The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series 2013 at AskMarion - WoC 2013

One of the best things we can do as parents, grandparents, members of the religious community and patriots is to share the values and traditions we hold dear as individuals, families, churches and concerned citizens by teaching the histories and details of each to the next generation as well as standing up against those who would try to steal them from us and from future generations.

For several years now, we here at AskMarion have taken up the War on the War on Christmas, running a Christmas, Hannukah or related article daily from December 1st through the Epiphany on January 6th.  We began this year’s (2013) series yesterday with the start of Advent.

Once upon a time not all that long ago – in fact, anyone over 50 will easily remember it – the word “Christmas” was everywhere during the month of December. Everywhere you looked – in stores, in town squares, in cities, in offices, and of course… in private homes — there were Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas parties, Christmas vacations and yes… Nativity Scenes. Even non-religious folks and Jews happily joined in with Hannukah Bushes, Christmas lights in blue and white and an embracement of all the festivities. One of the best Christmas cards I ever got was from my Jewish friend, Cheryl… On the cover:  From Naomi and Abe to Biff and Muffy with related sketches… when people were allowed to have a sense of humor instead of being politically correct. It still makes me smile 40-years later.

Just ask Ben Stein:

“The More We Enjoy Each Other’s Holidays and Traditions, the More Beautiful the World Looks!”

“I am a Jew and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish, and it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautifully lit-up, bejeweled trees ‘Christmas trees’.” …Ben Stein

Confessions for the Holidays by Ben Stein

*The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary, December 18, 2005.

Here at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:

I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are.

I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I’m buying my dog biscuits. I still don’t know. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores who they are. They don’t know who Nick and Jessica are, either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they’ve broken up? Why are they so darned important?

I don’t know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I don’t care at all about Tom Cruise’s baby.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I’m a subversive? Maybe. But I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young? Hm, not so bad.

Next confession: I am a Jew and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish, and it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautifully lit-up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees.

I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are — Christmas trees. It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they’re slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we’re all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.

It doesn’t bother me one bit that there’s a manger scene on display at a key intersection at my beach house in Malibu.

If people want a creche, fine. The menorah a few hundred yards away is fine, too. I do not like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way. Where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we used to know went to.

— by Ben Stein: "Confessions for the Holidays." CBS News Transcripts. 18 December 2005.

So let’s take a quick look at where many these traditions came from… that the Atheists and secularists now both fear and fight.

Video: CHRISTMAS – History Channel [ Part 1 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS – History Channel [ Part 2 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS – History Channel [ Part 3 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS – History Channel [ Part 4 of 5 ]

Video: CHRISTMAS – History Channel [ Part 5 of 5 ]

How to Build a Christmas Photo Collage Using Wondershare Photo Collage Studio

A great read: Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity written by an atheist

Related:

ANOTHER FAILED IDEA: Woman gets laughed at after bringing up Obamacare at Thanksgiving…

The Twelve Days of ObamaCare

Advent – The Season of Anticipation and Hope – WoC 2013

The Thanksgiving Illusion

Obama Thanksgiving and Christmas Disgrace

Keeping Pets Safe for Thanksgiving: The “Not So Safe” or No-No Pet Food List

Sarah Palin on Politics and Religion • 11/10/13 With Susan Page

The Cross – Billy Graham’s Message To America

Two great new books for the holidays: ‘Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas’ (Kindle) and The Romney Family Table: Sharing Home-Cooked Recipes & Favorite Traditions (Kindle).

PBS runs Rick Steve’s Christmas in Europe throughout the Season as well which is a great watch!

We welcome you to join us daily for our  War on the War on Christmas… on Religious Freedom post from now through January 6th 2014

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week’s Watcher’s Council Results - Easter Passover Edition

JoshuaPundit on Mar 29 2013:

Alea iacta est…The Council Has Spoken!, the votes have been cast, and we have the results for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

This is an important week for a lot of reasons.

It was the week of the Pessah, the Passover, the time when Jews the world over fulfill the mitzva of retelling the story of the Exodus and their delivery from the house of bondage, a time to celebrate as free men and women their G-d-given freedom and to eat the unleavened bread, matzoh, to commemorate their ancestor’s journey and deliverance from bondage and slavery and the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai. It is a time, according to the Mishnah, when every Jew should conduct himself as though he personally was redeemed from bondage by G-d’s own hand.

This is also Holy week, culminating in Easter Sunday, the day Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. That too is a festival of freedom…freedom from sin, freedom of the soul and a promise of eternal life.

No, the rolling away of the stone does not only refer to a physical object.

Both holidays change their dates on our calendar from year to year..Passover because it is based on the centuries old Hebrew lunar calender, and Easter because the early Church fathers determined that Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon date of the year, which always occurs after Passover. But they always come close together.

