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I have linked to Terrorism Unveiled many times. "Athena" is a native North Carolinian and I was able to meet her in person before she went to Jordan in August. She is smart and brave and I have said many prayers for her since she has been in the Middle East. I will say many more for her after reading her latest post. Her latest, along with this post I linked to several weeks ago, offer an incredibly frightening look at the "modern" Middle Eastern youth. Please read the whole thing and pass it along to everyone you know.

The Bush Majority

Patrick Ruffini has the latest Bush vote total numbers and info on how to purchase great Bush Majority gear with slogans like the one below from Cafe Express:

Looking For a Nickname

Kitty needs your help. She is trying to come up with a nickname for the writer at Crush Kerry (soon to be Ankle Biting Pundits) who remains nameless. Please help name the nameless Kerry Crusher. He is currently posting under the name the "writing parter," and that name is too lame for such a cool guy.

Edwards to Tour NC

This is big news -- John Edwards will tour North Carolina in his final days as a U.S. Senator.  Maybe if he had toured NC while he was supposed to be serving as our senator, instead of Iowa and New Hampshire for the past four years,  he wouldn't have suffered such a devastating defeat in his home state. 

UN-ron Update

I have written before that the various U.N. scandals should be getting loads of media attention now -- at least as much as, say, the Scott Peterson trial. In my opinion, Claudia Rosett should be a household name for her coverage of the Oil-for-Food scandal. She reports in her latest article that Kofi Annan's son, Kojo, was "receiving payments as recently as early this year from a key contractor in the oil-for-food program." William Safire adds to the story with his account of a personal conversation with Kofi Annan. This is cross posted at Polipundit.com.

Light Holiday Blogging

I am sorry for the lack of posting over the holidays.  I have had some computer problems and with the holiday guests and activities, I have just not been able to blog.  Please visit Polipundit to get your blog fix, as well as those on my Birds of a Feather list in the left sidebar.  Below is what I posted on Thanksgiving night at Polipundit:

A late in the day (actually evening) Happy Thanksgiving to all the Polipundit readers out there. I waited to blog not only until after the Thanksgiving dinner was over, but until after the turkey, mayo, salt & pepper sandwich supper was over, too. I am thankful today, and everyday, not only for my wonderful family, but also for my wonderful blog family which consists not only of my four brothers here at Polipundit, but also the wonderful friends I have made who read this blog. Thanks so much for your warm wishes and comments and for all the wonderful information you all have provided me with over the past seven months. I am enormously thankful also for my fellow bloggers outside of Polipundit that have given me so much encouragement, inspiration and friendship. I am afraid if I start naming names I will leave someone out since the tryptophan is starting to kick in, but you all know who you are. Thanks to you all. I checked in on the laptop briefly and found that some bloggers have not been as lazy as I have today. Betsy Newmark has a great post on Keith Olbermann's obsession. Athena cooked sweet potatoes (and some other stuff) in Jordan. Not only did the Instapundit cook a turkey on the grill, but he also blogged up a storm today. And last but not least, Poli and Jayson posted some excellent stuff today. If you haven't read it yet, scroll down and read it all. One last observation before I give in to the tryptophan -- the girls and I watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special on television tonight and I was a little startled when the characters talked about God. I had forgotten that in the days of Charlie Brown it was okay for cartoon characters to talk about God. We watched it on ABC and they didn't bleep it out or anything. Maybe the Desperate Housewives channel is throwing a bone to us Red Staters. Or maybe those at ABC realize, as Charles Schultz did, and Power Line pointed out today, for most of the things we are thankful for, we are thankful to God. Thanks be to God, and to all of my family and friends, for a year of blessings and a pretty good Thanksgiving Day at the Byrd house.

Thanks to all for your kind comments posted at Byrd Droppings over the Thanksgiving weekend.  I will have some new posts up by tomorrow morning.  Enjoy the rest of the holiday! 

Special Request

Blogging will be light from me here and at Polipundit over the next few days due to the holidays and because my daughter is having surgery this morning at 8:20 a.m.  I hope that all my readers who pray will say a little prayer for her this morning.  She is having her sixth surgery in her 4-year-old life, but remains the happiest child I have ever seen.  This procedure is relatively minor, compared to the others, but is still scary since anesthesia is involved.  I really do appreciate all of your kind words and thoughts.

UPDATE:  Thank you so much for your kind emails and comments.  My daughter is doing great.  She breezed through the surgery, which is better than I did.  It took her a little longer than usual to wake up and I was a nervous wreck until she did, but she woke up smiling and laughing, so all is well.  She will need a follow-up sometime in the next year, but hopefully we are done for a while anyway.  We saw a horrible wreck on the way home, probably due to the thick fog that has yet to clear.  I said a prayer of thanks that we were not involved in it, and a prayer for those who were.  Even when times are tough, we have plenty to be thankful for.  As Polipundit often tells me -- we should be thankful everyday that we live in the greatest country in the world.

Molly Kate

The following is an update I got recently on an incredible young lady named Molly Kate, who I wrote about in October:

I bring you great news from Arizona, where Molly Kate continues to improve daily.  Right after surgery was very scary, as she had terrible seizures...we all are still scratching our heads over that.  For about a week, the pain was very bad, in her head and spine, but it's gradually going away.  A big turning point for her, personally, was November 3rd, laying in bed watching the post-election hysterics, and when it became apparent President Bush had locked it down, she let out a whoop, albeit a weak one!  And when my very proper (much more than I) daughter called John Edwards an "ass" during his "concession" speech, I knew we were on the road to recovery.

I said she was an incredible young lady!  If you missed her story in October, please follow the links in this post  to catch up.  It is an uplifting story with a White House connection.  Thanks to Molly Kate and her mom, Catherine, for sharing her story.

Go to PatriotArt.com for great political cartoons, including the one above.

The Return of The Amazing Race

The Viking Pundit shares my love of the Amazing Race.  Sorry, but I neglected to link to this last week.