War on Christmas - 2009

Oh, don't you remember the fervor of the War on Christmas back in 2005?

American society was about to crumble because the most extravagant Christians were not allowed to do things like put nativity scenes in the middle of busy intersections or follow you around all day yelling Christmas carols into your ears. Anyone saying "Happy Holidays" was threatened with midnight disappearances to Bill O'Reilly inspired reeducation camps in order to save what was left of our country. Glenn Beck was weeping, but he wasn't a major factor on television yet. Several high profile culture warriors released well timed books on the subject (how did they know it was going to be a topic du jour?) of the coming cultural takeover of American society driven by people...like...me.

Wasn't that fun? It was really important, too. So important, in fact, that the "War On Christmas" meme has been mentioned less and less each year following 2005, despite cultural conditions staying relatively static.

I mean, maybe people are focused on other news stories right now, but I can think of more than a few rather big national news stories the press could have focused on in the final quarter of 2005. Can you name anything more important on which we could have spent our time back then?

But it isn't like the "War on Christmas" is over. It seethes right below the surface, on Facebook status updates and chain emails from folks I know who really believe I am mindlessly supporting a cabal of elite individuals who plan to strip me of my culture and traditions. (They think about this while shopping at Wal-Mart, I'm sure.) Talk radio still hammers the narrative, asking breathlessly for callers to describe how badly affluent, caucasian Christians are oppressed during this woeful time of the year.

Take for example the "kid who got suspended for drawing Jesus on the cross from his public school" meme. How outrageous! Talk radio yammers. If he had drawn a picture of Obama, he'd still be in school! They say. Brainwashing! Oppression! Badness! Outrage! RARRR!!

Until the real story comes out. The real story you won't hear about on Fox News or talk radio. The local media screwed the pooch here and got almost everything wrong. Because the story fit so neatly into the precanned "War on Christmas" narrative, it got play.

No, the teacher hadn't instructed them to draw things that make them think of Christmas.

No, it wasn't a sketch of Jesus on the cross, it was a picture of the student himself on the cross, with eyes 'X'ed out to signify death.

No, the kid didn't get suspended, but he did have to see the school psychologist.

NOW, the father disagrees with the above statements from the school and maintains that all this is about the school oppressing his family's religion. He is demanding compensation from the school for "all the suffering" this has cased the family while inviting the press to publicize the story. There is no indication how the story first came to the media's attention, but the father's quotes give me some idea.

(Remember, folks, only godless liberals take public demands for compensation to frivolous lawsuit status.)

Just as a hypothetical, had the student actually done anything to hurt himself or others, after the teacher had seen such a drawing, the same press driving the "War on Christmas" meme would instead be driving the "Why Weren't Warning Signs Heeded?" narrative.

But we don't get to hear about a teacher doing their job correctly, effectively, and with regard to a student's welfare, or how a school has rather appropriate operating proceedures and didn't overreact to a situation. We hear instead about how that teacher hates Christmas, and how this public school is doing its part to rid America of religion.



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The Old Dirt Road

An old Jeff Foxworthy joke went something like this: If the directions to get to your house include the phrase "turn off the paved road," you might be a redneck.

To which we now add Or living in America during the Great Recession.

A few thoughts on this:

1. Do not tell Ray Nagin that this is how some localities are cutting back on "services."

2. On the other hand, some gravel roads might be better maintained than our current roads in New Orleans.

3. "First world" standards are just one big crisis away from "developing world" standards of living.

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Conservative Nuance

Like my link to an article on liberalism earlier, today's heavy opinion focuses on real conservatism defended on rational & thoughtful grounds. It is another article I'll be going back to for a long time.

There isn't any demonization of liberalism to be found behind that link, so if you're looking for soundbytes and zingers, it ain't for you.

I can only imagine how different our nation would look today if those individuals who play conservatives on TV, radio or politics sounded anything like this.

HT: The Daily Dish.

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Water(less) World

Speaking of how taxes are spent, let us look at how metro Atlanta and Georgia handle water resources.

Before this autumn, northern Georgia was suffering from a rather severe drought. This wasn't its first drought, as we went through several while I was in college. This has been going on for years, and yet little has been done in the realm of figuring out how to manage water resources more appropriately. Their latest "attempt" to do so is called the "Water Contingency Task Force" made up of mostly Atlanta business types. Martin Matheny at Beyond the Trestle describes one of the Water & Power's big ideas thusly:

What interbasin transfer means, in simple terms, is that a region that needs water, say Atlanta, finds a place that has water, say Lake Hartwell, and starts piping water out to fill their own needs. Right now, interbasin transfer is illegal. It needs to stay that way, because if it becomes allowable, every lake, river, stream, and puddle in Georgia is fair game to satiate Atlanta's thirst.

Your tax dollars at work. The rest of Georgia is responsible for subsidizing metro Atlanta's subpar urban, suburban and exurban planning.

Because that is far simpler than "Instead of building a reservoir, spend less, create more jobs, and fix the pipes."

Two thoughts:

One, hopefully the real estate bubble bursting taught metro Atlanta developers a thing or three about overbuilding, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that.

