I’m Not The Only One

The other day I wondered how many American parents still raise their children to believe in Santa Claus?  More importantly, if so, why?

First off, since American culture is exported throughout the world, our depiction of Santa Claus is also exported around the world.  The American Santa Claus is often viewed by many non-Americans as the expression of mainstream American values such as materialism, commercialism and the commodification of goodwill.

In fact many Europeans see our fat jolly elf as a perversion of their Saint Nicholas.  Christians throughout Europe are not only rejecting Santa Claus, but are launching campaigns urging parents not to raise their children to believe in him. Check out this billboard in Scotland.

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The other day I came across the term “voodoo economics” while reading some nonsense written by Paul Krugman.

The term really gets under my skin for two reasons.  But before I get into that, a brief explanation as to to what voodoo economics refer and a history of the term. (more…)

Come on liberals, you can do better than this.

Democrats are grasping at straws to discredit Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell.  Bad enough head Republican honcho Karl Rove is talking trash about her, but now liberal pundit Bill Maher has uncovered old clips from when O’Donnell appeared on his old ABC show, Politically Incorrect from 20 years ago, when O’Donnell, then not even old enough to drink a beer, repeatedly admitted to “dabbling in witchcraft” as a mere teeny-bopper in high school.  Maher, who pretends to be a libertarian, is extorting her by threatening to show a different clip every week featuring O’Donnell admitting to having practiced in her past some witchcraft (she appeared 22 times on his previous show, and apparently the born-again Christian inexplicably mentioned her youthful exploration of witchcraft on every single appearance) until she agrees to appear on his current show on HBO. (more…)

Hi,

Can’t believe it’s been two months since my last post.  Moving into a new apartment, a recent hospitalization and the more recently temporary revocation of my fiancee’s civil rights by the NYPD has kept me extremely occupied.  I should be posting another entry this weekend, but for now, I’ll leave you with this.

Why all the uproar over the proposed construction of a Muslim community center near Ground Zero in Manhattan?  I say,not only build the Muslim center near Ground Zero, build it 100 stories high and greatly increase the chances that Muslim extremists will not try to commit any terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan!  Have the community center act as an Islamic lightning rod.

For those who wonder why Americans are seen as ignorant and Christians are viewed as narrow-minded bigots, one only has to consider the recent remarks made by televangelist Pat Robertson about the earthquake in Haiti.

Robertson’s remarks prove that he is duly ignorant of geography, (Haiti only occupies one-third, not half of the island of Hispaniola)

Unfortunately, this aging mental midget is half right.  Haiti is cursed, but not by God or the Devil, and certainly not because the Founding Fathers of Haiti drew a pact with Satan.  Looking at history, it appears that Haiti has been cursed by first Western Europe then later by the United States. and for the unthinkable sin of being black. (more…)

When the Man is looking for a terrorist, not a drug dealer or robber.

In America, blacks and Latinos are often guilty until proven innocent when the police are looking for a drug suspect.  As politically incorrect as it may sound, it makes perfect sense for police to use racial profiling against blacks and Latinos when looking for suspects of drug-related crimes.  Even though statistics suggest that white Americans are the largest consumers of illicit substances it is almost always people of color involved in the production, distributions and sale of these illegal narcotics and are most often targeted in the War on Drugs.  I’ve always said that the only way to completely put an end to racial profiling against blacks and Latinos by law enforcement is to decriminalize drugs.

That said,  I don’t believe racial profiling makes any sense when protecting Americans from terrorism.  Those Americans who support racial profiling as a counter terrorist measure are probably the same idiots who think Africa is a country and Mexico is a continent.  Why doesn’t racial profiling work to sniff out would-be terrorists?  Because the terrorists in question are of the Muslim faith, and like Christianity, Islam is a religion, not a race.  Muslims come in all colors.  Since 9/11 we have encountered white American Islamic terrorists, a Hispanic Islamic terrorist, Chinese Muslims and an array of Islamic terrorists of African descent and/or origin.  In terms of numbers, Islam in the U.S. has been the fastest growing faith, but by blacks and Latinos, not by immigration from the Arabian peninsula.  The country with the largest Islamic population in the world is Indonesia, nowhere near near Arabia but in the south Pacific.  The majority of black people worldwide are Muslim, not Christian. (more…)

Sorry I haven’t been blogging the last 30 days or so.  I’ve actually been swamped with freelance work and in this economy, you have to take wherever you can find it!

But in the spirit of the holiday season,  I’ve been bombarded with “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”.  I’ve received mail from my creditors, my health insurance providers and all manners of junk mail wishing me a happy holiday.  I do support the separation of church and state (as does the U.S. Constitution) so I can understand the public sector communicating in this way, but when the private sector does it (like a customer service rep or a supermarket or store employee) it just comes off as a politically correct, neutered move.  And since I have a Hispanic surname, I get bilingual correspondence wishing me the equally lame “felices fiestas”.  And yes, when I am told happy holidays, I do respond with Merry Christmas.

I know that social conservatives who use God as an excuse to rob us of our civil liberties see the prevalence of “happy holidays” as a sure sign that the atheists, pagans, Jews and other hell-bound liberals have declared a war on Christmas.  I just don’t see it.  I’ve even received political propaganda from local Republicans accusing incumbent Democrats of “hating Christmas” simply because these elected officials wish the constituents happy holidays in their correspondence.

