At this time of year, inclusivity is the secret language for holiday celebrations. One favored ritual is the Memory Tree, placed on village greens and town hall lawns lit in lieu of a Christmas tree.

Evidently, the Christmas tree is exclusionary at best, bigoted at worst in this merry time of year and that we cannot have and fulfill the goal of diversity both far and near.

Examine the Memory Tree concept; see how insidiously it works.
Children sing holiday carols such as “Jingle Bells,” “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer,” and “Frosty the Snowman” while parents snap pictures and make videos for posterity. The Memory Tree lights flare brightly, a siren wails and Mr. and Mrs. Claus enter to wish holiday cheer.

Probably one should go to the tree lighting and observe the religious inclusivity commemorating the event the Memory Tree epitomizes.
There won’t be any Muslims, they celebrate Ramadan and besides, they consider us infidels. Jews have a delightful holiday, Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, so lighting a tree is far down on the to do list.
Animists, I don’t think so, nor Buddhists, Taoists, New Agers, or Zoroasters. One might find the odd druid or Wiccan but the date is wrong. Perhaps a couple Atheists who wandered out just to see how cold they can get but that’s it.

So, who is left, Kwanzaa shoppers or totem carvers hunting for a last minute gewgaw? Of course, must be them!

So, this is diversity; care to explain how this works? Perhaps an elucidation of just who are the bigots is in order.

Lighting a Memory Tree avoids outraging those religions that don’t show up and affronts the religion that celebrates this season. This Memory Tree charade is looking extremely bigoted. The only religion proscribed from celebrating is the one, which celebrates the season.
Let the pagans have the tree.

Christians, light the Nativity Crèche. The season is about Christ, so honor that. Sing “Silent Night,” “O Come all Ye Faithful” and other carols that cause the godless to foul their shorts.
Let the Jews put up the Menorah, I think that is a great symbol that goes with a remarkable story and should be celebrated because it is desired, not from some idiot’s sense of “fairness.”

Definitely, there is a place for the Memory Tree; it should be in the shape of the dollar sign. For celebration, June 25th is available and is quite apropos. Light the tree then.

Muslims barred from picture at Obama event

Two Muslim women at Barack Obama’s rally in Detroit on Monday were barred from sitting behind the podium by campaign volunteers seeking to prevent the women’s headscarves from appearing in photographs or on television with the candidate. [snip]

In Detroit on Monday, the two different Obama volunteers — in separate incidents — made it clear that headscarves wouldn’t be in the picture. [snip]

I guess diversity is good except when it isn’t. Thus speaks the Obamadhi.

Nope, no do overs.

 ”Bible thumping”

An American soldier used a Quran, the Islamic holy book, for target practice in a predominantly Sunni area west of Baghdad, prompting an apology from the U.S. military, a spokesman said Sunday.

The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni group, condemned the shooting of the Quran, calling it “a hideous act against the book of almighty God and the constitution of the nation and the source of its glory and dignity.”

The incident was first reported by CNN, which broadcast a ceremony at which the top American commander in Baghdad apologized to tribal leaders in Radwaniyah. The military confirmed the details in an e-mailed response to a query.

Would we hear a comparable height of outrage from American scholars if the book was a Bible? I’m sure they’d be upset.

Can a good Muslim be a good American?

Ask anyone who worked in the Middle East or deals with the Muslim street on a regular basis.
Maybe this is why our American Muslims are so quiet and not speaking
out about any atrocities.

Answers come up no each time because of religious beliefs.

Theologically–Because his allegiance is to Allah, The moon God of Arabia

Religion–Because no other religion is accepted by His Allah except Islam (Q’oran, :256)

Scripturally–Because his allegiance is to the five Pillars of Islam and the Q’oran.

Geographically–Because his allegiance is to Mecca, to which he turns in prayer five times a day.

Socially–Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews

Politically–Because he must submit to the mullahs (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel and destruction of America, the great Satan.

Domestically–Because he is instructed to marry four women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him (Q’oran 4:34 )

Intellectually–Because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.

Philosophically–Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Q’oran does not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.

Spiritually–Because when we declare “one nation under God,” the Christian’s God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as Heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in The Q’oran’s 99 excellent names

They obviously cannot be both “good” Muslims and good Americans. If you think they can, explain how.

With all the arm waving over multiculturalism, why is it not valid here. Like I mean, you know dude everything is soooo equal!
The unhinged left believes diversity is righteous, except when it conflicts with their beliefs. Forget not too, that this “animal lover” abused and tortured five “Flippers” for money!

