Blogiversary

It's the one-year anniversary of my blog, and it's all Hugh Hewitt's fault. He had been encouraging his guests and some of the callers to his show to start blogs, and frankly he wanted everyone with something to say to start a blog.

Since I've never been one to be short of opinions, Hugh seemed to be talking to me. My first post was January 4, 2005.

I went to see Hugh at a book signing for Blog, and his advice to me then and in an email about that same time was to keep my posts short, so people would be willing to read them. I ignored his advice. "Short" is darn-near impossible for me.

Also at the book signing Hugh's producer, "Generalissimo" Duane, encouraged me to keep blogging and eventually I'd find my voice. I took his advice, and I found my voice.

And somewhere along the line, my self-perception changed. Early in the year I won a prize (a small devotional book) at my church's Women's Fellowship Breakfast for Most Unusual Hobby ("I blog." "What's a blog?" "Well... it's a website where you post your thoughts about different things...kinda"). And now I just say, "I'm a blogger," without explanation and without having to think about it.

In October, I went to GodBlogCon05, and there were two main questions that came up for me, and I'll take the time to answer them here.

Why SkyePuppy?

It's all AOL's fault. Back in the olden days, I used AOL for internet access, and I kept it as Plan B for when my high-speed internet went down (which DSL did often until I switched to cable internet). After months of no downtime, I decided to cancel AOL. Meanwhile at work, we used AOL Instant Messenger within our group. One morning AIM wouldn't let me log on, because my last paid AOL month had ended, and AOL was holding my screen name for ransom. They wouldn't let me use it unless I re-signed up for AOL.

I refused. But then I had to come up with a new screen name in a hurry, for work. So I went to my family ancestry. The male line on my dad's side goes back to the clan MacDonald of Sleat, which hails from the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Plus, I had just bought a dog, my little Yorkie, Abby. "Skye Puppy." When it came time to figure out a blog name, I kept SkyePuppy, because I liked it, even though it doesn't sound serious enough to be tackling the serious issues of the day.

NOTE: Please do not IM the screen name, "SkyePuppy," because that name was already taken by somebody else, so I added some numbers to the name for work purposes.

Why do I try to remain anonymous?

This came up as a general question during one of the GodBlogCon sessions. Some of the bloggers (mostly male) said that if you don't say who you are, you imperil any credibility. It's like anonymous hate-mail that people get--if you don't have the courage to say who you are and why you should be taken seriously, then people will ignore you.

A valid point. But. I'm a divorced woman with a lovely teenaged (just turned 19) daughter living with me. I will not risk my own safety and especially that of my daughter to some nutcase who gets angry over what I said on my blog and tracks me down. Call me paranoid. I probably am.

This is also why I haven't emailed anyone who has posted comments and included an email address. I haven't figured out how to make my email server use SkyePuppy as the "From" name when I send emails. It puts my real name in there. Sigh!

***

Thank you to all my dozens of faithful readers. Some of you read the political posts and ignore the personal. Others of you read the personal posts and ignore the political. I can understand both. What I can't understand is how anybody could ignore the weird animal science posts, because I absolutely can't resist them.

God bless you all.

Arnold vs. Austria

Mark Steyn doesn't actually take on anyone in his December 29, 2005, Jerusalem Post column. Instead he joyfully reports the latest fallout from the Tookie Williams execution (which I have previously avoided discussing).

On December 21, the Guardian reported on the "Tookie Backlash" in Austria, where the death penalty is forbidden. It seems that Arnold Schwarzenegger's hometown of Graz took a dim view of Arnold's having allowed the Tookie Williams execution to proceed. So dim, in fact, that they threatened to change the name of the Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium to the Tookie Williams Stadium, and some of the city leaders were working on getting Arnold's Austrian citizenship revoked.

Arnold not only gave them his permission to remove his name from the stadium, he went a step further. Steyn writes:

Writing to the mayor of his old town, Schwarzenegger noted that in the course of his gubernatorial term he'd have to make decisions on other death-row inmates, too - the next one comes up in January. So, wrote the governor, "in order to spare the responsible politicians of the city of Graz further concern, I withdraw from them as of this day the right to use my name in association with the Liebenauer Stadium... I expect the lettering to be removed by the end of 2005" - and, given that most European municipal workers are on vacation till the second week of January, that means the mayor may have had to sub-contract the job to any obliging Albanian Muslim refugees he could round up.

"The use of my name to advertise or promote the city of Graz in any way is no longer allowed," continued Arnold. "Graz will not have any problems in the future with my decisions as governor of California, because officially nothing connects us any more."

