General
a tree grows in seatac (as taken from cnn)
by Travis on Dec.13, 2006, under General
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) — Merry Christmas! That’s right, Merry Christmas. Whether you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, agnostic, pagan, barbarian or whatever, Merry Christmas!
It’s what most of us say in this country come this time of year. It’s about who we are, where we are and where we’ve been. And all the namby-pamby, little sensitive darlings among us who can’t handle this verbal assault on their delicate senses should immediately begin seeking emergency psychiatric care.
This week we were treated to the spectacle of an easily offended and highly offensive rabbi who walked into an airport, gazed upon Christmas trees all around him and suddenly was overwhelmed with an immense, and apparently irresistible, urge to sue the management of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport because nowhere among all the Christmas trees was a single menorah. Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Seattle even delivered to the airport’s management a draft of a lawsuit he would file if they didn’t sprinkle menorahs around the Christmas trees.
Political correctness in this country reached an entirely new level of absurdity some years ago. But occasionally, and the situation at Sea-Tac is just such an occasion, we exceed ourselves. The militant fundamentalist rabbi so flummoxed Sea-Tac management with his threat and their perceived obligation to be “politically correct” that, rather than think rationally or simply tell him to stuff it, they started hacking away at all those artificial Christmas trees and quickly descended into a public relations nightmare in which they managed to offend reason, cultural values and the vast majority of Americans.
As CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin told me, “The Supreme Court has held since 1984, the famous ‘Reindeer Rule,’ that if a symbol of Christmas is mostly secular, like a reindeer or a Christmas tree or Santa Claus, that is not a violation of the separation of church and state.”
The irony that escaped the rabid rabbi and the timid Sea-Tac management team is that the Christmas tree’s likely origin dates back to pre-Christian pagan cultures. The Christmas tree is not by any means a religious symbol, and when we’re honest about it, the tree’s become a purely commercial symbol more closely associated with shopping, roasting chestnuts and guzzling eggnog than a nativity scene with baby Jesus.
And hang on, Christians, because you’re in 21st Century America, and our culture celebrates your holiest day of the year with such insensitive gusto that our economy would suffer a serious setback if your religious sensibilities were as easily offended as those of the litigious rabbi.
More than 140 million shoppers spent an average of about $360 on Black Friday alone, the day after Thanksgiving and the unofficial kickoff to the Christmas shopping season, according to the National Retail Federation. And all those Christmas shoppers are expected to spend nearly a half-trillion dollars this shopping season.
Now if I were a fundamentalist Christian, that might strike me as a little politically incorrect. And I think all of you folks should think about suing somebody. You know, get in the spirit of the season.
This mindless movement of political correctness at all costs is one of the most un-American and crazy twists in our culture as anything we’ve witnessed. Remember, we’re Americans, and we have freedom of speech, that whole life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness thing. Or at least we did.
And I hope you’ll celebrate the Christmas season by offending someone. If you’re Jewish, how about a hearty “Happy Hanukkah” to a good Christian? If they’re offended you’ve revealed a fool, not such a good Christian and someone you shouldn’t waste your expression of good will upon. But get ready for a few robust “Merry Christmas” calls to be thrown your way as well.
The operators of the Seattle-Tacoma airport quickly righted a potentially dreadful wrong. The rabbi decided not to file a suit, Christmas trees have sprung back up throughout the concourse, and no, not a single menorah has been spotted. I can only hope this is the beginning of a major movement in America, one that regards thinking as paramount to phony feelings and heightened self-centered sensitivities. Common sense and judgment should always reign supreme over political correctness, no matter what the current trend.
And, my gosh, even Wal-Mart this year has abandoned its generic, politically correct “Happy Holidays” greeting in favor of “Merry Christmas.” I’m starting to think this may be the season to be jolly after all. Ho, ho, ho.
