$$$'s vs. Political "Alliances" . . . .

Via Reuters today:

Saudi arms sale may spark Bush-Congress battle
Thu Dec 27, 2007 - By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A plan to sell Saudi Arabia highly accurate Boeing Co bomb-guidance kits is roiling Israel's backers in the Congress, setting up a potential clash with President George W. Bush.

The administration could formally notify lawmakers as soon as January 15 of the possible sale to Riyadh of Joint Direct Attack Munitions, or JDAM, technology.

As many as 253 members of the 435-seat House of Representatives have signed bipartisan warnings to Bush about such a sale to Saudi Arabia, still in a formal state of war with Israel.

_______________


The JDAM sale would be part of a combined $20 billion or so in fresh U.S. arms sales to Gulf Arab states described by Washington as a strategic drive to counter Iran's growing might.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat, said he and 35 other House members plan to introduce a measure aimed at blocking a JDAM sale "the minute Congress is officially notified."

In the Senate, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden of Delaware, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, also has voiced qualms.

"My committee's looking very closely into this," he told reporters in a December 4 conference call. "Thus far, the justification for the sale has not been made to me."

_______________

Oh, and guess what? Our old buddy Israel is not happy, either. Apparently, what's good for the goose is not good for another religion's gander:

_______________


Israel became the first foreign buyer of JDAMs in 2000. Since then, 18 countries have followed, according to Boeing's Web site. The weapon has been used widely in the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Saudi Arabia remains the top regional buyer of U.S. weapons, including Boeing F-15 fighter aircraft, United Technologies Corp Black Hawk helicopters, and General Dynamics Corp light armored vehicles, night-vision goggles, thermal weapons sights, and long-range radios.

Riyadh also has bought advanced weapons from Britain's BAE Systems, France's Dassault Aviation and Europe's EADS among other European suppliers.

How much 'ya wanna bet that military equipment sales $ trumps political alliances?


Nobody wants a piece of that action?

I thought not . . . .

(Cross-posted from Moving to Vancouver)

The "Silver Bullet" is assassinated.

You can expect the death today of Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto to forever be labeled one which occurred under "mysterious circumstances". Via Buckdog:

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed Thursday in an apparent suicide attack at a campaign rally in which at least 20 others died.

There are a multitude of possibilities here as to who would best benefit from Bhutto's assassination, but among the leading suspects, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency will stand out.

Questions were immediately raised about how a suicide bomber could get so close to Bhutto after previous attacks.

Many observers were left to speculate whether the government of President Pervez Musharraf or Pakistan's security forces were involved in the attack, said Tariq Amin-Khan, an assistant professor of politics and public administration at Toronto's Ryerson University.

"Security has been very lax," Amin-Khan told CBC News in a telephone interview from Karachi. "One could fault the government for what it has not done."

Musharraf himself has been the target of numerous attacks blamed on Islamist militants, who have reported ties with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.

"I find it difficult to believe that Musharraf would be directly involved, but you can't put it past the security service agencies," Amin-Khan said.

Bhutto's security adviser also said the government had ignored requests for beefed-up security, including bomb-jammers, which can thwart signals sent to detonate explosives.

All news reports are speculating that there will be extensive rioting across Pakistan.

I think that's probably understating the problem.

Expect a return to a state of emergency followed by a full-blown civil war.

The Dalai Lama is not a truck and hotel rooms mean Karlheinz

Last week Steve Harper took the time to point out to all of us that the Dalai Lama was not a call-girl.

The comments were short but immediate. Some went straight to a Freudian slip. Alison, however went for something else. Keep that thought for a moment.

This week the world has taken Harper's statement and run with it, suggesting it is not the kind of phraseology expected from someone on the World Stage™. In the comments of one of the larger American blogs, this was the first thing to appear after Bluegal pointed out that, as stupid as Harper's statement was, it was factually correct.

The Dalai Lama is not a truck.

And another immediately goes for the Freudian slip.

Which shows that without a better context, everyone views Harper's statement as Bush-like buffoon-speak.

But go back to Alison's comment.

in which Steve is at pains to point out that he is not Muldooooooon and doesn't do anything that Muldoooooon does, even though no one else was even thinking about Muldooooon til he brought him up.

That lends itself to a more precise context. Stevie is a worried little puppy.

And then Cathie closes in for the kill.

Jonah Goldberg promotes his latest roll

The Doughy Pantload writes a book, after having taken several Friedman units to complete it. (You will scroll down to item 10. Then you should go back and read the entire post.)

And then Lucianne's spoiled little brat goes on an internet book promotion spree which Chet captured in all its literary glory.

Goldberg should be worried. Kenn Fischburg has not only out-written Goldberg, but he probably won't even give the Pantload's new title a passing mention in his encyclopedia.

Look, look, Peter!! Chinese weapons! Let's bomb Beijing!

Canadian defence minister Peter MacKay's accusation that Iran is engaged in supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan should not be viewed as anything short of the Harper government's approval of the Cheney effort to commence an attack on Iran.

First, as pointed out previously, MacKay provided no evidence whatsoever to support his claim. Not one bit. If he has it, get it out for everyone to see, because what he has now perpetrated is to put Canadian troops at higher risk by leveling unfounded accusations.

But that's just the start. Clearly the Bush administration, having failed to salt the media with stories suggesting that the government of Iran was involved with providing both the Taliban and al-Qaeda with weapons, have decided engage in a different play: employing "Canada the Good" as an organ supporting Cheney's unfounded claims.

If MacKay repeats his assertions, how long do you think it will be before we hear Cheney uttering something along the line of, "Canada has evidence that Iran is deliberately supplying arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan."? A la the Bush administration's reliance on the September Dossier from which this claim was made: The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

MacKay, however, has a problem. The claim he is making has already been neatly set aside.

A media campaign portraying Iran as supplying arms to the Taliban fighting US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan, orchestrated by advocates in the US administration of a more confrontational stance toward Iran, appears to have backfired. Last week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeil, issued unusually strong denials.

[...]

Both Gates and McNeil denied flatly last week that there was any evidence linking Iranian authorities to those arms. Gates told a press conference on June 4, "We do not have any information about whether the government of Iran is supporting this, is behind it, or whether it's smuggling, or exactly what is behind it." Gates said "some" of the arms in question might be going to Afghan drug smugglers.

McNeil implied that the arms trafficking from Iran is being carried out by private interests. "When you say weapons being provided by Iran, that would suggest there is some more formal entity involved in getting these weapons here," he told Jim Loney of Reuters on June 5. "That's not my view at all."

That was the commander of NATO speaking, supported by the US Secretary of Defense in June of this year. In short, their intelligence doesn't support the assertions made by Cheney... at all. And they put a lie to MacKay's echoing of the Cheney effort.

There may indeed be Iranian-manufactured arms crossing the border into Afghanistan. That, however, is not evidence of Iranian government involvement. In fact, as the commander of NATO and US SecDef stated, it is likely the result of private interests doing business, probably with the drug lords of Afghanistan.

If MacKay's claim is based on the origin of manufacture he now has a serious problem. Afghanistan is littered with unexploded ordnance, from landmines to mortars to artillery rounds, most of it left over from the days of the Soviet occupation. That means that Russia has provided a legacy of plentiful and easily accessible explosives, very little of which has been cleaned up. (Scroll down)

The Russians, who waged a bitter war for control of the country in 1980s, knew the strategic importance of the hill. So did subsequent warring factions in the 1990s. That's why they littered the mountain slopes with thousands of mines and other explosive devices.

The international community has spent considerable time trying to clean the area, and by late this month, TV Hill -- aptly named after the cluster of antennas on top -- should finally be free of mines.

That report was submitted less than three months ago, from an area of Afghanistan which is relatively peaceful. There are other areas which are considered so dangerous that de-mining has not even started and provide a ready supply of land mines. The fact remains that Afghanistan is one the most heavily mined countries in the world.

Then there is the stuff coming in from other manufacturers and other countries. MacKay, in leveling an unfounded accusation against Iran actually has more evidence to make the same accusation against China. Most explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams are encountering not Iranian, but Chinese ordnance - some of it new. An example of a successful EOD intervention in November discovered Chinese-made 82mm mortars wired up with an unexploded US recoilless rifle round .

Upon arrival, Tech. Sgt. Michael Laskowski, 31, initially found a bomb placed underneath a footbridge in front of the school.

Its was made up of two Chinese-made 82 mm mortars, a two-foot-long recoilless rifle round and a pound of explosives material placed in a bag — all of it wired up to batteries.

