Secularism will join nativity on display in Ind. this winter

Freedom From Religion Foundation

"The Freedom From Religion Foundation will display a Bill of Rights "nativity" and a Winter Solstice banner this year in Franklin County, Ind., to counter a nativity scene that has stood alone on public property for 50 years.

"FFRF has been battling the county over this nativity since 2010, when it was erected at the foot of the flag pole. FFRF renewed complaints in 2011 and 2013. The county refused to take down the religious scene, moving it closer to the courthouse entrance in 2011. FFRF, with the ACLU of Indiana, filed a federal lawsuit over this nativity in Dec. 2014 asking the court to order the county to remove the nativity permanently.". . .   

How Saul Alinsky, Reverend Wright and Bill Ayres would handle military intelligence

Fraudulent intelligence on ISIS developing into another Obama scandal
"More than four dozen U.S. intelligence analysts formally filed complaints that their honest intelligence evaluations regarding the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Qaida’s branch Al Nusra Front in Syria were altered by superiors to prop up President Barack Obama’s false proclamations that he and his “national security team” are winning the war."
. . . 
“ 'There’s only one problem: the reporters in the early 1970s despised Nixon and were more than happy to bash him, but the news media today loves Obama and although they will publish or air negative stories about him, they don’t want to see him fail. In fact, I will bet that these reporters already wrote their ‘comeback kid’ news stories in anticipation that nothing will come of any of the scandals in the Obama administration,” said Lovell."

No Known Threat. Also, No Confidence

. . . "But the concern here isn’t that some Americans are succumbing to unreasonable fears about terrorism and need the president to talk some sense about the subject. The problem is that much of the country understands all too well is that the president has been waging a half-hearted military campaign against ISIS and other Islamist terrorist groups like al-Qaeda that has clearly failed." . . .

U.S. Dithering on ISIS Continues   . . . "The Obama anti-ISIS policy seems to be to do as little as American public opinion will allow, no matter how destructive ISIS becomes in the West." . . .

arkansasgopwingl

Interesting family background of the Colorado Springs shooter Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/11/interesting_family_background_of_the_colorado_springs_shooter.html#ixzz3suKBF9nF Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

Rosslyn Smith  " . . .From a professional point of view, he seems to me like the type of person whose inheritance might be put in a spendthrift trust. And I do suspect there might be some money in his family.  One report says Dear listed his occupation as a "self employed art dealer." That's not usually an occupation for someone with middle or working class roots." . . .

"There is no information so far on why Dear, Jr. moved to Colorado after apparently spending so many years in the Carolinas.  It would be funny if legalized pot has something to do with it.   He does look like quite a few of the badly aging hippies, many of them scions of respectable, affluent families, who get drawn to low cost of living communities in areas around towns like Asheville or Colorado Springs."

American Silliness; Nov 29, 2015

PUT THE MENORAH DOWN AND SLOWLY BACK AWAY FROM THE CHRISTMAS TREE!  . . . "And to my Christian friends: Please don’t go get assimilated on me either. That tree in the mall, town square, or your living room is a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree. Santa is not a secular character; he isSaint Nick. You have a nice tradition. “Keep the Christ in Christmas.” Don’t try to make it politically correct by taking away its religious nature. And don’t take away the religious nature of Hanukkah by shoving it down the collective throats of public Christmas displays." . . .   by Jeff Dunetz 

President Barack Obama’s Department of Veterans Affairs has banned employees at its facility in Salem, Virginia, from saying “Merry Christmas” to veterans.

…Public areas may only be decorated in a manner that is celebratory of the winter season. Displays must not promote any religion. Please note that trees (regardless of the types of ornaments used) have been deemed to promote the Christian religion and will not be permitted in any public areas this year.

. . . 

The email also bars Christmas music, saying that if a supervisor has allowed an employee to have music in his workspace, such music must “be secular (non-religious).”

How reality-TV programming affects the way we understand the very concepts of truth and authenticity."

"With the rise and dominance of reality television over the last twenty-five years comes the concomitant belief that humanity is knowable via the investigative camera, the first-person essay, and the webcam confessional." . . .

