On the subject of right-wing moles: No, I don't think there are a lot of right-wing moles. But I take the issue of election manipulation very seriously. I don't necessarily think that Democratic defeats can be chalked up to that, but I do think that it's possible to undermine liberal democracy by appointing people through election fraud, and that other organizations besides rival domestic political parties can do this for their own ends. Like maybe somebody who organized scores of people over a period of years to support less than two dozen men to commit murder by aircraft.

The threat of an attack against the liberal democracies on their own turf has been discussed everywhere, usually framed as a death threat of massive proportions. I agree, thousands of dead in the streets would be a horror. The threat of the collapse of liberal democracy by corruption of its central premises, i.e., representative government, civil liberties, and free elections, is only touched on. Yet this is the objective of our enemies: not the death of Westerners, but the death of the West. If they can kill a few million infidels, that's gravy. They want to make sure that their star is the brightest one in the sky. The only way to do that is to extinguish the ones that outshine them. Destroy the alternatives, and they will "light" the world.

I read that the terrorists are too stupid to win. This observation is based on a lack of understanding or approval of some of their baser cultural practices. This is not a true observation. Their leaders possess a subtle and well-schooled intelligence. Destabilizing elections as part of a plan to eliminate the Western way of life is not beyond their aim or comprehension.

If not many people vote (which they don't), and the public isn't paying much attention, and anyone who speaks up about plausible threats, whatever their personal motivations might be, is instantly written off as a crank or a partisan without looking into the meat of the threat, the electoral system can be debased and the government corrupted in ways that we haven't seen since Tammany Hall. Krugman described real security problems. Can we address them without worrying that the Democrats are trying to set up a play somewhere?

And so what if they are? Would eliminating security problems help or hinder their case?

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Thanksgiving is a day I cook, starting at 6:30 in the morning. Well, also the day before, which is baking day. The girls like to be in the kitchen, and we made an extra pie this year. We do everything from scratch with fresh ingredients, including the pastry, except a few canned items like pineapple and the jellied cranberry sauce "with the rings on it like God made it"*. I forgot it one year and you would think someone had died.

It's good to live near farms.

The menu:
-roast turkey, of course, with sage bread stuffing
-mashed potatoes with giblet gravy
-cranberry waldorf salad (Mom's recipe)
-steamed green beans with toasted almonds
-baby carrots and pineapple in cinnamon sauce (Mom's recipe)
-jellied cranberry sauce WTROILGMI*
-nut bread (Nana's recipe)
-to drink, a choice of sparkling cider, fumé blanc, milk or water
-for dessert, pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream, apple pie with cheddar cheese
-coffee or tea (lapsang suchong, a lovely, smoky Chinese variety)
-Corvoisier or Bailey's

[recipes available on request :D ]

I try to do the fall colors thing with the vegetables. At Winter Solstice, all the vegetables are red, green and white.

Before dinner we have cocktails, usually a drink called a Cape Codder: one shot each of cranberry liqueur and vodka over ice, with ginger ale for bubbles. I've had 'em with cranberry juice. -bleah-

And of course, the dinner music: "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie, because part of it takes place on Thanksgiving. We've listened to it ever since we heard it on the car radio many years ago on the way to my father-in-law's on Thanksgiving Day at noon. The children laughed their heads off, so it's been a part of Thanksgiving ever since. It lent an interesting cachet this year.

Regards--
Mary Anne