Thin Skin, Thick Heads

It's the end of the world as we know it. This is a story from the LA Times:

Claremont parents clash over kindergarten Thanksgiving costumes

Email Picture

Kathleen Lucas

Cody Lucas, left, and Vince Tran participated in last year’s Thanksgiving celebration, a four-decade-old Claremont school district tradition.

Some say having students dress up as pilgrims and Native Americans is 'demeaning.' Their opponents say they are elitists injecting politics into a simple children's celebration.

By Seema Mehta
November 25, 2008

For decades, Claremont kindergartners have celebrated Thanksgiving by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and sharing a feast. But on Tuesday, when the youngsters meet for their turkey and songs, they won't be wearing their hand-made bonnets, headdresses and fringed vests.

Parents in this quiet university town are sharply divided over what these construction-paper symbols represent: A simple child's depiction of the traditional (if not wholly accurate) tale of two factions setting aside their differences to give thanks over a shared meal? Or a cartoonish stereotype that would never be allowed of other racial, ethnic or religious groups?

"It's demeaning," Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter's teacher. "I'm sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation's history."

Raheja, whose mother is a Seneca, wrote the letter upon hearing of a four-decade district tradition, where kindergartners at Condit and Mountain View elementary schools take annual turns dressing up and visiting the other school for a Thanksgiving feast. This year, the Mountain View children would have dressed as Native Americans and walked to Condit, whose students would have dressed as Pilgrims.

Raheja, an English professor at UC Riverside who specializes in Native American literature, said she met with teachers and administrators in hopes that the district could hold a public forum to discuss alternatives that celebrate thankfulness without "dehumanizing" her daughter's ancestry.

"There is nothing to be served by dressing up as a racist stereotype," she said.

Last week, rumors began to circulate on both campuses that the district was planning to cancel the event, and infuriated parents argued over the matter at a heated school board meeting Thursday. District Supt. David Cash announced at the end of the meeting that the two schools had tentatively decided to hold the event without the costumes, and sent a memo to parents Friday confirming the decision.

Cash and the principals of Condit and Mountain View did not respond to interview requests.

But many parents, who are convinced the decision was made before the board meeting, accused administrators of bowing to political correctness.

Kathleen Lucas, a Condit parent who is of Choctaw heritage, said her son -- now a first-grader -- still wears the vest and feathered headband he made last year to celebrate the holiday.

"My son was so proud," she said. "In his eyes, he thinks that's what it looks like to be Indian."

Among the costume supporters, there is a vein of suspicion that casts Raheja and others opposed to the costumes as agenda-driven elitists. Of the handful of others who spoke with Raheja against the costumes at the board meeting, one teaches at the University of Redlands, one is an instructor at Riverside Community College, and one is a former Pitzer College professor.

Raheja is "using those children as a political platform for herself and her ideas," Constance Garabedian said as her 5-year-old Mountain View kindergartner happily practiced a song about Native Americans in the background. "I'm not a professor and I'm not a historian, but I can put the dots together."

The debate is far from over. Some parents plan to send their children to school in costume Tuesday -- doubting that administrators will force them to take them off. The following day, some plan to keep their children home, costing the district attendance funds to punish them for modifying the event.

"She's not going to tell us what we can and cannot wear," said Dena Murphy, whose 5-year-old son attends Mountain View. "We're tired of [district officials] cowing down to people. It's not right."

But others hoped that tempers would calm over the long holiday weekend, and the community could come together to have a fruitful discussion about Thanksgiving and its meaning.

"Its always a good thing to think about, critically, how we teach kids, even from very young ages, the message we want them to learn, and the respect for the diversity of the American experiences," said Jennifer Tilton, an assistant professor of race and ethnic studies at the University of Redlands and a Claremont parent who opposes the costumes.

Mehta is a Times staff writer.

seema.mehta@latimes.com

Uh-Oh

This is sure to get some folks all in a tizzy. ... This was the alert on Drudge this a.m.:



SHEEEEE'S BACK! COULTER DELIVERS BOOK EXPOSING 'GUILTY' OBAMA MEDIA
Tue Nov 25 2008 10:52:15 ET



Bestselling author and controversialist Ann Coulter plans to crash Obama's inauguration party with her new work, GUILTY.