It is fitting and appropriate that the two holidays should be linked in this way. Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the Passover ceremonies and the famous Last Supper was a Passover seder. The bread Jesus spoke of as recorded in the Gospels was none other than the humble matzoh, the unleavened bread the Hebrew made because they were ‘in haste to depart’ from Egypt and had no time for it to rise.

At this time, when freedom is under attack in ways and in places where we never supposed it ever would be, it is important to reflect on the message of Passover and Easter, and how that message can freee of from bondage…especially the chains we forge ourselves.

I and my fellow Council members wish you and yours Chag Pessah Sameach and a blessed Easter.

Speaking of the Holy Land, after 4 years of a fairly hostile and contentious relationship, President Obama finally saw fit to visit Israel as president.

This week’s winning piece, Narcissus In The Promised Land Redux: Obama Learns You Can’t Fool All Of The People All Of The Time over at Joshuapundit was my reaction to the president’s trip and what occurred. Here’s a slice:

I could almost pity President Obama for having his nose rubbed in the truth of Abraham Lincoln’s famous statement if the mess wasn’t so thoroughly of his own making.

President Obama got a friendly, if skeptical reception in Israel, because most Israelis are in fact pro-American.But Israelis, particularly sabras are noted for looking at deeds rather than words and schmooze.

While they appreciated President Obama’s fine words on America’s commitment to Israel as an ally, they also remember his previous hostility, his repudiation of agreements made with Israel by President Bush and his call for them to re-divide Jerusalem and retreat to indefensible borders.

And they notice that he chose to land in Tel Aviv rather than Israel’s capitol Jerusalem, that he chose not address Israel’s Knesset, that he was ‘too busy’ to meet personally with victims of Palestinian terrorism even if they hold American citizenship, that he refused to invite students at Ariel University to his speech to Israeli students…simply because their university is located in Judea ( AKA The West Bank), even though it’s on land Jews purchased legally before Israel was even a state.

And many of them also noticed this map of Israel put out by Obama’s State Department in spokesman Ben Rhodes’ offical statement..that shows a map of Israel on the pre ’67 lines, without the Golan, Judea and Samaria or East Jerusalem:

In the president’s speech to Israeli students, he somehow forgot that over half a million Israelis (including a lot of the students he was speaking to) live in what he still refers to as ‘settlements’, saying that “Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace, and that an independent Palestine must be viable, that real borders will have to be drawn,” and warning that Israel “must reverse an undertow of isolation”.

In other words, Israel building homes and infrastructure for it’s people – bad, hurts chances for peace. The Palestinian Authority’s constant incitement against Jews, funneling donor aid to Hamas and using it to pay salaries to convicted killers in Israeli jails, holding up the murderers of Israeli civilians as role models and heroes? The actions of a peace partner!

Yes, that’s the looking glass world our Narcissus lives in, where his warped perceptions become ‘what everyone knows’.

Trying as usual to have it both ways, the president also said it was time for the Arab world to “take steps toward normalizing relations” with Israel and that “Palestinians must recognize that Israel will be a Jewish state, and that Israelis have the right to insist upon their security”.

How that’s going to be accomplished with the borders he proposes the president did not elaborate on.And that’s especially telling in view of the reception the president got in Ramallah from the Palestinians before he spoke to the students.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Sultan Knish with Night Falls on Civilization submitted by The Noisy Room. All I can say is read it for yourself.

OK, here are this week’s full results. Gay Patriot and Rhymes With Right were unable to vote this week, but neither was subject to the mandatory 2/3 penalty

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes! Joshuapundit –Narcissus In The Promised Land Redux: Obama Learns You Can’t Fool All Of The People All Of The Time
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Right Planet – Think About It
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Bookworm Room- While it’s not government’s role to advance morality, it’s also not its role to advance immorality
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Razor -The Day After: When Iran Successfully Tests The Bomb
• Third place with 1 vote – The Noisy Room - Islamic Dogs of War – The Use Of Gang-Rape to Subjugate Infidels and Those that Resist
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote –  Gay Patriot-Our pathetic debate on gay marriage
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Political Commentator-King Abdullah of Jordan knows what the Obama administration is too blind to see!
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – A Response To Mayor Bloomberg On Infringing Upon Freedom
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right! –It’s Easter! To Liberals it is ‘Hate a Christian’ Week
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Gay “marriage”: Before the high court now
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –  GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Ottmanic – Little Satan Hook Up
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi – To the Americans
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –  Simply Jews – On questioning professor Joseph Levine

