Sad, but Unfortunately Necessary

To all my Liberal friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes.

To everyone else:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[Adapted from an email forward from my mom.]

Ishmael? I Thought it was Isaac!

Learned something new today. My co-worker friend in Islamabad sent me a wikipedia link explaining why they will be out of the office near Christmastime-- Eid ul-Adha. So being the fair-minded and respectful citizen of the world that I am I clicked open the url to see what it is they'd be celebrating, and right there, first sentence in, I learned that Islam believes Ishmael was actually the son that Abraham was called on to sacrifice.

Interesting.

[And here's some further discussion I had with that friend:]

"Thanks for the link... I never knew that Islam believes Ishmael to be the son that Abraham was called on to sacrifice. Very interesting!"

"Yes, Abraham was a Messenger of God & since he was so pious & close to God that He decided to test Abraham of his greatness. Abraham got indications in dream that God has ordered him to sacrifice his most loving son. He told his son the whole story & his son accepted his fathers order being the order of God ultimately.

When Abraham was closed his eyes & was done with having a sharp knife over his son & then opened his eyes, he saw that it was just a sheep that was sacrificed & his son was sitting aside safely. God just wanted to test Abraham's nerves & he totally fit to that.

Thanks."

Do Nothing Day

Think Adbusters would ever get behind this idea?

Me neither.

Criminals: Putting the "Gun" in "Gun-Free Zones"

As tragic as this latest outrage is, there definitely appears to be a pattern emerging-- namely, that somehow all of these mass, public killings are happening in "Gun-Free Zones." I guess if someone has already committed himself to breaking our laws against murder, he's probably not going to be deterred by these feel-good little signs.

The invaluable John Lott has some excellent thoughts here and here, and Glenn Reynolds there.

And perhaps this would be a good time to link to the recent discussion of the SCOTUS taking on the DC gun ban case. I know this particular news is bit stale and that talking about things that are older than 6 minutes is sooo "print," but this stuff deserves some airtime:

"Guns and the Constitution," -- WSJ; "Second Amendment Showdown," -- WSJ; USA Today poll.