Set for release first week of January, the book exposes and mocks, in graphic detail, the media's love affair with all things Democrat and Obama. Coulter presents exhibits A through Z.

"GUILTY is a much-needed reality check on a Left gone wild," declares the book's jacket.

"When it comes to bullying, no one outdoes the Left. Citing case after case, ranging from the hilariously absurd to the shockingly vicious, Coulter dissects so-called victims who are invariably the oppressors. For instance: While B. Hussein Obama piously condemned attacks on candidates' families, his media and campaign surrogates ripped open the court-sealed divorce records of his two principal opponents in his Senate race in Illinois."

Developing...

Palin: First They Trashed Her, Now They Want Her

Here's an interesting story from the Associated Press about the huge number of requests Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is receiving to appear on TV shows, write books, etc.

The part that really floors me is that some of the requests are from shows David Letterman, The Daily Show and Leno.

During the campaign, these people and others railed against her so unfairly, devoting more time to mocking her than any other candidate, spreading misinformation and nasty remarks.

Now they want her to appear on the shows, because they know people will watch, and the shows will make money.

I think she should ignore the outlets that were unfair to her. At the same time, I would love to see her sit down on Leno's show and tell him, point blank, 'Screw you, Jay, you panty-waisted liberal jagoff."

I'd tape that.

Anyway, here's the story:

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
Associated Press Writer
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Sarah
Palin is juggling offers to write books, appear in films and sit on dozens of
interview couches at a rate astonishing for most Hollywood stars, let alone a
first-term governor.
Oprah wants her. So do Letterman and Leno.
The failed
Republican vice presidential candidate crunched state budget numbers this past
week in her 17th-floor office as tumbling oil prices hit Alaska’s revenues. Her
staff, meanwhile, fielded television requests seeking the 44-year-old Palin for
late-night banter and Sunday morning Washington policy.
Agents from the
William Morris Agency and elsewhere, have come knocking. There even has been an
offer to host a TV show.
"Tomorrow, Governor Palin could do an interview with
any news media on the planet," said her spokesman, Bill McAllister. "Tomorrow,
she could probably sign any one of a dozen book deals. She could start talking
to people about a documentary or a movie on her life. That’s the level we are at
here."
"Barbara Walters called me. George Stephanopoulos called me,"
McAllister said. "I’ve had multiple conversations with producers for Oprah,
Letterman, Leno and ’The Daily Show."’
Asked whether Winfrey was pursuing
Palin for a sit-down, Michelle McIntyre, a spokeswoman for Winfrey’s
Chicago-based Harpo Productions Inc., said she was "unable to confirm any future
plans" for the show.
Palin may have emerged from the campaign politically
wounded, with questions about her preparedness for higher office and reports of
an expensive wardrobe. But she has returned to Alaska with an expanded, if
unofficial, title — international celebrity.
John McCain plucked Palin out of
relative obscurity in late August and put her on the national GOP ticket. Now,
she has to decide how and where to spend her time, which could have implications
for her political future and her bank account, with possible land mines of legal
and ethical rules.
Palin is considering about 800 requests for appearances
from December through 2009, with 75 percent coming from out of state. A year
ago, just a sprinkle of requests came from beyond Alaska’s borders. They range
from invitations to speak at The Chief Executives’ Club of Boston to attend a
5-year-old’s birthday party, from a prayer breakfast in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to a
business conference in Britain.
Michael Steele, the former Maryland
lieutenant governor who wants to be the next chairman of the Republican National
Committee, is seeking face time.
She has invitations to make appearances in
20 foreign countries, typically with all expenses paid, McAllister said. She has
more than 200 requests for media interviews, again from around the
globe.
"She has to pace herself," suggested veteran Hollywood publicist
Howard Bragman. "She wants a career made in a Crock-Pot, not a microwave."
In
her two months on the national stage, Palin energized the Republican base but
turned off moderates and independents, according to some surveys. Flubbed
answers in national television interviews raised questions about her competence.
She was embarrassed by the disclosure the RNC spent at least $150,000 for
designer clothing, accessories and beauty services for her and her
family.
The right book or movie deal could help Palin reintroduce herself to
the nation, on terms she could dictate.
While books and movie deals could be
worth millions of dollars, it’s not clear if Palin would be able to legally earn
it. State rules say she cannot accept outside employment for compensation. But
there appears to be little in the way of precedent left by former governors to
judge if book deals or lucrative speaking appearances amount to
"employment."
Palin has sent unmistakable signals she is open to running for
president in 2012, but to advance her political ambitions she must stay in the
public eye in the lower 48 states. As with any celebrity, there is the risk of
overexposure. At the same time, she’ll be under pressure to attend to governing
her home state, which is thousands of miles from the rest of the nation.
"She
has to deal with the perception that she bobbled her debut," said Claremont
McKenna College political scientist John Pitney. "She needs to stay home for a
while. If she wants a future in national politics, her No. 1 job is doing a good
job as governor."
Just this past week, shortly after conducting a string of
national TV interviews and skipping a state education conference, she was
scolded by the Anchorage Daily News. "There are ... low graduation rates,
plummeting North Slope oil prices, proposals to build alternative energy
projects, the gas pipeline," the paper said in an editorial. "It’s time for the
governor to refocus on Alaska’s needs."

