Sure, it's been a while, but I thought I'd continue on the Christmas story.  On our first full day, we did a little gambling, got some appetizers at Bradley Ogden's restaurant, and then saw Jerry Seinfeld perform at Caesar's palace in the theater built for Celine Dion.  I really enjoyed Jerry's standup.  Probably the second best I've seen.  First up is Jim Gaffigan, whom we are going to get to see again in February.  After the show we went back to Bradley Ogden's for dinner, which was muy excellente.  I mean, wow.  The only downside was that they were out of mint, so no Mojitos for Pete-o.

The next day we caught a van out to the airport, where we boarded a helicopter.  I should preface this with the fact that my stomach was not too happy with me for several hours before we got to the airport.  Anywho, we got on the helicopter and flew to the Grand Canyon, where we landed down inside and had champagne and crackers.  It was awesome!  I only wish that I weren't so queasy going into it.  But I pulled through without incident.

I was just listening to an interview with James Carville on NPR.  He's a liberal author, perhaps among other things; I'm not that familar with him beyond what I heard today.  He was talking about his book that discusses how to “take the country back”, presumably he means from the Republicans.  There were two things in the interview that made me mad.

First, he stated that Bush went to war under false pretenses.  This is an old argument.  He went on to say that the Bush administration pursued a policy of calling all those who opposed the war “un-American”.  I understand that there are people in this country who believe that people who oppose the war are “un-American”, but I have not heard that from anyone in the Bush administration.  I actually haven't personally heard it from anyone except from the people who oppose the war.  Perhaps their guilt makes them paranoid.  If someone can find me a quote from someone in the Bush administration supporting this policy, I'd appreciate it.

Second, he attacked a policy against gay marriage.  Here's his argument: “It [the policy against gay marriage] is too stupid for words.”  Guess what, James, that's not an argument.  That's name-calling.

Hey everybody, Jamie and I just watched next week's Arrested Development.  It's a really good one, so if you haven't caught it yet, this would be a good time to start.  They're up for a Golden Globe for best comedy.

So far, anyway, I've let this year get away from me.  I have my reasons, but let's not bore them with that.  So, Christmas happened.  Jamie and I stayed in Cali for Christmas, though we are looking forward to our next visit to Texas some time this Spring.  Jamie had to work on Christmas eve, so we didn't get on the road to Fallbrook until 5 p.m., the perfect time to find holiday traffic.  We spent the night at the Siebers and opened up our Christmas presents there the next morning.  As you can see, I got a suede coat, and Jamie got a cat.  OK, so she already had the cat, but this was the best picture I got.  Quick side note while mentioning the coat, I have no become a weather wuss.  Already.  It is not cold here, but now that I have Ugg boots that keep my feet so nice and toasty, I don't like to go out without them.  In New York or even Texas, I would have been wearing sandals even if it were 20 degrees cooler.  I'm pathetic, and I apologize.

Christmas afternoon we went down to Jamie's aunt and uncle's place on Coronado Island.  We snacked and hung out with Matt (Jamie's cousin) and Jackie (his girlfriend).  Eventually, we opened another barrage of presents there, had dinner, and then had a little white elephant gift exchange action.  Fortunately, the fart machine went to Uncle Ron, so that I could have some peace and quiet at home.  We left their house around 7 or 8 p.m. I guess, and headed on to Las Vegas.

We got to Vegas at around 1 a.m. the next morning, and proceeded to check in at Treasure Island.  It took awhile checking in, because it was so late, and they were booked pretty solid.  We had wanted a king size bed, but they said that all they had was two queen size beds; they were completely out of king size beds.  No big deal, but we pressed the issue to see if they might throw a little something our way.  They didn't.  Jamie and I got up to our room, and there was a Do Not Disturb sign on the door, and our key didn't work.  I'm kind of glad that the key didn't work, because if it did, and I had disturbed something, then I myself would have been disturbed.  Anywho, I called downstairs to let them know what happened.  After waiting in the hall for 15 minutes, finally a manager came to take us to a different room, because supposedly “the safe was broken in that room”.  Likely story.  We take the service elevator to another room, which did have a king size bed.  A miracle!  Here they had just told us that they did not have king size available, sent us to an occupied room, made us wait, and then all of a sudden someone checked out of their room at 1 a.m.  The room was great; the runaround was not.  Eventually, we settled down to sleep.  One more quick thing before I go.  It was a nice hotel, a nice room, but the towels sucked.  They were like sandpaper.  And then they have the audacity to only wash the towels if they are thrown on the floor.  I wonder if somewhere in the hotel, for the really rich people, they actually have nice big, soft towels.  More tomorrow, or next month.