Dolphin slaughter brings charges from both sides

TAIJI, Japan (CNN) — Ric O’Barry sometimes dresses as a woman or wears a large surgical mask to disguise his Western identity on trips to spots overlooking the ocean.

He prowls the cliffs near Taiji, Japan, with a video camera, hoping to catch fishermen doing something that appalls him: catching dolphins.

“This here is ground zero for the largest slaughter of dolphins on planet Earth,” says O’Barry, who trained five dolphins to play “Flipper” on the TV series of that name. “It’s absolutely barbaric, and it needs to stop.”

Offending this clown and all the diversity dummies is the best reason to persevere with “doing the dolphin.”

Fishermen hunt dolphins almost every day in Taiji, a town of about 3,000 in southwestern Japan that juts into the Pacific Ocean. Watch fishermen catch dolphins »

Locals know that they offend Western sensibilities by eating dolphins, but they say it’s a tradition hundreds of years old. And they say outsiders have no more right to tell them to stop eating dolphins than they would have to demand that Westerners stop slaughtering chickens or cows.

“I know there are many different ways of thinking in different societies, but for us who’ve been eating this for a long time … it’s an awkward thing to be criticized for,” says Kayoko Tanaka, a retired middle school teacher. “I either fry dolphin meat or turn it into a stew.”

O’Barry says the dolphins face a cruel fate.

“It takes a very long time to die. They bleed to death. And some of them are dragged in the boats with hooks while they’re still alive,” he says. “Many of them are gutted while they’re still alive.”

OK, so what’s your point?

To some puzzled people in rural Japan, the question comes down to this: What’s the difference between killing and eating a dolphin, and killing and eating a fish? Or a chicken? Or a cow? [snip]

Many Japanese consider the deer a sacred messenger from the gods, he says, but they would never suggest that people in other parts of the world stop venturing into the woods on a quest for venison.

“We don’t like to play God to say, ‘This animal is just for food, and this is not,’ ” he says. “Because we know, nation to nation, we have totally different ideas.” [snip]

Representatives of the Taiji Fishermen’s Union declined requests for an on-camera interview. So did the town’s mayor and several others. And O’Barry says he’s gotten into a few shouting matches with fishermen, who resent him and his camera.

So what does O’Barry say to their claim that he has no right to tell them to abandon a tradition that has flourished in their corner of the world for more than 400 years?

“If someone came to my hometown and told me what to do, what to eat, I’d be outraged,” he says. “But that’s not going to stop me from doing it. I mean, tradition? It used to be traditional for women not to vote. So do we keep that going because it’s traditional and cultural? Of course not.” [snip]

Answer this, If the dolphin are so smart, why do they there, producing excellent tempura?

This guy spent too much time underwater without oxygen.

Subject: [MEDIASTATEWIDE] Press Release - Vandalism to an Historic Site

STATE OF VERMONT

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

VERMONT STATE POLICE

PRESS RELEASE

INCIDENT: Vandalism to an Historic Site

CASE #: 07C203487

Barracks: New Haven Troop “C” CONTACT#: 388-3919

Vermont State Police are continuing to investigate the vandalism to the Homer Noble Farm which was the summer home to Robert Frost. Investigation at this point has revealed that this incident was a large underage drinking party that was planned and organized by a 17 year old Ripton resident. A 22 year old Middlebury resident has been indentified as the subject who purchased the large amount of alcohol for the party. The people attending the party, as many as 50, have been indentified and have ranged in age from 15 to 22 years of age. The investigation and interviews with these individuals are ongoing. In addition to the large amounts of alcohol and evidence of drug use found at the site, fire extinguishers were set off inside the whole first floor of the property and every room on the first floor of the building received a large amount of damage. Some individuals vomited and urinated inside the building and on the damaged property. A list of damaged property provided by Middlebury College revealed the damage to be in excess of $10,000. Anyone with any information about this incident is asked to call the Vermont State Police, New Haven Barracks, at 388-4919.

Oh yes Ripton, where once upon a time the hillwilliams of Vermont took to carnal knowledge of goats as a break from the run-of-mill incest. I’m unable to determine the effect on the goats; it did nothing for the collective genetics of the village. That was then, the police report is now.

Larry, Daryl and Daryl of the 1970’s seldom, if ever, hiked up the road to the Breadloaf campus of Middlebury College for an afternoon of tea and profundities; probably they heavily hunted the lands around the Homer Noble farmstead and Frost’s Vermont retreat. Ripton residents will regale one with tales of fossilized knuckle drags in the marl east by north of the village.

Today Ripton is a town run by the oh so sensitives telling the unwashed of Addison County how wonderful is the chi-chi progressive life, including how uninhibited is their spawn ripening in this multicultural and diverse microcosm of liberality.

