Christmas is here...

A lovely recording of The Carol of the Bells.  I found this last year, and I recommend the group highly. 

A slightly different take, combining Carol of the Bells with God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. And again, find and listen to everything by these guys that you can.

 And then for something very different.

And one last Maddy Prior, this time with the Carnival Band. I haven't watched the video, I just listen.

And in the formerly "Great" Britain....

This.

Having actually read the article it isn't quite as bad as it sounds.  Maybe.

At least the Islamists are only protesting the sale of alcohol by other Muslims.  Of course we don't know if those drinking the alcohol are Muslim, which would seem to be a much worse crime by sharia standards.

But why the Brits put up with a small minority trying to take over their country I don't know.  Why TPTB think appeasing Muslims will save them, I don't know.  Or are they all secret Muslims?

At least some Islamic "scholars" and imams are coming out against the protest, though I find it hard to believe that all of them actually disagree with the protesters aims.  Taqiiyah (however you want to spell it) suggests that a good Muslim will lie if he or she thinks it will ultimately further the spread of Islam.  And pissing off the locals to the point where they are protesting, violently or not, against Islam isn't the best way to spread it.

How any woman can hold a sign saying that "Islam is the perfect system for all mankind" escapes me.  Unless they are actually using the PC feminists usage where mankind only refers to the male of the species.

And people over here (LGF, I'm looking at you) wonder why groups such as the English Defense League are gaining traction.  If I lived in Britain, I'd probably be joining them too. They may be a "hate group", whatever that means, but at least they don't want to see us all become subject to islam and sharia.

Question for the masses...

For all three (if that many) of my readers:  do teens and young adults get into 'cutting' on their own, or is it because they have it drilled into them that this is a sign of mental issues and that they shouldn't do it?

Not that it's an issue at the moment, thank god.  Younger daughter was in full meltdown mode last night; whether it's a cause or a symptom of the two weeks of nearly constant migraine, I don't know.  She was on my bed, crying hysterically, and snapping a rubber band on her wrist.  I asked if it hurt and she said it didn't really.  So I asked if it made her feel better, and her answer to that was "not really", and then she added, as matter-of-factly as one can when one is on a crying jag, "It's better than cutting, isn't it?"  Given that I had just voiced that exact same thought in the exact same words to myself less only a few seconds before brought me up a little short.

I'm sure that teenagers have had angst and other emotional issues for years, being human beings and all.  But when I was growing up and felt much the way she does right now, I would never have thought of doing something to physically hurt myself, but was that because I hadn't heard about it?

She already has an appointment with her psych tomorrow about the meds, which obviously need some adjusting, and I'm going to see about making an appointment with her talk therapist as soon as I finish writing this.  Child has a group session this evening but she doesn't want to go because the regular therapist is away this week and she doesn't like the replacement group leader.  On the other hand she was telling me that her only friends are from group, none from school (which isn't quite true), so maybe this morning she'll have changed her mind and decided to go so she can see them.

Probably just as well I'm unemployed at the moment.  Who ever suggested that moms should stay home when the kids are little and go back after they're in elementary school because they don't need us as much either didn't have children, or had incredibly, abnormally mature, well-adjusted ones.  Pretty much everyone I know agrees with me that as they hit high school, at least if they are girls, they need mom more, not less, than they did when they were in grade school.