkha!
Joyeux Noë!
Feliz Natal!
Boas Festas!
Bara Din Mubarrak Ho!
Zalig Kerstfeest!
Buon Natale!
Milad Mubarak!
Natal Mubarak!
Gëzuar Krishlindjet!
Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan!
Eftihismena Christougenna!
Sretan Bozic!
Merii Kurisumasu!
Merry Christmas all y’all !

Posted by: librul | Dec 25 2023 13:30 utc | 76

Merry Christmas!

Posted by: 600w | Dec 25 2023 14:00 utc | 78

Written on Christmas Day by the Christian prisoner, Citizen Louis Capet, formerly King Louis XVI of France:

The Last Will and Testament of Louis XVI
[January 21 marked the anniversary of the regicide of Louis XVI, King of France, by the revolutionary authorities. Here is his last will and testament, written a month previous on Christmas Day.]
In the name of the Very holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
To-day, the 25th day of December, 1792, I, Louis XVI King of France, being for more than four months imprisoned with my family in the tower of the Temple at Paris, by those who were my subjects, and deprived of all communication whatsoever, even with my family, since the eleventh instant; moreover, involved in a trial the end of which it is impossible to foresee, on account of the passions of men, and for which one can find neither pretext nor means in any existing law, and having no other witnesses, for my thoughts than God to whom I can address myself, I hereby declare, in His presence, my last wishes and feelings.
I leave my soul to God, my creator; I pray Him to receive it in His mercy, not to judge it according to its merits but according to those of Our Lord Jesus Christ who has offered Himself as a sacrifice to God His Father for us other men, no matter how hardened, and for me first.
I die in communion with our Holy Mother, the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church, which holds authority by an uninterrupted succession, from St. Peter, to whom Jesus Christ entrusted it; I believe firmly and I confess all that is contained in the creed and the commandments of God and the Church, the sacraments and the mysteries, those which the Catholic Church teaches and has always taught. I never pretend to set myself up as a judge of the various way of expounding the dogma which rend the church of Jesus Christ, but I agree and will always agree, if God grant me life the decisions which the ecclesiastical superiors of the Holy Catholic Church give and will always give, in conformity with the disciplines which the Church has followed since Jesus Christ.
I pity with all my heart our brothers who may be in error but I do not claim to judge them, and I do not love them less in Christ, as our Christian charity teaches us, and I pray to God to pardon all my sins. I have sought scrupulously to know them, to detest them and to humiliate myself in His presence. Not being able to obtain the ministration of a Catholic priest, I pray God to receive the confession which I feel in having put my name (although this was against my will) to acts which might be contrary to the discipline and the belief of the Catholic church, to which I have always remained sincerely attached. I pray God to receive my firm resolution, if He grants me life, to have the ministrations of a Catholic priest, as soon as I can, in order to confess my sins and to receive the sacrament of penance.
I beg all those whom I might have offended inadvertently (for I do not recall having knowingly offended any one), or those whom I may have given bad examples or scandals, to pardon the evil which they believe I could have done them.
I beseech those who have the kindness to join their prayers to mine, to obtain pardon from God for my sins.
I pardon with all my heart those who made themselves my enemies, without my have given them any cause, and I pray God to pardon them, as well as those who, through false or misunderstood zeal, did me much harm.
I commend to God my wife and my children, my sister, my aunts, my brothers, and all those who are attached to me by ties of blood or by whatever other means. I pray God particularly to cast eyes of compassion upon my wife, my children, and my sister, who suffered with me for so long a time, to sustain them with His mercy if they shall lose me, and as long as they remain in his mortal world.
I commend my children to my wife; I have never doubted her maternal tenderness for them. I enjoin her above all to make them good Christians and honest individuals; to make them view the grandeurs of this world (if they are condemned to experience them) as very dangerous and transient goods, and turn their attention towards the one solid and enduring glory, eternity. I beseech my sister to kindly continue her tenderness for my children and to take the place of a mother, should they have the misfortune of losing theirs.
I beg my wife to forgive all the pain which she suffered for me, and the sorrows which I may have caused her in the course of our union; and she may feel sure that I hold nothing against her, if she has anything with which to reproach herself.
I most warmly enjoin my children that, after what they owe to God, which should come first, they should remain forever united among themselves, submissive and obedient to their mother, and grateful for all the care and trouble which she has taken with them, as well as in memory of me. I beg them to regard my sister as their second mother.
I exhort my son, should he have the misfortune of becoming king, to remember he owes himself wholly to the happiness of his fellow citizens; that he should forget all hates and all grudges, particularly those connected with the misfortunes and sorrows which I am experiencing; that he can make the people happy only by ruling according to laws: but at the same time to remember that a king cannot make himself respected and do the good that is in his heart unless he has the necessary authority, and that otherwise, being tangled up in his activities and not inspiring respect, he is more harmful than useful.
I exhort my son to care for all the persons who are attached to me, as much as his circumstances will allow, to remember that it is a sacred debt which I have contracted towards the children and relatives of those who have perished for me and also those who are wretched for my sake. I know that there are many persons, among those who were near me, who did not conduct themselves towards me as they should have and who have even shown ingratitude, but I pardon them (often in moments of trouble and turmoil one is not master of oneself), and I beg my son that, if he finds an occasion, he should think only of their misfortunes.
I should have wanted here to show my gratitude to those who have given me a true and disinterested affection; if, on the one hand, I was keenly hurt by the ingratitude and disloyalty of those to whom I have always shown kindness, as well as to their relatives and friends, on the other hand I have had the consolation of seeing the affection and voluntary interest which many persons have shown me. I beg them to receive my thanks.
In the situation in which matters still are, I fear to compromise them if I should speak more explicitly, but I especially enjoin my son to seek occasion to recognize them.
I should, nevertheless, consider it a calumny on the nation if I did not openly recommend to my son MM. De Chamilly and Hue, whose genuine attachment for me led them to imprison themselves with me in this sad abode. I also recommend Clery, for whose attentiveness I have nothing but praise ever since he has been with me. Since it is he who has remained with me until the end, I beg the gentlemen of the commune to hand over to him my clothes, my books, my watch, my purse, and all other small effects which have been deposited with the council of the commune.
I pardon again very readily those who guard me, the ill treatment and the vexations which they thought it necessary to impose upon me. I found a few sensitive and compassionate souls among them – may they in their hearts enjoy the tranquillity which their way of thinking gives them.
I beg MM. De Malesherbes, Tronchet and De Seze to receive all my thanks and the expressions of my feelings for all the cares and troubles they took for me.
I finish by declaring before God, and ready to appear before Him, that I do not reproach myself with any of the crimes with which I am charged.
Made in duplicate in the Tower of the Temple, the 25th of December 1792.
LOUIS

