With this group, there should be a front runner?

You’re a Jewish Zen Master?

Why are there no front runners in this election?

I just asked you that question.

Why would you even be interested?

Because I want to vote and there are so many candidates.

Yes. Like television.

This one sentence from a Jonah Goldberg article made me laugh:

In Iowa, where residents are told every day for a year that the fate of the world hangs on their vote, fewer than 1% of the population attends the caucuses. And Iowans are supposed to take “the process” extremely seriously.

[That's two sentences.-ed. Okay. Big deal. It's late.]

Continued best wishes of the season. (I’ll save my “I hate Iowa and New Hampshire” diatribe for later.) Meanwhile, if you haven’t already seen it, this is pretty funny, for an old joke.

Growing up, I always liked Christmas better than Hanukkah. It seemed like more fun. Since I was of an agnostic turn of mind from a very young age, this was not difficult. Religion did not come into it. Besides, my mother – who loved Christmas – assured me it was a pagan holiday based around the Winter solstice and trees. We always got more presents on Christmas and Hanukkah was rather perfunctory.

Later, as I learned more about the oppression (and annihilation) of my ancestors, I became more ambivalent. At times I wanted to celebrate Hanukkah only.

Now I say – both are good. Presents good, songs good, food and drink good, ski vacations good (usually), Lakers against Phoenix good, etc., etc.

To those few readers wasting time on the Internet today – have fun! Thanks for joining me here and on Pajamas Media. Whatever happens next year – it’s going to be interesting.

I believe this article in the Jerusalem Post was published today as a reminder to Israel’s enemies:

If a nuclear war between Israel and Iran were to break out 16-20 million Iranians would lose their lives – as opposed to 200,000-800,000 Israelis, according to a report recently published by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which is headed by Anthony H. Cordesman, formerly an analyst for the US Department of Defense. The document, which is largely theoretical due to the lack of verified knowledge in some areas – specifically in terms of Israel’s nuclear capability – paints various scenarios and attempts to predict the strategies of regional powers, as well as the US.

It goes on to talk about blowing up Syria (another 16 million deaths), Cairo and the Aswan Dam (the latter if Egypt entered the fray). No telling how man corpses that would yield – and this is without fallout.

A great thing to think about on Christmas Eve. This is not the greatest year ever, is it? It reminds me, yet again, of what the winner among our presidential candidates will have to deal with in January 2009. Forget Social Security or immigration, how about Armageddon? And now we learn Iran is planing 19 reactors… good luck to all of us.

I must say my Pajamas colleague Bill Bradley has a lot more faith in the NIE than I do – or apparently the British, French and Israelis. [You don't believe the CIA? They were so good on the Soviet Union and 9/11.-ed. Don't belabor the obvious.]

… an iPod Touch, if you already have or don’t want the phone… other prizes too… for predicting the top three Iowa and New Hampshire finishers in order in both parties. Ties will entire a drawing, assuming anyone gets all twelve right (I don’t think I could). Give it a shot. It’s fun. Click here.

This is a year when I’m not in love with any candidates in either party, but the two I like least (discounting Paul and Kucinich) are Obama and Edwards. There’s little I find more repellent than multi-millionaires battling each other over the votes of the “common man.” Which one really “walks the walk,” as the dimwitted cliché goes, in their mutual populist crusades? Well, open up your bank account, fellas… and while we’re at it, let’s have a look at those tax returns… hope they don’t include too many of those deductions inaccessible to the poor and middle class.

[These two guys would make great talk show hosts.-ed. Absolutely - and they look it.]

Continuing my one word reviews (WATCHED or EJECTED) from my stack of Academy Award freebies. As readers know, I violated the one word rule from the get-go. Oh, well….

Enchanted – WATCHED, but only because Madeleine was with me. This one wasn’t as good as the reviews. This is the kind of movie Hollywood made more often years ago and better then too. The new version misses the requisite Star Power for this kind of thing (among other faults).

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - WATCHED!!! This is the first movie I have seen among this year’s crop that merits an award. In fact, I doubt if I will see anything better. Julian Schnabel’s film of the extraordinary experience of French journalist J-D Bauby is a masterpiece – or something close to it. Bauby had a form of stroke – cerebro-vascular accident – which paralyzed him, and then wrote a book by blinking his one good eye. See this movie. Visually one of the greatest films in recent memory. It takes you inside the point of view of a stroke victim – deeply sad but riveting.

I am about half way through Kenneth Timmerman’s Shadow Warriors, which unfortunately has the same title as a Tom Clancy book that it does not resemble in the slightest. Timmerman’s book (published in November) is, in essence, an attack on forces within the State Department and the CIA that worked to sabotage the Iraq War from the outset. And, as we have all seen, they did a good job of it.

As for evidence, Timmerman provides plenty of details. How accurate they are, I am in no position to know, but they feel right – at least most of the time. I would not review this book, however, because I do not believe myself to be qualified (as opposed to, say, taking pot shots at Vanessa Redgrave). But I do recommend reading it.

I’m not much for head-to-head polls this far ahead of the election (or even nomination) but Republicans ought to take note of the poor showing of Mitt Romney in this Zogby Poll.

It seems I’m the subject of a bit of a brouhaha today. The Roger Simon who writes for The Politico cast some aspersions on the way Fred Thompson donned a fire hat on the campaign trail in Iowa and some people thought this was me (casting the aspersions). Others defended me, saying I would never do something like that.

Can’t say. In all honesty, Roger Simon (Politico) is a much more experienced political reporter than I. We’re the same age, but he has been doing it for decades. I spent most of those years as a hack in Hollywood because people told me you made more money writing scripts and detective novels than from journalism. (I was a leftie in those days, but, like many lefties, as you may have noticed, had a strong capitalistic streak.) Anyway, came 9/11 and I ended up doing a little opinion writing of my own and (once in a while) some reporting.

I still make no claim to journalistic expertise, but if there’s one thing I know about it’s hats (see logo above). I bought and tried on many a Borsalino over the years in a vain attempt to brand myself as a detective writer. I’ve even purchased a fair number of Kangols and various fedoras.

So as a tried and true member of the Hat Squad, and having viewed the video, I can say this: I don’t know what the hell the other Roger Simon was talking about.