Ally has been turning out the posts lately. Despite the gloominess of some of the posts, one hopes that she is posting and ranting because life is good.

For our gun-nut readers, I recommend “Gun Ownership.” A question for my fellow ministers: since I am the only Minister to have snuffed out life with a firearm, does that qualify me as an honorary gun nut? Just askin’.

“Looking Inside” shows the perils of honesty. I had a similar situation as a teenager. I knicked a car pulling out of my parking space. No one saw me. I could have driven away, but I parked the car, went into each store in the strip mall and asked around until I found the owner and confessed. Since it was a minor scrape, I assumed the person would say not to worry about it. The woman, of course, made a huge deal out of the scratch. I offered to pay for the repair because I knew that it would be less than the deductible and any report would make my insurance go up. But she insisted on going through the insurance company. She reported a set of dents on the other side of her car. Luckily, my insurance company was a bit dubious about how I could have managed to damage two sides of her car and denied the claim. Lesson: even though you are honest, not everyone else is. The fact that Ally was honest when it was likely to be (and was) financially ruinous, speaks well of her character. She may think she would take a different path if she had to do it all over again, but your humble Smallholder doubts it.

Finally, read the post on the Holiday Blues and send her a cheery e-mail.

Holiday Blues actually gave me an idea for a posting meme for the Naked Villains - we have to do something to jump start the Poet Laureate, Air marshal, Foreign Minister and Minister of Propaganda. Post topic: Recount a happy holiday memory.