Politics: good things come in twelves

While most of the time I take Media Matters with a grain of salt since the overzealous interns seem to be the ones doing most of the work nowadays, their top 12 myths about the Bush administration spying scandal appears remarkably well-researched and seemingly pretty darn accurate, especially with regards to claims that Clinton and Carter were involved with similar methods against American citizens, which appears to be categorically untrue.

And as a holiday bonus, some dude has spent a zillion hours researching the Twelve Days of Christmas, and figured out that somewhere along the line, the Church probably changed the order of the pagan theme to reduce the degree to which it refers to the sexual life cycle:

To go through Ray's "real" order, he believes the gifts of a partridge, two turtle doves, and three French hens are increasingly extravagant romantic gifts exchanged between lovers.

The four calling birds have been changed from the original wording of Colly birds, a nickname for a Raven, which represents the passion of women and is also a symbol of both life and death.

Ray believes the five gold rings represent sexual union and the conception of the baby is represented by the six geese laying eggs.

He added the seven swimming swans were metaphors for the foetus swimming in its mother's womb.

"In medieval times, people only believed that you became human when you were born, that's why the animal metaphors are used, '' he explained.

"The maids milking is about breastfeeding and the 'drummers drumming' represents the heartbeat of the baby as it grows.''

The pipers are the voices of the gods awakening the young person to a sexual life, which leads to the 11 ladies dancing in an attempt to seduce the male.

"That's the seductive part, '' Ray said. "Then the final stage of the cycle is the 12 Lords leaping, which is the men after they have again enjoyed the act of love-making.''

He said the song was originally intended to have been sung at any time of the year, particularly at the changing of the seasons.

Gotta love them pagan carols.