To all, a Merry Christmas. OK, and a Happy Hanukkah, too.
i’m still kickin`….
by Travis on Dec.13, 2006, under General
just an update to everyone…
i’m still alive and kickin. it’s been a really busy 8 days for me and the next few don’t look too relaxing either… i’ve been insanely busy with work getting some things wrapped up before the end of the year. There’s some other things going on as well, but I can’t discuss those until after the new year. I’m sorry as well for all of you I haven’t returned phone calls and text’s to. It really has been that stressful and busy that I haven’t had a chance. myspace me a message or email me since i’m able to get a little time each day to go clear those out and reply. 🙂
goings on of a weekend gone…
by Travis on Nov.27, 2006, under General
well, this was a pretty good weekend i’d have to say. too bad all of em can’t be four days. 🙂
wednesday – mind job, let me tell ya. we had a big meeting at work then we all cut out pretty early. i got home and andy showed up to hang out and play some FFXI. ivan showed up later on and setup his own personal FOB in my house for the weekend so he could spend some time with his kids and not have to be under the same roof as his soon to be ex. 🙂  we had a couple people over and chilled out, it felt like a friday.
thursday – woke up around 0900 or so and cooked up a pretty big breakfast… enough even to get jesse out of his room in search of food, lol. pretty much just got a couple minor things done around the house and then headed over to arwen’s grandparents (former in-laws) for turkey day stuff. hung out around there until about 2030 when arwen and savannah went to bed and then i headed home to tune my board and get some sleep before friday’s boarding trip.
friday – got up about 0630 and headed to the hills! WOOOHOO! being the first good trip up there this season, i was stoked. i got in about 7 good runs before my day got ended by whacking my knee on the off-ramp from the lift. it had turned to pretty much solid ice from the weeks whacky early winter weather and let me tell you that hurt like crazy. aside from that the trip went good… sooooo nice to get back up there. i can’t wait for this weekend up at keystone! 🙂 i headed back down from the mountain around 1ish (a little ahead of the usual time) and got home about 1430/1500. worked out good though. i got some time to relax at the house before arwen got back from her grandparents and it gave some time for andy and i to get some more exp up on FFXI. 🙂 i was a little bummed that some things didnt work out with getting a sitter for arwen friday night…. i was supposed to hit up a comedy club with some friends but it fell through with the babysitter slackage… oh well maybe next time.
saturday – tackle the garage day. i can’t believe it took me 6 hours to get that thing cleaned up! i did however offload a ton of trash and i’m happy to report the garage is clean enough to eat in. haha somehow during the day i even found some time to get in a haircut. most of the day was pretty warm so that made it easier. arwen had a blast playing outside with dylan and ivey which made it a lot easier to work in the garage since i could keep an eye on her and still get stuff done. it was nice to head off to bed with a big win like that under my belt for the day…
sunday – yeah, nothing to report here, just spent the day doing NOTHING. 🙂 andy, mike and i did however get all our chars to lvl 30 yesterday and got some of our advance job quests started, so thats good. finished up PLD with andy today from work during my break, haha and we’ll tackle his DRG character on wednesday.
all in all it was a good four day weekend. as i said, it’s such a shame this doesn’t happen more often. just can’t wait since the next few months should be a lot of fun with a lot of snowboarding and some more time off! 😀
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granny with a gun… wow…
by Travis on Nov.21, 2006, under General
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) — A 92-year-old woman was shot to death Tuesday after she fired at three narcotics officers trying to serve a warrant at her house, officials said.
Neighbors and relatives said it must have been a case of mistaken identity. Police said they had the right address.
Police said the woman, identified as Kathryn Johnson, was the only person home at the time, and had lived there for about 17 years.
As the plainclothes Atlanta police officers approached the house about 7 p.m., a woman inside started shooting, striking each of them, said Officer Joe Cobb, a police spokesman.
Assistant Chief Alan Dreher said the officers had a legal warrant and “knocked and announced” before they forced open the door. He said they were justified in returning fire when they were fired upon.
One was hit in the arm, another in a thigh and the third in a shoulder. The officers were taken to a hospital for treatment, and all three were conscious and alert, police said.
Sarah Dozier, identified as a niece of the woman, told WAGA-TV that there were never any drugs at the house.
“My aunt was in good health. I’m sure she panicked when they kicked that door down,” Dozier said. “There was no reason they had to go in there and shoot her down like a dog.”
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i mean what do you say to a story like that? whew…
in defense of the officers though, despite ms doziers loss and blame of the police — granny did shoot first girl. when you’ve been shot at, you don’t care if its the police chief on the other side of that door, you’re gonna open fire. just so happens one of those guys is evidently a pretty good crack shot. 🙂