Some highlights of the student demands  . . .  " 'Among the enumerated items on lists of demands popping up at dozens of schools—at institutions like the University of Wyoming, San Francisco State University, and Amherst College—demands that college authorities take steps to dissuade or even sanction community members who express disagreement with the protesters are worryingly common.+

1. " 'Particularly concerning are calls for speech codes demanding punishment of constitutionally protected “hate speech,” mandatory trainings requiring students to voice agreement with certain ideologies (compelled speech), and rules about what faculty cannot, or must, teach.' ". . . 
2. Wesleyan protesters demand tracking system for faculty migroaggressions (seriously)  "The Demands include:
3. 5. TRACKING OF FACULTY & STAFF BIAS & MICROAGGRESSIONS

   By November 30th, 2015: Report on how student input will be integrated into the formation of an anonymous student reporting system for cases of bias, including microaggressions, perpetrated by faculty and staff.

   By Spring, 2016: Revision of end of semester professor evaluations to include a section dedicated for reporting classroom biases, including microaggressions, perpetrated by instructors.

   David Sessions, a Ph.D. student in History at Boston College, correctly assesses the situation as a demand for totalitarianism:
   

Holdomor: For those of you who think capitalistic America is just as evil as Communist Russia

"With Ukraine commemorating the Holodomor famine of the 1930s, it will be interesting to see if President . . .  President Barack Hussein Obama will even mention the commemoration of the horrific genocidal campaign against farmers in Ukraine during the 1930s. (Barack Obama’s mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was quite fond of Stalin and the Soviet communists—being a hardcore communist himself.) "

Remembering Holodomor: Millions of People Were Killed by Stalin’s ‘Death by Famine’ Policy

. . . "The engineered famine known as the Holomodor occurred in Ukraine under the brutal and merciless reign of Josef Stalin. It is estimated that some 5-7 million people starved to death during Stalin’s forced collectivization of farms in the years 1932-1933. Stalin ordered that all grain be forcibly taken from Ukrainian farmers—namely, the kulaks (independent farmers). Stalin even ordered that the seed grain (required for planting a new crop) be taken from Ukrainian farmers, leading to the deaths of millions.

"Disturbingly, Vladimir Putin has been attempting to whitewash the sordid and murderous history of Josef Stalin as of late:" . . .

Refugee-O-Phobia

comicallyincorrect.com

This weekend Muslim “refugees” chanted the Islamic war cry as they stoned police at the border with Macedonia.    "The migrants, already angry about the fact that Macedonia has started to erect a fence on the border, started throwing stones at police officers who were cordoning off the official checkpoint. Some police vehicles were also damaged, the ministry says."

• Ex-Muslim warns Europe; ‘deport anti-democratic Islamists’ or face more attacks
• Christians stoned by American Muslims in Dearborn as police watch
• Rep. John Conyers calls for government policy to counter anti-Muslim attitudes

Obama: Republicans Are Afraid of Widows and Three Year-Old Children. (As seen above)

Kuwaiti Official Perfectly Explains Bringing in Refugees is Dangerous (VIDEO)   "At the same time as Obama is trying open the flood gates and bring refugees into the country, Arab nations are working hard to keep the dangerous refugees out."

Coming to a City Near You: Islamic Terrorism . . . "The person with the real fears is the one in the White House quivering in his mom jeans that something bad may happen in his last 14 months. Obama’s “Audacity of Hope” these days is that by not recognizing Islamic terrorists as a clear and present danger to the U.S., he will eke out the end of his term leaving his mess to his successor. Michael Makovsky  reasoned that it is Obama who has facilitated ISIS recruitment." . . .
"As Paris illustrates, that risk is far too real and too great to ignore.  History books will look back upon America’s self-destruction (and that of Europe and the West more generally) in fascination that this once great civilization willfully allowed itself to be kidnapped by the progressive left through lies, intimidation, ignorance, and a lack of common sense.
"Paris was a wake-up call. Will America awaken or slumber into disaster?"

Stephen F. Hayes on Obama’s Intel Scandal

"This is a scandal. And those involved believe that it reaches into the White House."

Stephen F. Hayes   "Barack Obama says he wants the truth. On November 21, the New York Times reported allegations that military intelligence officials provided the president with skewed assessments that minimized the threat from ISIS and overstated the success of U.S. efforts against the group. The Times story was an update of reporting from the Daily Beast earlier this fall. “More than 50 intelligence analysts working out of the U.S. military’s Central Command have formally complained that their reports on ISIS and al Qaeda’s branch in Syria were being inappropriately altered by senior officials,” the Beast reported in September. These analysts say their superiors regularly massaged pessimistic assessments to make them more upbeat before sending them up the chain of command. The analysts registered their grievances with the inspector general at the Pentagon, who is investigating their claims.

