I GOT A LOT OF COOL PRESENTS, but in a few minutes I’m going to enjoy what may be the coolest of them: the complete Monty Python DVD collection. (I think there are 14 disks — something like that, anyway.) Beer will be involved.

Merry Christmas!

CHRISTMAS SACRIFICES WEARING A UNIFORM: Austin Bay writes on servicepeoples’ Christmases:

There are many people who will say — with callous accuracy — that for servicemen and servicewomen hard duty is their job. They signed up to go whenever and wherever they are sent.

That’s true. But consider the persistent demands we have made on service members and their families over the last 13 years, the baker’s dozen since the end of the Cold War.

Christmas 1989: Operation Just Cause in Panama. Christmas 1990: Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Shield, prelude to Operation Desert Storm. Christmas 1992: Somalia is on the horizon. Christmas 1993: Somalia, again, and new worries about North Korea. Christmas 1994: The pace of air and naval deployments to the Balkans increases. USAF, Marine and Army reservists reinforce regulars in Panama and Guantanamo to work the Cuban migrant camps. Troops deploy to Kuwait, responding to saber-rattling by Saddam. U.S. troops are also assigned to Macedonia.

Christmas 1995: the Bosnia occupation, which was to last a year but still remains an American duty post. In the background, the Navy continues to enforce the U.N. embargo against Iraq and patrol the Persian Gulf. Fall 1998, the Hurricane Mitch relief operation in Central America, with U.S. forces playing a major role in the relief and recovery effort. Spring 1999, the Kosovo War, which by Christmas 1999 becomes occupation duty. Fall 2001, Afghanistan, the duty station in December 2002 for the 82nd Airborne Division. December 2002, uncertainty on the Korean DMZ as the ramp up for action against Saddam continues.

This list, though incomplete, makes the point.

Indeed it does.

KAUS IS TRYING TO INTRODUCE THE TERM “FRISTING” to describe hair-trigger unsubstantiated charges of racism.

It’s looking like we might have a white Christmas here after all, as the snow is coming down fast and furious. My daughter loves her new digital camera, so maybe I’ll post some of her pics. More later!

CHRISTMAS BLOGGING: Virginia Postrel has new stuff up. Observations on traffic, PayPal, and more.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

FLOOD THE ZONE! Mickey Kaus points out that an anti-Frist quote reported by David Firestone in the New York Times actually came from fomer Rep. Harold Ford, Sr., not his son, current Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. Kaus adds: “Inspires confidence in Firestone’s deep understanding of Tennessee politics, doesn’t it?”

Forget Firestone. If you want the scoop on Tennessee politics, check out bloggers Frank Cagle and Bill Hobbs. As Firestone should have.

This Frist piece by Ron Brownstein is Hobbs-approved.

JIM BENNETT puts the Lott affair in global context.

IT’S A CHRISTMAS ROUNDUP at Best of the Web.

PATTY MURRAY’S REMARKS ON BIN LADEN are reportedly causing a “groundswell of anger” on talk radio and the Internet, while being ignored by major media.

I wonder why? Of course, the Trent Lott story started out that way, too.

HELPING AFRICA WITHOUT BENEFIT CONCERTS: My FoxNews Column, which usually runs on Thursdays, is up now.

I ALWAYS APPRECIATE THE PEOPLE who work on holidays. I just ran out to pick up a missing ingredient for the green bean casserole I’m making tomorrow (Christmas isn’t at our house this year, so I’m not doing the usual turkey-and-lamb routine). The store was packed, and it reminded me of one Christmas several years ago where I had to run out and get something on Christmas Day. The quickie-mart cashier was very surprised when I thanked her for being there — apparently, nobody does that much. But to everybody who’s working today, or who will be working tomorrow: thanks for keeping the world going while the rest of us celebrate.

ALSO NON-P.C.: Lily Malcolm of the Kitchen Cabinet is spending her holidays baking. When I was at Yale Law School, most women there wouldn’t have admitted to knowing how to bake, even in the unlikely event that they did.