(We'll get to the batteries shortly. There is a "shortage" in Afghanistan yet the Taliban has no problem finding enough to make IEDs.)

Further evidence of Chinese munitions being used comes from as far back as 2005 when John Martinkus and Stephen Dupont accompanied US forces.

SOLDIER: We're gonna head up the road. We're gonna find out... We put a patrol out here.

This is the place where the insurgents had been spotted and where local police have arrested a man who had unusual homemade bomb orIED.

REPORTER: So he was caught with an IED, yeah?

SOLDIER: Oh, yes, he was caught with an IED. We're gonna bring some EOD guys down and see what it's made out of and see if it was used in other further attacks or past attacks and see what kind of stuff we are working with because it was supposedly brought over from Pakistan.

CHRISTOPHER HAGAN: So it's the first... I've seen 0.82 mortar rounds, they're everywhere around here but I've never seen one used like an IED . And this one, it looks like it's a brand-new mortar round, probably from China so it's showing they are using fresh explosives that they probably carried over from somewhere.

Did MacKay utter one word about China?

No. Not one word. Yet China is obviously selling weapons and ordnance to somebody and it's ending up in the hands of the Taliban. I guess it's OK with MacKay if somebody falsifies a Chinese End-User Certificate.

While MacKay expressed concern about Pakistan being a source for ordnance, he sloughed it off when he emphasized Iran. Unfortunately, Pakistan is perhaps the clearest and best known perpetrator and little, if anything, is being done to control the flow of weapons. It is Pakistan which features most prominently in destabilizing Afghanistan.

Reports have been received that the Taliban have received fresh battery packs for the Stinger missiles they possess, dating from the times when the US armed the mujahideen against the Soviets. Pakistani security forces are alleged to have supplied the batteries.

Oh, those batteries again. They are, whether the casual observer recognizes it or not, key to a good number of the IEDs deployed by the Taliban. Short of a contact explosive, batteries are needed to activate the detonator on most bombs. The shortage is being made up by supplies coming from Pakistan; not Iran. And there is another source of supply.

Most people have probably never heard of the BA 5590. It's the most common military battery used by US and allied forces. When it's being used in the field and runs low the operator of whatever device is being used changes the battery for a fresh one and simply discards the old one. They're not rechargeable, so they're simply dumped. The operator's load is lightened and the the dead battery is simply left in the dirt.

The "5590" may appear dead to a radio operator but it has enough power left in it to detonate an IED. Want to guess which battery EOD teams are finding hooked up to IEDs?

Right. Apparently dead BA 5590s.

I didn't hear MacKay criticizing the US military for failure to police their battery changes and secure their garbage dumps in Afghanistan. Is it possible he doesn't know about that little problem? Perhaps he should speak to a few members of EOD teams returned from Afghanistan. I have.

So, MacKay, you still haven't provided any evidence for your claim. You haven't accused China, but there is Chinese ordnance in Afghanistan. Pakistan has been a virtual cornucopia of weapons for the Taliban but you went light on them.

And while were here, you might want to check with the government you so adamantly tell us you support before shooting from the lip. Apparently, Afghanistan doesn't agree with you.

Omar Samad, the top Afghan diplomat in Canada, told CTV Newsnet on Wednesday that there is no evidence about where the IEDs actually originated and who brought them to Afghanistan.

"Iran is a neighbor and we have good relations," he said. "The point is -- and the questions that have to be answered (and) are being looked at as far as who is involved in this. Is this a smuggling issue? Is this a policy issue by some government? Is this maybe an attempt by arms dealers to bring arms from a certain source?"

Gee. Isn't that special. It seems the US ambassador got the Cheney message out through MacKay, but Afghanistan wasn't permitted to know what it was... in their own country.

Cheney's puppy.

For all the "limitless" women out there

Evidence, Mackay. Without evidence, you're a liar.

What Pretty Shaved Ape said. Every word of it.

So, here's the set-up. Defence Minister Peter MacKay makes a surprize visit to Kandahar to spend Christmas with the troops.

A six-year old playing with Thomas the Train could have predicted that visit. So let's not play "Surprize". It was a scheduled trip and even Murray Oliver knew about it.

MacKay was, of course, accompanied by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier. No big deal. But it was the third member of the entourage that was the greatest curiosity: David Wilkins, US ambassador to Canada.