Is it not strange that Larry, nor his brothers Daryl, offspring of Woodchucks and sires of the same never trashed Frost’s retreat? No bullet holes in the walls, arson attempts, or prankish, childish behavior rising to felonious heights graced the front pages of the local papers. So many years and so many opportunities for sport missed.

Give the progressives an occasion to educate their larvae in Politically Correct ways and a sulfurous rift opens, popping out an extremely warm hand basket.

Once more in Ripton, the goats are very nervous.

The North Branch Private and Ripton Elementary School data.

There is a sidebar to this tale concerning the town, one of the schools and Festivus Poles. The post will include photos and some editorial comment. Once it was said that arguing with persons that buy ink by the hogshead and paper by the ton is folly. That is still true; computers make it more immediate. The Woodchuck will be sensitive as only he knows how.

THROW IN A CONSERVATIVE!

It should come as no surprise that creepazoid leftism stays afloat on an ocean of propaganda, self-delusion, coercion and outright lying. The detritus that washes up on the beach is worse than freighter tar, and stains just as badly. It is, in fact, a form of pollution. When you try to wash it away, this is what happens.

“The New York Times’ hiring of Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol to write for its op-ed page caused a frenzy in the liberal blogosphere Friday night, with threats of canceling subscriptions and claims that The Gray Lady had been hijacked by neo-cons”.

What do the blue-faced hysterics in the lefty blogosphere think “op-ed page” means?

Bill Kristol is a bit too Neo for my taste. But for many liberals, he bears the indelible blemish of having emerged from a reformed liberal household. He’s not just a contrary thinker, but the child of quislings.

His parents are Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb, derided by liberals for being conservative while Jewish, and for walking away from the white-roomed asylum of progressivism. Kristol and Himmelfarb and their son are much too “diverse” for the diversity crowd.

The Boston Globe endorsement of Barack Obama isn’t surprising. However, if you’re a person who believes in electing a president with experience and accomplishments, the Globe endorsement is embarrassingly light in those respects.

As a public service, I’ve provided a moonbat to English translation for our readers:

America needs a president with an intuitive sense of the wider world, with all its perils and opportunities. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has this understanding at his core.

He’ll suck up to the UN.

Many have remarked on Obama’s extraordinary biography: that he is the biracial son of a father from Kenya and a mother who had him at 18

He’s an affirmative action hire.

that he was raised in the dynamic, multi-ethnic cultures of Hawaii and Indonesia

Oh, the many splendors of diversity!

the gritty and often thankless work of community organizing in Chicago

He was a moonbat without a job.

Similarly, his exposure to foreign lands as a child and his own complex racial identity have made him at ease with diversity - of point of view as well as race or religion.

I’ve been to Canada. Apparently, that would qualify me to be Secretary of State in the Obama administration.

He speaks with clarity and directness, and he is also a listener, a lost art in our politics.

Instead of waterboarding the terrorists, he’ll “listen” to them.

“I don’t oppose all wars,” he said in the fall of 2002. “I’m opposed to rash wars.”

Not exactly a deep thinker that Barack fellow.

His support for merit pay for teachers, or a cap on carbon emissions, suggests a healthy independence from the established order.

And since teacher pay is a local issue, he’d never get to implement it anyway. But thanks for the independence, Barack.

Obama’s critics, and even many who want to support him, worry about his relative lack of experience.

If you think the presidency is a good place for on the job training, then Barack’s your man. If putting a wholly unqualified moonbat in the White House scares you, then he’s not.

Hillary for the “Greater Good”

We are so lucky to have a person running for President who is willing to sacrifice everything.

Let us examine the manifold ways she intends to accomplish this “selflessness”:

• Sacrifice the military for world peace.
• Sacrifice scientific secrets for campaign donations.
• Sacrifice education to promote failed public schools
• Sacrifice speech for sensitive dialogue
• Sacrifice your freedoms for UN hegemony
• Sacrifice your choices for national health care
• Sacrifice your labors for diversity
• Sacrifice our culture for multiculturalism

Equality among countries will be achieved by

This is remarkable; finally, here is Gov. Spitzer saying that the elementary and secondary schools have dumbed down the students about as far as they can.

The solution is of course a liberal one: more money. However instead of fattening up the NEA’s coffers, Spitzer is proposing that the colleges provide remedial course work.

This is tacit admission that the K-12 teachers cannot perform their task of imbuing their charges with a desire to learn, they are not instructing them in the rudiments.

