Sleepless in America

While the rest of us were unwrapping presents, going back for seconds, and pausing to consider the Meaning of the Season, there were some out there in this great nation for whom this was just another day in paradise:

San Francisco's vast population of professional protesters were out in force last night, carrying out their decade-long protest against the automobile: No Holiday For Critical Mass

San Francisco resident Lloyd Fishback blew into his hands Christmas night and wondered if it was too cold to ride naked in Critical Mass.

Fishback, 48, eyed the eight motorcycle cops across the Embarcadero Plaza. It was a windless 53 degrees, and with so few bicyclists showing up before the 6 p.m. start time, he worried it would make it easy for the cops to single him out and ticket him for public nudity.

"It only takes a few blocks to warm up," he said to a friend on roller skates, who, like Fishback, was weighing the pros and cons of nakedness.

Fishback and his buddy were among a small group of die-hard participants - around 50 - who showed up for the ride on the last Friday of the month, just as bicyclists have done faithfully since 1992.

The ennui and alienation underlying leftist protest movements has never been symbolized better than by a 48 year old man bicycling naked on Christmas.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the sky, a Muslem terrorist tried to blow up an American-bound airliners with a below-the-belt bomb. Incident on NWA Flight 253

In what was described as an act of terrorism, a Nigerian passenger attempted to ignite an incendiary device aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Friday as the plane began its approach for landing, federal officials said. The plane landed safely shortly before noon local time.

The suspected would-be bomber suffered burns as the result of his attempt, and two of the other 277 passengers reported minor injuries, authorities said. FBI agents were investigating the incident, which a White House official said was believed to be terrorism.

“He was trying to ignite some kind of incendiary device,” said a federal anti-terrorism official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. “He lit himself on fire and he’s suffered some burns.”

The legalistic deep thinkers on the Left - another group for whom whom everyday is a day that must be spent advancing The Cause - are already out in force declaring this guy to have no connection to Al-Qaeda because he doesn't appear to have "operational" links to that fine organization. Who cares? Al-Qaeda is more than just a group jihadists; it is an ideology that anyone can learn and adhere to. You didn't have to travel to London to hang out with Karl Marx in order to be a Marxist, after all. Conceptually, the Left has no problem declaring a murder to be a Hate Crime if the killer yells, "N*****! B****! F*****!" while doing the deed. If the guy says he's a member of Al-Qaeda, that's close enough.

And. Ralph Peters spares a moment to thank this nation's guardians, both those who keep us safe, and those who keep us in their prayers. Our Christmas Guardians

Today, our troops serve under far more dangerous and demanding conditions than we did during those Cold War years of scrounging spare parts and training ammo. Their enemies are immediate and deadly, not just the stuff of intelligence estimates. The world is meaner now.

So here's an inadequate Christmas thank-you to all who wear our nation's uniform today. They'll take care of each other out there at the back of beyond. Soldiers do. But let's spread our gratitude a bit wider this year. Nowadays, our splendid troops get the support they deserve from their fellow citizens. But many others will serve and protect us on Christmas day -- closer to home.

Spare a holiday wish for the Coast Guard, the service that does more with less than any other. The Coasties will be on duty on the icy winter waters. And the undermanned Border Patrol will be out there on another kind of front line, in the high desert of Arizona and along the St. Lawrence. National Park and Forest Service Rangers will experience their silent nights in the wilderness.

And it's not just the feds who pull Christmas duty while the rest of us celebrate. Your state and local police will be out there, God bless 'em. Your fire department has to be ready on Christmas. And, sadly, emergency medical personnel can always count on a busy day on Dec. 25.

Then there are the admirable Americans (of various faiths) who volunteer their time or even dedicate their lives to those less fortunate. They'll feed the hungry and shelter the homeless today, serving on a human front line that runs through all our lives.

My father, a rough-hewn, two-fisted man who'd seen life's ups and downs, claimed that the Salvation Army was the best army ever fielded. They'll be "on duty" today, living the authentic meaning of Christmas.

So from those of us fortunate enough to have no greater worry than getting the right proportion of whisky in the eggnog . . . here's a heartfelt Christmas thanks to all those Americans, here and abroad, who will sacrifice their day for a greater good.

As you can see, Good and Evil never sleep.