Well, our Jr. got his Buzz and Woody figures for Christmas. Life-sized, just like the movies.

And they came just in time; for a few days after Christmas we needed some extra manpower.

Bracken Jr. had spent a few hours at Recess Playroom, and now back at home the realization came that Blue One, the best, fuzziest blanket in the world—a blanket that would make Linus Van Pelt himself green with envy—had not returned.

“We must fetch it now,” we agreed.

Knowing this mission would certainly require some reinforcements, Jr. quickly recruited the most trusty cowboy and courageous space ranger there are; “Woody come, Buzz come,” he says.

Yes, great idea. This could be a dangerous adventure.

So, we proceeded to the Pulsemobile, my short little man with a Disney/Pixar-inspired partner in each hand. Onto the Playroom, to recover our comrade—who has been known as Blue long before the restaurant located next to Recess Playroom took the name as its own . . . Blue One was recovered without incident. To infinity and beyond!

What a year 2011 has been for villainous, caricatured foreign dictators; Osama, Muammmar and Kim Jong-il are all out.

Mr. Parrish predicts 2012 may see the demise of Cuba’s Castro. We shall see.

Do you ever wish you could just hibernate from New Year’s Day until about Mid-March? If there’s a plus side to sickness, being sick makes one appreciate health even more.

So, if Israel needs the help of the U.S. military so much (evidently the assumption the U.S. operates under, at least), why don’t we colonize her? Have the Israelis pay federal taxes that go towards the U.S. military. They will be the 51st state.

It shall be known as Jewish Carolina. While we’re at it, let’s become one with Mexico; we could share infrastructure, jobs and vacation destinations. Fight the border war by eliminating the border. South Texas, perhaps. And take back the Philippines, a little Asian influence in the empire building.

The major news outlets, already pretty hard to take seriously, have further damaged their own credibility in “reporting” on the Republican primary. It seems they favor and block out certain candidates.

Besides that, their coverage in general is ridiculous and more about the strategies used by the candidates to get elected just as much as any kind of issue that has real impact on people. Banks and financial sector enterprises are large advertisers with the TV networks. Perhaps those types of business try and pressure to have Ron Paul marginalized because they don’t want limitless supply of interest free money from the Fed to play around with cut off. Is that it? Is Boeing behind it? I don’t know. I really am perplexed by the bias, but it certainly appears present.

After some study of our nation’s formation and history, it seems over the last century the people have repeatedly handed over their liberty out of fear. Some evil force comes along—Nazis, drugs, communism, terrorism—and people are willing to surrender money and liberty. Citizens have allowed this to happen and snowball until we all find ourselves nearly fallen slaves to the military industrial complex.

“There’s bad guys out there, we better amend the Constitution so we can seize more of our own citizens’ money,” they said in World War I, when the U.S. Federal income tax was created.

“Plants will kill you, and you people aren’t intelligent enough to protect yourselves,” they said as the DEA was formed.

“Better let us have access to all of your communications and the right to search and detain whomever we want,” Obama says now.

“They try and build a prison, for you and me to live in,” says System of a Down.

Those who oppose the madness are the ones the elites label unpatriotic traitors. Today, people choose to submit in order to make things easier for their families, rather than rebel to truly change the system for our children’s children. It’s a choice of convenience. We live a comfortable lifestyle. Most Americans have food on the table and a heated house in which to sleep.

A solitary individual, a renegade with nothing to live for could make the choice to make a statement, shoot some IRS or DEA agents, and possibly be remembered as a patriot or martyr for doing so. However, the family man or woman with a spouse and kids is generally not making life better for the family by truly challenging the government. Who wants to stir up trouble with a bloated, corrupt government when one has the the immediate necessities of life and family?

So rather than revolt, you must vote them out.

It takes a long time, but that’s the way the system is set up. It takes a while to get the beast moving.

I want to pass on to the next generations a land of opportunity, not a land of entitlement. A land where there is no IRS, DEA, Federal Reserve, national debt, 2 million people behind bars and ridiculous tax codes. The land of the free!