The Grandthings Celebrate Another Anniversary

Ells and Eloise and about half their grandkids celebrate another year of wedded bliss with -- what else? -- more food.

Nay (and the Folks) Made the Trek

Jenee, who is stationed in Iraq, surprised Keith and Merrianne for Christmas and the whole clan came to Pomeroy for the holidays.

Our Only Christmas Accomplishment

Hours of tedium. Gallons of Diet Coke. One lousy puzzle.

A House Full of Wiks

Walla Walla, Washington, Wiks take P-roy by storm.

Christmas With Viv

Good looking grandkids, Vivian.

It's CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Enough breakfast. Time for presents.

What a crock. Fitting that these two should receive these gifts. Yes?


Looks like Rachel Ray, Jr., got what she wanted.


Does this make me look fat?


Ma Field, the English teacher, gets another book.


Pa Field reads the latest marching orders from the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy from our friend Amanda Carpenter.


Though Ma & Pa Field were thrilled at first, we had to let them know that those bibs are actually for the baby.


Stay classy, San Diego.


Hammer!


Nothing says "Happy Birthday, Jesus" like this:

Old People and Technology

Darn digital camera. Why do they have to make the screens on these things so small?

Christmas Cookies. Flippin' Sweet.

Because none of us is fat enough, let's make Christmas cookies.

Christmas Eve in Pomeroy

At Ma & Pa Field's house in P-roy. Ignore the ugly guy on the right. We're hoping the baby takes after her mommy.

The Required Christmas Letter (and Final Photo)

We finally got a picture with Sanka we could use. Here it is, followed by our Christmas letter (an annual obligation that no one actually reads).

Dear Family and Friends,

There’s nothing quite as exhilarating as trying to write a thoughtful Christmas letter one week before the big day and, at 31 years of age, attempting to remember 10% of what happened in your life over the last year, all the while knowing full well it’s a crapshoot that your missive will even make it to your intended recipients by the 25th of December.

With those considerations, we’re writing to you with thoughts of the future foremost in our minds and the past serving merely as prologue (plus, it helps fill space).

We’ve been here in Northern Virginia for quite a while now – much longer than we had anticipated. Chris has been here for more than seven years, and Jayci for more than five. But having committed our lives to Christ before we met (and our life together now) and having sacrificed our will to His, we’ve found that where we expect to live and work is not as important as where we are expected to live and work. Thankfully, the tiny town of Occoquan, Va., where we live sits on the quiet Occoquan River and is a welcome respite from the daily adventures of Washington, D.C.

Jayci recently finished her fifth year with The Carlyle Group and is doing well in her investor-relations role. She works closely with international investors in the Asia and Japan funds and must use her gifts of organization and patience to make everything come together. Over the next year, she anticipates some exciting new projects and traveling opportunities.

Chris is wrapping up his fourth year at Human Events and Eagle Publishing. For the last year or more, he has been managing editor for Human Events, a national weekly conservative publication, and two sister weekly political publications – the Evans-Novak Political Report, with Bob Novak, and Winning the Future, with Newt Gingrich. He is looking forward to some big things that will be coming at these publications in the New Year.

But the big news in the Field household has nothing to do with houses or jobs or politics (thankfully). We are expecting our first baby this summer. Appropriately for this far-right-wing family, our firstborn is due on Flag Day (June 14). We don’t know yet if we’re having a boy or a girl, and we don’t know if we’re going to find out -- but we’ll be sure to let you know if we do.

Though we are definitely excited, we’re not sure we’re as excited as the grandparents-to-be. Jayci’s parents, Keith and Merrianne, are old hands at the whole grandparenting thing (baby Field will be their third) and are looking forward to another grandchild to spoil. But Chris’s folks, Mike and Janie, can hardly contain themselves. And Chris’s grandparents, Ells and Eloise Bartlow, aren’t any better. (Our dog, Sanka, knows something is going on, but she hasn’t quite figured it out yet. She’s really not very smart.)

We also want to take this opportunity to tell you about a place that is a major part of our lives. In November 2005, we, our friends Ron and Helen McCormick, and Todd McCormick saw God fulfill our dreams and provide an opportunity to open the doors of The House, a leadership center for middle and high school students that is located here in Northern Virginia, just minutes from our house.

The House is a not-for-profit, after-school facility for tutoring and mentoring youth in our area, and though it is not a “faith-based” organization, it is our faith that is the basis for what we’re doing. We wish we could tell you in this letter all the stories of the changed lives of the students who have come through our doors. We wish you could hear the sounds and see the joy in The House as teenagers enter the building to be a part of something unique to this part of the country. We wish you could visit us and come shoot hoops, play Xbox, eat pizza, and just laugh with these young people. They are not simply our tomorrow – they are our today.