And just for good measure he returned the "Ring of Honor" he was given in 1999 for the "pride and recognition" he brought Graz.

The mayor of Graz obviously saw the tourist trade about to dry up before his eyes, so he asked Arnold to reconsider, but it was too late. The ring was already in the mail.

So, as CNN reported on December 26, the name on the stadium was changed under the cover of darkness. Not to the Tookie Williams Stadium, but to its original name, "Stadium Graz Liebenau."

Steyn again (emphasis added):

Schwarzenegger is no conservative, and has been a disappointing governor. But his letter is magnificent, and the pleasure it affords was only heightened by the hilarious Guardian headline to its report on the "controversy": "Schwarzenegger Faces 'Tookie' Backlash In Austria."

No, he doesn't. With one typewritten sheet, he's ended the whole damn backlash, and usefully offered a good basic template for US-EU relations that recognizes the basic differences between the two: Americans have responsibilities, Europeans have attitudes. Indeed, the EU has attitudes in inverse proportion to its ability to act on them. It's able to strut and preen on the world stage secure in the knowledge that nobody expects it to do anything about anything.

Geisha Dissension

Five of us went after church to see Memoirs of a Geisha. When it was over, four of us loved it, and the fifth (my most frequent movie buddy) didn't like it but didn't hate it either.

I had looked through the reviews on IMDB before deciding whether or not to see the movie. They were mixed. People who just finished reading the book were the most disappointed. As were people who could tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese actresses or the proper kimono to be worn at a given occasion. Since I haven't read the book, and I'm not intimately familiar with Japanese culture, I didn't see a problem.

As we went in to our theater, I felt sorry for the men who came with wives or girlfriends. After all, Hugh Hewitt's resident movie reviewer, Emmett of the Unblinking Eye, had given a public service announcement on Hugh's radio show Thursday. He warned men, if at all possible, to encourage their wives to see the Geisha movie with their girlfriends. This is the ultimate chick flick. Men should see King Kong.

Memoirs of a Geisha is a lushly beautiful film that follows a young girl, Chiyo, from poverty to servitude to the world of the elite Geisha. It is filled with struggle, backstabbing, intrigue, and the dream of love.

From our perspective--and the reason my friend didn't like it--it is depressing to think that a woman's highest aspiration was to be no more than a wealthy man's mistress. But set in the context of a culture that prizes beauty, Chiyo's fight for love captured my attention and held it for the whole movie. I recommend it. To women.

End of Year Recap

It's that time of year again, when everyone from the Mainstream Media down to individuals look back over the past year and look forward to the coming year. Bread Baker, Bill, calls this time between Christmas and New Year's the "Eye of the Hurricane."

Joe's Dartblog has a post with lots of links to year-in-review stories, so I won't bother to rehash all of those here (HT: Hugh Hewitt). Michelle Malkin has a couple options for the Story of the Year. Plus, she links to the Little Green Footballs post on getting the nominees narrowed down to only 20 for the Idiotarian of the Year Award (the Fiskie).

On a personal level, 2005 was the year my dad passed away and I had to learn to live without him. And I had to learn to see my mom on her own, without him.

It was the year I started blogging (January 4). The year my minivan blew its engine after nine years and 248,000 miles of faithful service and I found another one just like it with only 64,000 miles. The year I worked more overtime (unpaid) than I've probably worked in my entire career put together. The year I sold my first travel article with photos (unpaid, except for publication credits).

2005 has been a year of transition, both personally and in the larger arena. We have changes on the Supreme Court, a new Pope, and a new government (almost) in Iraq. 2006 will show us how these changes play out.

I don't mind putting this year behind me. And I haven't really given much thought to 2006--I'm too busy hanging out with my mom, who came here from Montana for the holidays.

Posting will be light for the next several days. Have a Happy New Year!

Western Muslims' Rape Spree

This article, by Sharon Lapkin, is from yesterday's Front Page Magazine (HT: WorldNetDaily). In it she looks at the recent (within the last 5 - 8 years) surge in rapes commited by Muslims living in Western countries.

In Australia, Norway, Sweden and other Western nations, there is a distinct race-based crime in motion being ignored by the diversity police: Islamic men are raping Western women for ethnic reasons. We know this because the rapists have openly declared their sectarian motivations.

In Australia's New South Wales Supreme Court in December 2005, a visiting Pakistani rapist testified that his victims had no right to say no, because they were not wearing a headscarf.

And earlier this year Australians were outraged when Lebanese Sheik Faiz Mohammed gave a lecture in Sydney where he informed his audience that rape victims had no one to blame but themselves. Women, he said, who wore skimpy clothing, invited men to rape them.

According to Lapkin, in France's banlieus (the suburbs that produced November's riots), Muslim women who wear Western clothes and have Western habits are being raped. In Indonesia, Chinese women are the ones being raped. In Pakistan, it's the Christians. In Sudan, where blacks are being slaughtered, the Christian women are gang-raped before being mutilated and killed.

This phenomenon of Islamic sexual violence against women should be treated as the urgent, violent, repressive epidemic it is. Instead, journalists, academics, and politicians ignore it, rationalize it, or ostracize those who dare discuss it.

Heaven forbid that we should offend racist Muslim rapists by appearing racist.

The glaring omission in this article is the mention of the US. It's not there. Is this because, as in Australia, the origins and racist statements of the rapists aren't reported? Or is it because this phenomenon has yet to hit our shores?

I did a google search on "detroit muslim rape" because of the high Muslim population in the Detroit area. I looked through ten pages of results, but there wasn't any indication of increased rape in that area. The closest issue I found was a January 2002 commentary about Arab gas-station owners assaulting their black customers.

And that leads me to the question: What's different between America, the symbol of The West, and Europe? Why is there a problem with Muslim-perpetrated rape against Westerners in Europe and Australia, but there isn't a similar problem here?

It's tempting to think that we're superior in some way--we treat people better, we handle immigration oh so much better than the Europeans, we assimilate rather than isolate new people. But I'm not sure that's enough of the explanation.

Distance may play a significant role.

In general, the poorest of the poor in any given place can't afford to go anywhere. They're stuck where they live, with no hope of improving their lot in life. Those who have a little money can afford to go someplace nearby in the hope of finding work that will support their family. Those who have plenty of money can afford to go wherever they want to go.

So it is the middle class and the moneyed class that can afford to come to America and establish a life here. And it is the ones who want what we offer--freedom from oppression, the opportunity to prosper--who settle here and not somewhere else. Maybe among Muslim immigrants, we attract the moderates, the educated, the self-reliant.

And maybe, because of the shorter distance, Europe gets the less-educated poor who are content to remain isolated from a society that is content to leave them isolated.

I don't know. I'm only speculating. I'm simply trying to understand if we're at risk for the problems the Europeans are experiencing. Is the push toward tolerant, hyphenated-American multiculturalism also pushing us toward the kind of isolation that breeds violence? Or will distance save us from the worst?

It's hard to say. Distance hasn't saved Australia.

Iraq Election Protests

It was both disappointing and frustrating to read the news last week about the protests in Iraq claiming election fraud. Disappointing because the Iraqis' excitement over voting offered hope that the results would be accepted. Frustrating because it's hard to know if the accusations of fraud were warranted or not. And the protests continue (HT: WorldNetDaily).

But then I remembered the various elections over the past half-dozen years here in the US, where results that were close prompted cries of misconduct and demands for recounts in attempts to overturn reported results. Looks like we've given Iraq a concrete example of "democratic elections," and they're following it well.

My gut tells me that the MSM is reporting the Iraqi protests with glee. They must love the accusations of fraud, the chanting against what they see as Bush's puppet government, the sense that this could erupt in civil war in Iraq and give the Left/MSM the upper hand in their fight against Bush.

But the MSM is not Iraqi (and neither am I), so they (and I) can't be counted on to interpret these post-election events correctly. That's why I've been turning again and again to Iraq The Model to interpret the protests for me.

This is from Mohammed's post on Monday:

It’s become clear from the active shuttle-like movement of the rival parties and mediators that the intensity of the political crisis began to subside compared to how things looked like a week ago.

In spite of the violence that disturbed Baghdad this morning, the rival parties resumed their meetings and talks with some politicians playing the role of mediators; the most prominent of whom is President Talabani and even in the two main competing camps we’re hearing moderate voices emerge to propose solutions like the Virtue Party from the UIA and al-Mutlaq from Maram.

And from today's post by Omar:

The past and current meetings are all in preparation for an expected summit in Sulaymaniya where the leaders of the four major lists (Allawi, Adnan al-Dulaimi, al-Hakeem and Barzani as well as president Talabani) are expected to discuss and work out a solution of the dispute over election results and the shape of the new government.

I think the Kurdish politicians will ask for something in return for the great efforts they’re doing and when an agreement is reached among the UIA and Maram, I expect the Kurdish alliance to come up with new demands.

Anyway, if they really help the country pass the crisis, they will have earned a nice reward.

