The other group that performed was some new rap group with Kasey Kasem's son in it. I'm not a big fan of "the rap music" but the girls dancing around on stage in their underwear, matching tank tops and fishnet stockings were not something I expected to see at my Republican boss's Christmas party (full of major Republican donors). Then my other (middle-aged, white) boss got up on stage and rapped a song with them (he's friend with Kasem's son). It was almost too much for me. Definitely not something you experience every day.

P.S. The party in all its glory may be on MTV (yech) at some point because one of the members of the rap group is doing a reality show for them and he sat down and ate dinner at our table. Seriously though when the underwear twins started dancing I got really confused about where I was...MTV music video set, or a Republican Christmas party? It's strange when you can't tell the difference.

It's weird but this is the first time in my life where I'm really looking forward to the future and to being alive for it.

I saw four Marines firing from the adjoining room when a yellow, foreign-made, oval-shaped grenade bounced into the room, rolling to a stop close to Peralta's nearly lifeless body.

In an act living up to the heroes of the Marine Corps' past, such as Medal of Honor recipients Pfc. James LaBelle and Lance Cpl. Richard Anderson, Peralta - in his last fleeting moments of consciousness- reached out and pulled the grenade into his body. LaBelle fought on Iwo Jima and Anderson in Vietnam, both died saving their fellow Marines by smothering the blast of enemy grenades.

Peralta did the same for all of us in those rooms.

I watched in fear and horror as the other four Marines scrambled to the corners of the room and the majority of the blast was absorbed by Peralta's now lifeless body. His selflessness left four other Marines with only minor injuries from smaller fragments of the grenade...

As Staff Sgt. Jacob M. Murdock took a count of the Marines coming back, he found it to be one man short, and demanded to know the whereabouts of the missing Marine.

"Sergeant Peralta! He's dead! He's f------ dead," screamed Lance Cpl. Adam Morrison, a machine gunner with the squad, as he came around a corner. "He's still in there. We have to go back."

The ingrained code Marines have of never leaving a man behind drove the next few moments. Within seconds, we headed back to the house unknown what we may encounter yet ready for another round.

I don't remember walking back down the street or through the gate in front of the house, but walking through the door the second time, I prayed that we wouldn't lose another brother...

Later that night, while I was thinking about the day's somber events, Cpl. Richard A. Mason, an infantryman with Headquarters Platoon, who, in the short time I was with the company became a good friend, told me, "You're still here, don't forget that. Tell your kids, your grandkids, what Sgt. Peralta did for you and the other Marines today."

As a combat correspondent, this is not only my job, but an honor.

Throughout Operation Al Fajr, we were constantly being told that we were making history, but if the books never mention this battle in the future, I'm sure that the day and the sacrifice that was made, will never be forgotten by the Marines who were there.

I wonder why our media doesn't report stories like these. Stories about these very young and incredibly brave men (and women) who risk and sacrifice their lives for each other and their country. We have so many amazing people over there fighting for us right now, good men and women who are there to do what they believe is right and yet our media seems to focus only on things like Abu-Gharib and the "questionable" shooting of the wounded insurgent in Fallujah. Instead our media trumpets corrupt institutions like the UN and its leader Kofi Annan (I'm thinking of the O'Reilly interview of a NYT guy earlier this week) while demoralizing our troops by telling them their mission is pointless and even perhaps corrupt (the always frightening Halliburton connection). Of course, only the US is capable of corruption in their eyes, not the UN.

Anyway, I just wanted to share that story because the media hasn't/won't and this young Marine deserves to be remembered.

(It won't publish my posts *grr*).

Other than the fact that my room is mildly disgusting, I've actually been pretty "together" this December. Most of my Christmas shopping is done, which I'm sure anyone who's known me for a few years knows never happens. I'm the person who buys people presents in January or not at all. Speaking of Christmas presents, my sister found this wonderful website that allows you to make donations to extremely worthy causes in other people's names as presents. Since our office is doing a gag-gift exchange I bought 10 ducks for a third-world family and I guess it will be a joke making fun of the way liberals think Republicans are heartless war-mongers who don't care about helping people. And I avoid spending my hard-earned money on a pointless present =)

Thinking back on all the useless crap I've bought for people over the years, I wish I had found this site sooner.