THE NON-P.C. JOE STRUMMER is recalled by Mickey Kaus and by Jim Robbins, who notes:

[I]n November 2001, Strummer came out strongly against the 9/11 terrorists, stating: “I think you have to grow up and realize that we’re facing religious fanatics who would kill everyone in the world who doesn’t do what they say. The more time you give them the more bombs they’ll get.”

Should this really be a surprise? I mean “Punks for Peace” is just a silly idea.

THE INTREPID TIM BLAIR is already blogging on Christmas! It’s a date-line thing.

THE FASHION IS SPREADING:

Two men wearing belts laden with explosives were arrested Tuesday in southwest Moscow, Russian news agencies reported.

How long before someone tries it here?

UPDATE: Actually, that would be better than most of the predicted attacks mentioned in this Washington Post story.

I commend to you the Joe Strummer advice listed above.

THE YEAR IN WEBLOGS — and what’s coming in 2003. My TechCentralStation column is up.

SEGREGATION IS DISGRACED, but when will this ideology of brutality and degradation meet the same fate? Not quite yet, apparently.

FLOOD THE ZONE! Sullivan may be off partying, but Mickey Kaus has yet another post on sharpened pencils. George Costanza plays a role.

IN MY INBOX: Two messages, side-by-side, with the subjects, “Don’t be so hard on yourself,” and “Stop being such a picky doofus.”

Okay. Barbecue time.

IAIN MURRAY IS GUEST-BLOGGING at the Volokh Conspiracy, and has an interesting post (and, being Iain, a statistics-laden one) on differences and similarities between the United States and Britain. The results aren’t what you’d expect. Excerpt:

The picture you’d get from these stats is of an America where the working man is less likely than his British counterpart to be out of work, better compensated, and less likely to be a victim of violence, while the American state as a whole is not much tougher on crime than Britain, spends little more proportionately on defense and finances its public spending much more by debt than by taxes. More right-wing? Not from these stats. Less committed to social justice? Hardly — the American is much more likely to have a job, a good wage and to live free from the fear of crime (and to get decent, quick medical care).

Interesting stuff. Of course, I can’t help noting that Sullivan’s on vacation, the Volokh Horde is bringing in guest bloggers, and yet I, sniff, am here holding down the fort all alone. I’d feel sorry for myself if I werent’ about to go out to an all-you-can-eat barbecue joint. There’s just no room for self-pity when you’re contemplating vast quantities of seasoned pork.

UPDATE: Kaus is still on the job! So is Justin Katz! And Charles Austin emails:

Mmm, vast quantities of seasoned pork. The best reason I’ve heard in weeks to fight against Islamic hegemony!

Yep. They’d probably also try to ban life-saving stuff like this. Those bastards!

OCCAM’S TOOTHBRUSH says that OxBlog is wrong about the VOA’s broadcasts to Iran.

EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON calls Bill Clinton a hypocrite for his remarks on Trent Lott and the Republicans: “Clinton rejected the crude, racial appeals of Trent Lott, Jesse Helms, and Strom Thurmond. But his Southern Strategy was jammed with enough racial code speak, and indifference to black voters to make him a poor choice to call the Republican’s hypocrites on Lott.”

BRITNEY VS. THE AYATOLLAHS: OxBlog looks at the rather confusing situation regarding the Voice of America’s Iranian programming.

HOLIDAY BLOGGING SCHEDULE: Andrew Sullivan may be taking the week off, but I’ll be blogging throughout, though at a reduced pace. (And with no $80K paycheck. . . .) And I’ll have columns at TechCentralStation and FoxNews this week, too.

InstaPundit: Where we go Yule Loggin’ and keep on bloggin’. Er, or something like that.

MICKEY KAUS VS. JOSH MARSHALL: Tom Maguire declares a winner.