From Mohammed and Omar I get the sense that things are fine in Iraq. The protests have, for the most part, been peaceful. All parties are talking and seem dedicated to working out a solution that will be satisfactory (not necessarily ideal) to them all.

Iraq still wants to be Iraq. The people want a government of their own and of their own making. And they are using lawful means to achieve it. We can't ask for more. All we can do is wait.

Merry Christmas

In the town of Drammen, west of Oslo, Norway, a living Nativity scene went awry, according to Friday's Aftenposten (HT: WorldNetDaily).

It all started when the urban mission group Kirkens Bymisjon tried to set up a special, living Nativity scene at the main town square in Drammen. The exhibit included a cow from a nearby farm, but just before the rather large animal was about to be tied up inside the stall, she spotted a chance to simply take off.

What ensued was a near comical chase through the town streets, up towards Drammen's venerable Bragernes Church, with the head of Bymisjon chasing after the cow. Morten Eriksson of the Søndre Buskerud Police District said his colleagues quickly responded to calls for help, but not even the police patrol managed to catch the runaway cow.

They finally solved the problem by calling the farmer who owned the cow, and he rounded her up about a kilometer away and got her back to the Nativity scene.

May you have the peace that comes from knowing the Child of the Nativity and the Savior that He became.

Merry Christmas.

Distorted Iraq Numbers

I keep a list of stories that catch my eye but that I don't have time to get to right away. This one has been in my list for way too long. It's from Mudville Gazette back on Veteran's Day.

Greyhawk's post is about the Big Lie that the MSM likes to repeat. He quotes the London Telegraph:

Two and a half years after the fall of Saddam Hussein the Iraq war is proving no exception. While much was made of the US death toll recently reaching 2,000, little has been said of the 15,000 who have returned home mutilated.

And then Greyhawk refutes the two lies: 1) that there have been 15,000 mutilated soldiers, and 2) that they have been ignored.

Over half of the 15,000 wounded in Iraq (8,227 to be exact) returned to duty within 72 hours. That hardly qualifies as "mutilated." Or "returned home."

Greyhawk states:

Since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2,791 soldiers have been wounded in action seriously enough to require evac to Army medical facilities. (Note: this figure does not include other branches of service.)

These would be the "returned home" figures.

The military casualty reports for amputees include this figure: "Total of 280 service member amputees treated in Army hospitals." This count is for all branches of the military treated at Army hospitals.

As for the implication that we have forgotten the wounded, Greyhawk includes a link to the Valor It project at SoldiersAngels, which is helping to get modified computers for the amputees who can't use a normal keyboard anymore. Our soldiers are not forgotten. Feel free to contribute.

The local papers here in Southern California have just reported that Camp Pendleton's 1st Marine Expeditionary Force will be deployed in two 7-month stretches soon, replacing Camp Lejeune's 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force in the al-Anbar province. Al-Anbar is one of the provinces where most of the hostile action is happening.

As our military forces head over to Iraq, and as other forces return home, they all deserve accuracy in the reporting of what they do. They deserve not to have casualty counts distorted and used as attacks against their mission in Iraq.

The next time people quote casualty figures to you as justification for pulling out of Iraq, ask them for their sources, and if it's the MSM, ask them for the details. Don't expect the MSM to get it right. On Iraq, they rarely do.

Pride and Prejudice

Saturday, I took my daughter to see Pride and Prejudice. It was a much better choice for us than King Kong, both because of the movie length (2 hours v. 3 hours) and because of the chick flick v. guy movie thing. I took my mom to see it yesterday.

It turns out I have never seen any version of this movie before. And I've never read the book. No, wait. To be more accurate, I can't remember having read the book. But when my daughter read it last year for her high school English class's British Author assignment, my copy of the book was marked up with underlines and circles around all the Regency-period terminology. So I must have read it during my romance-writer days, when I was thinking about writing a Regency romance. But I didn't remember the story.

So for me, the movie was brand new.

(Possible spoilers ahead, if you don't know the story)

The scenery was beautiful. It wasn't breathtaking in a Lord of the Rings/Narnia way. It had soft tree-edged meadows graced in mist, and hillsides curtained by rain. It was all that the English countryside of Jane Austen's time should be.

And the characters who filled the screen were all that Jane Austen's contemporaries should be. The men revealed their personalities from within their gentlemanly reserve--the delighted Mr. Bingley, the aloof Mr. Darcy, and the loving Mr. Bennet.

The ladies as well suited their time. Jane's quiet shyness when she was around Mr. Bingley, and the way she later said she was "quite over him" while the truth shone in her eyes, rang true. Elizabeth's outspokenness and strength of will were within the bounds of all that was proper for a young lady of good breeding.

