Closing in on 2006

In a few of my recent web-wanderings I have run across these tidbits:

http://acertainslantoflight.blogspot.com/ - some interesting comments on the immigration problem.

This reporter "gets it":
http://www.newsminerextra.com/iraq/blog/
As always, Dr. Hanson knocks it over the fence:
http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson200512290821.asp

An interesting case of "idealistic wanderlust run amuck":
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/29/D8EQ72LO3.html

First Things has something both erudite and funny:
http://www.firstthings.com/

As usual The Anchoress brings something pithy to the conversation:
http://theanchoressonline.com/

And finally in explaination of the photo: Its the Galaxy cluster in Perseus. As http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ points out:

"Here is one of the largest objects that anyone will ever see on the sky. Each of these fuzzy blobs is a galaxy, together making up the Perseus Cluster, one of the closest clusters of galaxies. The cluster is seen through a foreground of faint stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Near the cluster center, roughly 250 million light-years away, is the cluster's dominant galaxy NGC 1275, seen here just left of picture center. A prodigious source of x-rays and radio emission, NGC 1275 accretes matter as gas and galaxies fall into it. The Perseus Cluster of Galaxies is part of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster spanning over 15 degrees and containing over 1,000 galaxies. At the distance of NGC 1275, this view covers about 1.5 million light-years. "

The wife and I have quite a busy New Year's Weekend planned, I may not get anything posted before 2006. In case I don't, have a happy, prosperous and blessed New Year.