Merry Christmas!

That pretty much sums it up.

If you don't do Christmas, have a good whatever it is you are doing now.
Eid, Hanuka, Agnostica, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, Blood Rite of the Dark sisters, whatever.

Enjoy!

The Random Bag of Fun

I was reading a webcomic that I enjoy this week (Nukees by Darren Bleuel) when I saw a mention of 'The Random Bag of Fun. So I followed the link to see what it was. But before I tell you what it is, let me tell you the origin of the RBOF. It is part of the celebration of Mr. (Dr.) Bleuel's secular winter celebration Agnostica, a celebration he created in his comic which has taken off to be a(somewhat) recognized phenomena. (At least I have seen mention of it in other places)
The RBOF sounds like something that I may just incorporate into my Christmas celebrations though. Or maybe my birthday or just a random day in August. but the theory is that during the year whenever you seen some small inexpensive (generally $10-$20) item that you think is cool you buy one, wrap it, and put it in the bag. Then, on your designated day you carry your bag around with you and whenever you bump into a friend, enemy, acquaintance, whoever you choose, you invite them to take a package out of the RBOF. You don't know what they get, it isn't planned, it is just fun giving. Frankly, it sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

P.S. Anyone who goes "Agnostica?! That offends me! How dare some secular person establish a holiday in the time period that holds Christmas." Needs to blow it out their ear. If you can't allow others to have their celebration you are no better than those who keep trying to limit Christmas. And really, I suspect Christ would have approved of the RBOF.

Doom in Afghanistan? I think not.......

Many on the left are ranting now that Afghanistan is lost as well as Iraq. You hear it all the time; The Taliban are resurgent, Control is falling away, we are losing the country side and the people of the country are turning against us and the government of Hamid Karzai. In fact, The Guardian reports that the Taliban controls 54% of the country and has a good chance of taking Kabul in 2008.

The BBC recently did a survey in Afghanistan found that the majority of the people "relatively hopeful" about their future, they also "support the current Afghan government and the presence of overseas troops, and oppose the Taliban." Now all is not rosy and bright of course, support for the Taliban has risen since last year (4% to 5%) and support for US and NATO troops in the country has fallen off a bit since last year. More than half the people surveyed rated the Karzai government as "good or excellent" but that number has dropped since last year.
Some interesting numbers that leap out to me as I read the results of the survey are that 71% (down 3% from last year)of those surveyed say that the Taliban has "no significant presence" in their area.
75% of the participants say that the Taliban has no significant support in their areas (down 4 % from last year)
69% of the surveyed think that Pakistan is allowing the Taliban to operate in their territory, only 19% think they are trying to suppress the Taliban.
69 % have a very unfavorable view of the Taliban.
21% have a very unfavorable view of the US.
63% have a very unfavorable view of Pakistan.

I find these answers very interesting. You can of course decide for yourself if the view of the Guardian and the anti Bush bloggers is right or if the BBC's is more accurate. Personally, I lean more towards the BBC's judging from what I saw while I was there and what I read and hear now. All is not rosy and bright. The people in the North are much happier than the people in the south and most of the discontent is centered in the south west where the Taliban is currently operating in strength. but overall, things seem to be going the right way. As for the Taliban taking Kabul in 2008, ROFL. Not a chance in Hell. If for no other reason than that there are thousands of American troops in the area which would prevent that. Also, the Afghan National Army is up and running fairly well now. It has reached it's established goal of 70,000 troops early, and is looking to expand to 200,000 now. It has even begun running independent operations. Things really aren't all that bad.