Before I saw the movie, my office-mate told me that when she watched other versions, she found the romance between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy unbelievable, because he was rude for most of the movie and then all of a sudden she loved him. What was there to love? So I watched for that, and I didn't find it.

Instead, Mr. Darcy appeared at the first ball with his mouth set in the hard line of polite ill-mood. Over the course of the film, the line of his mouth softened. He spoke to Elizabeth. He watched her. He struggled within himself in a way that was subtle, barely perceptible to the viewer.

And Elizabeth began their acquaintance with tart questions and rather stinging comments that provoked him. Her eyes, too, revealed the change of her feelings. She cast questioning glances at him after a time, and shook them off. Her expression showed that she began to believe in his good character, until she was diasbused of that notion by Mr. Wickham. And on the rainy evening when Mr. Darcy dared to say how he felt, she let him know her disapproval of his past actions, while her eyes betrayed not dislike, not disgust, but the hurt she felt. In the end, when she told her father she loved Mr. Darcy, I believed her completely, because I saw it coming.

(End spoiler warning)

Pride and Prejudice is a beautifully made, wonderfully acted film. The Academy Awards never seem to reward subtlety--especially not for a romance--but they should. Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen both should be nominated (I'm not sure they should win), because their performances helped make this film into a true glimpse at a time in England's history when propriety was everything and love had to work at finding its way.

Just In Time For Christmas

On my drive to work this morning, I passed a FedEx truck with enough dirt on the back that someone had written on it with a finger. It said, "I work for Santa." I'll bet he does. And UPS and the Postal Service and all the rest of them do too.

Then when I logged on at work, this Anchorage Daily News article popped up in AOL News. Some neighbors in Anchorage, AK, built a 16-foot snowman. Even for Anchorage, that made the news. The article's writer, Debra McKinney seems to have had a fabulous time investigating and reporting the story.

A lot of people in California don't understand basic snowman physics. Snowman body parts get heavy, and if you make the bottom too big, then you'll never be able to lift the middle on top of it. Outside of mutants, like the one in Anchorage, snowmen usually don't exceed about five or six feet in height.

The article is well worth a full reading. It covers the construction phase, with great quotes from the two main neighbor-builders, and continues with the snowman's post-construction adventures.

"It just turned into a monster," said [one] neighbor, Darrell Estes.

Monstrous fun.

A Christmas Carol

The radio news guy said this morning that on this date in 1843, "A Christmas Carol" was first published. That's 162 glorious years of Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and the cantankerous but reformable Ebenezer Scrooge.

I did an IMDB search on "Christmas Carol" and got 46 matches, from the classic 1938 movie to more recent gems like the Muppets' Christmas Carol. Naturally, there are oodles of TV versions.

Bugs Bunny, the Flintstones, and even the Jetsons have performed this story, but my favorite version of all--TV or movie--is Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. I have it on DVD.

The songs (yes, Mr. Magoo is in a musical) are wonderful. The early scene with Bob Cratchit asking Mr. Scrooge for one more piece of coal ends with the two of them singing at the same time. Mr. Scrooge is singing, "...coins when they mingle make such a lovely sound...," and Bob Cratchit is singing, "Please, Mr. Scrooge, it's cold, it's cold, it's cold." Perfect.

But my favorite song from this show is sung by little Ebenezer in Christmas Past. He's all alone in the schoolroom, and he sings,

A hand for each hand was planned for the world,
So why don't my fingers reach?
Millions of grains of sand in the world,
Why such a lonely beach?
Where is a voice to answer mine back?
Where are two shoes that click to my clack?
I'm all alone in the world.

I cry every time. Always have. Always will.

If Charles Dickens had not written another word besides this short story, he would still deserve endless thanks and admiration. "A Christmas Carol" is a treasure that shines bright year after year.

Movie Choices

My daughter and I might be going to the movies this afternoon, if she doesn't have to work, but I'm not sure what I want to see. Yesterday on Hugh Hewitt's radio show, Emmett of the Unblinking Eye, Hugh's resident movie reviewer, said, "King Kong is what a movie is supposed to be." But I still don't care if I see it.

I've seen the Fay Wray version from 1933 and also the Jessica Lange version (on TV, not in the theater), and it wasn't enough of a thrill to make me want to plunk down seven bucks plus drink and Raisinettes to see it all over again. For three hours. Even after what Emmett says.

Is King Kong a guy movie?

I'll let my daughter decide, if we go, but my druthers are Pride and Prejudice, which still has one showing left at the local theater, or Narnia again.

