The Republican War on Christmas

Liberal blogger Amy Sullivan received a letter from the RNC that opened with "I hope you and your family had happy holidays." She draws the obvious conclusion.

As I've mentioned before, there's no more pointless issue to fight over. So, quite fighting over it.

And that's my final word on the subject. At least until late November.

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays Nonsense

It's finals season! I had 3 today; they seemed to go pretty well. I do need to get an A on my next exam if I'm going to keep my A in the class. So, one quick post before I go study:

On my way to and from school, I often listen to the Russ and Lisa show on WORD, the local talk-radio station. Occasionally it's entertaining, and they report the traffic regularly.

Anyways, Russ has gotten on this kick about the phrase "Happy Holidays." Apparently, it bugs him when people say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." He's spent at least two full hours of the show ranting on this topic, taking calls from others ranting on the subject, and generally raising cane.

Could there possibly be any more pointless thing to get angry about?

So some people say "Happy Holidays." Maybe they looked at the calendar and noticed that Hannukah and even Kwanza, the made-up holiday both fall in the same month as Christmas. Therefore, unless you know the person, you have little to no idea which holiday, if any and assuming not more than one, they celebrate. So, store owners say "Season's Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" to be more sensitive to their customers.

They aren't trying to strip Christ out of Christmas. Which is what Russ and others like him who keep talking about "Jesus is the reason for the season" and "the True Meaning of Christmas (tm)" are really worried about.

Of course, since Christmas began as the Roman Saturnalia, I guess we could say Saturn is the reason for the season.

Look, just be happy. Regardless of the holiday, this is supposed to be season of goodwill and peace. Don't make the greeting marking the season a point of contention.

And now: Back to schoolwork.

Two more days.

Tidings of comfort and joy....

The Dieting Backlash Continues..

MSNBC reports that Hardee's has launched the new Monster Thickburger.

I think that this 1420 calorie cheesburger is part of a larger backlash against health food. Think about it. A lot of people are tired of everyone offering their unwanted--and oftentimes inaccurate--advice about what they should be eating. That's why you'll see this burger and Hungry Man dinners. (Key Quote: " The only male brand you need. 'I know what I like and I like a lot of it.' 'It's good to be full.'")

In fact, there's a *lot* of social pestering from TV and government sources. Don't smoke, don't drink, don't eat fatty foods, don't speed, don't open an umbrella indoors, etc. People, by nature, don't like to be told what to do every minute of every day. Just leave us alone already!

9-Year-Old Boy Attempts to Torch Church

Fourth-grade kids are scary. I don't like them.

Today's Lawsuit News

Story One: Air France is getting sued because she wasn't allowed onboard her flight. Why? Because she has no arms or legs. In the words of an Air France employee:

That was dumb. Suer - 1 Suee - 0

Story Two: Kid sticks his head out his school bus window. The driver swirves to avoid a squirrel. Kid hits his head into a tree and dies. Now the kid's mom is suing.

I'd say the kid's at fault for being stupid enough to stick his head out of the school bus window. Suer - 1 Suee - 1

Story Three: Tiebreaker. A child, 5 years old, gets on the wrong bus. Kid tells the bus driver so. Bus driver orders said 5-year-old off the bus five miles from home. Some nice person takes her to the police department where, an hour later, she is reunited with her parents. If the parents sue the bus driver (which they should), then: Suer - 2, Suee - 1.

School Lunch Prices Go Up

According to the AP, the price of school lunches will be going up this school year. It opens this way:

In Somersworth, the price is going up by a stunning $0.25, although the "reduced price meal" for poor people is capped at $0.40 total. In my local newspaper I found that most of my local school districts' prices are going up by $0.10 to... $1.60.

Folks, that's better than Wendy's. Quit whining. Ten cents a day isn't going to break the bank for anyone. At minimum wage, ten cents is about a minute and twenty seconds. Most people hesitate to pick up a dime they see on the street; they lose dimes in the couch.

Some people....

Encouraging Example

British Olympic hurdler Tasha Danvers-Smith won't be participating in the summer olympics this year. Why, you ask? Another steroids scandal? Perhaps an injury in training? Nope.

Give up? She's pregnant! Not only that, but she has the strength of character to reject the abortion option.

Key Quote:

Good on ya! God bless you and your baby.

(Via the new blog of one of my favorite columnists, Michelle Malkin. I'd say she's second only to Walter Williams in my book)

Intelligent Conversation Changes Minds

Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice has a good post about how blogs change people's minds. The problem with most talk-radio that I've listened to is that the host tends to be more focused on either himself *coughRushLimbaughcough* or advancing his own viewpoint to the exclusion of other viewpoints. They tend not to be debates, but more like lectures. (The one exception that I've found is Hugh Hewitt, who invites both liberal and conservative guests and talks to them, and to members of the audience.)

