It's Christmas eve, and below we issue our best holiday wishes to all our readers and contributors around the world. But our heart isn't in it.

How could it be? Just look at that cartoon above for a moment: It shows Russian dictator Vladimir Putin holding a blood-soaked baseball bat (just like the one that was used to brutally murder Yuri Chervotchkin) while his enormous jackboots crush the life out of the people of Russia who dare to dream about freedom and democracy. It's a brilliant cartoon, which could only be improved by being published in color so the blood splatters would be even more vividly real.

Now think about Oleg Kozlovsky (pictured, left). He's a real name for one of these cartoon people being crushed under Putin's feet, a real Russian college student who's really been Shanghaied into the real Russian army, that really practices dedovshchina torture, and then spirited way to Ryazan, far from his family and friends, in order to silence his heroic protests against the neo-Soviet regime presided over by that malignant little troll who prowls the Kremlin's parapets by night. Oleg could turn up dead any second now -- or worse. Remember 19-year-old Private Andrei Sychyov (pictured, below right) who had to have his legs and genitals amputated after being subjected to the tortures of dedovshchina? That might be Oleg Kozlovsky's Christmas present.

And it's clear that Putin has acted purposely against Kozlovsky precisely because it is Christmas. It's the time when the Western press would be least able and likely to take note of and report on this outrage, and the same for Western governments. After today, the Moscow Times for instance will only publish twice more until January 9th, and there is (shamefully) nothing in today's edition about Kozlovsky. In this calculating action we see the face of Satanic evil, pure and simple.

Now think about Time magazine's "Person of the Year" award to Vladimir Putin, and think about the words that appear under it, which constitute the Kremlin's official reaction to the selection. If you're like us, your skin will crawl and you will find it very hard indeed to put your heart in season's greetings.

Time's editors rationalized their selection by stating: "Time's Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest." Yet, it's clear they didn't do remotely enough to make it impossible for the Kremlin to twist and warp their action into a propaganda victory, and therefore they helped it continue to oppress Russians like Kozlovsky and Sychyov. Much worse, Time hasn't been doing the kind of reporting on Putin's outrageous behavior that would make it clear that the magazine stands against him, as Kim Zigfeld has demonstrated on Pajamas Media. In fact, they've published much that could be read as pro-Kremlin propaganda, and in this light their POTY selection takes on aspects of pure evil. We condemn Time magazine for this outrageous failure, and urge its readers to find another source of news. Every time you buy this rag, you're being played for a sucker.

As an editorial in the Arizona Republic states:

State-controlled Russian TV is boasting the news this week, reports the Moscow Times, leaving out descriptions of what Time described as Putin's "dark side." And, oh, what a dark side. Putin's Russia is a place where the old Soviet national anthem has been revived along with a new appreciation of Joseph Stalin, perhaps history's bloodiest dictator. U.S.S.R.-style posters glorify Kremlin-backed Brownshirts called Nashi. Putin has turned to energy blackmail, threatening to cut off oil to Russia's breakaway republics and, by extension, Western Europe. He legalized the murder of Russia's enemies abroad. And in late 2006, British citizen and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko was fatally poisoned in London. The radioactive evidence leads back to Moscow. Putin crushes press freedoms, and many journalists critical of the government are murdered. He sells weapons systems to rogue states such as Venezuela and Syria, and obstructs efforts to rein in Iranian nuclear ambitions. Recently he threatened to reset Russian missiles to aim at Western Europe. A former KGB lieutenant colonel, Putin is credited by Time for restoring order in Russia and winning the broad support of his countrymen. But he is also summoning the demons of a Cold War, in which the United States and Russia tiptoed to the brink of nuclear annihilation. Putin complains a lot today about the United States. Time reports it is his perception that Americans are out to interfere in Russia's affairs. That Russia is being treated like an uninvited guest at a party. It seems a particularly petty complaint, given what would have happened had the Soviets won the Cold War. Communist Russia did more than insult those it defeated, it subjugated them. One more reason why Time's cover boy and his nostalgia for that Russia should give us pause.

An even more devastating attack on Time's actions came from Pajamas Media editor Michael Weiss, who pointed out that it's the random fact of a rising world oil price, not any identifiable policies of Vladimir Putin, that account for Russia's marginally improved economic status under his rule. A major new piece in Foreign Affairs shows that Russia would be far more economically prosperous now if Putin had not embarked upon his barbaric crackdown on Russia's civil society. The article synopsis leaves no room for doubt: "A growing conventional wisdom holds that Vladimir Putin's attack on democracy has brought Russia stability and prosperity -- providing a new model of successful market authoritarianism. But the correlation between autocracy and economic growth is spurious. Autocracy's effects in Russia have in fact been negative. Whatever the gains under Putin, they would have been greater under a democratic regime."

And to put the rotten cherry on top of this cake of excrement, even as Time's POTY issue was going to press it was being reported in the major newspapers of Europe that Vladimir Putin has embezzled billions of dollars from the Russian treasury and may be the wealthiest man in Europe. So not only didn't Putin's policies make any difference for Russia, but you can't even argue that his heart was in the right place.

He's just black evil.

It's just another sad example of how many parts mainstream media is letting us all down, forcing the blogosphere to pick up the slack. A far as we're concerned, Time magazine is a corrupt anachronism, obsolete and doing far more harm than good. It can't go bankrupt and disappear soon enough to suit us. And as far as we're concerned, everybody in the world should have a subscription to the Arizona Republic! It's well to remember that there are many publications out there in the MSM which are struggling to get the truth out, and they should be supported and admired.

For time out of mind, Russia has tortured and killed its most selfless heroic patriots while elevating its most vile traitors to the status of national hero. That it is happening all over again probably shouldn't be too surprising, but that we in the West, having seen it all before, would tolerate such incompetence and collaboration in our own midst should be shocking. It's time we wake up and realize that a cold war is going on and right now the Russians are the only ones who are fighting it.

Vladimir Putin has spoiled Christmas for the entire thinking world, and Time magazine has helped him do it. If there's any justice, both of them will get Polonium-laced coal in their stockings tomorrow morning -- or better yet a magic mirror that will follow them around and force them to stare at their own reflections throughout all eternity.