Now this story scares me. A lot.

I always thought it to be a terrible coincidence that my parents’ wedding anniversary (April 20) happened to also be Hitler’s birthday and the day of the Columbine massacre. In addition, I recently learned that a friend had given birth to her son on September 11, 2001. But just when I thought my recent wedding had escaped unscathed by such unfortunate timing, I learn today from the Washington Post that it will also be remembered as the day rapper legend Ol’ Dirty Bastard passed away. (You can thank him for popularizing the urban phrase, “N—a please!”) Making things worse, the toxicology report now states he had cocaine in his system. Who knew?

And so, with every wedding anniversary to come, I’ll be pouring a glass of champagne for me, my wife, and ODB.

Last month I sang the praises of XM satellite radio–nothing less than a beacon of hope for those who have tired of obnoxious five-minute long commercials. And I still love my XMRadio and continue to explore its more than 120 stations. Currently two stations are playing Christmas music around the clock, presumably from now until New Year’s. This is great but it is not enough. The Christmas genre is actually quite broad and these channels simply cannot accommodate everyone from Duke Ellington and Tchaikovsky to Run DMC and Merle Haggard. The result has been chaos. On one night I was enjoying the London Symphony Orchestra’s rendition of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” followed by a beautiful, almost ethereal performance by a woman soloist singing “Ave Maria.” I glanced at the display to find out who this angel was and to my horror discovered it was Celine Dion. Feeling ill to my stomach, I immediately switched to the Alternative ’80s channel, listened to some INXS, and cleansed my spirit.

P.S.: Thanks to Galley reader “jk” for pointing out XM has four stations devoted to Christmas. But how about one for jazz and crooners?

Bill Kristol doesn’t need me to defend him from Mark R. Levin, but I’ll do it anyway. Just ’cause.

Levin predictably assails Kristol for having the temerity to question the infinite wisdom of “The” Donald Rumsfeld. In many corners of Bushworld, the president’s nectar of infallibility trickles all the way down to SecDef.

The crux of Levin’s argument is: “At no time does Kristol, or his Senate friends McCain and Hagel, explain where the additional troops will come from. It’s very odd that those who supported the war from day one now complain about troop strength, when surely they knew at the time that we didn’t have another 100,000 to 150,000 troops to deploy to Iraq.”

Kristol has, of course, been agitating for more troops since five minutes after the dawn of time. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but Levin should peruse it nonetheless:

* November 19, 2001: “Right now we simply do not have enough troops or weapons to carry out these missions. We will need to recruit more soldiers and procure more weapons–or risk losing the war on terrorism. But more troops cost money. As Thomas Donnelly of the Project for the New American Century has noted, recruiting, training, and equipping an additional 50,000 active-duty soldiers for the Army alone will cost an additional $15 billion per year. Right now, the president’s total request for an increase in defense spending is $20 billion. There will have to be much more.”

* February 4, 2002: “In the coming months and years this war will require the U.S. armed forces to fight wars both big and small in a variety of different theaters–in East Asia and Central Asia, in the Persian Gulf, in the Horn of Africa, and who knows where else. . . . Victory in the larger war will require not only that the United States rid other countries of dangerous terrorists and the governments that support them, but that we also take on the difficult task of providing long-term security afterward, to allow nation-building to proceed in those countries where terrorists once found haven. . . . It will require increasing the number of men and women under arms.”

* September 1, 2003: “It’s true that, unfortunately, we don’t have many troops to spare. . . . We should have begun rebuilding our military two years ago. And it is true that increasing the size of our forces, both in Iraq and overall, is unattractive to administration officials. But this is the time to bite the bullet and pay the price.”

There’s more where that came from.

In fact, Kristol was urging more troops way before 9/11. In July 2001, Kristol and Robert Kagan wrote an editorial calling on Rumsfeld to resign so as to focus attention on “the impending evisceration of the American military.”

