---

Quiddity noticed Max Boot trying to spread the blame for Iraq with an “abridged” Clinton quote.

Yes, the Big Dog was annoyed with Saddam in December of 1998, and as a result he ordered Operation Desert Fox which punished Saddam for failing to cooperate with weapons inspections and finished off Saddam’s WMD programs, at least according to those who went looking for WMDs after the invasion.

If people were really upset with Saddam’s WMD program, why haven’t they been condemning the Reagan administration for providing him with the chemicals and biological samples he used to create the programs. Ask Rumsfeld about it, he was Reagan’s representative to Saddam when these decisions were made.

If you were paying attention you would note that Saddam is being tried for an atrocity unrelated to WMDs, so he will be convicted and executed to prevent any testimony about potentially embarrassing American complicity in the WMD programs.

---

---

Wanda has a great rant on the meaning of Christmas which is at variance with what Jeff at Speedkill has found to be O’Reilly’s meaning of Christmas.

This leads me to my seasonal rant about the inappropriateness of the gifts that the Three Magi brought with them. On the surface it might seem that gold, frankincense, and myrrh were valuable and wonderful gifts, but let’s have a reality check.

You have a young family with a new child in a stable because of a lack of suitable housing. Nothing these guys schlepped into Bethlehem affected that problem, but they caused another problem.

Why were Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem? To pay taxes. When you are in the process of paying taxes do you really want strangers to hand you valuable imported gifts? Does anyone think that Roman tax guys were less suspicious than the IRS? Where does a poor Jewish carpenter get gold and chunks of imported tree sap used in incense and perfumes?

If they had dropped by with an amphora of a decent red, some diapers, and a car seat for the donkey, they would have been “wise men”. The stuff they brought made them look like “wise guys” involved in a smuggling operation.

---

---

Great, now I’m getting “phishing” e-mail from Brazil in Portuguese. This is a serious waste of bandwidth, as it is highly unlikely I would have an account in a Brazilian bank. We need a central clearing house for this garbage, rather than having to forward these things to “abuse” sites at individual banks.

---