Cruising the strip through Kandahar in six Toyota Land Cruisers (all of which had tinted windows and refrigerators) with his three wives and six children, Omar lived in a compound against the backdrop of a picturesque mountain range, featuring air-conditioning, a mosque, a fountain with benches, a sculpture of a mountaintop, custom-designed wall units and a Western-style kitchen replete with a dishwasher.

No word on if his George Forman grill or Nordic Track had arrived.

Another example of how the U.S. should watch our backs among our 'friends' in the Arabic world. An independent translation of Osama bin Laden's most recent videotape uncovered information omitted from the government's translation, questioning the role of Saudi Arabia.

In ABC News' translation, bin Laden's visitor claims he was smuggled into Afghanistan by a member of Saudi Arabia's religious police, and tells bin Laden that several prominent Saudi clerics had praised the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Defense Department had to know that the media would get another translation, so why not put this in the transcript initially? Is there really a fear of embarrassing a supposed ally, that they'd hide the fact from those of us who need to know that trust is a thin rope over there?

Columnist Steve Chapman notes that America held up pretty well after Sept. 11:

"The most striking fact about our response to this crisis is not how badly suspect groups (such as Muslims, Arabs, and other dusky-complexioned individuals) have fared but how well. One poll found that American attitudes about Muslims improved after the attacks. In March, 45 percent of those surveyed expressed a positive view of Muslims. By November, 59 percent had a favorable opinion of them. ...

"Free speech is alive and well. Though dissenters may be disregarded, they haven't been persecuted. Civil liberties advocates are justified in asking why the government has detained hundreds of noncitizens without showing they pose a danger. But compared to what happened in past wars, that's a small matter. The gross overreactions that some people feared haven't emerged."

No surprise that Senate Democrats blocked a bill on the economic stimulus legislation that the House had passed earlier, meaning that at the earliest, there will be no such bill until Congress reconvenes in late January.

The Associated Press reports that several aides to congressional Dems said that they concluded there would be no political cost to block the measure.

In other words, such a bill could be a boost to Americans, but would be seen as a positive for Republicans and President Bush, not Democrats. Just watch, folks, over the next year the Left is going to be so partisan and negative, that you'll see why they'd rather that the recession lasts through 2002 so that they have an issue to run on in the mid-term elections. They don't care about the health of the economy or the country, only that they don't have absolute power anymore.

As a history buff, I have to side against President Bush over his Executive Order which restricts the release of presidential papers, in his administration's reinterpreting of the Presidential Records Act of 1978. The act made presidential records the property of government, for release 12 years after a president leaves office.

If Bush (or more likely, his staff) is worried of embarrassing anyone in office who worked in the Reagan administration, then he needs to remember that they work in public office, and if anyone did something wrong then they deserve to be held accountable. And I don't know of any constitutional provision against being embarrassed.

Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone may be nicknamed the Mailman, but he needs to stop delivering stupid comments that make him look like an idiot. When asked if he would be an Olympic torchbearer, he said yes, on the condition that he was assigned a prime place to carry the torch:

"If we can work it out, I look forward to doing it," said Malone, who was on the 1992 and 1996 U.S. basketball teams that won gold medals. "I don't really have the desire of running it across the desert somewhere for a tenth of a mile."

Oh yeah, Karl? Count yourself in the minority and sign up for a reality check, you big doofus.

Vince Carter, Toronto Raptors superstar, after former teammate Charles Oakley knocked him to the floor with a forearm hit, said: "It's just like when your mother beats you real bad, and you think she hates you, and you want to call the police. I don't think he did it intentionally. He asked me if I was all right."

Um, Vince, I don't know about discipline in your home, but 'round here nothing is supposed to be like that.

Although their countrymen of Monty Python warned against it, a British project sought the world's funniest joke. After 100,000 votes on 10,000 entries, the winner involves a famous fictional detective. Read at your own peril:

      "Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go camping, and pitch their tent under the stars. During the night, Holmes wakes his companion and says, "Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you deduce."
      Watson says: "I see millions of stars, and even if a few of those have planets, it's quite likely there are some planets like Earth out there, there might also be life."
      Holmes replies: "Watson, you idiot. Somebody stole our tent."

I hope you didn't read every word, because all it took was a sentence and I was in the hospital for two weeks.

I'm beginning to wonder if the constant harping on an economic downturn isn't just a media Chicken Little response to a traditional slow down.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is running above the fold stories about a flat unemployment rate in the city, 3.9%, when it used to be that 5% was considered full employment. And while traditional retailers moan that the holiday sales were only just over two percent above last year, online sales exceeded expectations, up 36% from last year, beating a forecast of a 31 percent boost.

So just chill, folks, and this will go away in due time as all slowdowns do (although the Dems will claim we're in a recession all the way through next year's elections, now matter what the figures say).

It looks like all this New Age gobbledygook being spread by teachers and Leftist leaders about making sure our children have good self esteem, is actually having a negative effect.

As parenting expert John Rosemond reveals, a study of self esteem conducted by professor Roy Baumeister of Case Western Reserve University found that people with high self esteem tend to have low self control. Criminals, he said, do not have low self esteem but just the opposite, and act out because they feel they deserve whatever they don't have, and the ends justify the means.

