So for all my rants and raves, christman turned out okay. Saw most of Paul's family twice (Eve and Day), talked to my family, and even had an unexpected wiedersehen. As I was talking to my mom I tried to explain my feelings; that I really didn't like the reasons for the gatherings (ie: little baby christman, shopping, forced closeness, shopping, gifts, shopping...), but still I really enjoyed the fact that we all were brought together and everyone was feelng happy, and well, festive. It makes me long for a society where we could do this sort of thing all the time and for better reasons, but I'll take the love where and when it comes, no question. I am really starting to feel at home with Paul's family which is very nice. They treat me like I've always been there and belong (heck, I dressed up as Santa two years in a row for them, and for me a little bit too I guess).
After we got home from stuffing ourselves for the second time in 16 hours, we found out that our friend Jessica was home and she was gonna stop by with her sister Sarah. This was a surprising event becuase we have been kinda estranged for like six months or something with nary a glance or bit of chat between us. So they came over and then Mike came and then TK and Emily was on video chat from NYC the whole night. It was almost a party (the addition of a dull cigarito from Philadelphia made it a definite party). We had a good time. Well it was getting late and I wasn't getting any less festive so it was time to make the call home. I talked to my mom and my sister. It was very nice, we should really talk more. For some reason we're all just bad at the whole communication thing. I don't call and they don't call for months (and then we all try to blame each other for never calling). I think we had a very good talk, well truthfully I kinda babbled the whole time, I was excited both emotionally and spiritually (thank you christman). I told my sister the truth about the red and white santa suit's invention by Coca Cola, and a bunch of other stuff. I made her promise to email me soon, and if you're reading this, Alex, I'm waiting... Well happy wintertime to all, and may sweet sugarplum fairies bedeck the halls of your dreaming mind. and christman...I guess you can come back next year if you want (I'm still not praying though).

Festive Wintertime!
I am writing to all those friends that may now read my journal but never see me anymore. To those in LV and AZ and wherever else. As I go to celebrate some holidayness with Paul's family I just want everyone, especially my own family, to know that I miss you and wish I was a richer man and could fly around to see you all more. It's not fair, I live by Paul's family so I see them all the time but only get the chance to visit my 'roots' once a year or so. I wish it were different, and maybe soon we'll be changing locations to be nearer. Until then, I love and miss everyone wherever you are. I hope everyone had a great solstice and the days are getting longer now!

According to one reporter, Yvonne Ridley, Saddam was not captured by American Forces as has been recently reported by military sources and repeated by the media, but was taken by Kurdish forces and then delivered into American custody. This story has been quelled because of fear of potential clashes between Kurdish forces and pro-Saddam factions in Iraq if news got out. Democracy Now! has the full story on their Dec 23 show .
Other crazy/scary new items: Mad Cow Disease in America (one case means there might be many many more, stop eating the beef now!), and Judge orders Army to stop "experimenting" on US troops with trial Anthrax vaccinations (they've been requiring certain individuals to take the shots even though many have become very ill and a minimum of six have died from the innoculations).

Today passed hazily away
with rain misting sidewalks
my steps meandered
but ever the same direction.

Eventually a destination
was reached? where we played
the music and the echo
transversing twixt time.

Rude awakenings lead
to somber enchantments?
back to beginning
beginning to end.

I don't really want to say much more about prisons or about the army, as plenty has been said on both sides. What I want to do is describe a wider epidemic and demonstrate that blaming individuals does nothing to help the "greater good" and in many cases acts as a diversion and an excuse.
It is a matter of focus. Take any situation and first you must describe the problem and then who is facing it. In our recent examples we discuss the army recruits and the prison wardens (the killers as Paul puts it). Paul argues that whatever their circumstance, each person must individually make a choice that may in the future lead to killing and it is this choice that lays blame on them. I agree that each person must make the choice, and to some degree be held responsible, but feel that it is disingenuous to look at this choice in terms of its right/wrongness. If we take for granted that there is a certain moral humaneness that comes with being human (Paul does this when he says we all know it is wrong to kill) then we need to look at how this can become twisted to make individuals who kill, cheat, take advantage, and steal elections. This is where the focus should lie, why are these individuals taking a path that leads to possible killing? What is it in them that makes them prone to "evilness"?
Conveniently when we look at the statistics we find that some gigantic percentage of African Americans are making these choices compared to white people (African Americans in US ~12%, in armed forces ~20-30%). We can infer then, that black people are more prone to evil than white people. Of course we cannot infer this, and I don't even think Paul believes it. So if we assume that black people are not more inherently prone to killing, the next step becomes cataloging the differences between the two groups that might lead to their choices. We look at socioeconomics and find that black people are, on average, poorer than white people, they are more likely to not have adequate food and shelter, they are, again on average, less educated. These are the facts that are directly affecting the choices available to any particular group, and are what lie at the root of why many take up these "evil" jobs.
The worst part of focusing on the individual is that it actually acts as a buffer between the symptoms of the problem and its root causes. If we blame the individual for choosing poorly then we are in some way absolving the society of that same guilt. Society is responsible for the individuals that it creates to a very fine degree. I am not arguing that every crackpot out there is insane only because of their environment, but would point to the numbers of people in similarly affluent countries that don't share their plight. Why is the homicide rate in every other industrialized nation so far below ours? Why do we have 100s-1000s times as many people in prison? These are questions that may lead to appreciable changes in our culture and society, whereas qestioning the "evil" in any one individual leads only to segregation, separation, and excuses (if we add Paul's panacea of religion we get Crusades, Whoopie!)
PS: Terror Warning Level has been increased to Orange, and what does Google Image search show us for "orange terror":

Be afraid, be very afraid. Meow! Meow! Meeeeeeeaaaaaaaallllllllaaaaahhhhhh!