Two, we must figure out a way to pump New Orleans' water to metro Atlanta and charge those business types by the gallon.

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Taxes

Let us hear again about how bad high taxes on the top margin of American income earners would be. How it would destroy the business class of America and lead to national ruin. Let us hear again how we should return to the good ole days of American pie, baseball without steroids, olde tyme values and low taxes.

Whoops.

To be clear, I am no fan of high taxes. My views on taxation have more to do with getting a return on investment on tax dollars spent and doing the job right when the job is done with tax dollars. This has little to do with the false big government vs. small goverment choice, or liberalism vs. conservatism. The real difference lies between effective government and kleptocracy.

Back in the good ole days of the 40's and 50's, we had taxes so high modern "conservatives" would all die of shock. And yet, how we spent those tax dollars made us the most powerful nation the Earth has ever seen.

But don't let actual history get in the way of talk radio narratives.

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2009 Prediction Roundup

These are some predicitons I made in December of 2008. Let's see how I did.

- Obama's first year won't be as bad as Republicans think it will.
Check
- Obama's first year won't be as glorious as Democrats think it will.
Check
- A federal universal Health Care package eerily similar to Romneycare is going to make it to the floor this year...
Check
- ...but union card check will happen first.
Wrong
- Bail outs will continue and any financial institution or heavily unionized industry will qualify.
Wrong (bailouts were not extended to other heavily unionized industries as I suspected)
- There will be no terrorist attacks on US soil in 2009.
We have a few weeks left but I'm going to go ahead an mark a check here.
- Oil prices will remain low in 2009.
Check
- Our likely recession will not last past 3rd Quarter 2009.
Check, but barely. We had 2.3% growth in Q3.
- There are going to be some serious power play issues among Pelosi, Reid, and Obama.
Check (see healthcare debate)
- Assassination attempts on black politicians by white supremacy groups will be the formula plot of the 2009 Fall TV lineup. It's no "family/individual getting cash it shouldn't" or "family/restaurant-on-top-of-bar finds out part of neighbor's property really belongs to them" but it'll be there.
Wrong. Not a single one...

So for my 2009 predictions, I'm 7-3. I can live with that. I'll have some 2010 predictions up in the coming week or so.

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Liberalism

I'm going to be chewing on this article for a long time.

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Epic Sports Bet Fail

Ah, social media. Not only can you use Facebook to connect with friends, you can update your status to make bets with your friends that include them drinking beer, driving their trucks to your house, with all their guns and ammo in tow, taking your 60" television, and unloading their ordinance upon it.

And then Youtube lets you share the video of this behavior to the world.


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GOP for Nagin (con't)

Meanwhile, in Chocolate Moose Party news, let us consider the fact, ONCE AGAIN*, that the GOP had a huge hand in Nagin's 2006 reelection. You can talk about busing evacuated voters in from Atlanta and Houston all you want, so long as you mention the GOP's behavior in the same breath.

One of the architects of that strategy even went on to become the current national leader of the Young Republicans. She used the Nagin election, and her work on it, to prove her colorblind bonafides after several Obama jokes on her Facebook page called her racial sensitivity into question.

Nagin's got plenty of "outsider" popularity as a "run government like a business" candidate...


* (Because I am never, ever, ever going to let my Republican-leaning friends forget this one.)

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The Oyster Guy

No, not that oyster guy. The the other oyster guy. The one that is ingloriously digging carbon levels out of oyster shells. Is he part of the Vast Climate-Change Conspiracy too? (HT: The Daily Dish)

When we had this discussion in November, I made the following comment:

That's the strength of having a lot of scientists around the world running tests and tests and engaging in research and peer review.

If one small group loses credibility due to shenanigans or incredibly incorrect predictions, it does not reduce the credibility of the entire body of work worldwide, because it is usually the scientists themselves who disprove the work of other scientists. That's generally how science works. That's where their overall credibility comes from.

Despite the emails from the University of East Wherever, and their "validation" of the far-reaching and decades long hoax that legions of unnamed scientists have pulled on the whole world in the interests of recieving more research dollars, endowed fellowships and TOTAL WORLD DOMINATION!1!, the numbers coming out of that university represent only a small part of the worldwide body of knowledge on this subject.

Even if you invalidate all their numbers and all of their studies, there are still mountains of statistical data, compiled by folks like the oyster guy, that the deniers have zero answer for.

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Long vs. Palin

A University of Georgia professor examines the similarities between Huey Long and Sarah Palin. His thesis is that both are populists who did/will move their respective parties to the left/right. Though allowances are made to Long & Palin's respective differences:

The analogy is not exact. Huey Long was by many accounts a brilliant thinker and politician. Former President and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Howard Taft proclaimed him to be one of the finest legal minds he had ever encountered. Sarah Palin has yet to exude intellectual brilliance.

I still maintain that Palin shares far more similarities to a different Louisiana populist: Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans. (Chocolate Moose Party! 2012!)

Update 4:30pm: I forgot to add a link to Christopher Hitchens' spot on Palin's Dangerous Populism.

Thoughts?

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