All hail the blogosphere. Spout first, think second, research some other time. [Okay, now that’s out of bounds; Levin’s a great guy. –ed I know, I already feel guilty about it. Sorry Mark.]

This article will bring much sadness to Galley Friend M.G.

Teaser: “Lindsay isn’t the skin mag type: It’s `not who she is’ . . .”

Kristol has a fantastic, dead-on piece about Rumsfeld in the Washington Post. If Republican dominance is going to last, Republicans are going to have to do a good job of policing their own ranks. John Podhoretz’s excellent work on Tom DeLay and Kristol’s on Rumsfeld are encouraging signs.

Galley Friend D.B. sends along a link to author/blogger Thomas P.M. Barnett. High marks for self-regard intertwined subtly with self-promotion:

“The prophet is never welcome in his birthplace, and you can never go home again.

“Then again, Washington, which we abandoned almost 7 years ago (itch, itch), seems to like me more and more the longer I stay away.

“This morning I got a call from David Ignatius. After what he saw in Central Command during his trip last week, he’s convinced PNM is the little book that roared. He was amazed to find out that neither the Post or Times had reviewed it!

“So he’s devoting his entire op-ed column tomorrow in the Post to correcting that oversight.

“Then later in the day I hear from C-SPAN: the decision has been made to broadcast the brief taped at the Highlands Forum on Monday night, 20 December, at 8pm EST, with my live, call-in segment to follow from 9:30 to 10:30pm. Then the whole thing gets run again once or twice, with probably one of them coming immediately after the first showing in order to catch the West Coast crowd (the 11pm to 2am EST slot).

“Am I holding my breath? No. But I will be working out plenty between now and then to tighten my gut as much as possible.

“Got the first serious edit of the Wired piece I wrote for the February issue on the question of how to fight this Global War on Terrorism using the out-of-date rule set called the Geneva Convention of 1949. They rewrote the first paragraph quite a bit, as editors often do, but it was just a juicier restatement of my original opening (I suck at openings, I will admit, and as Mark Warren constantly reminds me {he rewrote the opening of the upcoming Feb article in Esquire too}). The rest of the piece reads fundamentally the same. All in all, I would have to say that my first writing assignment with Wired was really quite easy, meaning I’d love to do it again.

“Of course, having pieces in the Feb issues of both Esquire and Wired should lower my standing at the college to new depths.

“Really, what was I thinking writing for such magazines with wide circulation?”–Thomas P.M. Barnett

Galley Reader C.L. sends in this classic:

“THE CURSE OF 2001: It ended in typical fashion. I made it to the Lord of the Rings, only to find it was sold out. After a Mickey D’s Number 2, I rented a movie and watched it with the beagle. At approximately 10.45 pm, my toilet exploded. It had been dripping for a couple of days but this was hardly the weekend to call a plumber. I figured I would find one after New Year’s. Then as I plopped myself innocently down on the porcelain, a fizzing sound behind me became a gushing sound and water was suddenly pouring into my apartment like a geyser. I tried to turn off the valve through the torrent – but it was the valve that was broken. My wonderful neighbors, enjoying a New Year’s Eve bash next door and upstairs, took control and started bailing the water into my trash can. It was filling up every 45 seconds or so. One of them finally shoved a pen into the pipe to stop the flow. Pity it was a red ink pen. It exploded too, and my neighbors look a little pink today. We tried again with a ballpen. More success. After about half an hour of my acting like Shelley Winters in the Poseidon Adventure, I called a friend in construction and he showed up like a Guardian Angel in a few minutes and managed to locate the cold water switch in my apartment. (I know, I know. I’m clueless). Old Faithful subsided, and I gave my savior some Moet and took him out to a dance-club for the night. I got back around 6am, crashed and woke up an hour ago. I have a hangover, but still have no water and it’s New Year’s Day and even the gym is closed. I’ll use my next door neighbor’s shower. Thank God I live in a condo building. My only consolation is that this particular piece of comedy can still be psychologically attributed to 2001. May the new year get better.”–Andrew Sullivan