Students in a primary school in Britain have been informed "there is no Father Christmas."
A primary school has been accused of spoiling Christmas for pupils after a lesson telling them that Santa Claus does not exist.
The Grinch was also sited at a junior high school in West Midlands:
The teacher, who has not been named, is believed to have told the class at Boldmere Junior School, in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands: "All of you are old enough to know there is no Father Christmas or fairies.
MDH and I just returned from seeing Pursuit of Happyness. Everyone needs a dream more powerful than their circumstances; a dream mixed with determination and perseverance that drives them beyond their limitations. This is that story.
The Grinch made yet another appearance, this time in Riverside, CA.
A high school choir was asked to stop singing Christmas carols during an ice skating show featuring Olympic medalist Sasha Cohen out of concern the skater would be offended because she's Jewish.
A city staff member, accompanied by a police officer, approached the Rubidoux High School Madrigals at the Riverside Outdoor Ice Skating Rink just as they launched into "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" and requested that the troupe stop singing, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Thursday.
Mind you, Sasha Cohen never asked them to stop singing, and according to Michael Medved, was actually angry that they were forced to stop on her behalf. This wasn't in the newspaper accounts. Also according to Medved, the woman responsible for stopping this, from the Cultural Affairs Office in Riverside, did not want Sasha or others to hear the line in the song about Jesus Christ being our Savior, as it could be offensive to others.
The Jerusalem Post carries an article by Michael Freund calling upon American Christians to help stop Iran's nuclear proliferation by praying and writing to our politicians.
The would-be Hitler of Persia has already made it abundantly clear that he plans to wipe Israel and its millions of Jews off the map. And last week he told Western leaders that their turn would soon be next: "If you do not respond to the divine call," he warned, "you will die soon and vanish from the face of the earth."
Now is the time for all those who love Israel to stand up and be counted. Now is the time for pro-Israel Christians everywhere, and especially in the US, to rise up and cry out on behalf of God's people.
Storm the heavens with your prayers, and the White House with your pleas. Speak out now and urge US President George W. Bush to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat once and for all.
For those Christians who believe God's Word, who support Israel's right to exist and protect herself, now is the time for united support. Pray, write letters, make calls and get the word out.
This can be our Christmas present to Israel.
Fifth and sixth graders sang "Away in a Manger" last week for their Christmas Program. The ACLU had filed suit last year after singing the same song. This year Jay Sekulow and the ACLJ thwarted the Grinch. Of course, the ACLU sent a couple of their lawyers to monitor this years' program.
Late last week at the Lakeview Elementary School in Wilson County, Tennessee, moms and dads, grandparents, aunts and uncles gathered at the school to watch the performance of the elementary students’ Christmas program. Also in attendance were three lawyers, including our Senior Counsel from the American Center for Law and Justice. The Wilson County School System has been sued by the ACLU because last year’s program included the singing of the song, “Away in a Manger.” The ACLU actually alleged in the complaint that when people joined in to sing “Away in a Manger,” it violated the Constitution because the song is “exclusively Christian in nature, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.”
The impending Democratic Party take-over has spurred a possible treatment for a high school television drama, sort of along the lines of Boston Public. Here is a cast of characters.
(Let me first begin by stating this is a work of non-fiction; any resemblance to actual characters is purely in the mind of the reader.)
Nancy "I'm the prom queen!" Pilosi is head of Student Council. Perky, energetic, and a former cheerleader; doesn’t tolerate competition very well and is deeply threatened by more intelligent and prettier girls, such as Jane Harmon. Assigns posts to her dippy, incompetent friends, which assures her of keeping the #1 spot as Head of Student Council. Loves holding slumber parties, making s'mores, singing Kum Bai Ya and telling scary stories about her rivals on Student Council.
Hillary Clinton is the manipulative, bossy, bullyish girl everyone is afraid to stand up to. She's a sophmore now but has been posturing and campaigning for Senior Class President (SCP) since she was a freshman. Before holding an office on Student Council she made and failed at an attempt to unionize high school students. Hillary is determined to protect all students with a union whether they like it or not because it's for their own good. The fees for each student would be more than most can afford, but her plan calls for the students with more allowance to pay for the kids without allowance. She plans to force this issue once she's elected president.
John Kerry is the quintessential awkward sycophant; he considers himself a whistleblower and makes sure all illegal plays made by the football team are published each week in the school newspaper. Kerry also published his team's highly secret football plays and distributed them to all rival football teams "in the name of fairness". He has been known to take pom-poms over to the opposing side and dance with the cheerleaders as a show of good faith and solidarity, and thinks score-keeping is plebeian. He annoys everyone but himself and the Dean of Students, who depends upon Kerry's surveillance of student behavior. Kerry tried to run for SCP but lost and would now be happy to settle for Prom King.
Jimmy Carter, Past (way past) Senior Class President, is the high school graduate who keeps coming back. He hangs out in the Student Union criticizing the current class president or organizes pep rallies to stir things up. Carter also thinks he alone can bring peace and unity between a long-term rivalry between the science club students and a brutal campus gang that keeps bullying and beating up the science kids. He says there will be peace if all the science students would just stop getting A’s and leave campus; he claims their achievements have created a sense of insecurity in the gang.