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Sultan Knish- Night Falls on Civilization submitted by The Noisy Room
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Caroline Glick –The Meaning and Consequences of Israel’s Apology to Turkey submitted by The Watcher
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Reason.Com – How Debt Ruins Systems submitted by The Razor
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes - Carl Cameron/Zen Pundit - Close reading, Synoptic- and Sembl-style, for parallels, patterns submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fourth place with 1 vote Taki’s Magazine  -The Irrational (Yet Perfectly Understandable) Nature of Blood Vengeance s submitted by Joshuapundit
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Right Truth – The Near-Martyrdom of Lars Hedegaard submitted by The Political Commentator
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Philosemitism – The Very Real Jewish Exodus From France submitted by Simply Jews
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Flashpoints – What to Make of Syria’s Chemical Weapons Claim? submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - CNS News – CBO: America Will Never See Full Employment Under Obama submitted by VA Right!
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Breitbart.com – Jim Kerry’s ‘Cold Dead Hand’ Blames Charlton Heston For Country’s Gun Violence submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Buckhorn Road – Feinstein’s fascist firearm follies fall in flames… but the fight is far from finished submitted by The Colossus Of Rhodey
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote  -Andrea Neal/IndyStar.com – Left, right unite against Common Core submitted by The Right Planet

Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – Retired Army Captain Warns “DHS Acquisitions are a ‘bold threat of war’ Against the American People”
• Liberty’s Spirit – Obfuscated History
• The Pirate’s Cove – Settled Science: The Planet Is No Longer Warming

See you next week! Because of Easter Sunday, this week’s Forum will not appear, but don’t forget to tune in a week from this Monday AM for the Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day with short takes and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter…..’cause we’re cool like that!

Wishing you all a Happy Easter and/or Passover

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Double Rat Alert: New York State Offers $500 Reward for Reporting Gun Owners

This idea was both hatched by the big rats in power calling out the little low and uninformed rats to turn on their neighbors and fellow Americans for a few pieces of silver.  Is any of this sounding familiar?  Whether it is Judas Iscariot betraying Jesus and turning him over to the Romans, informants turning on their neighbors and turning in Jews to the Nazis or the low informed and Kool-Aid drinkers in New York (in America… who would ever have believed it?) turning in their neighbors for $500, it all adds up to the same in the end… tragedy!!

The JPFO (Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership) said:

The State of New York has resorted to a "turn in your neighbor" program, for enforcement. Knowing that people will not willingly comply, the state has resorted to a tried and true tactic of turning the citizens upon each other to aggrandize the power of the state.
Does this strike a responsive historical cord, in anyone???

The Daily Caller: For more than a year, New York state has maintained a tip line allowing people to report illegal gun owners and collect a $500 reward.

CBS-6 news reported the existence of the tip line on Wednesday. It was previously a “well-kept secret” that received little promotion from state officials or fanfare in the media, according to the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association.

A February 2012 press release from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office first publicly announced the tip line, saying it was designed to “encourage citizens to report illegal firearm possession.”

The press release explained that reward amounts would be based on the usefulness of the information tipsters provide, but did not spell out explicit reward tiers.

Information leading to an arrest can earn callers up to $500, according to an operator who answered the line when The Daily Caller called. The number is 1-855-GUNSNYS.

Earlier this week, authorities discussed “reviving” the tip line by generating publicity for it, according to John Grebert, executive director of the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police.

“In our most recent meeting on Monday afternoon we talked about reviving this tip line and informing our members about it by sending out a message and scheduling a conference call to discuss it,” he wrote in a statement. “The Association partners with the State on a regular basis to provide local law enforcement with additional resources to help them in their efforts to reduce gun-related and violent crimes in their jurisdictions.”

On the Facebook page for The Record’s story, several users criticized the tip line for apparently encouraging New Yorkers to spy on each other.

But a spokesperson for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services defended the program.

“This program has been in place for more than a year and is aimed only at getting illegal crime guns off the streets: a goal that every New Yorker can agree with,” wrote Janine Kava, director of public information at NYS DCJS.

Authorities did not respond to questions about how much reward money had been paid out through the program.

This is how it begins… For anyone, especially Jews, who lived through the Nazi Era, this should frighten you!!

“This initiative seeks to turn neighbor against neighbor and use their own tax dollars to pay for the $500 reward,” Republican Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin told the station.

Firearms owners need to bookmark this page: http://stevespages.com/page7b.htm It is a TREASURE Chest of Info!

By Marion Algier at AskMarion  - photo by ClashDaily.com

Related:

Feinstein Anti-Gun Bill Defeated????… For Now… But Do Not Celebrate!!

Former FBI Informant Says: Obama Will Destroy America Once He Has All The Guns… as Details of False Flag and Conspiracy in Connecticut Shooting Appear

First They Came...

In Germany... When the Nazis came for

the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not protest;
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
I did not protest;
I was a Protestant.

Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.

"The change we seek has always required great struggle and great sacrifice." - Barack Hussein Obama

Remember… "The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master." - Ayn Rand

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The Council Has Spoken!! This Week’s Watcher’s Council Results

JoshuaPundit on Mar 01 2013:

The Council Has Spoken!,  the tribe has voted and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

One of the fascinating things about the blogosphere is the exchange of ideas that occurs. Someone writes something, other people respond and it leads somewhere else..sometimes with interesting results.