It didn't take long to have that explained because MacKay simply started playing a line put forth by the Bush administration. Iran is a bad guy and the US wants to bomb it. Thus, MacKay, ever the good doggy, used what should have been a good effort to visit the troops he has committed to the mission to Afghanistan, to pick on the same banjo as the Bush administration... and the Bush administration political overseer was there to make sure Petey stayed right on message. A message that had nothing at all to do with Christmas.

Afghanistan has "very negative influences coming in from other countries -- Pakistan, certainly Iran in particular," he said.

"We're very concerned that weapons are coming in from Iran, we're very concerned these weapons are going to the insurgents and keeping this issue alive."

Since. Fucking. When. MacKay?

I'm calling this what it is. Pure, unadulterated bullshit!

MacKay is lying through his teeth and he used the backdrop of Canadian troops to do it. Wearing a CADPAT combat uniform he is not entitled to wear, he spewed forth with a blatant accusation he simply cannot support.

If MacKay knew anything at all about the region beyond what the Bushies have fed him he would know that the Iranians despise the Taliban. They were happy to see the Taliban fall. The very last thing they want to see is the Taliban back in power.

MacKay, can spout on all he wants. The one thing he hasn't done is to provide one shred of evidence.

Not one.

And then, right on cue comes CTV's Murray Oliver.

"Of course, as the saying goes, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend,'" Oliver said.

Really?

Well, Mr. Oliver, a real reporter might have asked MacKay what proof he had to support the claim rather than recite an ancient Chinese proverb. A proverb which, I might add, has been the basis for more US foreign policy in the past 50 years than that of any other country.

So, MacKay, produce the evidence; irrefutable evidence.

Fail to do that and you remain one thing: a fucking liar. And a mouthpiece for the Cheney "bomb Iran" initiative.

And, just in case anybody missed it, should Cheney get his way and initiate an attack on Iran, Canada's defence minister just informed all of us that Canada will be right in the thick of it.

Natalis Invicti message

It doesn't matter what you call the day. It doesn't matter what provides the reason for the celebration, or the gathering of family, or the travel to a place you might only get to once every few years.

What matters is what the day means to you personally.

This day has meant something different to me over the decades. It's shifted with time. It has, however, always meant the renewal of something. Different things in different years but with common theme.

To some, this day will provide little pleasure. To the troops in Kandahar and elsewhere in Afghanistan, where December 25th has come and gone already, regardless of the attempts to decorate and generate an atmosphere of festivity, there will be a longing for home and family. And despite the improvements in communications which have taken place since I was in their place, nothing can change the feeling in one's gut that something important and personal is being missed.

One can only hope that a day will come when we never have to subject people to that kind of physical and emotional separation; that somehow a renewal will end all that.

So, call the day whatever you will, but make it a good day. It is a time when we either share the message of peace with each other or wish we did.

That's a common enough message.

Have a good and enjoyable day.

NORAD Santa tracking.

It's time. Here is the link to the NORAD Santa-tracking site. It's available in six languages and includes regular updates.

Have fun and have a great evening... everyone.

George Bush is taking his clown act on the road.

This should strike Americans as one thing: A colossal waste of taxpayers' hard earned dollars.

President George W. Bush's diplomatic passport will acquire a slew of new country stamps during his final year in office as he tries to rebuild the U.S.'s international standing and create a foreign-policy legacy beyond Iraq.

*Choke* The same guy who destroyed the U.S.'s international standing is about to go out and try to salvage it? That just strikes me as perverted in a bishopric kind of way.

The president plans trips to the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America, which would make 2008 his busiest year abroad. While his major domestic initiatives may get stalled by a Democratic majority in Congress and the gridlock caused by election-year politics, he still has an opportunity to exert his influence overseas.

In short, he's screwed at home, so he might as well go out and see what a shit-awful mess he's made of things.

Influence? What friggin' influence? He doesn't have any. Hopefully the leaders of the countries he visits laugh him right back onto Air Force One.

While the president will strive to strengthen alliances, it won't come at the expense of continuing to prosecute the war on terror, said Jim Jeffrey, the deputy White House national security adviser. "We want to be well-perceived in the world,'' Jeffrey said in an interview.

