SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 7:31 P.M. ET: 

CHRISTMAS IN IRAQ – FROM REUTERS:   This is the third Christmas that Staff Sergeant Magdiel Asencio is spending in Iraq. For Sergeant First Class Noel Alvarado, it is number four. And so it is with many U.S. troops stationed less than a hour's drive from the front line with Islamic State.  Few thought they would be back nearly 14 years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein... They can thank the diplomatic genius and military competence of Barack Obama for their plight.  He got out of Iraq in the worst possible way, to satisfy the hard left of his party, leaving a vacuum that insurgents filled.  Think about our troops today, and what they do for us.  And think about the incompetence that put them there.

HOW DISGRACEFUL – FROM THE DAILY MAIL:   Last minute holiday shoppers have been filmed brawling with each other in New Jersey, Alabama and Georgia shopping malls ahead of Christmas.
A fight broke out at Jersey City's Newport Center Mall on Friday night when two people started punching each other in the middle of a huge crowd.  As onlookers gathered around while several people hit each other, a separate fight broke out off to the side.  Multiple security guards tried to intervene and were punched in the process.   Video shot by a witness captured the ordeal, which happened right near where a line of children were waiting to meet the mall's Santa.  It is unclear exactly how many people were involved in the fight.  We should note that the overwhelming majority of Americans don't behave this way and respect the spirit of the holiday.  Those who don't will declare themselves as victims.

MOST ABSURD CHRISTMAS STORY – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Kim Jong-un is the Grinch who stole Christmas.  North Korea’s tubby tyrant wants the few Christians in the hermit state to spread cheer only to celebrate his grandma, Kim Jong-suk – not the birth of Jesus.  Jong-suk — who was born on Christmas Eve in 1919 — was an anti-Japanese guerrilla and Communist activist, wife of North Korea’s first dictator, Kim Il-sung, and former leader Kim Jong-il’s mother.  Many pay homage to the “Sacred Mother of the Revolution,” who died under mysterious circumstances in 1949, by visiting her tomb.  The daffy dictator is so obsessed with banning Christmas that he even flipped out in 2014 when he found out that South Korea planned to erect a huge Christmas tree along the border. Amid threats of all-out war, the tree was never put up.  Despite his hatred for Christmas trees, they can be found in the capital of Pyongyang — especially in upscale shops and restaurants – but are largely stripped of religious symbols.  This nutbag has nuclear weapons, thanks largely to appeasement by the West.  He hates us, and he hates Christmas.

December 25, 2016