This is a project we are able to be a part of outside of our jobs, but Ron, Helen and Todd, along with Chris’s younger sister Roni, are working at The House full time. One day, we hope to be able to move from our jobs in Washington, D.C., and take on full-time responsibilities at The House.

Our families have joined us in seeing the lives of young people, many of whom don’t have a lot of options where they are now, changed forever. For example, this year, we and Jayci’s family – her parents and her sisters’ families – decided that instead of buying gifts for each other we would take that money and help The House continue its impact on today’s teenagers.

As a couple, we have accepted the challenge to raise $2,000 per month for the next year. It may seem a daunting task at first, but remembering that our Father owns “the cattle on a thousand hills” puts it all into proper perspective. If you feel you would like to be a part of this, we would love to have you join us in the journey. Contact us any time and let us tell you the stories. (You can also find out more about The House at www.TheHouse-Inc.com.)

We’re looking at the future with hope – hope for a new life that God is entrusting to us, hope for the lives of the young people we seek to change, hope for those who haven’t any . . . yet.

We love you and wish you a Merry Christmas,

Chris and Jayci

Why Dogs Are Rarely Included in Sane People's Christmas Pictures

We thought it would be nice to have one last family Christmas card picture before the baby arrives. As you can see, Sanka doesn't get the whole "picture-taking" thing.

Merry Christmas from Jenee

Jayci's sister Jenee wishes everyone a Merry Christmas from Iraq.

Project: Dream Big Breakfast With Santa

The House's Project: Dream Big hosted Breakfast with Santa for the kids of Hampton, Va. It was an absolute hit. We really impressed people that we were able to pull the Coliseum Santa (a.k.a. Grandpa Keith).

Nice Pants

While we were waiting to see Santa, Jayci said she had to have a picture of this.

C, J and Baby Kickin' It With Ol' Saint Nick

Soon-to-be-Grandpa Keith sitting at his Hampton post with his favorite son-in-law and #3 (and the kid who has yet to arrive).

Learning to Share

Sanka shares a drink with her new best friend, Ginger.

O-Town Thanksgiving 2006

Sanka loves to clean up Aunt Roni's messes while she tries to help prepare dinner.

I'm here for you, Mom.

The whole family and the obligatory in-front-of-the-fireplace pic with Santa/Grandpa.

Full. Sleepy. (Stinky.)

Constitutionally Ignorant NY Times Blasts Right to Bear Arms, Rails Against Self-Protection

(From Chris, originally on the Right Angle.)

As if they were actually trying to be wrong, the New York Times editorial writers put together a nonsensical, anti-2nd Amendment editorial that appears in today’s paper.

In their editorial titled “A Parting Shot From George Allen,” the Times’ lefty writers blast a bill presented by Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen “that would allow the carrying of concealed weapons in national parks.” The bill, now in the hands of the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee, is one the Times hopes “will die the miserable death it deserves.”

The Times then goes into their repeated mantra that the 2nd Amendment is not really understood by the American public. Yes, Mr. and Mrs. American Citizen, you’re too dumb to understand the meaning of the 2nd Amendment. Says the Times:

America’s confusion about the Second Amendment is now nearly total. An amendment that ensures a collective right to bear arms has been misread in one legislature after another -- often in the face of strong public disapproval -- as a law guaranteeing an individual’s right to carry a weapon in public. And, in a perversion of monumental proportions, the battle to extend that right has largely succeeded in co-opting the language of the Civil Rights movement, so that depriving an American of the right to carry a gun in public sounds, to some, as offensive as stripping him of the right to vote.

Of course, we’re dealing with a liberal paper whose understanding of the 1st Amendment should call into question their understanding of all things constitutional.

The Times believes that the “right of the people to keep and bear Arms” actually should be infringed.

This is the same liberal group who reads the 1st Amendment’s “free speech” clause to include porn, flag-burning, strip-tease, and obscenities, but not political “speech” such as campaign spending. They believe the 1st Amendment’s protection of “the free exercise” of religion from Congress means that Congress should create laws barring religious exercises. They believe that that 1st Amendment’s protection of the press should include the press’s revealing national security secrets.

The editorial goes on to blast those of us who believe we actually would be safer by being armed:

Senator Allen’s bill is, of course, being cheered by the gun lobby, which sees it not as an assault on public safety but as a way of nationalizing the armed paranoia that the National Rifle Association and its cohorts stand for.