New York isn’t alone; Vermont too has pseudo-adults exiting 12^th grade, who will not get into college, for they can’t read at a level to get or keep a job. Ask not about math. Tossing this into the colleges will dumb them down further, a BA is equal to a high school diploma, A BS is rare; now grad degrees are the acceptable level for employment.

Governor To Bet Billions on SUNY

Colleges Eyed for Role in High Schools

Envisioning a dramatically greater role for universities and colleges in the remedial education of secondary students, the Spitzer administration is planning to pump billions of additional dollars into the State University of New York and the rest of New York’s higher education system, sources said.

A higher education commission appointed by Governor Spitzer in May is discussing a concept called “education empowerment zones,” which would provide financial incentives for colleges and universities to collaborate with public high schools and middle schools. [snip]

In doing so, the commission is hoping to combat a persistent problem: More than half of students entering community colleges require math and reading remediation.

The emerging recommendations appear to represent a second costly prong in Mr. Spitzer’s education strategy.

“They seem to be assuming that despite a massive increase in K-12 aid, they are still going to have a large number of kids in need of remediation,” the director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy in Albany, E.J. McMahon, said. “It should come out of the school district’s share of the tax dollars. We shouldn’t be spending more on top of more to get less.” [snip]

This mess falls on those who embraced the “better way” 45 years ago. No phonics, “new” math, the absence of history and civics became the curriculum in the mid-‘60’s. With this step down, most teachers didn’t get a basic education. Every year ejects a class of students less equipped to accept the role of educators. The newly minted teachers who are less equipped to teach with broad knowledge impairs the next group. This is the reverse side of this counterfeit coin.

The obverse side of this coin is the parent, who learned in this black hole of education. The necessity of a high achievement curriculum for many parents is not in their experience.

Before the roar of outrage commences, look at who promotes public schools and who sends their kids to private/parochial education. I’ll leave it to the reader to do the spade work, but here’s a hint. It isn’t the family living in a trailer.

It is axiomatic that 50% of the teachers graduated in the bottom half of their class. Someone also had the privilege of occupying last place. If you are going to say “So What” then you won’t mind having the doc who played golf through med school be your chest cutter for your triple bypass; same goes for any other skill. You insist the Volvo mechanic is top notch. If this shoe fits, corns you should get!

More money is not the answer. Go back to basics and test for knowledge. Get rid of the liberal trash of diversity and multiculturalism. None of that makes a difference if one cannot add and read.

The MA-05 race to replace Marty “I’m taking the 280 large at UMass Lowell” Meehan has gotten pretty interesting.  What most observers might think would be a cake walk race for Niki Tsongas, widow of former Senator Paul Tsongas, looks competitive.  Or as one panicked blog amusingly put it, the “unthinkable” could happen, as if electing a Republican in MA is equivalent to getting a disease, and Jim Ogonowski might get elected.

However, MA needs some “diversity” of leadership and sending a Republican to Congress would be a good start.  One party rule has made the state’s Democratic establishment complacent.  An Ogonowski victory would send an important wakeup call.  In fact, Mr. Ogonowski, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, made changing Congress, something that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid haven’t done, a major theme of his campaign.  A vote for Tsongas is an endorsement of the state’s machine politics and most of us are tired of that.  

Therefore, I encourage you to visit Jim’s site, learn more about him, and decide if a vote for him is right for you.

After reading the article, you’ll grasp the political struggle going on for control of the medium. The loser of this clash loses more than the battle.

Atlas Mugged: How a Gang of Scrappy, Individual Bloggers Broke the Stranglehold of the Mainstream Media

The twentieth century was the high point of mass culture—or “the overculture” as some call it. Any culture that could produce Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and The Honeymooners can’t be all bad.

But eventually, the connection between media elites and their audiences began to fracture. Though apocryphal, the line frequently attributed to Pauline Kael of the New Yorker in 1972 sums up the growing chasm between the overculture—particularly the media—and its audience: “I don’t know how Nixon won. No one I know voted for him.” [snip]

The Birth of “Objective Media”
Prior to the 1920s, American newspapers and pamphleteers had a long, diverse history of vigorous, partisan debate. [snip]…the federal government “took the radio spectrum, and instead of auctioning it off like land, essentially socialized it. And then they made the distribution of the broadcast spectrum basically a political decision.” [snip]

Up until the Reagan years, Love says, “definitely fewer than one hundred people, and maybe as few as twenty people, actually decided what constituted national news in the United States.” [snip]

As veteran TV news correspondent Bernard Goldberg wrote in his 2003 book Arrogance, “If the New York Times went on strike tomorrow morning, they’d have to cancel the CBS, NBC, and ABC evening newscasts tomorrow night.” [snip]

I’ve worked at newspapers on and off since 1969 as a photographer, later also as a “writer.” I saw the changes take place as the smaller papers were bought up or driven out.