This week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s Why Europeans Will Never Forgive The Jews For Auschwitz is an example of how this can work. I used the phrase in an article I wrote about growing anti-semitism in France in particular and in Europe in general. In response, I got a couple of e-mail asking me whatever I meant by that and the resulting explanation became this essay. Here’s a slice:

In yesterday’s piece on the out of control rise in anti-semitic attacks in France, I referenced this essay I wrote back in 2006 on why Jews should seriously think about leaving most of Western Europe. After quoting it briefly and saying that there’s very little of it I would change today, almost 7 years later, I finished by saying that a lot of Europeans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz.

That phrase caught the attention of a couple of long time readers who asked what I meant (and in one case, took issue with it).

Here’s exactly what I meant, and my explanation may perhaps be of some interest.

Simply stated, Hitler didn’t operate in a vacuum. And it wasn’t just Germans, as you find when you actually take a little time to study the Holocaust, a unique event in history for a number of reasons although to observe how it’s constantly tossed around freely at every conceivable occasion you’d never know it.

Unlike America, Europe was historically and officially anti-semitic. While we certainly had and have Jew hatred here, it was never government sanctioned, it was never de jure, legal. As a matter of fact, George Washington and most of the rest of the Founders were almost philo-semitic. Washington even made the point of sending a remarkable letter to the congregants of the Truro Synagogue in Rhode Island ( first and largest in America) telling them that ‘the children of Abraham’ would be welcome to live in America in peace as full citizens. He was telling them they need not fear the political change would result in their having to pull up stakes again.

It was different in Europe.

To give you an idea of how remarkable Washington’s letter of assurance was, in ‘enlightened’ Britain, Jews had only been allowed to live there as recently as 1656, when Oliver Cromwell readmitted them after they had been expelled from England in the 13th Century. Even then, Jews were not allowed to serve in Parliament or in government positions until much later, 1829. They weren’t legally allowed to live in Sweden until 1715, Norway until 1850, and not allowed for many years per se in Spain, Portugal, or any of their colonies in Africa or the New World after the expulsion of 1492. In places like the German states, Poland and Russia, their status was marginal and subject to the whims of whomever was in power. So George Washington’s letter was a very big deal.It defined the entire relationship between Jews and the American Republic.

A lot of Jew hatred in Europe came courtesy of the Catholic Church and Martin Luther, whose history was somewhat like Mohammed’s, believe it or not. In the beginning, Luther said a a great deal about tolerance and used the Church’s anti-semitism as a talking point against them, figuring that the Jews would come flocking in to become Lutherans and Protestants. But like Mohammed, when most of the Jews said no thank you, he became one of the most violent anti-semites in history.

When Hitler came to power, Jew hatred was an established mainstream thread in a lot of Europe. There was no secret as to what was going in Germany during the 1930′s but frankly, the people who gave a damn were in the minority…and that was by no means limited to Germans and Germany. Few countries would give German Jews visas to emigrate, unless they had influential friends or were someone like Einstein who might be useful.

That included America, by the way. Avowed Jew Haters like Father Coughlin were major public figures, the Ivy League had strict quotas on admitting Jews, and many neighborhoods, clubs and even hotels boasted covenants that barred Jews. The State Department, then as now, had a decent quotient of anti-semites and delayed and avoided issuing visas to Jews fleeing Germany even when they were available…although there were some Americans who risked quite a lot in order to do what they could, just as there were in other countries.

Britain did its bit to expand the death toll of the Holocaust by defying international law and the terms of the Palestine Mandate by closing off Palestine to all Jewish immigration in 1938, when Jews were desperately trying to flee. Needless to say, very few of them were welcome in Britain. Later, in 1944, the British stonewalled a deal Himmler offered to the allies to exchange a million Jews bound for the concentration camps for a few trucks, some soap, and some coffee.

As Hitler gained control of Europe, a number of countries reacted in surprising ways. Some countries (Finland, Denmark, Italy, Bulgaria, the Serbs) tried to save as many Jews as they could. In countries with a high incidence of long standing Jew hatred, there were some incredibly heroic and decent people, but a lot of the locals not only turned their backs while their neighbors were dragged off to the camps, in many cases ( Norway, Austria, France, Poland,the Baltic States, the Ukraine, Romania, Croatia for example) the natives were downright enthusiastic and actually helped round the Jews up and turn them over to the Nazis, even though they had a damned good idea of what was in store for them. In Poland, for example, Cardinal Glemp was actually telling the Poles that it was the Jews fault the Nazis were in Poland and that it was a good thing that the Nazis were getting rid of them.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Andrew McCarthy with Are We Still At War? submitted by Joshuapundit. It’s a trenchant examination of exactly where we are in this 12-year-old conflict that isn’t peace and somehow isn’t a war. As McCarthy shows, we remain a nation in peril…but we do not act or conduct ourselves even remotely like a nation at war. Do read it.