The Funniest Thing I've Seen In A While

I get a lot of mega-forwarded e-mail "jokes" -- half are crap and the rest are so-so, with one or two gems in the mix.

This is one of the funniest I've seen in a long time. It's called ...

How To Fail A Test With Dignity

Election 2008

I'm still not ready to offer my opinions on the recent election -- still trying to cope with all the nagging issues -- but in the meantime, here's some interesting reading for you. It's pretty funny, actually, as it showed hundreds of Obama supporters that really didn't know much about the election, just that they supported who the media told them to support.

http://www.howobamagotelected.com/

Here's a link to the actual results of the poll: http://www.zogby.com/news/wf-dfs.pdf

This really disturbs me. If you look at the poll results, it's just disgusting. It showed that many Obama supporters have no idea what the hell is going on. Here are some highlights of the poll:

• Only 43% of these people knew which party controls Congress.
• 87% of Obama voters attributed Tina Fey's "SNL" comments to Gov. Sarah Palin.
• Only 28% were aware of Biden's plagiarism problem, and only 17% knew about Obama's political history, but 87% knew about Palin's clothing tab, and 94% knew about her pregnant daughter.
• 33% of people wrongly attributed Obama's "coal industry" theory to McCain-Palin, while only 12% knew it was Obama.
• Only 44% knew of Obama's connection to members of the Weather Underground.
• 55% of these idiots graduated from college.
  

Something is really wrong here. How did these people make "intelligent" ballot decisions when they don't even know who is in charge? If they think things are bad now, and they're wrong about who's making it that way ... ?

This election was such a joke.

Yeah, the liberals' candidate won, but why? Because the libs rounded up every dope they could find and got them to vote based on misinformation and outright lies.

But, you know what? I don't even care. The libs are in charge, and they're going to screw things up SO badly, and there's no one for them to blame. Although I'm sure everything will somehow still be linked to Bush. That's just the way the libs work -- take credit for others' achievements and push blame for their mistakes on other people. It's awful, and deceitful, but it's the only way liberals can hope to look good at all as they continue to turn this country into the hole that it's become.

Puppies!

Go here, watch puppies!

http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016

Woman Gets KKK-illed

Here's a story from Breitbart about a woman who wanted to join a KKK group:

A woman who tried to flee a Ku Klux Klan initiation rite was shot to death by the group's leader in a remote campsite on a sandbar in the swamps of Louisiana, officials told local media.

The woman had found the Sons of Dixie group on the Internet and taken a bus down from her home in Tulsa, Oklahoma so she could be initiated into the secretive white supremacist group and then recruit others in Oklahoma.

She arrived on Friday and underwent several rites, including having her head shaved, St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain said at a press conference Tuesday.