https://www.andrewcusack.com/2006/the-last-will-and-testament-of-louis-xvi/

Posted by: Scorpion | Dec 25 2023 16:04 utc | 80

“I exhort my son, should he have the misfortune of becoming king,..”
Scorpion 16:04
Louis XVII, ‘the son’, died, reportedly, from illness at age 10; but did Royalists spirit him away to New York? Enquiring minds want to know…
https://www.historicmysteries.com/lost-dauphin/

Posted by: canuck | Dec 25 2023 17:27 utc | 82

Thankyou to all.
I read MOA every day, and today am rewarded with reading the genuine compassion that underlies each author’s ongoing contributions to peace on earth.

Posted by: Dfnslblty | Dec 25 2023 17:47 utc | 84

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S
to all…!!!

Posted by: Joseph B | Dec 25 2023 18:47 utc | 86

Lex Talionis @ 94:
Still posting here but under a different name after advice from B.

Posted by: Refinnejenna | Dec 25 2023 20:10 utc | 88

Lev Davidovich | Dec 24 2023 23:29 utc | 47
*** Said Zelensky, “We all celebrate Christmas together. On the same date, as one big family, as one nation, as one united country” ***
Typical lie from that coke-headed zionazi….
Just an oddly branched Xmas tree, is it?

Posted by: Cynic | Dec 25 2023 20:27 utc | 90

Merry Christmas barflies!
LET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXreNYWtjPQ

Posted by: shocker | Dec 25 2023 21:33 utc | 92

Merry Christmas, Mr. b. Peace will never be allowed by the US war mob. Perpetual war is their way of permanently impoverishing and dispiriting US taxpayers whom they despise (along w. open borders). As to #44, “The US public in particular needs to be made aware that the Palestinian Christian community exists.” Apparently you don’t live in Manhattan. On Christmas Eve Christmas carolers in Washington Sq. Park were interrupted by a “pro Palestinian” mob. Violent, well funded “pro Palestinian” mobs have brought life to halt here–police let them do whatever they want–they’ve closed the Brooklyn Bridge, they’ve occupied Grand Central Station, etc. The “US public” you lecture to is powerless. We’re told to be mindful of “Palestinian Christians” and every other group on earth.

Posted by: susan mullen | Dec 25 2023 23:03 utc | 94

@ suzan | Dec 26 2023 1:01 utc | 110 with the holiday comment….thanks.
After reading it I thought about the Capra words regarding our ability to learn to love one another.
However one thinks of our creator, it is the equitable justice that we create that establishes the love each of us is deserving from each other. To the extent we aspire to that ideal, we aspire to respect our creator.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Dec 26 2023 1:39 utc | 96

suzan | Dec 26 2023 1:01 utc | 95
*** Peace and justice shall set us free. ***
Underpant Gnomes

Posted by: Cynic | Dec 26 2023 14:04 utc | 98

Any shepherds or angels found at the scene would be rounded up and shot, with an announcement that they were all carrying chemical weapons and copies of Mein Kampf.

Posted by: anon | Dec 26 2023 15:22 utc | 100