One little note: Brokeback Mountain is already gone from the local theater. It only lasted a week. The talking lion and the giant gorilla shoved the gay cowboy movie aside. Good.

Environmentalists Criticize Christmas

Reuters had a story out of Australia yesterday about an environmental group complaining that Christmas gifts could harm the environment.

The Australian Conservation Foundation released a report titled, “The Hidden Cost of Christmas,” which "calculated the environmental impact of spending on books, clothes, alcohol, electrical appliances and candy during the festive season."

This is disturbing, since I already asked for a new toaster (the one we have mangles bagels), and DVDs, books and candy are always winners with me. So my Christmas list is sure to destroy a small land mass, if the following is any indication:

Every dollar Australians spend on new clothes as gifts consumes four gallons of water and requires 37 sq. feet of land in the manufacturing process, it said.

Last Christmas, Australians spent $1.1 billion on clothes, which required more than 1.2 million acres of land to produce, it said.

How many acres is the entire country of Australia? And do they take the reusability of land into account when the clothing is made of wool or cotton?

Then the report got even closer to home:

Even a small box of chocolates will consume 44 pounds of natural materials and 207 gallons of water.

Chocolate is one of the four basic food groups (the others being salty snacks, ice cream, and everything else), so they're really making me mad. "Forty-four pounds of natural materials." Would they prefer that I use unnatural materials?

Their solution to the Christmas gift dilemma?

“We can all tread more lightly on the earth this Christmas by eating, drinking and giving gifts in moderation, and by giving gifts with a low environmental cost, such as vouchers for services, tickets to entertainment, memberships to gyms, museums or sports clubs, and donations to charities,” said [foundation executive director Don] Henry.

And do they forget that the people at the movie theaters and the gyms, museums, or sports clubs also happen to wear clothes and use small appliances and sell food--even candy?

It's bad enough that Christmas is beset by people who want to turn it into an inclusive, generic, meaningless "holiday." Now we have the environmentalists after Christmas as well.

I say, "Bah, humbug!" to the environmentalists. Let them live their lives in sour-tempered moderation.

But as for me, I plan to celebrate Christmas and enjoy it--candy, small appliances and all. The earth will survive as it has every other year.

God bless us every one!

Iraq's Election

The results are in: Iraq wins! The details will follow later.

Fox News reported today that the polling hours were extended by an hour, due to the long lines of voters.

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.

An imam in Ramadi was heard over a mosque loudspeaker saying: "God will bless you with a great life if you go out and vote. This is your last chance to vote."

There is something stirring in watching the emergence of a new free nation, in watching a once-oppressed people declare by their voting that the nation is their own. Take a look at the photos and the photo essay on the right side of the Fox News article. Those pictures capture the joy, pride, and vigilance of the Iraqis and their military.

"The Iraqi people are showing the world that all people — of all backgrounds — want to be able to choose their own leaders and live in freedom. And we're encouraged by what appears to be a large turnout throughout Iraq," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

The reasons for voting varied among the different groups.

"This is the day to get our revenge on Saddam," said Kurdish voter Chiman Saleh, a Kirkuk housewife who said two of her brothers were killed by the ousted regime.

"I came here and voted in order to prove that Sunnis are not a minority in this country," said lawyer Yahya Abdul-Jalil in Ramadi. "We lost a lot during the last elections, but this time we will take our normal and key role in leading this country."

Teacher Khalid Fawaz in Fallujah said he also participated "so that the Sunnis are no longer marginalized."

Given the resentments, especially between the Sunnis and the Shiities, there's still a rocky road for Iraq to walk in the coming year(s), as they look at the election results and form a government.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, highlighted a key looming fight — possible amendments to the constitution — as he voted in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah.

"I hope that the Iraqi people will stay united. We hope that the people will vote to keep the constitution that was approved by the Iraqi people," he said.

Whatever comes in Iraq, whatever the Iraqis decide to do, we can be proud that we gave the people of that nation the chance to choose a new life of freedom for themselves.

Update:

IraqTheModel has eyewitness election coverage, with pictures. Take the time to read it.

Mark Steyn on Iran

Mark Steyn wields a mean hammer. He has kegs full of nails, and he manages to hit each one squarely on the head. His column Sunday in the Chicago Sun-Times is a perfect example.

On the surface, his column appears to be about Iran's new president and his call for the elimination of Israel (the Jewish nation--not the land itself) from the face of the earth, or as a Plan B, the elimination of Israel from the Middle East in favor of a new location around Germany and Austria.

