Now that I'm back with the family...

All over the headlines today is the anouncement of troop reductions in 2006. What people in this country need to remember is that these reductions are totally dependent upon the conditions and events in Iraq as 2006 unfolds.

Once again there are a number of good editorials at Townhall, check em out. Rick Santorum writes of the greatness of our armed forces. Tony Snow of the greatness of Christmas when one has the faith of a child. Ollie North writes another great "perspective on the ground" piece. Mr. Krauthammer tackles the still persistent issue of the Bush Administration and wiretapping.

I will never cease to marvel at how asanine the MSM has become, and how great a tool (not to mention media revolution) the blogsphere has shaped into and will continue to do so. Note to the MSM - wake up and "evolve" or else a stagnant and dying breed you will remain...

Mark Tapscott has a great thought on the power, amazingness, and importance of Christmas, via NPR of all places, thanks for that reminder Mark. He also has a summary of the lengthy post over at Powerline that "closes the case" on the wiretapping issue.

To depart for a moment, consider something that I wrote a year or so ago for a independent campus publication on what I call "The Wonder of Christmas":

“So this is Christmas…” As a young adult, do you remember back to when you were a young kid and what Christmas was like? I sure do. I remember decorating the house, going out and buying the tree (which entailed actually cutting it down with my dad and little brother, while mom watched) and then decorating it, a great big family gathering the week before Christmas where we went and caroled to family members who were shut in, watching Charlie Brown with Dad, baking cookies, fudge, and other goodies, last day of school before break, (which meant watching the Grinch and other Christmas cartoons), and then Christmas Eve with my mom’s family, and Christmas Day. Christmas Day…it held so much wonder and tradition (from reading the Christmas story to the Christmas Tree made out of Orange Danish rolls) To this day, it still holds some of the latter, but little of the former, and that’s where the crisis comes: As a guy who doesn’t want to grow up and always remain a “kid at heart”, I still very much desire to still hold Christmas on that pedestal of wonder that I once did. To this end, I got an idea: Christmas is all about Christ, but what if I asked Jesus for a Christmas present…an idea that’s totally new to me. What’s this Christmas present you ask? It’s that this Christmas, I would still be able to behold Christmas in all the wonder that I once did, looking at it as a young child might, yet at the same time, to look at it in more mature light, and to be able to comprehend on a deeper level the actual events of Christmas itself, to look on the birth of Christ with a deeper and more profound appreciation, the fact that Christ, the Creator, came to earth in a frail human body, to no praise by the socialites of his time (and greeted by hostility if anything), and came for the express purpose of dying to give me a chance to make the choice to be a son of God. That’s the real wonder of Christmas, and that’s what I really want to be able to behold. So I encourage everyone who comes across this to consider asking Jesus for the same this Christmas, so that in receiving something from Him, we have the opportunity to give back by remembering what He did, because as Linus said “That’s what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown”