After that AK video, this is just embarrassing. What is it about a pellet gun they don't understand? Squirrel terrorizing Cypress neighborhood has already sent 2 mothers to hospital https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2020/01/15/squirrel-terrorizing-local-neighborhood-has-already-sent-two-mothers-to-the-hospital/

I don't post much, but I'm just going to say, if you kids don't stop bickering I'm going to tell Miss Landers! :)

The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office has arrested an Islamic religious leader for alleged sex crimes against children. Mohamed Omar Ali, age 59, was charged with one count of sexual assault of a child and three counts of sexual indecency of a child following his arrest on Jan. 3. At a press conference Monday morning, Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls stated that all four victims were children under the age of 14. Ali is a Somalian national who was living in the U.S. illegally. According to Nehls, bail for Ali was set at $125,000, but due to his illegal status, Immigration and Customs Enforcement put a detainer on Ali, and Ali is being held at the Fort Bend County jail. According to Detective Michael Alexander of the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office, Ali gained access to his alleged victims by gaining the trust of the victim’s families, who invited him into their homes to teach the Quran to their children. Surveillance of Ali began in September of 2019, after victims reported the abuse to the FBI, but investigators believe the alleged crimes date back to 2013. Investigators believe there are many more victims that have not come forward, and the sheriff’s office urges those victims to come forward. The focus now, according to Nehls, is finding these potential victims, which can be a challenge due to some of the nuances of Muslim belief regarding sexual assault. Said Nehls, “You will hear that if a child in the Muslim community is assaulted in any way sexually, that child may be considered unclean, and will that child be able to get married in the future?” Alexander stated that the stigma has already made the investigation difficult, and his office has not been able to move the investigation as quickly because of it. https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/katy/news/article/Islamic-religious-leader-arrested-for-alleged-sex-14953408.php#photo-18841805

Jim NJ here is a movie about the Jr Essex Troop in West Orange NJ. We use to ride against them and I've ridden the cross country course many times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1076&v=cPHrQ_CK0Zw&feature=emb_logo

Since I am going to be out most of the day, I thought I'd leave this here. i think JIB will like it. A Happy New Year to all in advance. Auld Lang Syne - Sissel My favorite singer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOwNBP_B1xo&list=RDXUgfL-2r6W8&index=6&pbjreload=10

Belief in Santa Claus? remember this: Dear Editor, I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say that there is no Santa Claus. Papa says "If you see it in the Sun, it is so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus? Virginia, Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to our life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus? You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your Papa to hire men to watch all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders that are unseen and unseeable in the world. You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, or even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else as real and abiding. No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, maybe 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the hearts of children. Written by Francis P. Church in 1897

Jib You are right, except New Canaan has hills. :)

Here is one more of a 60 year old New Yorker cover of "The Next Station to Heaven", the New Canaan railway station at Christmas time. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/75/2a/9f/752a9f99792b414035af5adb523d2151.jpg

Picture of my hometown at Christmas.(New Canaan, CT.) https://newcanaanite.com/wp-content/gallery-bank/gallery-uploads/o_1a7bibgh714ov5m21uul1g1l183rk.JPG And, this year is the 101st annual community carol sing https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ed/d2/2d/edd22d1eac87fc21dfb06a762cbbb021--christmas-eve-acre.jpg

MM Christmas memories are so important. I inherited a small mantel clock with a wonderfully toned hour striker. When I was a kid, we weren't allowed to go in the living room to see the presents until 7 AM. So, we would wait in our rooms listening and counting those clock chimes. Even to this day, when I hear it chime I am taken back to a time when the tree was surrounded by new bikes, and stockings were full of great surprises.

Christmas carols I remember my parents play this a lot. I love it. Nat King Cole - "The Christmas Song" (1961) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwacxSnc4tI

MM Back in the early sixties I had the solo in 'Oh Holy Night' for our public grammar school Christmas program. Did a good job, then puberty hit and my singing career went to hell. :)

Dr J A little Sissel Kyrkjebø - O helga natt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUgfL-2r6W8

Exclusive: Hamas plots attacks on Israel from Turkey as Erdoğan turns blind eye https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/12/17/hamas-plots-attacks-israel-turkey-erdogan-turns-blind-eye/

Matt Many years ago friends of my parents went to Riyadh and bought one of King Faisal's used Rolls-Royces (he bought new ones each year) They drove it across the desert to Cairo and then shipped it to the states. This was in the mid 1950's. All told it cost them about as much as a new American car would have cost at the time.

I know I'm a day late, but a little bit of Christmas from Sweden https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2-Q_ObdE-4&pbjreload=10

The Week in Pictures: Impeachment Edition https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/12/the-week-in-pictures-impeachment-edition.php

OK, I want to see more of this in the US. Dogs at Polling Stations during the 2019 General Election, in pictures https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/12/12/dogs-polling-stations-2019-general-election-pictures/

The way I figure it, we should be getting British voting results starting at 4pm CST

We need a new Johnathon Swift, H.L. Mencken, Evelyn Waugh or Heller to adequately skewer these ludicrous times. Iggy, read this: The Insanity of Progressivism Comes Right Out of Gulliver's Travels https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/the-insanity-of-progressivism-comes-right-out-of-gullivers-travels/

FEC to Ilhan Omar: Show me the cash receipts https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/12/fec-to-ilhan-omar-show-us-the-receipts.php

From Dalrymple's essay, "Deadly Superstitions in London" "The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues . . . The vices are indeed let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone." G K Chesterton, “The Suicide of Thought” https://www.city-journal.org/london-bridge-terror-attack-rehabilitation

I know it is snowing in Connecticut. Picture from a friend in New Canaan. https://www.facebook.com/newcanaanmountedtroop/photos/a.968722079839021/2938300962881113/?type=3&theater&ifg=1

The Week in Pictures: Tryptophan Hangover Edition https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/11/the-week-in-pictures-tryptophan-hangover-edition.php

Stephen F. Austin stuns No. 1 Duke, 85-83 in OT https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ncaabk/stephen-f-austin-stuns-no-1-duke-85-83-in-ot/ar-BBXoikF?li=BBnb7Kz