What do people do the day after Christmas? Shop, eat, clean, work?

Here's an open thread to discuss whatever topic you find of interest today, from what's in the news to the holidays and anything else.

Six year old JonBenet Ramsey was killed on Dec. 26, 1996. She'd be 18 today. Her parents, who were mercilessly vilified in the media and the victims of the most obsessive, unfair tarring I can ever recall, were finally absolved by the current D.A this year.

Now, Boulder is getting a new D.A. (Colorado has term limits on district attorneys) and he's promising to re-evaluate what to do with the case, perhaps sending it back to the police.

What to do with it? Close it. Get over it. The Boulder police will forever be tarnished by their handling of the case, there's no reason to give them another chance. Absent a DNA match or a valid confession, it's history.

Boulder has had a rapist/attacker running around for weeks. [More...]

What will the CIA do to win friends among the Afghans? The Washington Post reports almost anything -- including handing out little blue pills to help the warlords with "sagging libidos."

Officials say these inducements are necessary in Afghanistan, a country where warlords and tribal leaders expect to be paid for their cooperation, and where, for some, switching sides can be as easy as changing tunics. If the Americans don't offer incentives, there are others who will, including Taliban commanders, drug dealers and even Iranian agents in the region.

The usual bribes of choice -- cash and weapons -- aren't always the best options, Afghanistan veterans say. Guns too often fall into the wrong hands, they say, and showy gifts such as money, jewelry and cars tend to draw unwanted attention.

What's next? Stress relievers, anti-depressants, "pep pills", Ambien?

For a variety of reasons, there has been little holiday spirit in my house since Sunday. I'd rather not mention why for a few days as it's sad news.

For Xmas Eve, the TL kid and I made a great lasagna from scratch, which we drank first with gin and tonics, followed by a red Shiraz, as we watched Outsourced. He liked "Burn after Reading" much more than I did, but he also liked "Outsourced" (which I really liked.) It was midnight by the time we finished, and we called it a night. We also made a lot of bacon and egg sandwiches. And put out fancy cheeses and flatbread. For desert: Home baked chocolate chip cookies with Pistachio Gelato.

Now that it's late and time for bed, I'm going to mix up one of Hunter Thompson and Anita's favorite drinks, "the bif", a shot of Chivas Scotch filled partially with Bailey's Irish Cream. No sleeping pill needed after that.

Am I the only one glad this holiday is over?

Did anyone else spend the holiday watching movies? I did -- but on my blue ray player, not in theaters. Among those I'd recommend:

• For "thrillers": TransSiberian (the most intense movie I've seen this year) and Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, about WWII and Shanghai.
• For comedy: Outsourced
• Indies: Broken English

I also saw Mama Mia, but I must not have been in the mood as my mind wandered and it was way too energetic and cheerful. Meryl Streep was great though. I also was very lukewarm on Burn After Reading.

What did you watch this holiday? Did anyone see Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Doubt or Valkyrie? [More...]

A moving video I hope everyone can connect with. [Through Playing for Change, a movement to connect the world through music. ]

Harold Pinter has passed away:

Harold Pinter, the British playwright whose gifts for finding the ominous in the everyday and the noise within silence made him the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation, died on Wednesday. He was 78 and lived in London. The cause was cancer, his wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, said on Thursday.

. . . In more than 30 plays — written between 1957 and 2000 and including masterworks like “The Birthday Party,” “The Caretaker,” “The Homecoming” and “Betrayal” — Mr. Pinter captured the anxiety and ambiguity of life in the second half of the 20th century with terse, hypnotic dialogue filled with gaping pauses and the prospect of imminent violence.

RIP, Harold Pinter.

Merry Christmas everyone.

This is an Open Thread.

If you're in a reading rather than listening mode, here's an old favorite, from The Onion, How the Weed Delivery Guy Saved Christmas.

Happy Holidays to all our readers and visitors, from all of us here at TalkLeft. I'll be back to blogging in a day or so.

Update: The Toussie pardon has been withdrawn “based on information that has subsequently come to light.” The "information" that escaped the notice of Fred Fielding appears to be the bad publicity generated by pardoning the son of a GOP donor without awaiting the outcome of the Justice Department's customary review.

original post: Our unusually unforgiving president issued a miserly 19 holiday pardons yesterday, including one given posthumously. More usefully, President Bush "commuted the life sentence of a convicted methamphetamine dealer in Iowa."

Bush has granted 190 pardons and nine commutations so far, less than half the number granted by Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, the other most recent two-term presidents.

Missing from the pardon list (so far): Scooter Libby's full pardon, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, the president himself ...

[more ...]

As if there weren't enough lawyers in the country already:

A new law school opening next fall in Southern California is offering a big incentive to top students who might be thinking twice about the cost of a legal education during the recession: free tuition for three years.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the new law school at UC - Irvine, is trying to give the school instant top-tier status by offering full scholarships to the 60 best and brightest applicants. Only the inaugural class will get a free pass, so go for it, TalkLeft readers. This is your chance to get the law degree you've always wanted, for free. (Our many readers whose law degrees were purchased the old fashioned way -- with borrowed money supplemented by menial jobs -- have permission to wince.)

This is an Open Thread.

Tonight we get A Visit From Old St. Nick:

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

[MORE . . ]