"Obama was asked about this investigation at a press conference on November 22. The president said he doesn’t know the details of the allegations. But he added: “What I do know is my expectation, which is the highest fidelity to facts, data​—​the truth.”

"The allegations are serious. We’re told by sources with knowledge of the investigation that the analysts who made them knew well in advance they’d be filing an official complaint. So they were ready when they did, providing the IG with extensive documentation​—​going back more than a year​—​to support their claims.

Why were they so well prepared?" . . .

The System Worked, So Why The Protests In Chicago?

Investors.com

"Discord: The usual suspects were protesting again Friday and performing for TV news crews in Chicago. They disrupted tourists and holiday shoppers on tony Michigan Avenue. But what exactly were they protesting?

The ostensible reason for the chanting street anger was the shooting of a knife-wielding black teen by a white Chicago policeman. The violent death of Laquan McDonald emerged last week on a disturbing police video released by court order.

"Police had responded to reports of car break-ins and spotted the 17-year-old, later found to have PCP in his system, walking in the street waving the knife. When he turned toward one officer, he shot the teen 16 times, 15 after the youth had fallen.

"The officer, Jason Van Dyke, has been charged with first-degree murder. He's in jail without bail. The methodical American legal system is grinding along. The victim's family called for calm and understanding. Nothing will bring the troubled youth back.

"The truth is the awful death is demeaned by another outbreak of the nation's protest industry, one that unfortunately doesn't move itself overseas. The telling tip-off is the presence of Jesse Jackson. Or Al Sharpton. And protest leaders' choice of target, in this case a nationally familiar tourist area that — Oh, look! — is handy to all the local TV newsrooms. And it piggybacks on a traditionally slow news day's fascination with holiday shoppers. A perfect public-relations storm for protesters." . . .

If police shooting video had been released sooner,
would Emanuel be mayor?  

"Would Mayor Rahm Emanuel have been re-elected if voters had seen the video of Laquan McDonald´s execution? No. Rahm would have lost the election. Why? Because he would have lost Chicago´s black vote. Without the black vote, Rahm Emanuel would not be the 9.5-fingered boss of Bartertown. Black political figures would have been uneasy standing with Rahm. They would have run away. They couldn´t stand with him. Not if that video came out  . . ."

From Lucianne

Obama Spares ISIS Oil Facilities to Save the Earth

"President Obama would destroy the American economy to fight the mythical threat of climate change but protected the oil wealth of the very real and very deadly threat of ISIS because destroying it might hurt the environment. Go to your climate conference, Mr. President. That’ll show them"

Daniel John Sobieski  "One may be thankful that President Harry S. Truman didn’t have to file an environmental impact statement before he dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, acts which shortened and won World War II and saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

"If you wondered why our air campaign against ISIS was inept, consider the statement by Mike Morell, speaking on the “Charlie Rose” program Tuesday night that we didn’t take out the oil facilities that ISIS was using to become the best financed terrorist organization in history because of our concern the environment would be harmed. As the Washington Times reported:

A former CIA director said the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State has been reluctant to attack oil wells controlled by the extremist group partly because of environmental concerns.
We didn’t go after oil wells -- actually hitting oil wells that ISIS controls because we didn’t want to do environmental damage, and we didn’t want to destroy that infrastructure,” said former spy chief Michael Morell, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

 . . . "President Obama wants to use the environment to degrade and destroy the U.S. economy based on ideology and not science – much pain for no gain. As Investor’s Business Daily noted:" . . .

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications

3 Are Dead in Colorado Springs Shootout at Planned Parenthood Center

NY Times

Colorado Springs Shooter ID’d as Robert Lewis Dear, Registered as Unaffiliated Female Voter
"The deranged left is desperate to call this lunatic a pro-life Republican, but some facts are intervening with that narrative.

7:55 a.m. UPDATE

ABC News has reported that Robert Dear is being held without bond as he awaits his first court appearance scheduled for Monday.

Jail records didn’t list charges but showed him being held on two administrative holds, ABC reported.