One group I worked for was purchased by Gannett; the bend to the left commenced. By 1974, anything published had to pass editorial muster. I left at that point.

Policies of “inclusion and diversity” ruled in the usual idiotic manner. “If there are no Negroes in the photo of the German Chowder and Marching Society Om-Pa band (Thornwood, NY), we won’t publish it.” You had to have heard that to believe it. I heard it.

Keep the ranks formed. This is far from over.

The first lawsuit filed against this show will be from the “diversity” demanders. The assorted stalwarts of such perverse practices will not tolerate the exclusion of 16 sheep, goats and gays, 8 hermaphrodites and the odd eunuch.

It is a short step from here to “A Shot At Love With NAMBLA,” followed by the Democrat debates.

MTV Greenlights Tila Tequila Dating Show, Debuts Oct. 9

MTV has greenlit a bisexual dating show with a star who built her fame on MySpace.

“A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila” is scheduled to premiere on MTV Oct. 9.

The 10-episode series will feature contestants…[snip]…Ms. Tequila is a bisexual, which means the contestants on the show will be sixteen straight guys and sixteen lesbians. [snip]

“The show is a rollercoaster ride of drama, conflict and emotion, busting stereotypes and challenging the norm—proving that the rules of attraction are made to be broken.”

“A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila” is produced by 495 Productions and MTV.

If Tila Tequila had talent, one would expect  her to appear on something more enriching than MySpace. For those perceiving MTV as scintillating entertainment when some torrid hottie lipstick Lesbo provides “action,” please remember that the majority of that societal dead end looks like Rosie “MacDonald” with the alluring “hottiness” of Michael Moore. To this end, commentary about this MTV extravaganza runs the gamut of the young to the old.

Comment sections are always enlightening. Either they provide mentally challenging thought or thought from the mentally challenged. It’s absolutely astonishing to see the differences in writing abilities between the MTV watchers and those who put their time to other productive use.

One may utilize the radio for a quotidian dose of “tunes” while engaging in worthwhile endeavors OR sit as slack jawed, mouth breathers before the glass teat, accomplishing nothing during their existence on the planet.

MTV is now just reality TV. All the baseness of that genre stuccoes MTV’s blatant image, according to the commentaries left by the literati and the ignoranti.

From Australia’s Ollie’s World,  an Interactive Sustainability Resource at:  www.olliesworld.com/planet/aus/rapsong.htm  

Hey everybody, Ollies’ in town

And to save the planet he’s gonna show us around.  

Now come along and let’s do it

Gotta clean up the world, get to it

 There’s lots of things that we can do

To make the planet cleaner for me and  you

And if you want to learn how it’s easy

Anyone can learn - you’ll see

Air - breathe it in, breathe it in

Let’s clean up the air, that’s where we begin

Water, cool and fresh

But we can’t live without  it

What’s next - energy, energy

We’ve got to use it very carefully

Waste - everything that we throw away

Where does it all end up?

Every little thing on the planet is connected

Everything plays its part - I see

But if one part is missing we all get affected

We need biodiversity

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink

So stick around and you will see

what’s cool -SUSTAINABILITY!!  

They just zoned out on rhyming couplets and degenerated to free verse after breathing IN and not breathing OUT!  CO2 is THAT dangerous!  

Unnamed players allege corruption in professional tennis

Match-fixing, some of which is linked to internet gambling, is not uncommon in professional tennis, according to a damaging report in L’Equipe on Thursday.

Two elite players made the claims, under anonymity, in an interview with the French sports daily claiming they have witnessed matches being “thrown” and that they had personally been offered bribes. [snip]

What a devastating occurrence for the bottled water sipping set. The outing of Billie Jean, Martina caught carting an unlicensed firearm and Lendl fixing his teeth with a pipe wrench proved to be exceptionally déclassé. Now this bit of hooliganism will be the chatter of the tony Hamptons. First figure skating, now tennis, next will be the fouling of synchronized swimming. I can’t watch anymore.

Absolutely no shame on the part of the Libs however, the diversity crowd actually believe this is moral equivalence since they attend these matches solely to strengthen their neck muscles.

Refs on the take in bulimia ball (run down the court, throw it up), QB’s with dog fighting clubs and the Red Sox in first place, all disgraces of the first order. At least the Yankees shamed them in this series.

 Finally, the ground crew has a problem. (See Photo)

Oh, the humanity of it, all lost!