But the Iranian president's apocalyptic comments serve only as context for Steyn's real targets: diplomats.

It's the perfect solution to the "Middle East peace process": out of sight, out of mind. And given that Ahmadinejad's out of his mind, we're already halfway there.

So let's see: We have a Holocaust denier who wants to relocate an entire nation to another continent, and he happens to be head of the world's newest nuclear state.

So how does the United States react? Well, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that the comments of Ahmadinejad "further underscore our concerns about the regime."

"Diplomatic" language is one of the last holdovers of the pre-democratic age. It belongs to a time when international relations were conducted exclusively between a handful of eminent representatives of European dynasties.

Diplomacy is for decent, civilized nations. It's for countries that actually want to come to an agreement that's based on what's good for the world. It doesn't work when one of the nations seeks the anihilation of another. It doesn't work when one nation uses it merely to buy time until it has the strength or weapons that allow it to boldly break diplomatic agreements, with deadly results.

We assume, as Neville Chamberlain, Lord Halifax and other civilized men did 70 years ago, that these chaps may be a little excitable, but come on, old boy, they can't possibly mean it, can they? Wrong. They mean it but they can't quite do it yet. Like Hitler, when they can do it, they will -- or at the very least the weedy diplo-speak tells them they can force the world into big concessions on the fear that they can.

If a genocidal fantasist is acceptable in polite society, we'll soon find ourselves dealing with a genocidal realist.

Vacation

I'm taking today and tomorrow off from work as much-needed sanity days. Saturday a friend and I went down to San Diego with our cameras and visited a couple places I haven't seen since I was little.

With the help of Sally Ann, my friend's GPS system, we found Cabrillo National Monument at Pt. Loma and spent most of the day there. The monument has a tidepool area, a visitor center with views overlooking San Diego Bay and the city itself, and the original lighthouse, which hasn't been used for a long time. It was built too high on the hill, and when the fog would come in, the light wasn't strong enough to be visible.

After Cabrillo, we headed over to Presidio Park, where my brother, sister, and I used to roll down the hill whenever our family went there (though my rolling took the shape of a 'J' and I had to re-orient myself over and over). My friend and I didn't do any rolling this time.

Presidio Park is a monument to Father Serra, who founded the mission system in California, and the cross in my picture above is from there. As far as I know, the ACLU hasn't gone after this cross yet to have it removed.

Dinner was at Anthony's, on the Embarcadero, and we got a table by the window overlooking the cruise ship dock. Two cruise ships were in port, and we could see a crowd on deck wearing orange life vests for the emergency drill. In time the crowd disappeared, and after dark the ships left port. We tried out the nighttime setting on my camera and got bouncy images of the cruise ship lights, one of which I like as an off-beat kind of picture.

It was a glorious day, with photogenic skies. I took pictures with travel articles in mind, and my friend took pictures with scrapbooking in mind. We're both thrilled with our results.

But the best part of the day was spending time with a friend. No itinerary. No demands. No stress. There have been too few days like this, and I needed it.

Chronicles of Narnia Review

Whoever says "The Chronicles of Narnia" has nothing to do with Christianity knows nothing about Christianity.

The movie is a beautifully filmed look at betrayal, forgiveness, and redemption. There were times during the movie when I found myself seeing bloodless images of The Passion of the Christ superimposed over Narnia. The message was hard to miss.

The movie opens during the London Blitz of World War II, moves to the countryside, to a wardrobe, and into Narnia. In this land there is only oppression and despair. It is always winter and never Christmas. Until Lucy and her siblings come, bringing with them the glimmer of hope.

The children chosen to play Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy looked and behaved as though they had been plucked from 1940 for the film, revealing no hints of today's attitudes--Peter's first-born arrogance, Susan's peacemaking, Edmund's selfish petulance, and Lucy's innocent "I told you so." The movie stands well on their performances.

And Tilda Swinton, the White Witch, had the same kind of pale, cold beauty as the devil in the Passion or the Borg queen in Star Trek: First Contact. Her character's iciness, however, didn't leave much room for a wide range of emotions.

As for Aslan, the lion they found to play him was spectacular.

Given the Academy's propensity for hard-edged films, I hold no hope for this movie taking Best Picture. But the cinematography and the special effects deserve Oscars. Narnia's endless winter under the White Witch's rule and the thawed-out mountain landscapes seemed to belong to an enchanted land. The creatures, too, fit seamlessly in Narnia--centaurs and fauns. And the wolves.

Ultimately, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is a story of good and evil, of human failings and divine love. It is a film everyone can enjoy, except for young children. And people who can't abide the triumph of good over evil.

