Posted by Bob Lord
To all BfAZ readers, a very Merry Christmas. Whether you're deeply religious or an atheist like me, Christmas isn't the day for politics, so I'll keep it light.
We sometimes celebrate Christmas on the 24th, as we did this year, in order to accommodate our children's other parents. The present extravaganza was fairly uneventful this year. The most noteworthy gifts were what I call the PINGs, an acronym for Politically Incorrect Nerf Guns. Tammy bought them some time ago for Bennet and Seth, the youngest of the brood, far before the Newtown tragedy. These are not your father's nerf guns. They're battery powered and fire about 100 of those foam darts in a few minutes, somehwat slower as the batteries wear down. With a houseful of boys and young men yesterday, the PINGs got a lot of use in their first day. I'm guessing PINGs will appear on the NRAs list of "it's not the gun" causes of gun deaths soon, but they actually seemed like harmless fun yesterday.
I received a copy of The End of Faith, by Sam Harris, a fitting addition to my "End of" collection of books, which also includes The End of Oil, The End of Food, The End of Poverty and The End of Growth. The End of Growth (by Richard Heinberg) is a fairly recent addition as well, which I'd highly recommend. Before you read it, though, you should try to read The Race for What's Left (by Michael Klare), Web of Debt (by Ellen Brown) and whatever the latest report on climate change happens to be at the time.
I'm looking forward to The End of Faith. I've read Harris' Letter to a Christian Nation, which was hilarious (and a really, really quick read). For now, though, it's off to the movies, and the obligatory Chinese restaurant for dinner. I can't entirely abandon my Jewish roots, right?
Back to the typical haranguing tomorrow. Merry Christmas.