I’m not a Christian, but I’m certainly not offended when someone wishes me a Merry Christmas, and while blogging will be light for the next couple days, I’d like to wish all my Christian readers the merriest one yet.

There has never been a Christmas when the world is at peace, and this year is problematic, but it was one in which Afghan women who used to be beaten or worse for appearing in public with too much face exposed, and without their men, just voted in an election, casting many of their votes for other women. It is one in which the Iraqi people, despite the totalitarian scum who continue to murder them indiscriminately, continue to register to vote in their own upcoming elections.

Sadly, it is also one in which thousands continue to be murdered and raped, in never-ending wars in Africa, and the traffic in human slavery continues unabated. But as I said, these things have been going on since time immemorial, and if there’s more of it now, it’s only because there are more humans than ever before–not because humans are becoming worse.

Despite that, in many ways, for many millions of people, things are better on this planet than they’ve ever been, and with diligence and courage, we can continue to spread the zone in which people can celebrate Christmas, and other holidays of this solstice season, free from fear and want.

I’m originally from Popland, but I’ve been living in Sodavania for the past quarter century.

And they missed a category. In some parts of the south, it’s actually “cocola.”

The sharp division between the UP and eastern Wisconsin is fascinating. I remember back in the seventies when my cousins moved to Milwaukee from where we lived in southeast Michigan, they told me about having to get used to the new vocabulary (they also called water fountains “bubblers”–weirdos).

I’m curious about the “other.” What do they call soft drinks in New Mexico?

Further thoughts: harkening back to Albion’s Seed, it would seem that both Puritans and Quakers are soda drinkers, whereas the Presbyterians opt for coke. And the Cavaliers seem to be a mix between the two. But which folkway created the pop drinkers? (Note that it really was culturally appropriate to split off West Virginia from Virginia way back when).

I’m originally from Popland, but I’ve been living in Sodavania for the past quarter century.

And they missed a category. In some parts of the south, it’s actually “cocola.”

The sharp division between the UP and eastern Wisconsin is fascinating. I remember back in the seventies when my cousins moved to Milwaukee from where we lived in southeast Michigan, they told me about having to get used to the new vocabulary (they also called water fountains “bubblers”–weirdos).

I’m curious about the “other.” What do they call soft drinks in New Mexico?

Further thoughts: harkening back to Albion’s Seed, it would seem that both Puritans and Quakers are soda drinkers, whereas the Presbyterians opt for coke. And the Cavaliers seem to be a mix between the two. But which folkway created the pop drinkers? (Note that it really was culturally appropriate to split off West Virginia from Virginia way back when).

I’m originally from Popland, but I’ve been living in Sodavania for the past quarter century.

And they missed a category. In some parts of the south, it’s actually “cocola.”

The sharp division between the UP and eastern Wisconsin is fascinating. I remember back in the seventies when my cousins moved to Milwaukee from where we lived in southeast Michigan, they told me about having to get used to the new vocabulary (they also called water fountains “bubblers”–weirdos).

I’m curious about the “other.” What do they call soft drinks in New Mexico?

Further thoughts: harkening back to Albion’s Seed, it would seem that both Puritans and Quakers are soda drinkers, whereas the Presbyterians opt for coke. And the Cavaliers seem to be a mix between the two. But which folkway created the pop drinkers? (Note that it really was culturally appropriate to split off West Virginia from Virginia way back when).

Sixty years ago today began what came to be called the Battle of the Bulge. It was Hitler’s last, desperate attempt to throw the invaders back across the Channel, or to get them to sue for peace, or at the least, to buy time until he could reconstitute his forces. Initially successful, the battle lasted six weeks, through Christmas and most of January, 1945. When it ended, the Allies had broken the back of the German western front, and all but Hitler himself knew that the war had been lost, though it took another three months to finally occupy Germany.

My Red Hat server has not had X running on it for months. Whenever I would upgrade, it would be unable to start the X server, and would give indications of a hardware problem. I bought a new video card for it, with no joy.

I recently decided to upgrade to Fedora. It stopped as it was trying to load the X upgrades, with a fatal error, telling me that it was either bad media (the CD passed a media check), inadequate disk space (it’s an almost-empty eighty gig drive), or a hardware problem. I replaced the motherboard with a different kind, thinking that the problem might be in the AGP section. Same result.

The worst thing is that since it only did a partial install, I can’t boot it any more, except in rescue mode from the CD. All of my data is still there when I mount the partition, so I’m trying to figure out how to back it up and just do a clean install, in hopes that this will finally get me around whatever the problem is. Does anyone have any thoughts as to other options, or just what the issue might be?

[Update a few minutes later]

Is there some way to get it to bypass the X installation, so I can at least complete the Fedora upgrade, and then try to fix X separately? For instance, if I do an install instead of an upgrade, is there some way I could deselect those packages, but still preserve the data in /home?

The idiotic fashion fad of dressing like a gangbanger is (finally) dying.

…for Scott Peterson. I don’t really care that much, except I so enjoy seeing that scumbarrel, Mark Geragos, lose.

Someone has developed the world’s most difficult (but simple) sliding-block puzzle.

You can play it here.

[via Geekpress]

Does anyone know if there’s someone who this should be reported to? Like the FBI?

[Emergency update later]

Do not, repeat DO NOT, enter any info into the linked page!!!!

It is a phishing page, designed to get your EBay password, and most preferably, your credit card info.

I apologize a thousand times for not making it more clear when I posted originally.