If you're Christian, merry Christmas!

If you're Jewish, happy Chanukkah!

If you just want to be with your family and share the joys of the holiday season, happy holidays!

Finally, if you believe we athiests have declared war on Christmas, read Michelle Goldberg's column in Salon, then Frank Rich (reg.req.) in the New York Times, then reflect on why any majority group in a democracy, who control the government and the press, would persist in believing that the minority were oppressing it.

The saga of the Webcam continues. At least it's back on its perch.

Yesterday I posted about news articles I found funny, that included a Chicago Tribune report that Mayor Daley was musing about hosting the 2016 Olympics.

Today the Tribune's architecture critic wrote a surprisingly detailed column about it, offering a list of pros and cons.

Now, forgetting for a second that just a moment ago I posted about the U.S. paying Iraqi media paid to run news stories, what do people think? Should we try to host the 2016 Olympics in Chicago?

Molly Ivins helps us detect fake news planted in Iraqi newspapers by U.S. soldiers.

Photo of me engaged in my favorite activity that doesn't involve Anne.

MSNBC this hour: Alito argued Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

Let the games begin...

For no reason that I can determine, an unusual number of today's Chicago Tribune headlines tickled my funnybone.

If something were going to go wrong in my office, you'd expect it would go wrong the day I left. You'd be right. Dang.

Every day, my dad walks Reggie, his Austrailian shepherd, along the beach. Today, however, it rained.

The Red Streak ceases publication after Thursday's issue. Maybe RedEye will follow? One can hope.

Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly suggests that the wiretap scandal (reg.req.) may be worse than it appears:

It seems clear that there's something involved here that goes far beyond ordinary wiretaps, regardless of the technology used. Perhaps some kind of massive data mining, which makes it impossible to get individual warrants? Stay tuned.

Read the full story from Drum.

Praise be!

MSNBC is reporting this hour that the judge hearing the Dover, Pennsylvania, school board case has ruled that Intelligent Design is not science.

I think Doonesbury's strip last Sunday put the case into perspective quite nicely.

Tell me: would it be an appropriate response to the neo-Creationists to demand that we preach evolution in their pulpits? Just wondering.

Update: Full story from the New York Times (reg.req.)

Teran Loeppke, Boycott Organizer at UNITE HERE Local 1 in Chicago, sent us some information about the picket line at the Congress Hotel on South Michigan Avenue.

There's a lot going on this week as Anne and I prepare for the holidays. I expect to have some really interesting things to report soon. But I don't have them yet.

I will say, -18°C (-2°F) is really quite cold.

One thing of interest: Apparently there's a storm off the Pacific Coast that's generating some heavy surf. I'll be in Carmel, Calif., the day after tomorrow. I hope to have some photos of really big waves by Thursday.

Last week, I posted a short chart of how sunsets are getting later. Today, because I wanted to know for myself, and therefore I can't imagine anyone else not wanting to know also, I've figured out when certain sunrises and sunsets will occur for the next year.

Four stories from past week (two of them today) sadden all of us who love American democracy.

For a couple of years, Inner Drive has had a webcam pointing out the window. We've moved twice since the webcam first went online. From time to time, we've adjusted the webcam slightly. And, every so often, the webcam adjusts itself.

The San Francisco Chronicle today ran a long-overdue correction:

A story Nov. 15 about mathematical references on "The Simpsons" TV show mistakenly said that 1,782 to the 12th power plus 1,841 to the 12th power equals 1,922 to the 12th power. Actually, 1,782 to the 12th power plus 1,841 to the 12th power equals 2,541,210,258,614,589,176,288,669,958,142,428,526,657, while 1,922 to the 12th power equals 2,541,210,259,314,801,410,819,278,649,643,651,567,616.

(Linked from today's Romanesko. In the "Anne" category because she actually does know this kind of thing.)