H-H-Happy New Yew Year to you! I hope your deepest desires come standard at no extra cost. If you've just celebrated Christmas, best wishes for that as well. If that's not your kind of holiday, at least you can console yourself that the bloody awful jingle bells music has fallen silent till next August.
It's time for the perennial question:
"Why wasn't He born in Bethlehem in the Free State?"
And this year's answer is:
If he was, he'd still be waiting for his green ID book. And when it eventually arrived, he'd discover he was married to someone from Nigeria he never even met.
I'd like to tell you about our quiet family holiday season, but I won't lie. We have a puppy, so rush hour rides in low flying minibus taxis are more peaceful. Living with a baby Doberman is like sharing your home with Genghis Khan on "tik" (crystal-meth).
The only opportunity I get to read the newspaper is when I'm picking up the soggy remnants of our futile attempts at house-training the little monster. The puppy's choice of whose faces to wipe her bum on shows that she's already developed an astute political sensibility.
However, I did see grisly photos of Saddam's execution on every front page. Coming from a country that used to murder its own citizens, I have no right to any moral high ground, but I'm truly glad we have abolished the death penalty. And I give thanks that I don't live in an oil rich state ruled by bloodthirsty religious fundamentalists. Like Texas.
But I do have thoughts on the fitting punishment for starting wars...
Whichever side they're on, I hope the real monsters who give the orders to the planters and droppers of bombs never get the death sentence. I hope they are sentenced to life. And when they're 110 years old and it's time to die, the sentence still stands.
"Life".
Hooked up to a machine and kept alive. For ever. So that they never ever get to go to that heaven they so badly wanted to see.
At least for the rest of the season, let's hope cruelty takes a break too.
Al
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