 Robert Lewis Dear: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

1. Dear Surrendered to Police Who Entered the Planned Parenthood Building
2. He Is Originally From South Carolina & Was Living in Colorado
3. Dear Was Charged With Animal Cruelty & ‘Peeping Tom’ in South Carolina
4.  He Was Reported to Have a ‘Long Gun’ & Brought ‘Devices’ to the Scene
5.  The Officer Killed in the Shooting Was Responding to a Call for Help

Garrett Swasey, Officer Killed in Colorado, Is Recalled for Courage and Faith

" . . .a courageous man and loving father who drew strength and inspiration from his Christian faith. 

"He was married, with two young children, and had been on the campus police force for six years. He also spent seven years as a co­pastor at Hope Chapel in Colorado Springs. “Here’s a guy who worked full time as a police officer, and then gave a great amount of time to his local church and didn’t get a dime for it,” said Scott Dontanville, a co­pastor who knew Officer Swasey for 15 years. “He did it because it was the thing that he felt he needed to do.' ” . . . 

Black Lives Matter? Tyshawn Lee, nine, was murdered by three gang members on November 9

Daily Mail

. . . "Karla said she grew up with Corey Morgan, 27, who investigators claim along with two other men went out armed every day looking for potential targets after a shooting by a rival gang in October killed his brother and injured his mother. 

"Tyshawn's father is allegedly part of the rival gang. 

"Karla added: 'I just can't believe it. The same guy I grew up with, talked with, played with.'  

"The court heard how Morgan along with two others allegedly spotted Tyshawn in a playground.  " . . .

Some Thanksgiving history...sort of.

bookwormroom

Argus Hamilton comments on the season

"President Obama spoke to the nation Wednesday, assuring Americans it was safe to travel this Thanksgiving even though the State Department issued a travel warning. You were no safer once you got there. Heavy fighting broke out Thursday the moment anyone at the table mentioned Obama.

"The National Transportation Safety Board said this Thanksgiving week has the most holiday travelers in the past ten years. The Interstate highways were jammed. Young Syrian men trying to come into the U.S. from Mexico took one look at the San Diego freeway and returned to the war zone.

"Black Friday launches the Christmas season today as shoppers storm into the big chain stores to buy gifts at once-a-year bargain prices. Holiday decorations went up overnight in Los Angeles. The Nativity Scene at the Beverly Hills courthouse shows six lawyers standing around a car accident."

Comedian Argus Hamilton

21 Heartbreaking Confessions About Working Retail On The Holidays

Buzzfeed   “Working retail during the holidays makes you hate people more than ever.” All confessions courtesy of Whisper.

9 Reasons We Should Give Retail Workers A Break During The Holidays  . . . "Retail employees tend to bear the brunt of our holiday stress. And why shouldn’t they? They’re the ones standing there at the precise moment when you just can’t take it anymore.

"This year, I submit that we cut them some slack. People who work in retail get the holiday spirit beat right out of ’em. They’re restocking shelves, bagging egg nog, mopping up spills, and answering unintelligent questions all across America when they would much rather be somewhere else." . . ."Here are a few reasons why we should give retail workers a break:" . . .

More at the link.

NOW GLOBAL WARMING BELIEVERS WANT TO TAKE AWAY THE JOY OF A JUICY STEAK

The Lid

"There is nothing like a thick juicy steak, but if Chatham House, a London based think tank gets it way the Paris climate change conference next week will recommend member countries cut down on meat consumption to help stem “global warming“."

. . . 

"In their report the think tank presented a list of globally coordinated recommendations to convert mankind from omnivores to herbivores, one of which is to raise the cost of meat."

American Silliness; Nov 27, 2015

Combating climate change: The left's strategy to defeat ISIS  . . . "It seems as though the left will grasp onto any hypothesis to explain the rise of Islamic terrorism.  First, it was financial instability (remember "jobs for jihadis"?) that gave rise to terrorism.  Currently, climate change is the acceptable hypothesis."

Fox News contributor gets death threats for mocking Star Wars fans

“I have never had any interest in watching space nerds poke each other with their little space nerd sticks, and I’m not going to start now,” Timpf shared on the original broadcast. “You people are crazy. You Star Wars people are crazy. Yesterday I tweeted something, and all I said was that I wasn’t familiar with Star Wars because I’ve been too busy liking cool things and being attractive — people threatened my life. You’re not really branding yourself in a way that makes me want to join your life-threatening club.”