As someone who was mugged at gunpoint out in the open at 8pm near the fountain in the park just outside the Capitol Building and the Russell Senate Office Building, I can tell you that the Times editorial team hasn’t the foggiest idea of what they’re talking about. I can tell you that I would have felt (and would have been) much safer if I had been allowed to actually carry a gun.

First, the criminals, who probably saw me as a law-abiding citizen who would not be carrying a sidearm in the anti-gun District of Columbia and, therefore, an easy mark, would have had to think twice about pulling their stunt.

Second, as John Lott and others have shown, simply brandishing a gun often deters crime.

But the Times anti-gun team doesn’t leave Americans without hope. They have an idea of how we can be safer in our national parks: more spending. Get a load of this nonsense:

If Americans want to feel safer in their national parks, the proper solution is to increase park funding, which has decayed steadily since the Bush administration took office.

And in case you didn’t understand that the Times doesn’t like you if you believe the 2nd Amendment is just as legitimate as the rest of the Constitution, here’s how they close out their ridiculous editorial:

To zealots who believe that the Second Amendment trumps all others, the parks are merely another badland, like schools and church parking lots, that could be cleaned up if the carrying of private weapons were allowed. The concealed-weapon advocates are doing an excellent job of sounding terrified by “lonely wilderness trails.” But make no mistake. Senator Allen’s bill would make no one safer. It can only endanger the public.

Happy freakin’ Thanksgiving to you conservative rubes who just don’t get it.

Don't Ask...

Sanka, as everyone who has ever met her knows, is one's of God's strangest creatures. Here's how we found her bones laid out when we came home one night.

O-Town

For those wondering just what Occoquan looks like:

Going After Syria Is Vital

(This post from Chris first appeared on HE's Right Angle.)

As Israel attempts to stop Hezbollah with a campaign of air strikes in Southern Lebanon, world leaders seeking to stem the violence must squeeze Syria—a leading sponsor of Hezbollah along with Iran—to help end the fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border.

In yesterday’s New York Times, Thomas Friedman wrote:

To me, the big strategic chess move is to try to split Syria off from Iran, and bring Damascus back into the Sunni Arab fold. That is the game-changer. What would be the Syrian price? I don't know, but I sure think it would be worth finding out. After all, Syria hosts Hamas's leadership in Damascus. It is the land bridge between Hezbollah and Iran, without which Hezbollah can't survive. And it is the safe haven for the Baathist insurgents in Iraq.

Our Human Events editorial on Tuesday said:

Hezbollah, created by Iran and nurtured and supplied by both Iran and Syria, is used as a weapon by these two anti-American, anti-Israeli regimes. Without the support of Syria and Iran, Hezbollah is out of business.

Moreover, Syria and Iran are responsible for Hezbollah’s recent attacks on Israel because—at a minimum—they supplied the weaponry for the attacks and then cheered the attacks on when they happened.

If President Bush and the international community fail to convince Syria to stop Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel, further violence is likely to spread throughout the region—including into Syria. The Wall Street Journal on Monday noted that “some observers ... worry Israel may decide that the only way to rein in Hezbollah is to attack Syria and possibly Iran,” and quoted Israel security cabinet member Isaac Herzog saying, “We place full responsibility for this crisis on Syria and Iran.”

If the Middle East is to avoid all-out war, Syria must take action on two fronts.

First, Syria must stop its support of Hezbollah.

It is no secret that Syria provides not only financial support to Hezbollah, but also material support, and allows Iran to support the terror group through Syria. According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report titled “Syria: U.S. Relations and Bilateral Issues” dated June 22, 2006:

Syria continued to permit Iranian resupply via Damascus of the Lebanese Shi’ite Muslim militia Hizballah in Lebanon. Syria admits its support for Palestinians pursuing armed struggle in Israeli occupied territories and for Hizballah raids against Israeli forces on the Lebanese border, but insists that these actions represent legitimate resistance activity as distinguished from terrorism.

Among the many problems Israel faces in its fight against Hezbollah is the lack of control at the Lebanon-Syria border. According to the The Wall Street Journal:

That area, which includes the vast Bekaa Valley, has long been one of Hezbollah’s main conduits for bringing its missiles into Lebanon. Large stretches of it remain unguarded and open to smugglers, suggesting Hezbollah may find a way to replenish its missile stocks.

Hezbollah should have no problem getting missiles from one of its lead sponsors. The CRS report, summarizing Syria’s WMD programs, notes:

Syria has one of the largest missile inventories in the Middle East, consisting of several hundred short-to-medium range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.