But let’s get back to the separation of church and state.  After all, freedom of religion also means freedom from religion.  Just making Christmas a legal holiday is a violation of the Constitution.  No one is proposing we make Hanukkah or Ramadan a national holiday.  And Christmas’ legal status is not even an American tradition as it was not only not a Federal holiday until 1870, but in colonial times, was outlawed.

So if I could make a proposition to the rest of America…

How about the private sector not censor itself and say Merry Christmas and in exchange, Christmas will no longer be a legal holiday?  No doubt Lou Dobbs will consider this the final blow in the war against Christmas.

It was definitely an interesting election this year.  Nationwide, Obama’s dropping approval rating has hurt Democrats in local elections.   That is certainly the case in New York and especially in nearby New Jersey, where proverbial fat cat Dem John Corzine (who deserved to lose for poking fun at his Republican opponent’s weight problem in his campaign literature) lost to the literally fat Republican Chris Christie, who oddly resembles a Sopranos cast member. (more…)

This post may get me in trouble in my new Bronx neighborhood, but what the hell…

The local Roman Catholic parish, St. Theresa’s, held a street fair last week which while allegedly offers some sort of entertainment for children and raises money for the church converts an otherwise quiet section of Pelham Bay into a litter-strewn disruptive nuisance.  Billed as the Feast of St. Theresa, it attracts young people who somehow manage to obtain beers and then casually drink it on the stoops of homes nearby the fair, including my own.

Despite the fact this five-day nightmare continues to play the same recorded message advertising a grand raffle with a winner to be announced at the end of the fair on Sunday and the same six Italian songs over and over for hours, I managed to tolerate it.  Other issues like the prohibition of parking for the four blocks of St. Theresa’s Avenue dominated by the alleged Feast and the hassle from the police and St. Theresa’s people (all donning burgundy shirts in a soldier-like fashion) who acted like they owned the neighborhood certainly annoy my neighbors who have cars and driveways.

Living 20 feet from the festival I inevitably had to walk through it to go to the supermarket and upon further investigation found the Feast to be much more than a public nuisance in which the neighborhood is taken hostage but an exercise in multiple blasphemy as well. (more…)

Until recently I was convinced that America’s greatest threat was terrorism.  But now I’m beginning to believe the real threat to our freedom is not Al Qaeda but Al Abama.

I recently received the following e-mail: (more…)

I didn’t realize how controversial the whole Notre Dame’s issue (granting President Barack Obama an honorary degree and inviting him to give their 2009 commencement speech) was until I logged on to YouTube the other day and saw the featured video was of Notre Dame students and members of the Roman Catholic community sounding off on the issue.  I was made even more aware when I learned of notredamescandal.com.

Honestly, I think people made a much bigger deal out of it than it really was.  I think the real scandal was that President Obama was offered an “honorary” degree in the first place.  Besides the fact that it is a slap in the face to all the students who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition and spent years earning their degrees, an honorary degree, which is usually a Masters or Doctorate, is nothing more than a cheap fundraising gimmick. (more…)

A few days ago I received an interesting piece of mail which reminded me why I should be proud to be an American.

This piece of mail was from Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere or CARE, a nonprofit that appears to only care about impoverished females in Third World countries.  Not being a woman, I’m not sure why an organization that only serves women would solicit donations from me; I guess they’re really desperate.  CARE’s letter informed me of their campaign in Africa against female genital cutting (FGC).  CARE President Dr. Helene Gayle wrote a very compelling and occasionally graphic four-page letter describing what FGC is, the gruesome manner in which the procedure is executed, why FGC exists at all and the myriad short and long-term health risks and psychological damage done to the young girls whose clitorises (or is it clitori?) are carved out of their bodies.  What CARE does is go to these villages and “educate” the tribal elders on the medical dangers of FGC and how it permanently damages the victim psycholgically, etc., etc.

As graphic and compelling as Dr. Gayle’s story was, even if I wasn’t broke I wouldn’t be compelled to send them any money.  Here are a few reasons why: (more…)

I’ve been asked that question often in my life, as if being Latino and not a liberal was a crime. As if only white people had the freedom to stray from liberal ideology.

First Sen. Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign spread the offensive and far fetched rumor that Latinos were less likely to vote for a black candidate for President, loosely basing such a ridiculous idea on tensions between Mexican/Chicano gangs and African-American gangs in Los Angeles. Now, the media has chosen to embrace a more truthful assumption about the Latino vote in this country: that many Latinos vote conservatively.

This assumption is based mostly (and solidly) on how much of the Latino vote George W. Bush won in 2000 and 2004. But I think some people-namely white liberals-are often shocked that a Latino can be anything but a blindly loyal Democrat. A lot of black people are also surprised to find out I do not subscribe to liberalism. I’m surprised why more black Americans aren’t conservative. (more…)

For those of you who have been paying attention, Pope Benedict XVI paid a visit to the U.S. The worst part was that he came to New York, screwing up traffic and causing various service disruptions to our already unreliable mass transit system. His visit attracted scores of Catholics and the local media raved about his visit as if Jesus Christ himself had come to the United States.

Honestly, I didn’t know so many Americans were still into this guy. Judging from the news footage, people seemed to crowd around him like he was some kind of rock star. (more…)