Perhaps, (and, geez, this is only a mild observation) you should have thought of that before you fingered the UN, ignored international complaints, invaded countries which had not threatened you, invented "intelligence", tortured prisoners (including those known to be mentally ill), engaged in extraordinary rendition, derailed international attempts to combat global warming, hijacked NATO for your own purposes and bungled every opportunity to capture the one person who actually did do harm to the United States.

Do you still wish for a pony, Mr. Jeffry?

The U.S. is not well-perceived in the world and it isn't going to be until the people get rid of that gang of shallow-thinking shitheads which form the current presidential administration. Take the Bush doctrine, AKA the Project for the New American Century and destroy it.

A Pew study of public opinion in 47 nations found ``extensive'' anti-Americanism and ``increasing disapproval'' of the cornerstones of U.S. foreign policy.

A perception that Washington acts unilaterally was shared by 89 percent of the French, 83 percent of Canadians and 74 percent of Britons. America's image in most Muslim nations is ``abysmal,'' Pew said.

The exception, Pew found, is Africa, where the U.S. image remains positive, especially in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Given such results, ``going around the world won't make things necessarily worse'' because ``it's difficult to see how they could be any worse,'' said Ivo Daalder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former national security council aide in the Clinton administration.

Yes, well, remember, this is George Bush we're talking about here. Just when you don't things can get any worse, he always finds a way to screw the pooch a little harder.

Christmas tagging

Moderate Man tagged us. We don't usually do these things but, given the time of year and the fact that he's got great quotations on his blog masthead, I'll make an exception.

Da Rulez:

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share Christmas facts about yourself.
3. Tag seven random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1 and 2 are no problem, but I'll have to think about 3 and 4. Time is short and most of the blogroll is a declared Tag Free Zone.

Welcome to the Christmas edition of "Getting to Know Your Friends."

1. Wrapping or gift bags?
Don't they already come wrapped?!

2. Real or artificial tree?
Real. Artificial trees are hard on the lumber mill.

3. When do you put up the tree?
Put up? There's a whole forest out there. They're already up.

4. When do you take the tree down?
When the pine beetles kill it.

5. Do you like egg nog?
Actually, I find Mr. Nog to be an obnoxious individual. I didn't know his first name was egg. I'll bet with a name like that he doesn't get laid much.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Chemistry set. Hehehe. That was the last time that ever happened.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
I have a Saturn Vue.

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Chemistry set. The local bomb squad was not amused.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards?
They make cards?

10. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Pirates of The Caribbean. (Yes! It IS a Christmas movie. Pirates love Christmas.)

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Oh no! I forgot about that part!

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Cod cheeks and seal flippers. (Newfies unite! Ban turkey at Christmas!)

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Did coloured once. The extension cord was too short though, so, y'know, no one noticed.

14. Favorite Christmas song(s)?
Anything which Celine Dion doesn't do.

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Home of course. Pour another Bailey's!

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
Of course I can. Can you name all of Santa's boomers?

17. Angel on the tree top or a star?
I try to line up Antares, but it's too low on the horizon in the morning.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?
It depends. I try not to stand on formality. If you give me something on December 21st, I open it then. I like to spread the joy out a little.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
Bill O'Reilly. But then, that goes for any time of the year.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color?
Green! It comes that way. Well, some of it's brown and if the pine beetles got to it, it's kind of red.

21. What do you leave for Santa?
A stock tip. Don't buy Home Depot!

22. Least favorite holiday song?
Anything done by Celine Dion.

23. Favorite ornament?
The thing on the hood of the Mercedez 190E

24. Family tradition?
Standing at the open front door, yammering on about nothing with an outside temperature of -12 C.

25. Ever been to Midnight Mass or late-night Christmas Eve services?
Yes. And I am still convinced I have a case against my parents for child-abuse.

I'm going to leave this open to volunteer participants. Rather than tag anybody, if you'd like to do this one, grab on and go.

No pictures. No proof. OK. Here's a picture. US troops blowing up dogs in Iraq.

Remember the Scott Beauchamp controversy? The right-wing screech-fest could have drowned out the jake-brake on a Kenworth.

One of the points made by Malkin, Gun-Counter Gomer and their ilk was that there was no way that red-blooded American boys would ever conduct themselves in Iraq in the manner portrayed by Beauchamp in the articles he produced for The New Republic. Not that any of them would actually know since none of them have even figured out how to find a recruiting office, much less actually serve in the armed services.

