Blog: All I Wanted for Christmas is What I Always Want

And that's for peace on earth and my own peace of mind. It's a toss-up as to which has proved to be the more elusive and difficult to attain. 

Christmastime brings back fond memories to me, as I’m sure it does you, joyous ones (especially in our youth).

But it also evokes the unpleasant thoughts of not being able to share them with loved ones who are no longer with us.

The Christmas that forever sticks in my memory is the one I spent in the frozen mountains of Korea, where nothing grew in the battle-scarred terrain, except for the icicles hanging from the top of our sandbag bunkers. Frostbite was as much of an enemy as the opposing forces.

I’d celebrated Christmas by eating two, instead of just one, can of beef stew in the box of C-rations, and paying $50 for a bottle of rot-gut whiskey smuggled up to the frontlines to share with my tank crew.

But I’ve gotten ahead of myself. For the main reason for writing this blog was to wish one and all the happiest of holiday seasons, and to offer my sincere sympathy if you didn’t get the gifts you so wanted; and had to wait in long lines to exchange those out-of-fashion or wrong-sized clothing or worthless kitchen gadgets.

Speaking of receiving gifts, I can’t help but wonder whether the commissioners got the gifts they’d asked for in the lists they faxed to Santa’s solar-heated home in the North Pole.

Now, even though I of course have no way of knowing what was on their lists, if I were to hazard a guess as to what they were, they might have been something like this: 

• For Howard -- A timer, like those used in chess tournaments, that he could use to allot commissioners a limited amount of time in which to make their spiel. He could be more generous with his cohorts than he is with those standing at the microphone in public meetings, who are limited to 3 minutes. I’d recommend setting the timer for them at, say, a maximum of 9 minutes. (Heck, it takes Rothschild more than 3 minutes to get warmed up.)

• For Shoemaker -- Boxes of petitions for voters to sign urging Rothschild to throw his hat in the ring for the 6th congressional seat (currently occupied by the rusted-out Roscoe Bartlett). For there’s no one more motivated than him to spearhead that grassroot movement, who’d give his eye teeth to see his nemesis going to Washington to spread his balderdash, not to mention his then regaining the title of VP. 

• For Frazier -- The courage (and gall) to present to this board the proposed policy changes she’d made in her first term, in which she argued vehemently (forgive me RR for using one of your favorite terms) for (1) eliminating all zoning laws; (2) removing the cap on building permits; (3) prohibiting recreational activities from being held on Sundays on county property; and (4) banning the annual Wine Festival from being held on county property.

• For Rothschild -- I doubt if he asked for anything, believing as I’m sure he does that handing out baskets of food to the needy and toys to their kids during the holiday season is nothing more than a thinly veiled, socialist plot. A plot backed by the armed forces of the U.N. Agenda 21 to capture the minds and hearts of the proletariat they’ll need to fill the ranks in its invasion army, which was formed in order to keep this nation from (in again using Rothschild’s words) “going over the precipice.”  

• For Rousch--Material things he doesn’t need or would have asked for, what with that fat retirement package he undoubtedly received after slaving away mixing cement for so many years at that giant cement company. But if he’d agreed to read it, I’d gladly pay (if the board won’t) for a book on speaking effectively and succinctly.

      Quote of the week: “A good conscience is a continual Christmas.”  Ben Franklin