Yes, there was an earthquake in California today that hit 6.5 on the Richter scale (only a 3.2 on the Andy Richter scale).  We didn't feel anything though.  It was north and west of us here.  Thanks for those who expressed concern, and a pox on those of you who didn't!

”My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.”

These are the opening words from our President in his speech addressing the nation at the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  If you read the entire speech, you will see that more is said about Saddam's despicable treatment of his own people than about his production of WMDs or the imminent threat to the United States.  In other words, liberating the Iraqi people has been a major part of the justification for war since the beginning.  It was not added on after the fact.  Why have we been so focused on the WMD portion of the justification?  Because that makes a more sensational news story, and that's what the media (both liberal and conservative) have talked more about.  Part of the problem of having so many political pundits on both sides, is that we hear from them every single day, and if we are not careful we start to put their words into the mouths of the people they are talking about.

So, if we can agree that the justification for war had at least two points: 1) freeing the Iraqi people and 2) defending the world from grave danger, then we have to ask ourselves if both points have to be necessary for the war to be justified.  There seems to be no debate about whether or not the Iraqi people have been liberated from an oppressive and criminal regime, so let's chalk up one legitimate reason.  Is that reason enough?  Well, I'm not enough of a history scholar to go back and find precedent for this, but I do remember that even in the midst of the Iraq debate, there was an issue in Liberia.  In Liberia, there was no threat of WMD or danger to America to muddle the issue.  Instead, it was just a clear cut case of a brutal dictator abusing his people.  In this case, the UN had no problem stepping in to help.  In fact, the U.S. administration was catching a lot of flack for not sending in our troops, which we eventually did when our demand for exile of the country's leader was met.  I realize that this just brushes the surface, but it does seem to suggest that liberating an oppressed people, by itself, is justification enough for military intervention.

As for the second justification for war, the grave danger to the world, that remains to be seen.  I think it is still too early to tell whether or not Saddam had WMDs.  It will take a long time to sweep all of Iraq with a metal detector.  So, I don't know if they have them.  I do know that he had them in '91 when he killed thousands of his own people with his own weapons.  I do know that he paid the families of people who killed themselves if they took an Israeli or American with them.  I do know that he wanted Americans dead.  I do know that I am glad that he has been captured, and that the Iraqis are free.  I hope that we have the patience to see this through.  I pray that our leaders will make wise choices, and they will do what is right, regardless of political pressure.

As I mentioned before, I got a new digital camera.  Now, this is going to come in really handy on Christmas and other holidays and vacations.  But I want to use it for more than just that.  It's got tons of cool features and should lead to some pretty good photographs.  The problem is, that I pretty much stay at home most of the time, and thus my picture taking opportunities are limited.  So, while I will try to become more proactive in my camera use, if you have any ideas for things that I can take pictures of, please let me know.  Things you want to see, or maybe things that would show off a particular feature of the camera (in case you are looking at buying a digital camera yourself).

The other day, I heard an interview with Ewan McGregor, whose latest film project is Big Fish, to which I'm really looking forward.  Ewan was talking about the fact that he and a buddy are going to ride motorcycles around the world, basically from London to New York the long way round.  They will be going through Siberia, China, and Malaysia, and to prepare, they are going through Hostile Environment Training.  Apparently, this is training that journalists and others who are preparing to work in hostile territories endure.  Sounds to me like a perfect addition to my spy training wishlist!