Merry Christmas (Updated)

It snuck up on me -- I think it's the weather: it's been in the upper forties and fifties for the past ten days -- the forecast high today is 57. Not exactly Christmas weather.

Nevertheless, once again here's my favorite Christmas song of all time:

Peace on earth.

And, in the spirit of the season, Yule was Saturday, Hanukkah started Monday, and Kwanzaa is Friday.

Good will to all.

Update:

This, via The friendly Atheist:

It's Christmas

My favorite version of my favorite carol:

And as a bonus, my other favorite:

Whatever you're celebrating this season, peace, and good will.

Antidote: The Grinch Better Watch Out

This kid knows how to deal with the Grinch:

TyLon Pittman was not about to let the Grinch steal Christmas – so he did exactly what kids are supposed to do for emergencies: call 911.

A dispatcher for the Byram Police Department was pleasantly surprised to pick up the phone on Saturday night and hear a 5-year-old boy expressing concern that the Grinch was going to ruin Christmas because "he steals everybody's Christmas."

When Officer Lauren Develle heard about the youngster's worry, she couldn't resist stopping by his house to reassure him.

Read the whole story -- there's video at the link.

Carol of the Bells

My favorite Christmas carol, in my favorite version:

On the Lighter Side

Now that the Hairpiece has decided to ramp up his nuclear war rhetoric, it's time for a break -- and, given the season, what better than NORAD's Santa Tracker?

There are few Christmas traditions in the U.S. that are prized and anticipated quite as much as the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s (NORAD) efforts to track Santa Claus.

For the remaining 363 days of the year, the joint U.S. and Canadian agency monitors the North American territory for aerospace or maritime threats. However, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the agency is tasked with keeping tabs on the whereabouts of the jolly man in the red suit, and relaying the information to millions of children (and even some adults) from around the world who call and email, requesting an estimate on when to expect a gift delivery. The practice has been in place for 61 years.

It initially began completely by accident in 1955, when Sears department store misprinted a phone number in an advertisement it placed in a Colorado Springs newspaper, urging kids to dial Santa directly. Instead the phone calls went to Colorado Springs' Continental Air Defense Command Center (CONRAD). Not wanting to crush the spirits of children, then-colonel Harry Shoup told his colleagues to play along and provide callers with Santa’s exact location. NORAD replaced CONRAD in 1958, and the tradition has continued.

And if you want to follow Santa's progress yourself:

Antidote

I really don't know why I surf the news any more. There are no surprises -- the North Carolina legislature did not repeal HB2 as promised (these are people with no morals, no ethics, no integrity, and no standards -- also known as "Republicans"); Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter have revealed themselves to be white supremacists -- again; Donald Trump has named another oligarch to his administration; Roy Moore is being considered to replace Jeff Sessions in the US Senate (I guess the governor wants to get the closest match possible -- a raving homophobe to replace a raving racist).

Happily, every once in a while you run into a story like this:

A gay couple have been receiving hundreds of letters to their apartment addressed to Santa Claus.

Jim Glaub and Dylan Parker started receiving the letters back in 2010 after they moved into their apartment on 22nd Street, Manhattan.

The pair had been warned of the letter before they moved in, with previous tenants of the apartment saying they received a handful of letters for Santa.

“They never answered them because it was only three or four letters a year,” Glaub, 36, told PEOPLE.

“And the first two years I lived there, it was that exact thing. I’d get three letters and I didn’t really think anything of it. I was like, ‘Oh, sorry — wrong number.’”

After a couple of letters trickled in the first year, the gay couple, who have now been married four years, started receive more and more.

It’s at that point they decided to start replying to the messages.

How many of us would do that? Even if it's only three or four a year. As it turned out, they received 450 letters by Christmas Day, 2010.

But wait:

The couple struggled to cope with the huge influx of letters, so set up a Facebook group and used their friendship group to reply to every letter.

They set up a Facebook group, Miracle on 22nd Street, where strangers from all over the world have taken to writing replies.

“It’s just so strange! It’s caused this global effort!” Glaub, a marketing executive, says.

“We’ve had people from Hawaii to Alaska, Germany to London, Nicaragua, Abu Dhabi, Tokyo — all helping. I guess that’s the power of social media.

“Why would a woman from Abu Dhabi care about some family from Corona, Queens? It’s amazing.”

Social media does have an upside.

And now you know the source of my optimism about humanity: I'm convinced we're hard-wired to take care of each other. Republicans are an aberration.

Giggle du Jour

Because, y'know, it's the War on Christmas and all that:

Disgusting People: The Week In Review (Link Dump)

And it's been quite a week for them -- the woodwork has never been so busy.

First, a group who might as well be regulars in this category, the Liberty Counsel, knickers all twisted because the D.C. city council not only had the nerve to pass an ordinance outlawing SOCE (which is what they're calling "reparative therapy" now, since nothing else seemed to work), but repealed an amendment allowing private schools to discriminate at will. Choice bit:

Liberty Counsel sent a letter in opposition to Bill 20-803 [the bill banning SOCE] to every member of the DC City Council.

The vote was unanimous for passage. Tell you anything about how influential Liberty Counsel is?

The "Reverend" Stacy Swimp of Michigan made the list this week, bringing a new round of the Oppression Olympics to the Michigan House:

There’s a comparison between the homosexual allegation of gay rights and black civil rights,” he continued. “And as a minister of the Gospel, and as a black American whose parents participated in the Freedom Rides — my ancestors were slaves in plantations in the state of South Carolina, Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana and Mississippi — I stand here today rather offended.”

I invite Rev. Swimp to show me documentation of his trademark on "civil rights." Oh, and one question: when was the last time being black was outlawed?

An upbeat note: Another regular in this category, Scott "Export the Gays" Lively, will have to stand trial for crimes against humanity.

The Tony Perkins Award goes to this clown from Focus on the Family for the most lies told while saying absolutely nothing.

And ramping up the crazy, we have "ex-gay" Christopher Doyle. Click through to read the rant -- it's pretty disgusting, and quite possibly actionable. I hope Terry Bean and/or the board of HRC sue his ass.

And, under "This Week in Christian Love, we have Arizona "pastor" Steven Anderson, who has a long record of spewing filth and has now outdone himself, promising an "AIDS free" Christmas if we just kill all the "homos.

That's all I can take.

Merry Christmas

And thanks to John Aravosis at AmericaBlog for reminding me of this choice item:

And do click through a read Aravosis' own account of relating the American Christmas story to a bunch of Europeans.