Mark's Rant # 13 Dec.23, 2007 Merry Tossmas

Mark, I get a kick out of reading your stuff. Very insightful, and humorous. Glad to her Steven will be home soon.
Please tell him we are thinking about him, and appreciate his service to our great nation. I know you must be
proud. Anyway, look forward to the blog. It has been an honor knowing you as a friend all these years.

Bill Kincaid

From: Mark Hall Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2007 2:38 PMTo: Undisclosed-Recipient:;Subject:

Mark's Rant # 13 Merry Tossmas, I hope you all get your stockings stuffed. Special Mega "Holiday" issue.

Well, I think I will start a blog. I have had so many requests to do so. I have never even looked at a blog so this may take me a little while. I think that we are right at 100 subscribers and if I move to the blog format for issue 14 then there will be no need to cancel your subscription you can choose to read or not to read. We still only have the one guy that canceled before he was actually added. I still want you to forward me your emails as you can see below I used them from 3 sources and they all get credit.

I appreciate all the forwarding. Rant #11 is still passing through police departments in the State of NC and apparently is being appreciated by the fine men and women of Law Enforcement. Hope that helps the next time I'm doing 60 in a 45. Make sure to look at all the Christmas issue contains. I think all the different colors below indicate a different attachment or link.

This issue of the rant has some things I have harvested from past emails. They don't require a lot of Rant. Hey it's Christmas, give me a break. Thanks go out to Skip Morgan for a couple of the contributions. Skip sent me the Stuck on Stupid picture below. Remember, I think that quote came out of the Katrina hurricane when some dumb AP reporter, (that was redundant wasn't it?) kept grilling a military man about something, and he asked the reporter if he was stuck on stupid. My only question is, looking at the picture, how do you tell which one is stuck on stupid? Thanks also to Skip for another new subscriber.

The Mark Seavey video is a classic and came from Skip also. Seavey does a great job of silenceing Congressmen Jacka_s Murtha PA. and Jim "Dumba_s" Moran VA. Make sure you watch it. "You can't handle the truth" congressmen. By the way Walter Chicken Strip Jones from R.NC District 3 has never responded to my email. He also has a conservative challenger for his seat. I will try to get you some of that info in Rant # 14.

http://www.citizenlink.org/Stoplight/A000005834.cfm

I hope this link works for you. If not you can cut and paste it in your internet browser and go to the Merry Tossmas video. My brother Steven sent this. It's pretty funny and true, especially if you take Christmas Day off and celebrate with frinds and family. If you don't then you may be the happy holiday sort.

Further down the page is one that has been around a couple of years. I think I got it from Tim Blackwell first a year or so ago. I got it from Cliff Fincher and maybe a couple of others this year. It is a classic also. Seasonal Greetings to my Democrat and Republican friends. Enjoy.

At the very bottom of the page is The W in Christmas that came in from my friend Emil Germanov out in California. It's a pretty good read also, and thanks Emil.

Mark's Rant:

So Merry Christmas! Here at Mark's Rant I really don't care if you are offended by Merry Christmas, as a matter of fact, if you are offended then I'm offended that you are offended, so there!

My brother Steven is on his way back from Afghanistan for his two week leave and hopefully will be in sometime on Tossmas Eve. Thanks to all who have said a prayer and asked about him, and a very Cherry Mistmus to you and our's, and a snappy poo ear too. That's for my brother.

See you next year on the Rant!

For My Democrat Friends: "Please accept, with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country, nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. And without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes. By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher."


For My Republican Friends: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


The "W" in ChristmasEach December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience.I had cut back on nonessential obligations - extensive card writing, endlessbaking, decorating, and even overspending.Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the preciousfamily moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas.My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting seasonfor a six year old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's
"Winter Pageant."I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of theproduction. Unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher.She assured me there'd be a dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation.All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then.Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise.So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in ten minutes early, founda spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room, I saw severalother parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the studentswere led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, satcross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to performtheir song.Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holidayas "Christmas," I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercialentertainment songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer.So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly takenaback by its bold title.Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens,red sweaters, and bright snowcaps upon their heads.Those in the front row- center stage - held up large letters, one by one, tospell out the title of the song.As the class would sing "C is for Christmas," a child would hold up theletter C. Then, "H is for Happy," and on and on, until each child holding uphis portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love."The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a small,quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down - totallyunaware her letter "M" appeared as a "W".The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one'smistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall,proudly holding her "W".Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continueduntil the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together.A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen.In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebratedthe holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purposefor our festivities.For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:"C H R I S T W A S L O V E"