In a lunch conversation Monday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush noted the need to get Syria involved in ending Hezbollah’s aggression: “What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s--- and then it’s over.”

But without the force of the international community, Syria is not likely to give up its support of Hezbollah. Since the start of this most recent crisis in the Middle East, Syria has strongly defended the actions of Hezbollah and blamed Israel for the problems, even though other Arab governments have criticized the terrorist organization’s actions, specifically the kidnapping of Israeli troops.

The Associated Press reported that at a meeting last weekend of the Arab League Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal “called [Hezbollah’s] actions ‘unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible,’ telling his counterparts: ‘These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we cannot simply accept them.’”

Second, Syria must release its hold on the Lebanese government.

In 1976, Syria sent forces into Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. According to the CRS report, though Syria’s troop levels in Lebanon have dropped from nearly 40,000 in the late 1970s to approximately 14,000 by early 2005, Syria still exercised a “controlling influence over Lebanon’s domestic politics and regional policies.”

Under apparent pressure from Syria, Lebanon’s parliament, on Sept. 3, 2004, extended pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud’s six-year term by three more years. The day before the vote, as noted in the CRS report, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1559, which called for “a free and fair electoral process in Lebanon’s upcoming presidential election ... without foreign influence” and called for “all remaining foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon.” Syria’s UN ambassador disagreed with the resolution, claiming that Syria was in Lebanon at the request of the Lebanese government.

Protesting the extension of Lahoud’s term, the CRS report reveals, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri resigned his post and joined an opposition group demanding the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Hiriri was assassinated in a car bomb explosion in Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005. The next day, though Syria and the pro-Syrian Lebanese government denied involvement, the U.S. ambassador to Syria was recalled by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. On February 23, President Bush insisted that Syria pull both its military and intelligence personnel out of Lebanon.

Syrian President Bashir Assad, under growing pressure from the international community, began withdrawing Syrian forces. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reported on May 23 that the UN had confirmed Syria’s withdrawal of military forces, but could not confirm that all Syrian intelligence personnel were removed.

In October of last year, Annan, according to the CRS report, “noted that other requirements of Resolution 1559 remained to be implemented, particularly disbanding and disarming Lebanese and non-Lebanese militia (notably Hizballah and several Palestinian groups) and extension of Lebanese government control throughout all of the country” (emphasis added).

The CRS report continues:

Although Syrian forces had departed Lebanon before the Lebanese parliamentary elections in late May and June, 2005, some observers think Syrian officials may be trying to circumvent the effect of the withdrawal by maintaining their influence through contacts they have acquired over the year in the Lebanese bureaucracy and security services. While anti-Syrian candidates secured a comfortable majority (72 out of 128) in the new parliament, the strong showing by a largely Shi’ite Muslim bloc in southern Lebanon resulted in the reelection of a pro-Syrian parliamentary spearker (a Shi’ite post under Lebanon’s unique system), while the pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud remains in office.

The question now is how does the international community pressure Syria to take end its support of Hezbollah and release its grasp on the Lebanese government.

On May 17, 2006, following the suggestion of U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton to “highlight the areas of deficiency in Syria’s performance under [UN Resolution] 1559,” the Security Council passed Resolution 1680. From the CRS report:

The resolution calls on Syria to prevent movement of arms into Lebanon, ‘strongly encourages’ Syria to respond positively to the request by Lebanon to delineate their common border and establish full diplomatic relations, and calls for disbanding all militias inside Lebanon.

The United States has already imposed sanctions on Syria, including prohibitions on aid and restrictions on bilateral trade, because of its status as a state sponsor of terrorism, as determined by the U.S. State Department. But many U.S. allies continue to enjoy trade with Syria and decline to stand up to Syria.

President Bush must continue to hold a hard line with Syria by using every legislative and executive provisions at his disposal, including the Syria Accountability Act he signed on Dec. 12, 2003, which imposes sanctions against Syria unless it stops supporting terrorism, withdraws from Lebanon, ends its development of WMD, and stops backing terrorist activity in Iraq. He also needs to continue to lead the international community in the recognition that Syria continues to yield influence over Lebanon and supports anti-Israel terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, and in convincing President Assad that the best interests of his country are vested in Middle East peace.

Ketchum Klan

During the trip to Idaho to help the Montgomery parents with their move to Nampa, we met up with Ryan, Angie and the girls.

Two Stunningly Handsome Guys

Scout and Uncle Chris chillin' at the hiz-out.

Uncle Chris, the Jungle-Gym

Quality time with the niece and nephew. Abby and Scout -- two of the greatest kids around.