OK, without further ado, here are this week’s full results. Only Gay Patriot was unable to vote this week, but was not subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 4 1/3 votes! Joshuapundit – Why Europeans Will Never Forgive The Jews For Auschwitz
• Second place*t with 1 2/3 votes – VA Right! – CPAC’s Skewed Priorities: Progressive Liberal RINO Bob McDonnell Invited – GoProud Shunned
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – The Razor - The New Scientist Admits Political Bias
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Noisy Room - An Islamic Coup in India – Mughalistan
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Political Commentator -In death, how do you measure a life?
• Fourth place with 1 vote – Rhymes With Right - HuffPo Columnist Calls For Obama Dictatorship!
• Fifth place with 2/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey -Question of the Day
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Simply Jews – Pakistan: where it’s a blasphemy to be against the blasphemy laws
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Right Planet – CNN Freaks Out Over ‘Draconian’ Sequester Cuts, Like the ‘Asteroid’ Video
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Iwo Jima Day

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – Andrew McCarthy - Are We Still At War? submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – Steve Hess/The Diplomat – Why Wasn’t There A Chinese Spring? submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Tablet – A World Without Jews submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Third place*t* with 1 1/3 votes -The Commentator - Exposing the UN’s dirty little secrets submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place with 1 vote – Forbes/Peter Schweizer - As Oscar Nominated Hollywood Moguls Bag Tax Cuts, They Seek To Raise Yours submitted by The Watcher
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Whalid Shoebat – Prophecy: What Lies Ahead submitted by The Noisy Room
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - The Whited Sepulcher – Quotes from The Reality Based Community submitted by Simply Jews
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Battleland/TMP Barnett - About China’s Hacking Army submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Col-lege In-sur-rection – Millenials rejecting race-based admissions preferences submitted by Rhymes With Right
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -American Thinker – The Marxist Heart of Darkness submitted by The Right Planet
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – San Diego Sheriff’’s spokeswoman stereotypes bloggers as “800-pound disabled man that can’t get out of bed and be a journalist” submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Doug Ross – Hitler Finds Out About the Nationwide #DayOfResistance Rallies submitted by Bookworm Room

Honorable Mentions

• Crazy Bald Guy – My review of “Tron: Legacy”
• Ask Marion – LaPierre: ‘Gun Registry Will Be Used to Confiscate Your Guns’… As DOJ Memo: ‘Outlaw and Confiscate All Guns’ Surfaces
• Right Truth – ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ stars support release of jailed doctor who helped U.S. find Usama Bin Laden
• The Pirate’s Cove – Sequestration In Context: US Borrows Cost Of Sequestration Every 28 Days

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!

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The Council Has Spoken!! This Week’s Watcher’s Council Results

JoshuaPundit on Jan 25 2013:

The Council Has Spoken! has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

Before we get started, let me remind you that there’s now a seat available on the Watcher’s Council up for grabs.

We’re currently looking at candidates, so if you’re interested, think you qualify or want to find out more about what’s involved in being part of the longest established blogging group of its kind, simply leave a comment with site URL and your e-mail address (which won’t be published) on any article over at Joshuapundit.

These don’t come up all that often and when they do they usually fill up quickly, so don’t snooze.

There’s a great deal of discussion going on among self-identified conservatives and Republicans about how to rebrand the party, gets its message out and change what appears to be its image

This week’s winner, Bookworm Room’s To win the future, conservatives need to give voters a positive image of a can-do America and a can-do Republican Party lays out her blueprint for that process in her usual witty and erudite style. Here’s a slice:

For the past four years, conservatives have been fighting a relentlessly rearguard, defensive action. For those same four years, conservatives have lost every rearguard, defensive action that they’ve fought. Or if they haven’t actually lost, the best that they’ve managed is a stalemate that stalls Progressivism, but doesn’t advance conservative values. Even the stunning 2010 “shellacking” proved ineffective, as shellackings really only work if you take over Congress entirely, rather than just getting half of it.

Conservative also don’t seem to be faring too well in the culture wars. To use abortion as just one example, in the 2012 election, conservatives lost the chance to take over Congress when Progressives successfully demonized two Republican Senate candidates who are pro-Life. More than that, it seems as if, contrary to past trends showing that Americans are inclined to a pro-Life view, a recent poll gave a definitive victory to American support for abortion.

Ironically, right up until the 2012 election, many conservatives (myself included) thought that these tactics would work. We believed that a jobless recovery (a stock market that benefited from Obama’s crony capitalism, even as more and more people became unemployed), creeping inflation, flabby home sales, depreciating savings, rising medical costs, and all the other signs of a sick economy, would turn voters against Obama.

We also thought that proofs of corruption (Fast and Furious), incompetency (Benghazi), and crony capitalism (Solyndra), would turn voters against Obama. They didn’t.

