¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

KJV

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming,
Here came the wise men from Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger,
In all our trials born to be our Friend!
He knows our need—to our weakness is no stranger.
Behold your King; before Him lowly bend!
Behold your King; before Him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His Gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His Name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy Name!
Christ is the Lord! O praise His name forever!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!
His pow’r and glory evermore proclaim!

Merry Christmas to one and all!

This is the 50^th year that NORAD and it’s predecessor CONAD have tracked Santa’s progress by radar.

Click here for English

Click here to choose a language.

Santa hasn’t taken off from the North Pole yet, but he’ll be taking off soon to visit children all over the world.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

This is why I don’t have any ornaments on the Christmas tree, just lights and bows.

His first birthday will be St. Patrick’s Day, so he’s still just a kitten.

Take a look at this picture.

And people here in the States were complaining about long lines to vote in 2004?

The Iraqi election commission extended voting by one more hour because of high turnout in the country’s historic parliamentary elections Thursday.

And to the surprise of coalition forces, violence in Iraq was much lighter than expected and the smattering of attacks didn’t appear to discourage Iraqis, some of whom turned out wrapped in their country’s flag on a bright, sunny day and afterward displayed a purple ink-stained index finger — a mark to guard against multiple voting.

There shouldn’t be any attacks at all, of course, but the fact that they were so minimal is wonderful. The Iraqi Security Forces are doing a great job.Fox News has the rest.

Welcome Blogs for Bush Readers! Please look around.

Stop the ACLU has a good round-up linking to other round-ups.

Tags: News & Politics, Iraq

Just go read it.

This is one of the most moving things I have read in quite a while. As an Army veteran, I can attest to the truth of it.

Military

Today the battle-scarred, submerged remains of the battleship USS Arizona rest on the silt of Pearl Harbor, just as they settled on December 7, 1941. The ship was one of many casualties from the deadly attack by the Japanese on a quiet Sunday that President Franklin Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy.” The Arizona‘s burning bridge and listing mast and superstructure were photographed in the aftermath of the Japanese attack, and news of her sinking was emblazoned on the front page of newspapers across the land. The photograph symbolized the destruction of the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor and the start of a war that was to take many thousands of American lives. Indelibly impressed into the national memory, the image could be recalled by most Americans when they heard the battle cry, “Remember Pearl Harbor.”

Read more at the National Park Service USS Arizona Site. This quote was from the Education Programs link.

Michelle Malkin and La Shawn Barber have excellent roundups.

Welcome visitors from Classical Values and Scared Monkeys! We will not forget.

News & Politics
Military

I’ve been getting emails purportedly from the FBI and CIA saying that I have visited illegal websites and should open the attachment to see what sites I have visited.

I have deleted these emails.

If you get them, delete them too.

Those agencies do not send you emails. The attachments will contain a virus.

Via Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost in his Outtakes post of 11.30.05 we find this post by Gil Student, an Orthodox Rabbi at Hirhurim-Musings

He says that renaming a Christmas Tree a “Holiday Tree” is offensive to Jews because it implies that the Tree covers all holidays at this time of year, including Hanukkah.

Rabbi Student is correct.

It is a Christmas tree, not a Hanukkah tree, a Diwali tree, a Ramadan tree, or a New Year tree. By renaming it a “Holiday” tree it lumps together all religious and secular holidays that occur at this time every year.

Update: Oops! I forgot Kwanza! There is no Kwanza tree either. {sorry}

It’s time to Take Back Christmas! For Everyone!

The American Princess has further thoughts on this. Very good commentary.

Welcome Anchoress and A Lady’s Ruminations Readers!

Religion

We are happy to be hosting this week’s Ninth Carnival of True Civil Liberties!

das Heize at info4beer presents Locater Service for ACLU Lawyers and Can Somebody Help Us Understand dumbswede? about a comment left on the first post.

Team Swap at Swap Blog presents Oak Ridge Censorship

Daniel Levesque at Raving Conservative presents The Biggest ‘Tard in America

Jay at Stop The ACLU presents Another School Censoring Christmas

Greg Tinti at The Political Pit Bull presents A Principled Jurist

Gribbit at Gribb presents Saddam’s WMD’s They Did and Do Exist

Adam at Sophistpundit presents An Educated Jury

If you have a post that deals with how our civil liberties are being stripped away via judicial activism, Please Submit it to our Carnival!

We have a petition set up asking Congress to stop taxpayer funding for the ACLU. Stand up, and fight the ACLU. Sign the petition!

Join Stop the ACLU! If you would like to join us, please email Jay at Jay@stoptheaclu.com or Gribbit at GribbitR@gmail.com. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 115 blogs already onboard.

ACLU