In the November 2001 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review, research shows that while self esteem among America's youth has been on the rise for 30 years, accomplishment and responsible decision-making has been on the decline. Why?

"Because the sort of self esteem many of America's kids are bloated on is not based on a realistic appraisal of their strengths and weaknesses; therefore, it does not lead to accomplishment. Rather, it is based on unconditional, uncritical acceptance of whatever they do and think; therefore, it leads to mediocrity."

Thinking politically, this sounds a bit like socialism to me. If you don't have to achieve anything to get something out of life, then why would you go through the effort?

Rosemond notes that: "Contrary to psychological myth, praise by itself does not produce high achievement. High expectations coupled with accurate, supportive feedback produce high achievement, which merits praise, all of which leads to positive self-assessment: confidence in one's own ability to surmount challenge. ... The problem, as this latest research illuminates, is that America's schools have lowered expectations, and dramatically so, for more than thirty years. At the same time, they have upped the level of "positive reinforcement." The fact is, low expectations accompanied by inaccurate positive feedback (i.e., unconditional praise, inflated grades) produce low achievement and high self-esteem.

I'm glad that the Red Sox were sold, if only because GM Dan Duquette should get the heave-ho next spring. But I'm not happy about one overlooked buyer among the consortium: The New York Times Company.

How the heck has the beloved Sox been given to something related to our heated rivals? Yuck. That's just repulsive. I think Bostonians should protest this bit by throwing copies of the paper in Boston Harbor.

This month, Delore Morrison was in an awkward position at a high school basketball game in Fort Calhoun, Neb. She is the wife of a head coach, and her 29-year-old son heads the other team. Making it all the more interesting is that she can't blame the ref for a win or loss, because her 32-year-old son made the calls on the court.

How would you like to have been at Christmas dinner following that!

I think Rudy Giuliani's done a superb job for New York City following Sept. 11. But Time's choice of him as "Person of the Year" is misguided.

In their attempt to save face against controversy, they refused to give the title to the person who, for better or worse, affected the world in 2001: Osama bin Laden.

At worst, they could have changed the title to "Newsmaker of the Year," if they felt the "Person of the Year" title sounded like an award. Either way, Guiliani was merely responding to bin Laden, and President Bush should have also merited consideration over the outgoing mayor.

Scanning the TV ad wire: If McDonald's is sending its best to Salt Lake City for the Olympics, then I'd advise you to stay away from the restaurant and its rejects in February!

The International Olympic Committee said Athens, Greece, still faces a "race against the clock" to make up for repeated delays and deliver venues on time for the 2004 Summer Games.

Someday, I really hope 'they' stop saying that Atlanta didn't deserve the '96 Olympics, a city that put forth a gold medal effort to have every venue ready years ahead of schedule.

The latest Vents from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Does proper flag etiquette require a person wearing Stars and Stripes underpants to lower them at sunset?

Seen on a U.S. Marine bumper sticker: "It's God's responsibility to forgive bin Laden. It's our responsibility to arrange the meeting!"

Should Osama bin Laden be Time magazine's man of the year? Sure. Posthumously.

It's no wonder science scores of high school seniors are slipping. One student was asked what the periodic table was and he said, "It's my favorite place to sit in the cafeteria."

Isn't it surprising that 700 attorneys have signed a protest against the proposed military tribunals? Might it have something to do with the fact the tribunals won't be on TV with attorneys as co-stars?

Judging from those latest stills of bin Laden, it looks more like he's bin Dying.

Airport security solved: Every person boarding a plane must wear only a hospital gown. No more X-rays, no more sniffing dogs needed.

Nobody thought about shoes as a weapon? Apparently they didn't watch any Bond movies.

Political correctness offends me, so can we get rid of that?

Even refugees are trying to get away from the French.

I was going to buy a copy of "The Power of Positive Thinking," but then I though: What good would that do?

The early results are in, and it looks like I will retain my title as the world's worst Christmas present wrapper.

It works like this: A Democrat is elected and taxes and spends us into a recession. Then a Republican is elected and gets blamed for it.

Being with my in-laws is like a day at the beach. Normandy Beach.

The Encyclopedia of Comics says that it seems that "Mary Worth" is written by aliens who have had humans described to them, but have never actually met any.

Southernism #4222: "Well, bless her heart!", which really means "Boy, she's as dumb as a post."

The four stages of life: You believe in Santa Claus; you don't believe in Santa Claus; you become Santa Claus; you start to look like Santa Claus.

If one interior decorator is not as good as another, does that make him an inferior decorator?

My wife added a small Wal-Mart store to her miniature Dickens Christmas village. Within two days, all the little village shops had closed down.

Batman's Words of Wisdom: "I'd rather die than beg for such a small favor as my life."

Homer quote: "Now go on, boy, and pay attention. Because if you do, someday, you may achieve something that we Simpsons have dreamed about for generations: You may outsmart someone!"

Random site: The New Year -- A look at celebrations around the world and the history of the day. Can also go here if you want a more cheerful site.

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