Sure we knew that Romney, although a good and intellectually brilliant man, was only a decent candidate, but we thought that, given all of Obama’s failures and dishonesty, Romney’s charisma deficit wouldn’t be a problem. And had Romney been a Democrat, it really wouldn’t have been a problem. He was a Republican, though, which meant that sterling character and brilliant economic chops were inadequate to fend off the extraordinarily vicious character assassination that the White House and the media launched against him.

We conservatives hadn’t counted on Americans buying such disgusting canards or ignoring ugly facts, but they did. Between the media running interference, general disinterest from voters more fascinated by Honey Boo Boo and Jersey Shores than by politics, and Americans’ probable fear of voting a black man out of the White House, conservatives got to watch Obama win

again.

In the wake of Obama’s victory, conservatives in the media and in the blogosphere have responded by amping up their previous tactics. Considering that Obama won’t be running again in 2016, spending all of our political capital and emotional energy attacking him doesn’t seem like a good use of resources. Be that as it may, conservatives are Obama is still Target No. 1. There certainly is a lot to get fired up about, most notably the way in which Obama seized upon Sandy Hook as an excuse to seize guns. Nothing will come of it, of course, since there are too many Democrats who like guns too, but Obama has successfully framed the issue to be one of life- and child-loving Democrats squaring off against gun-crazed, child-murdering Republicans.

Rather than running about like headless chickens who are still trying to peck the President to death with details, we might do better focusing on very specific weaknesses and not letting those weaknesses vanish from the public eye. To me, the most obvious are (a) the economy and (b) his handling of Benghazi.

In our non-Council category, the winner with a very different kind of article was Caroline Glick with Bye Bye London submitted by Joshuapundit. She recently participated in a debate in London about Israeli communities beyond the 1949 armistice lines and relates what happened there. Do read it.It’s an eye opener.

And forgive me if I not-so-humbly add I saw this coming some time ago, and if anything it’s even more relevant than it was 7 years ago. Europe will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz.

OK, here are this week’s full results. Only Gay Patriot was unable to vote this week, but was not subject to the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes! Bookworm Room – To win the future, conservatives need to give voters a positive image of a can-do America and a can-do Republican Party
• Second place with 2 votes – The Right Planet - The Left’s War on the Bill of Rights
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Noisy Room -There’s No Truth In The News And No News In The Truth
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Political Commentator – The hit and run President!
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Simply Jews - What Jonathan Freedland doesn’t get
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD-Saudi Royal Stability
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Rhymes With Right-What This Chinese Dissident Has To Say About America’s Second Amendment
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Gay Patriot – What President Obama Should (But Likely Won’’t) Say Today
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Razor – How Colin Powell is a Racist
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Joshuapundit – Obama’s 2nd Inaugural – Darkness at Noon
• Fifth place with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi – A Wild Cristina Kirchner

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Caroline Glick - Bye Bye London submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place with 2 votes – Buckhorn Road – The Militia Is… submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – Veteran stands up for 2nd Amendment at Chicago anti-gun forum submitted by VA Right!
• Third place *t* with 1 2/3 votes -Gregory Mann/Africa Is A Country - France in Mali: The End of the Fairytale submitted by The Razor
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes Sultan Knish -The Authenticity of Fake submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes - Mark Steyn – Fake dead girlfriends and fake debt limits submitted by The Noisy Room
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Policymic – Mali War: French Are Hypocrites For Rushing In With Military Aid submitted by Simply Jews
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Robert Tracinski/Real Clear Politics – Barack Obama is Boring submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Tom Ricks/Best Defense – The Obama administration’s inexplicable mishandling of Marine Gen. James Mattis submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Victor Davis Hanson – Hagel, Brennan, and the Obama View of the Middle East submitted by The Watcher
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Strategist – Google in North Korea: Pyongyang kowtow or smart diplomacy? submitted by The Political Commentator

Honorable Mentions

• The Pirate’s Cove – Warmist Worries About Coral Which Apparently Thrives In Cold Water
• Maggie’s Notebook – Did Memphis Police, the Mafia and YIKES! the U.S. Army Conspire in the Assassination of MLK?
• Ask Marion – The Communist Takeover Of America – 45 Declared Goals

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and with short takes and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter…..’cause we’re cool like that!

Technorati Tags: Watcher's Council,alternative media,bloggers,educate yourself,collection of articles,news,news nuggets,educate yourself and others,watch the other hand,blogosphere,politics,Jews,Europe,Colin Powell,abortion,Obamaland,Communism,truth

NewsWeek and Jon Stewart Decree the War on Christmas is Over…

By Marion Algier – The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion – 12

Leftist comedian Jon Stewart recently introduced his annual skewering of the “war on Christmas” with a montage of Fox News personalities breathlessly reporting the latest outrages against the holiday’s religious origins. “Let’s face facts, the annual Fox ‘war on Christmas’ has become a little predictable”, Stewart said, kicking off his own predictable seasonal faux war on Fox and especially Bill O’Reilly.