UK Dispute Over Religious Jewelry

LifeSiteNews reported yesterday about a 16-year-old girl who was suspended from school for wearing a cross necklace and refusing to remove it.

I used to work at a place, and my boss was Jewish. She had married a non-Jewish man and they had a daughter, but just before she came to work there, her marriage ended in divorce. As she recovered from the divorce, she turned to her faith, returned to the synagogue, and eventually met a faithful Jewish man. They were later married in a beautiful ceremony that I was privileged to attend.

At this same company, another one of the managers was Catholic. He went to mass every week and sent his daughters to the main Catholic high school in his area. One day, while I was doing my Bible study homework at my desk at lunchtime, this manager stopped and asked what I was reading. When he saw the open Bible, he said, "Oh!" as though I were handling toxic material, and he backed away and left without another word.

Although by official reckoning, I should have more in common with the Catholic man, since he and I both claim Christ as our Savior. But I felt more in tune with my boss, because she and I had hearts for God, even though we disagreed about who Jesus is.

This article about the girl who was suspended for wearing her cross to school reminds me of my old boss and the manager.

The UK is officially Christian, with Anglicanism as the official religion. And yet the Christian girl's staunchest supporter appears to be a Sikh minister. Sikhs are permitted to wear a kara (a religious steel bracelet) to school because their religion requires the wearing of it. But Deputy head teacher Howard Jones of Sinfin Community School in Derby spent three hours trying to convince the girl to remove her cross before he suspended her.

Jones explained that the Sikh religious articles are permitted because Sikh faith requires them. "We are very comfortable with our policy and believe we are being even-handed and fair. Christianity does not require followers to wear a specific symbol."

However, the Minister of Divinity of Sikh Dharma who contacted LifeSiteNews.com explained that the action of the school against Morris was the "height of wrongful discrimination" since "I hold her commitment to wear her crucifix sacred in the same way that I choose to uphold my commitment to wear my kara each day." Minister Khala continued, "Ultimately, these kinds of outward reminders are symbols of our constant striving to remember God in all that we do. I ardently pray that this school may learn to appreciate and give encouragement to students who have learned the value of commitment in their lives."

This Sikh minister is a man of faith who, as a non-Judeo-Christian, understands more about faithful Christians than does an officially Anglican teacher. It is his heart for God that I admire, as well as his willingness to speak out on behalf of someone of another faith.

Our Military In Iraq

I listened to Laura Ingraham today on my way to work. The guest she had on while I was driving was Sgt. Josh Hauser (not sure if I'm spelling his last name right) of the Marines, currently in Iraq at a base between Fallujah and Ramadi.

I keep leftover fast-food napkins in my car, and whenever Laura has one of our deployed military on her show, I inevitably have to reach for a napkin to dab away some tears of pride so I can see to drive. Today I used up the last napkin.

Sgt. Hauser talked about his job as a correspondent (his work appears at www.usmc.mil among other places). This is his first tour in Iraq, and he said he has interviewed Marines on their first, second, and third tours. The ones who are back have spoken of how much Iraq has changed for the better since their first time there. When asked about the critics who say the Iraqis don't want us there, he replied that just having an Iraqi kid run up and give him a hug puts that notion to rest.

It turns out that Sgt. Hauser's hometown is the same as Congressman Murtha, who has called for the troops to be quickly withdrawn from Iraq. In response to Murtha's recent statements, Sgt. Hauser said that pulling out now would be like a farmer who plants seeds and then salts the field.

At the end of her talk with Sgt. Hauser, Laura asked him if he wanted to say anything to his family at home. He said the expected "I love you" and said he realized he wouldn't be home at Christmas. Then he said, "This year Santa Claus is wearing desert camouflage, and he's bringing freedom to Iraq."

God bless our troops, at home and on the front in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Early Review of Narnia

My daughter (almost 19) went with her friends last night to the midnight show of "The Chronicles of Narnia." Since she used to work at the theater, she called them to find out how sold out the show was.

The biggest theater, which has 440 seats, was sold out except for about 25 seats. The next-biggest theater was about half-sold at 6:30pm.

Her review:

"It was SO GOOD!!! The only thing that could have made it a better experience was that there was this person behind us with this awful, disgusting smell."

Hugh Hewitt, on his radio show yesterday, went out on a limb with a prediction about this movie. He mentioned a newspaper guy (I didn't catch the name) who expected "Narnia" to take the top box office this weekend and "King Kong" to take it next weekend when it opens.

Hugh disagrees. He predicts that "Narnia" will beat "King Kong" next weekend. Stay tuned...