Ah, Garrison! In some ways, I envy folks who live in Minnesota, and that's not sarcasm; it's a fact. In some ways, it's so comfortable and so much easier to be in a more monochrome, more uniform culture. I've been there, and it can be like a warm blanket, and that's a fact. There are down sides, absolutely, and I'm not so arrogant as to think that Garrison Keillor is unaware of them, but there are some genuine up sides as well.

But still, at the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, "humorless, and legalistic," I sincerely hope that Mr. Keillor considers this:

Jews.

Just that. Jews. That simple. (I find it funny that in late December the country goes from being a "Judeo-Christian country" to a "Christian country," but I digress.) Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and other folks, too; but I happen to be a Jew.

Look: I have don't give a rip what other folks do this time of year. What does bother me is that, every year in late November I can either "get a life," "work with it," and celebrate a holiday that is (let's face it) totally at odds with my beliefs, or I can be sneered at by (usually well-meaning) folks like Mr. Keillor because I'm not . What a great choice; I can be a jerk, or an apostate. Oh boy!

I'm glad lots of folks get joy out of this time of year. Really. I don't mind. I don't particularly like the fact that I'm totally inundated with it everywhere I go, nor do I like that my kids are given Christmas-related projects at school every year (Christmas carols in music class; Santa drawings in art class, etc. etc.), but I do my best to roll with it. But every year there's someone like Keillor, who feels it their duty to lecture those of us stick-in-the-muds who have the temerity to feel that Christmas is a religious holiday for the religion of which they are not the member of, and how we sure have a lot of nerve not celebrating with the majority. How dare we!

Well Garrison, enjoy your Christmas goose, your egg nog, your ugly sweaters, and getting tinsel in your hair; I wish you all the best, and I mean that most sincerely. But do please consider that there are those of us out there who are not celebrating Christmas, not because we're lawyers, or humorless, or un-American, but because we're simply not Christian, and don't think it's right. We're not being nasty or obnoxious; we're just being Jews (or Muslims or Buddhists or Atheists or Hindus or whatever). Cut us a little slack, man. Have some compassion--isn't that supposed to be one of the spirits of the season? And wish us a l'shauna tova come our new year; it's only fair.

I am continually astonished by Bush's cavalier attitude toward the lives of others. For every week he "listens" (and I can't help but think of Sherlock Holmes: "You listen, but you do not hear."), we spend $2 billion. For every month, another 100 American soldiers and 1000s of Iraqis die. But he wants to read, and think, and listen.

It is more important to this man that his Secretary of Defense acheive some kind of absurd milestone than we fix the problem. His pride is more important than the millions of lives that hang in the balance. His vision of his place in history is more important than one of the most historically, culturally, and (yes) resource-rich regions on the planet.

This level of self-delusion and disconnect is beyond absurd; it is criminal. Every time I read when Bush says, or what his spokesmen say, I feel like weeping. No amount of repudiation will sway this stubborn, intellectually-incurious, overmatched pretender from his disastrously-chosen course.

And we wonder why "they" hate us. How could "they" not.

I realize that it takes a certain amount of personal delusion and self-deception to become a politician on the national level. To be able to face that level of opprobium on a regular basis requires not only a thick skin, but the ability to look yourself in the mirror and, essentially, flatly disagree with what you read in the paper, hear on the radio, or see on TV. (Witness our massively deluded Decider-in-Chief, for example.)

Even by these standards, however, Kerry stands out. I know of no one-- literally no one--who was an enthusiastic Kerry supporter. Kerry's two major credentials in the 2004 election were that a) He was a genuine war hero who volunteered to serve in Vietnam, and b) He wasn't George W. Bush. Other than that, his support was lukewarm. At best.

But somehow, Kerry has turned the massive disgust and dislike for Bush that generated huge e-support during the 2004 contest into personal support for him. This is a level of self-delusion that is truly remarkable. Sen. Kerry has some admirable qualities, certainly, but as he showed during the 2006 campaign, he is a mediocre campaigner at best, fairly wooden on the stump, not particularly likably, and horrifically prone to idiotic gaffes. Plus, he is a Massachusetts liberal who lost the election. How he can continue to convince himself that he is in any way electable is quite simply beyond me.

Like many others here, I took my name off Kerry's list. In fact, I took it off almost as soon as the election was over. It angered me to think that this guy had the temerity to think that he had my "continuing support" after botching an eminently winnable election.

Senator: go away. Please. Let someone else with a chance of actually winning run for President. Because frankly, sir, that someone is not you.