Al Gore lost his bid for SCP six years ago and has never gotten over it. Gore thinks one day he will take over the world. He believes that only he alone can avert the destruction of the planet and threatens to make it very inconvenient for anyone who does not listen to his version of the truth. Sources close to Gore reveal he affectionately refers to Tipper as “Pinky”.
Bill Clinton, a former two-term SCP, is everybody’s best friend, especially if they're female. He wants to make high school a better place and will do or say anything to make sure everyone feels good about his attempts. Clinton was elected because he assured the student body that he felt their pain when they got bad grades. He is huge on equal rights; defends disenfranchized students who feel they have been unjustly left off the Dean’s List. Clinton claims it is not their fault they have a 1.6 GPA and asserts that putting them on probation is bigoted. When that same group of students got caught smoking weed, he vigorously defended their right to inhale. His long-term goal is to tear down the wall of separation of individual schools, thereby creating one global school campus; he plans on being the first Global Senior Class President.
This morning Drudge posted this headline: Incoming House intelligence Chief botches easy intel quizz.
This does not bode well for the protection of our nation.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, who incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tapped to head the Intelligence Committee when the Democrats take over in January, failed a quiz of basic questions about al Qaeda and Hezbollah, two of the key terrorist organizations the intelligence community has focused on since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
We want those in charge of intelligence gathering to at least know about whom they're gathering intelligence.
When asked by CQ National Security Editor Jeff Stein whether al Qaeda is one or the other of the two major branches of Islam -- Sunni or Shiite -- Reyes answered "they are probably both," then ventured "Predominantly -- probably Shiite."
Reyes could also not answer questions put by Stein about Hezbollah, a Shiite group on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations that is based in Southern Lebanon.
Jeff Stein puts it quite simply:
In an interview with CNN, Stein said he was "amazed" by Reyes' lack of what he considers basic information about two of the major terrorists organizations. "If you're the baseball commissioner and you don't know the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox, you don't know baseball," Stein said. "You're not going to have the respect of the people you work with."
And how on earth would you recognize a real terrorist threat if you know nothing about any of the terrorist organizations? Click here for Jeff Stein's article in CQ.com; it is more comprehensive than CNN's article.
Folks, we are indeed in for a rollercoaster ride with Pelosi and her ilk in charge of the chicken coop. Hopefully someone in the Democratic Party will take running our great nation seriously. Anyone?
For your edification in this most glorious time of year, I give you the words of InedibleInk and The Anchoress to contemplate.
From Captoe at InedibleInk, "What Child is This, Part Eight", January 2, 2006:
Why shepherds? Well, keeping a protective watch is what shepherds do, for one thing. For another thing, it’s a part of the greater meek-inherit-earth plan. Shepherding was humble work. These guys were on the tattered fringes of society. Sending angels to Jewish shepherds is the precise opposite of sending them to Caesar.
Who better than shepherds to keep watch over the sacrifical Lamb.
And from The Anchoress' "Feast of the Immaculate Conception-2006":
With God, there is no nothing, for even “nothing” is filled with Intention. And Intention…Assents. And Assent…brings forth. It Creates. And in every assent we utter, every stitch we knit, every empty bowl we fill, every lonely life we consent to touch, every hateful remark we respond to with love, we create something where there was nothing. With our every “yes,” we assist in creation, with the continuation of the world. We work with the Creator, for whom no need is too small, for whom love knows no limits.
It is the great secret.
These are only excerpts; click on both links and read their entire essays. You will be blessed.
I am finished with my first semester of graduate school. What a relief.
As soon as I clicked send, submitted my final lit review and walked out of the library, who was there to greet me upon the completion of my semester's studies? Why, none other than the Trojan Marching Band. Stationed just in front of the library steps, they began playing "Conquest" at my departure. Quite fitting.
I would say I am a free woman, except I've got about sixteen scholarship essays to write now.
If I'm not back in five minutes...
And apparently those around me have felt it necessary to put me on suicide watch. I've never received so many phone calls and text messages in my life.
That was not my team out there. I don't know what happened. UCLA shut us down. Well done.
I'm not upset that we're not going to the national championship game. I'm upset we lost to the Bruins.
Because I work in Westwood. And, oh yeah, they're the Bruins.
It's going to be a long week.
Army v. Navy
Stanford v. Cal
And what will be the most watched today, by eager Wolverine and Gator eyes, as well as by Trojan and Bruin enthusiasts everwhere: The USC v. UCLA game.
It would be tremendously surprising if USC lost to their crosstown rival. However, if the mighty Trojans do not upset the Bruins by a huge margin, their #2 BCS standing could come into question. The Michigan Wolverines are undoubtedly an excellent team who would deserve a trip to Glendale in the event that this isn't a huge win.
The fun rival trivia fact of the season: If USC beats UCLA today, which they are favored to do, they set a new record for the longest winning streak against the Bruins since they began playing one another in the early 20th century.
Fight on, Trojans. Beat the Bruins!