The boys at Blackfive were a little more honest about it. They didn't outright dismiss the veracity of Beauchamp's reports; they were more concerned that Beauchamp had violated "the code" by telling stories out of school.

For what it's worth, I am well aware of how difficult it is to maintain one's humanity under conditions less extreme than what US troops are enduring in Iraq. While I would quickly point out that a solid majority of troops in a tenuous occupation or peacekeeping theatre do not commit intentional acts of cruelty, a numbered few do.

The US Army's legal review, dated 31 July 2007, into the allegations made by Beauchamp in the TNR, dismissed his articles as complete fabrications. One of their dismissals reads in part:

d. That the deliberate targeting of wild dogs is completely unfounded.

Ya think, colonel?! I'm going to call "bullshit". Because, in the video below, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team deliberately waits for the dogs to move into a position close enough to the detonation to blow them up before carrying out the counter-mining of an IED.



Let the fucking screeching begin.

Health and happiness to everyone

May you be touched by his/her noodly appendage.

Ho, Ho, Ho (And Not In a Don Imus Kind of Way . . . )

(Cross-posted from Moving to Vancouver)

Bury Digg.

Maybe Kevin Rose needs to lose more than his girlfriend over his Digg site.

It seems Digg has taken to banning some of our friends because of their lifestyle. Gay and lesbian sites are suddenly disappearing from Digg and the site owners are being informed that they are being banned because of "mature content".

Well, call me pedantic, but I just found this site on the front page of Digg's lifestyle section. Warning: Not Safe For Work!

That's one busy little sidebar, don't you think? Why, I'd go so far as to suggest that might be "mature content".

So, Digg can't claim this is some sort of "morality" issue. And they can't call Cap'n Dyke, Lesbian Pirate Queen & Rogue Blogger anything nearing offensive and really mean it.

Do yourself a favour. Give Digg the heave-ho and, as Chet says, bury it.

Update: Bastard.logic tosses away the scabbard and shows Digg yet another cutlass.

Graph your daylight

Via the Chimpanzee Refuge, this is a cool little device. You simply insert your country, province/state and city and it produces a series of graphs describing daylight at any given time of the year, sunrise and sunset, maximum solar flux and angle of the Sun.

You might find some of the results a little surprising.

A Galloping Beaver seasonal tradition

As demanded, requested and extorted by Cheryl. Actually, I would have put it up anyway.

This is a Rolf Harris classic. Rolf used to play at The Cave in Vancouver and had several successful television series, one of them in Canada. In 2005 he was commissioned to paint a portrait of The Queen and managed to create some controversy since it was impressionistic. The Queen liked it.

He was also one of the few people to perform with the Beatles providing background vocals. The song was Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport.

So, ditch the reindeer and hitch the old kangaroos.

Canada gives the Afghan National Army a Christmas present. 2500 rifles that actually work.

The Afghan National Army is about to get new rifles. Thanks to the Canadian Armed Forces.

The Canadian military has agreed to donate 2,500 surplus C7 rifles to the Afghan National Army, along with ammunition and training.

The decision, made quietly last week, is expected to bring the fledgling Afghan force in line with other NATO countries.

Building capacity among the ANA is the key to Canada's exit strategy from Afghanistan.

In November, a senior Afghan commander told the Canadian Press that better weaponry was crucial to the buildup of the ANA.

Lt.-Col. Shirin Shah Kowbandi said the army's old Soviet-era AK-47s frequently misfire.

At the time, he said Canadians had promised to provide the ANA with "good weapons" but that they had not yet delivered.

A couple of things.

First... it's about time. The expectation that the Afghan National Army would be able to stand to and perform using the worn out old arms was misguided at least and a reprehensible dismissal of what the ANA was actually facing. This move shouldn't have taken so long. If, (and I have some reasons for suggesting otherwise) we weren't intent on properly occupying, along with the US and NATO, a country on which we had imposed a military and political reconfiguration, it was contingent upon all nations involved to properly equip and train the ANA. Instead they have had to complain that they were being handed third-rate crap if they got anything at all. For too long a time the ANA had to fight without body armour, unlike their accompanying NATO and US advisors.

