From the vomitorium

The AP reports on the Amsoc victory lap:

The occasion was moving for many who'd followed Kennedy, who died in August.

"He's having a merry Christmas in Heaven," Sen. Paul Kirk, D-Mass., appointed to fill Kennedy's seat, told reporters after the tally. Kirk said he was "humbled to be here with the honor of casting essentially his vote.

Kirk, you pretentious old blowhard, Christmas Magic is for tiny children, and the dead are denied the vote, by proxy or otherwise.

The Christmas of Ought-Nine

Yukina roves the land. She may make me miss Christmas with my kids, but she ain't gettin' my Life Force.

Real Government Reform

This is not totally original,of course, but that doesn't mean it's a bad or outdated idea:

1. On January 1-3 of each year the Gallup organization shall poll the citizens of the Republic with a single question: "What was the stupidest law passed by the congress last year?"

2. When the winner is determined, the names of all representatives and senators who voted on the prevailing side of said bill shall be placed in a hat from which the names of one (1) senator and one (1) representative shall be drawn.

3. Said senator and said representative shall be shot.

4. States shall be encouraged by generous federal tax exemptions to emulate the federal reform program among their own legislative bodies.

Flying home for Christmas?

Travis McGee on a winter flight to O'Hare:

Passengers reached up and put their lights on. The sky had lumps and holes in it. It becomes tight sphincter time in the sky when they don't insert the ship into the pattern and get it down, but go around again. Stewardesses walk tippy-dainty, their color not good in the inside lights, their smiles sutured so firmly in place it pulls their pretty faces more distinctly against the skull-shape of pretty bones. Even with the buffeting there is an impression of silence inside the aircraft at such times. People stare outward, but they are looking inward, tasting of themselves and thinking of promises and defeats. The busy air is full of premonitions, and one thinks with a certain comfort of old Satchel's plug in favor of air travel: "They may kill you, but they ain't likely to hurt you."

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"One Fearful Yellow Eye" P. 1