She was then taken to the campsite that was accessible only by boat where the rituals continued, consisting mainly of lighting torches "running around in the woods," the New Orleans Times Picayune quoted Strain as saying.

At some point on Sunday evening, the woman decided she wanted to leave and got into an argument with group leader Raymond "Chuck" Foster, 44 who pulled out a .40 caliber handgun and shot her.

"We believe he then rolled her over and began a process of removing the bullet from her body" with a knife, Strain told reporters as he stood before the Ku Klux Klan costumes recovered from the campsite.

"That shows you to some extent the callousness of this individual."

Foster then ordered his followers to burn the woman's belongings and dump her body by the side of a nearby road.

"It's kind of impressive for a group with a pretty small IQ to be able to cleanse that site so well," Strain told reporters.

The group was discovered after Foster's son and another member went to a local convenience store on Monday and asked the clerk how they could remove bloodstains from their clothes.

The clerk recognized the men and contacted the sheriff's office, who soon found them and then raided the campsite.

Five of the remaining Klan members were caught in the woods and Foster later turned himself in.

Strain called the group a bunch of "kooks" and said he did not believe they had posed a serious threat to the public prior to this slaying.

He said no crimes more serious than some racist graffiti had linked to white supremacists in the area.

Officials from the St. Tammany sheriff's department and district attorney's office did not immediately return calls for comment.

However, local television stations and the Times Picayune reported that Foster was charged with second degree murder and the seven others were charged with obstruction of justice.

---------------------------------

I know I'll get some e-mails griping because I said this is a funny story. I think's it is funny because this woman wanted to be a part of a hate group, and then fell victim to that hate. It's called karma, and it's a bitch.

Militant Gays Are Such a Turn-Off

Here's a story about some "radical queers," as they call themselves, who figure that disrupting a church service and blaspheming in someone else's house of worship will somehow make people more accepting:

DELTA TWP. - A radical gay rights group is claiming responsibility for a protest Sunday at Mount Hope Church in Delta Township.

Protesters who entered the Creyts Road church along with worshippers surprised the congregation when they stood up during the service, threw fliers at churchgoers and shouted slogans such as "It's OK to be gay," and "Jesus was a homo," according to David Williams, communications director at the church. His father, Dave Williams, is the church's longtime pastor. He was not preaching at the church Sunday.

Another group of protesters demonstrated outside the church at the same time as the indoor protest.

The Eaton County Sheriff's Department responded to the scene Sunday but no arrests were made.

In a released statement, David Williams said churchgoers were unclear as to the purpose of the demonstration.

A Lansing group affiliated with a radical gay organization known as Bash Back, formed to protest the Republican and Democratic national conventions earlier this year, put out a call on the Internet on Oct. 7 for activists to come to a "radical queer convergence" in Lansing on Nov. 7-9.

A posting on its MySpace page declared the convergence a "fierce success."

Fire alarm pulled

According to a report on the Bash Back group's news site, protesters inside the church pulled a fire alarm, unfurled a banner from the church balcony, shouted and threw fliers to the worshippers.

Outside the church, protesters carried picket signs and an upside-down, pink cross.

The conservative RightMichigan Web site posted an account of the incident Monday, and a number of conservative bloggers had picked up on the item by Tuesday.

Williams said the church had received 80 to 85 e-mails and phone calls by Tuesday, "from churches and individuals around the country to express their concern and general disgust for what happened on Sunday."

Nick De Leeuw of RightMichigan said he got his account of the incident from a church member who was there.

However, he said, the photo along with his report - of protesters dressed in black with their faces covered by pink, Middle-Eastern style headcoverings - was not from the protest at the church but from an earlier Bash Back protest elsewhere.

No arrests made

Mount Hope Church, affiliated with the Assemblies of God denomination, teaches followers that homosexuality is a sin.

However, "Mount Hope Church strives to follow Jesus' example of loving the sinner but not the sin," Williams said.

The Eaton County Sheriff's Department got a call regarding the protest at about noon Sunday, said Lt. Jeff Warder.