The AK-47s used by the ANA are leftovers from the late Soviet regime. They have sloppy actions, regularly misfire and suffer from gross inaccuracy. In short, we allowed the ANA to fight with garbage that the average NATO soldier wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

Second... where is the money coming from to provide these weapons? A C7 assault rifle, even if "surplus" isn't free. The Harper government has already instructed the Canadian Forces that the cost of the Afghanistan mission will have to be funded from the Defence Budget. That alone is wrong, but if 2500 rifles have to come out of CF inventory without additional funding from cabinet something is going to have to give elsewhere.

Third... when did the CF develop a surplus of C7 rifles?

Did I see "exit strategy" mentioned in that report? But without the much touted future Manley Report, do we even have one?

OK. That was four things.

Stuart McLean

Stuart McLean reads "Dave Cooks the Turkey" and "Dave Raises the Turkey" as downloadable MP3 podcasts.

Another Canadian xmas tradition.

Should we move the War on Christmas back three days?

At 0608 Coordinated Universal Time, yesterday, 22 December 2007, an astronomical event reoccurred for the umpty-millionth or billionth time. The Sun was at its greatest distance from the celestial equator and was shining directly on the Tropic of Capricorn.

The result? In the Northern Hemisphere the shortest period of sunlight and the longest period of darkness in a 24 hour period.

It has also been the catalyst for a multitude of winter festivals in locations and countries all over the Northern Hemisphere for centuries.

Some Christians insist that sometime around the Winter Solstice, Jesus, their messiah, was born. Others disagree. In fact, even the Roman Catholic church, (the result of a deal between Roman Emperor Constantine and Christianity in 313 C.E.), doesn't really know when Jesus was born.

What is known, however, is that Natalis Invicti, the Roman celebration for the rebirth of the Sun was celebrated on what is now December 25th. And the celebration included some interesting rituals involving things like extra candles, little bonfires, a big feast, gift exchanges and other forms of revelry.

The Romans had it wrong, probably because it took a couple of days to notice that the Sun was actually shining a little longer. Natalis Invicti, which celebrated the rebirth of the "Unconquered Sun" missed the actual solstice by about three days.

Up until the 4th Century there was no mention of when Jesus was actually born. It wasn't until the Chronography of Filocalus was written for a wealthy Roman named Valentius in 354 C.E. that a birthdate for Jesus actually ever appeared. (Part 12 for those interested in the entry).

There was however, something else going on.

Ramsay MacMullen, in Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries found a historical piece written by Jacob Bar-Salibi, one of the best known bishops of the Syriac Orthodox church. Written in the 12th Century Bar-Salibi makes an interesting observation:

It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day.

Oh. Oops!

So let's get this straight. The Archbishop of Canterbury says the whole nativity production is nothing but a legend and not based on fact. The Roman Catholic church doesn't know when Jesus was really born, but admit that the Roman festival of Natalis Invicti, held on 25 December probably had some influence on the date they use for Christmas.

Natalis Invicti was celebrated in various forms under different Roman emperors owing to the habit of emperors to create religions in their own name during their reign. Natalis Invicti, a big day on the Roman party calendar, was centered around Sun worship and always held on December 25th, right into Constantine's rule... who became a Christian. Constantine, in 313 C.E., decriminalized Christianity with the Edict of Milan.

Natalis Invicti remained a big day with Roman party animals, Christians included. Then, sometime before 354 C.E., Jesus is listed as a martyr, just in time for a new emperor, Theodosius I, to pass a law making Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire.

In adopting Constantine's Nicene Creed as the official religious doctrine of Rome, all other religious practices were outlawed. That meant Natalis Invicti, based on Sun worship, had to go. But what about all those Roman party fanatics? They weren't going to take kindly to having a really good blow-out canceled on the grounds of some creed written by a dead ruler.

No problem. The Christians had already provided the answer. In order to participate in the Natalis Invicti rave they had already provided their own excuse to whoop it up. Since no one really knew when Jesus was born, they had simply listed the big party day as Jesus' birthday. Any guilt for participating in a "pagan" festival was eliminated. They were just celebrating a "birthday".

So, it's worth keeping in mind that, if the Romans had gotten the Winter Solstice right, the whole" birthday of Jesus" thing would probably have happened yesterday and we'd now be doing a mop-up operation on the War On Christmas.

Image courtesy of The Wingnuterer.