Most media suffer from this sort of syndrome. Look at the editorial page of your local paper, watch the TV news, and you'll find one side of the story, and no more. I think that the two huge advantages that blogs have in this area are comments and trackbacks. Not only can you get one person's viewpoint (the host of the page), but you can also get the viewpoints of others, and then you get to see the argument that ensues.

In short, it gets you to think about things from more than one angle. For example, take the Judge Roy Moore and his ten commandments idol monument. On the one hand, you have the position of my pastor, who seemed to look at Moore as a heroic defender of the faith. On the other hand, Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit.com asks "If judges don't obey court orders, who will?" Chances are that if I hadn't been reading blogs, I wouldn't have come to share Reynold's conclusion.

(Via Dean's World)

The Pursuit of Excellence

Imagine, if you will, a young baseball player, ten or twelve years old, and his father in their back yard. The father tells his boy, "If you work hard, good things will happen." The boy goes on to be one of the best pitchers in his little league. He throws a perfect game and two no-hitters. He blows away the competition.

What should be done for this boy? I would tend to think he should be commended for his efforts, wouldn't you? Now, imagine instead that the boy is instead banned from pitching in any more little league games because he's too good. Because he blows away the competition, he's now an "illegal player."

According to the New York Daily News, from which I've quoted some lines above, it's happened to a boy named Anthony Seblano of Marine Park, New York. Because "he is an overwhelmingly, [sic] powerful pitcher" he has "a very unfair advantage."

This decision is brought to you by the same mindset that encourages taxes for the rich (after all, the rich couldn't possibly have worked for that money).

It's nice to see the little league team so dedicated to encouraging excellence in its players. On the other hand, I suppose this decision is a valuable lesson on how some people will treat those who are better than they are. (Via Common Sense and Wonder)

A Hero

See this man? This man is a hero.

The man deserves a medal. Phil Kosnett, the man "who heads the Coalition Provisional Authority" in Najaf seems to think so, as he's nominated him and several others in his battalion for the Bronze Star. In his own words, "They're probably the bravest and most professional troops I've every worked with."

Incidentally, here is the difference between our us and our allies, and the enemy:

OTOH, our enemies seem bent on killing as many civilians as possible, even to the point of murdering a family.

My hat goes off to men like Cpl. Toloza who fight against such monsters. The troops of El Salvador and the United States have my utmost respect.

(Via Common Sense and Wonder)

I saw the man from the radio!

Here in the upstate of South Carolina, we have a talk-radio station called WORD. It's really the best thing on the radio, if you don't like light rock, rap, or old-people music. The host from 3 to 6 is a guy by the name of Ralph Bristol. He's a decent conservative guy, near as I can tell from his show. Anyways, since WORD is having a "focus on Spartanburg month" the month, Ralph was hosting his show from the food court of Westgate Mall this week, which just happens to be a few minutes from my house. So, we decided to stop by for dinner.

(My apologies for the tiny image size; my TJ-37's camera shot this twice as large, but half as good.)

The guy on the right is Ralph Bristol, and (I think) the guy on the left is his producer, Skip. I was surprised to see that these were the only people there. Very interesting. They were talking about Hillary Clinton from John Kerry, which Ralph was very skeptical about.

Anyways, we got there in the last few minutes of the show. Afterwards, we saw Ralph talking with some of his young lady-fans.

The Passion: A Great Investment

A recent Gallup poll about The Passion of the Christ indicates that 11% of Americans have seen the movie, and that another 65% of Americans plan to, either in theaters or on video.

Let's have some fun with math! Assume that the 45% of American who plan to see it in theaters do so. And let's a assume a movie ticket is $8. And, according to the CIA, the population of the US is approx. 290 million. 290 million * $8 * 45% = $1.044 Billion. And that's just on movie ticket sales, to say nothing of snacks in the theaters, DVD sales, or other merchandise.

A little more fun: assume that the 31% who plan to see it at home and half of the movie-goers who see it actually buy copies of the DVD, at the bargain price of $15. 22%+31%=53%, 53% * 290Mil * $15 = another $2.3 Billion.

One more: According to Business Week, Gibson financed this thing with $25 million dollars. Now, I plug the numbers into my financial calculator (PV of $25 million, FV of $3 billion, 3 periods) for a quick-and-dirty return calculation of almost 400%.

You know, I don't think the real money is in the stock market.

(Via Dean Esmay)