Illustration by Sean McCabe; Source: Ryan McVay / Getty; Peter Breiehagen / Photographer's Choice-Getty; Stockbyte-Getty; Stockbyte-Getty; Jamie McCarthy / Getty)

The Daily Beast: For several years now, there have been signs the war on Christmas is running out of ammunition. Google Trends shows a peak in news articles mentioning the Christmas clashes in 2005, after which they slowed to a small annual blip. In 2007 the Springfield, Ill., State Journal-Register remarked that the paper had received hardly any letters about the war on Christmas. “If there still is a War on Christmas going on, its soldiers must have gone underground,” they wrote in a Christmas Eve editorial. Despite occasional flare-ups, like 2010’s “billboard war” between Catholics and atheist groups outside New York City, the battle over the December holidays gradually became the stuff of social-media memes, Onion parodies, and Daily Show takedowns.

Hmmm… or is it just that the mainstream media has stopped reporting on the War on Christmas?!?

How did this cultural flash point slide into oblivion, with Bill O’Reilly virtually the last person continuing to fight?, the Daily Beast asks.  Some Christmas soldiers say it’s because their side won. According to the American Family Association, 80 percent of the ­retailers the group profiled for its inaugural “naughty and nice” list in 2005 used religion-neutral terminology like “holidays” in their advertising and store signs. Now an overwhelming majority have ­reverted back to using the word “Christmas.” ­Randy Sharp, a spokesman for the AFA, says that “there has been a correction.” Retailers, he says, realized “people weren’t offended by being wished a ‘Merry Christmas,’ but those of us who celebrate the historical significance of the birth of Christ are offended when you downplay that.”

Bill Donohue, the president of the conservative Catholic League, which has skirmished with atheist groups over Christmas displays, said his organization has received far fewer reports of alleged discrimination against Christmas this year.

Though the war on Christmas may no longer be an annual ‘news’ event, its legacy remains in ongoing local battles over religious expression in schools and on government property. Anecdotally, some Americans say that anger over the perceived purging of Christmas from society was simply absorbed into the right’s more general resentment toward the forces of multicultural inclusion. “It’s become part of the background noise,” said Charlie Digiglio of Waxahachie, Texas, describing conversations he’s overheard among friends and co-workers. “For many people, it’s just an assumed reality that’s hardly worth mentioning anymore.”

Don’t tell these people the war on Christmas is over:  Atheists intimidate Santa Monica into eliminating Nativity… And So the War on Christmas and Freedom of Religion Continues – Churches Thwart Nativity Ban By Putting Up Living Displays In Santa Monica Or how about the seniors who were told no Christmas Trees? Or the school that had to change their field trip to see a live version of A Charlie Brown Christmas because it was taking place at a church?

Jon Stewart addressed one of Bill O'Reilly's more impassioned "War on Christmas" moments during a Monday Monologue about guarding America from creeping secularism.

Video:  Bill O'Reilly Confronts Atheist Leader Over The War On Christmas

O'Reilly, who is the undisputed leader of "War on Christmas" coverage, had a slightly shouty (by which we mean it was surprising chairs weren't thrown) conversation with an atheist on his show last week. Besides calling his guest a "fascist," he also claimed that Christianity is a philosophy, not a religion.  Followed by an interview with Dennis Miller.

Video: The War On Christmas Discussed - Dennis Miller Time - Bill O'Reilly - 11-28-12

But we are here to say to the Daily Beast… “Not so fast!!”  The war on Christmas is alive and well and the war on religion… on Christians and Jews has accelerated in the United States and around the world!!  Let us all remember that just because the mainstream media isn’t reporting on something does not mean it isn’t so or isn’t happening.

Related:

The Need For A Christian Worldview of Freedom And Economics

BECK GOES GLOBAL, MEETS WITH CATHOLIC CLERGY & INTERNATIONAL TEA PARTY LEADERS IN ROME

Carolling… or Caroling and Christmas Music

Nativity – The Reason for the Season

Christmas Trees

Hanukkah, Hanukah, Chanukah

European Markets or Christkindlmarkts Capture the Christmas Spirit

St. Nickolas Day

So Where Is the War on Christmas Coming From? – A Worthwhile Read!

Best Holiday Movie Classics – A Merry Christmas From Hollywood

God Rest Ye Merry Merchants – Christmas: An American Holiday and Tradition to Love and Preserve

Advent – The Season of Anticipation and Hope

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion – with comments from Ben Stein

Red Kettles & Bell Ringers

Black Friday Holiday Shopping Kick-off Overshadows True Meaning of Christmas

What Movies in History Best Captures the Spirit of Thanksgiving?

