Santa Claus Bootcamp

Hattip to Bookworm.  Mild language advisory.  Didn’t you always think it was odd that the United States Marine Corps Reserve runs Toys for Tots?  Now you know why!  Semper Santa!

An Unforgettable Version of the Twelve Days of Christmas

I have always found the Twelve Days of Christmas a bit boring.  I was therefore enchanted when I heard this off-beat version by the acapella group Straight No Chaser as my son and I were driving back from the U of I  after I picked him up after finals on Tuesday of this week.  Humor, the needed leavening of life!

Cows and Governments Open Thread

Well cows and politicians do have a lot a lot in common in that they are fond of bull, produce some noxious by products and tend to complain a lot when their sacred calves are taken away.  I originally posted this as an open thread at The American Catholic, and I decided this would serve for the first ever open thread for Almost Chosen People.  Have at it!

Military Chow

youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kKaRm_i61Y]

A truly hilarious video from 1943, Food For Fighters, detailing the dedication of the Army to quality rations for the troops.  I imagine a room full of GI’s watching this video and laughing their heads off.  Virtually every veteran of World War II I have encountered has complained about the quality of the rations.  My late father-in-law was a Navy cook during the War.  He developed a life long detestation  of mutton when he was forced to prepare it for six months aboard ship because it was the only meat they were supplied.  He did his imaginative best, and he was a very good cook, but the sailors were ready to mutiny by the time the ship received a different type of meat.

Veterans of more recent conflicts have been slightly more complimentary as to the quality of military food, although I would note that when servicemen and women are given a choice they usually choose to not eat in mess halls, although the food is free for most enlisted personnel, and a common nickname for MREs, Meals Ready to Eat, is Meals Rejected by the Enemy.  Never fear however, something new is on the horizon:

The Army has developed a sandwich that purportedly stays fresh for two years.

Cabin Fever

(Guest post by Don’s wife Cathy:)

Ever feel like the extreme heat & humidity this past week (across most of the USA) was driving you nuts – not to mention being cooped up (in air-conditioned splendor, but still . . .) that whole time?  Apparently this was also a problem for the intrepid-but-becalmed ship’s crew in Muppet Treasure Island!  Thankfully, by the time you see this, the temperatures will have dropped to more reasonable levels (approx. 85 degrees Fahrenheit/30 degrees Celsius) in our part of the country – although readers of this blog on the US East Coast will still have to suffer for a day or two.

PC Declaration of Independence

About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

Calvin Coolidge

 

Walter Russell Meade at his blog Via Media which I read each day, gives us an updated version of the Declaration of Independence:

The unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen Post-Colonial, Multi-Racial Societes of North America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to strengthen the political bands which have connected them with the Global Community, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the cooperative and deferential station which a careful review of the relevant peer reviewed literature suggests is most appropriate for long term win-win outcomes, a decent and rigorously equal respect to the opinions of woman- and man- and transkind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the ever deeper union.

Watching the Civil War

A hilarious spoof documentary of a documentary on the viewing of Ken Burns’ The Civil War.  The portrayal of the Shelby Foote stand in is priceless.

The Inevitable Team-Up: Batman and Abraham Lincoln

You Have Been Warned !

You let me down, man! Now I don’t believe in nothing no more! I’m going to law school!

Jimbo Jones

The above PSA should have been brought to you by the American Bar Association.  (This was posted over at The American Catholic.  I thought that some of our history mavens at Almost Chosen People might get a kick out of it.)

The Confederacy Victorious-Part II

Part two of a rather well done nine part ”mockumentary” on Youtube which posits that the Confederacy not only won its independence but actually conquered the North.  The first part may be viewed here.  An excellent spoof of overstuffed PBS historical documentaries.