Protesters Vandalize Christmas Tree In Millennium Park

U.S. Avoids Destroying ISIS Oil Wells Because of Environmental Concerns  "These are not serious people."
This one rates a post of it's own elsewhere.

Hillary Clinton Will Yell at the Referee, So Help Her!
. . . "Some attempts fail harder than others…but nobody—and I mean nobody—fails as hard as Hillary Clinton when it comes to offering proof of humanity."   Videos at the link.

Democrats Know How to Ruin a Holiday . . . " Of course, I can’t imagine any family spending Thanksgiving arguing about politics in any event.

"But the Democrats can. In fact, they encourage it. The Democratic Party has developed its own Thanksgiving tradition: advising its faithful on how to debate with their Republican relatives. That strikes me as completely bizarre, but then, if you think of Thanksgiving as Genocide Day, as so many liberals do, maybe it doesn’t seem like you’re ruining much.

"This is the Democrats’ family argument cheat sheet for 2015:"

How to Talk About Global Warming With Your Crazy ISIS Relatives at Thanksgiving Dinner

Big Government

"It’s become a media tradition for left-wing blogs to publish “survival guides” for liberal youth fated to attend Thanksgiving dinners populated by crazy right-wing relatives, who have grown increasingly skeptical of the accomplishments of our glorious President Obama.

"Things are going to be especially rough this year, what with the collapsing enrollment, soaring premiums, agonizing deductibles, and shaky insurance company finances created by ObamaCare – developments those cranky old wingnuts somehow interpret as indications Obama’s genius health care reform is “failing.”

"Then you’ve got all the terrorism filling the streets with blood, which nutty Republican uncles are likely to misrepresent as evidence Obama was talking out of his turkey baster when he described ISIS as a thoroughly “contained” junior-varsity squad. Actually, Obama suddenly stopped talking about ISIS that way, just this week – but hey, nobody’s writing survival guides about how to talk to Barack Obama at Thanksgiving dinner.

"What we really need is a handy guide for discussing global warming with your crazy ISIS relatives." . . .

Updated Nov 27th: Former CIA chief: Obama didn't hit ISIS oil fields to save the environment

Washington Examiner  "The former CIA director under President Obama revealed this week that the White House held off on bombing Islamic State-controlled oil fields and tankers because the administration feared that the subsequent oil spills would harm the environment.

"Former director Mike Morell's comment came during an interview Tuesday evening with PBS' Charlie Rose.

" 'We didn't go after oil wells, actually hitting oil wells that ISIS controls, because we didn't want to do environmental damage, and we didn't want to destroy that infrastructure," Morell said.

"He added that the Obama administration was also afraid that damaging oil infrastructure would ultimately hurt the Syrian people." . . .

"These are not serious people"   . . . "Contrast that to reports from over a year ago explaining how ISIS funds itself by smuggling oil to other hostile actors:

“With the important exception of some state-sponsored terrorist organizations, ISIL is probably the best-funded terrorist organization we have confronted,” Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said on Thursday in a speech to a Washington,D.C., think tank. At a subsequent briefing at the White House, Cohen declined to provide an estimate of the group’s net worth today.

From mid-June until President Barack Obama unleashed airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against it, the Islamist organization scored $1 million per day from smuggled oil, Cohen said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He declined to say how much the airstrikes, which began on Sept. 23, have sliced into the group’s oil revenue.

The oil operation, which has drawn the most scrutiny, relies on long-standing smuggling networks operating in oil-rich parts of Iraq now under IS control. IS extracts the petroleum and sells it to smugglers, some of whom use “relatively sizeable tankers” to get it onto the black market." . . ."

Protecting the desert has to supersede protecting the civilized world from savages because -who knows? - we may want to make a national park out of that part of the world. It could be a monument against US aggression.  TD

The inspiring story of how Thanksgiving began

Silvio Canto, Jr.  "As much as possible, I try to learn something new about US history.   It's a combination of natural interest and the reality that I wasn't born here.   In other words, there are a lot of stories that I didn't hear about when I was a kid.   For example, I did not heart the one about Washington's cherry tree!

"A few weeks ago, I learned about Sarah Josepha Hale, the lady who wrote to President Lincoln to make our current Thanksgiving Day a reality.   Let's  recall the story:" . . .

 Read the full article