Warder said protesters outside the church left peacefully when someone from the team of pastors came outside and told them they were not welcome on church property.

Warder said deputies did not handle the protest inside the building.

No arrests were made.

In New York City on Tuesday, the conservative Catholic League said it would ask Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox to investigate the protest.

Typically, the sheriff's investigation would be turned over to the county prosecutor if the sheriff felt charges were warranted, said Matt Frendewey, spokesman for the attorney general's office. He said it would be rare for the attorney general's office to get involved in such a case.

---------------------------------------------

So, am I the only one who thinks this is absolutely ridiculous?

This kind of behavior makes me cringe. Yeah, that'll make people more open to your beliefs, if you act like that.

It's one thing to protest, it's wholly another to aggressively confront someone in their house of worship.

Can you imagine if this same scene was played out in a mosque? There'd be a lot of headless gay folks soon afterward, I imagine.

But, as usual, the liberal American double-standard applies. It's somehow OK for gays to harass straight people, but if a straight person even whispers a word like "homo" it's a hate crime.

Personally, I think all these protesters should face hate crime arrests, because unless I misunderstand "harassment based on bigotry or bias," that's exactly what these protesters did.

Good luck with that one, though, because America today says it's perfectly acceptable to pick on straight white Christian folks -- and safe, too, because they're not allowed to fight back.

Things to Come

This was forwarded to me via e-mail.

I do not know if it is "true," as Snopes.com does not have an entry for it yet.

But, regardless, it is a plausible scenario, and a GREAT solution:

As owner of a business that employees 140 people, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barack Obama will be our next president, and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way.

I figure that my clients will have to see an increase in our fees of about 8 percent but since we cannot increase our fees due to the poor state of the economy, we
will have to lay off 8 of our employees instead.

This has really been eating at me for a while, as I believe we are family here and I didn't know how to choose who will have to go.

So, this is what I did. I strolled through our parking lot and found eight Obama bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the first to be laid off.

I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. These folks wanted change; I'll be giving it to them.

---------------------------

Here's a funny cartoon:

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And, finally, just something the Democrats should think about, from Ann Coulter:

"For now, we have a new president-elect. In the spirit of reaching across the aisle, we owe it to the Democrats to show their president the exact same kind of respect and loyalty that they have shown our recent Republican president. "

Some Words

If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed;
If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.'

-Mark Twain

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress....But then I repeat myself.

-Mark Twain


I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

-Winston Churchill

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

- George Bernard Shaw

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.

-G. Gordon Liddy

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

-James Bovard , Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.

-Douglas Casey

Giving money and power to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

-P.J. O'Rourke , Civil Libertarian

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

-Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:
If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

-Ronald Reagan (1986)

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

-Will Rogers

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free!

- P.J. O'Rourke

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.

-Voltaire (1764)

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!

-Pericles (430 B.C.)


No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.

-Mark Twain (1866 )

Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.

-Unknown

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal: a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.

-Ronald Reagan

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

-Winston Churchill

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.

-Mark Twain

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.

-Herbert Spencer , English Philosopher (1820-1903)

There is no distinctly Native American criminal class ... save Congress.

-Mark Twain

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.

-Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

-Thomas Jefferson

Election Day Reading

Happy Election Day!

Here are a few articles to read before you set out to cast your ballot today:

• The Fairness Doctrine - Chuck Schumer says it could make a comeback. Goodbye, conservative talk radio, welcome to the liberal dictatorship.
• Voter registration forms on the side of the road in Tampa. What the f**k is wrong with Florida? Bad enough the people there can't figure out how the hell to vote, now they can't be trusted to drive papers from one place to another?
• Some active military votes may not count, because someone forgot to mail them to the soldiers in time. Active military votes should count, period.
• Black Panthers intimidating voters in Philly, with a nightstick. Very nice. I guess if you can't achieve, you can still get ahead by force.
• An independent investigation has cleared Sarah Palin in the ridiculous 'Troopergate' non-issue.
• Professor who bragged about stealing campaign signs has resigned. Hahaha!
• GOP workers tossed from the polls in Philly. What's up with Philly?

•