Merry Effing Christmas!

With the budget deficit growing and President Bush promising to reduce spending, the administration has told representatives of several charities that it was unable to honor some earlier promises and would have money to pay for food only in emergency crises like that in Darfur, in western Sudan. The cutbacks, estimated by some charities at up to $100 million, come at a time when the number of hungry in the world is rising for the first time in years and all food programs are being stretched.

Perhaps if Dubbyuh could tap his corporate pimps and johns for some cash for aiding those in need rather than having sumptuous inaugurals topping the $40 million mark, he wouldn't have to cut this aid. Or perhaps if he rolled back a tiny fraction of the $89 billion in tax cuts he wants to make permanent, he wouldn't have to cut food aid.

But no, it is more important to bow and scrape to the money machine that is politics today than it is to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to the homeless, clothe the naked, comfort the sick, or ease the torment of the imprisoned. So much for Christian virtue. It's just another tool in the political bag to be trotted out when the opinion polls drop.

Dubbyuh's religious conversion was one of convenience, not conviction. Were it otherwise, we would see it reflected in his words and actions, but all we hear are words unsupported by action or conviction.

So, despite the horrors we see loosed upon the world, and my being non-Christian, I ask all who read this to remember the true meaning of Christmas...I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year.