“Holidays Are Great and Fun To Share With Our Pets, As Long As We Avoid the No-No Foods” - Animal Nativity

Christianity & Gun Owners in the Crosshairs: Chilling Tactic Exposed

How Should Christians Respond to Atheist ‘Hatred’ & the War on Christmas? This Priest Has Some Advice

A great read: Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity

Technorati Tags: War on Christmas,Christmas,spirit of Christmas,charity,holidays,Hanukah,American Traditions,American values,War on Christianity,War on Religion,The War on… The War on Christmas,Jon Stewart,Dennis Miller,Bill O'Reilly,atheists,secularism,religion,war on religon,Christians,Jews,Catholics sue

Nativity - The Reason for the Season

“The spirit of Christmas needs to be superseded by the Spirit of Christ. The spirit of Christmas is annual; the Spirit of Christ is eternal. The spirit of Christmas is sentimental; the Spirit of Christ is supernatural. The spirit of Christmas is a human product; the Spirit of Christ is a divine person. That makes all the difference in the world.” -Stuart Briscoe

By Marion Algier – The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion – 10

Christians have allowed the true meaning of Christmas to be lost and co-opted. One of the greatest things you can do each year is to take part in or attend a Christmas Pageant about the true story of Christmas and to make that meaning the focus of your holiday. Gifts, decorations, parties, caroling and all the rest are great as long as we focus on the true meaning of Christmas.  We have allowed ourselves as a society to forget “the reason for the season”, this season and holiday as well as many others and thereby lose the purpose and the value of the special moments and celebrations in our lives.

Some of my greatest memories of Christmas involve going to mass on Christmas Eve as a child with my family and then participating in the Glory of Christmas (and Easter) for over 10-years as a family, with my husband and daughter, at the Crystal Cathedral… which after 30-years is now dark.

And some holidays like Christmas actually become part of the fabric of a nation, which was true of Christmas in America until we allowed political correctness to wag the dog… let the 15% tell 85% what they can and cannot do. And as Ben Stein has written more than once… he, a Jew, looks forward to the bejeweled trees, Christmas carols and an overall kinder season.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin (who founded the American Alliance of Christians and Jews) said On Glenn Beck’s Post-Thanksgiving Review Program: Although I am Jewish and do not celebrate Christmas I respect the traditions and the holiday and I like the holiday for two good reasons: It helps the economy and it makes people better… (95% of the money spent at Christmastime is for others… rather than for ourselves).

Lapin has spoken against the secularization of Christmas, saying that “We see obsequious regard for faiths like Judaism and even Islam, while Christianity is treated with contempt”. He is opposed to replacing the “Merry Christmas” greeting with “Happy Holidays”, saying instead “Let us all go out of our way to wish our many wonderful Christian friends a very merry Christmas… Nationwide, Christmas Nativity scenes are banned from city halls and shopping malls but Chanukah menorahs are permitted. There is without a doubt a war on Christmas as well as on patriotism.

Merry Christmas! : Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday

“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!” …Hamilton Wright Mabie

Atheists intimidate Santa Monica into eliminating Nativity… And So the War on Christmas and Freedom of Religion Continues

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Damon Vix didn’t have to go to court to push Christmas out of the city of Santa Monica. He just joined the festivities.

The atheist’s anti-God message alongside a life-sized nativity display in a park overlooking the beach ignited a debate that burned brighter than any Christmas candle.

Santa Monica officials snuffed the city’s holiday tradition this year rather than referee the religious rumble, prompting churches that have set up a 14-scene Christian diorama for decades to sue over freedom of speech violations. Their attorney will ask a federal judge Monday to resurrect the depiction of Jesus’ birth, while the city aims to eject the case.

"It’s a sad, sad commentary on the attitudes of the day that a nearly 60-year-old Christmas tradition is now having to hunt for a home, something like our savior had to hunt for a place to be born because the world was not interested," said Hunter Jameson, head of the nonprofit Santa Monica Nativity Scene Committee that is suing.  Read Full Story HERE  But Christians Found ‘Creative’ Loophole in Atheist-Inspired Santa Monica Nativity Ban & Secure Permit for ‘Live’ Display

Nativity on Wheels! PA Community Battles Atheist Complaints With Display of Jesus’ Birth on Platform in Front of City Hall

The Atheists Won’: CA Judge Denies Christian Group’s Last-Ditch Attempt to Restore Nativities

Atheist-Inspired Ban on Santa Monica Nativity Displays to Be Challenged in CA Court Today

Secularists battling against nativities is nothing new, but 2012 has brought some major victories for atheists. Consider Santa Monica, California, where a 60-year nativity tradition has been banned; other communities have backed down over fears that Christian themes will be legally challenged by groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) as well.

But — believers are getting smart and fighting back with some creative methods of navigating around church versus state disagreements.

TheBlaze already told you about the Santa Monica work-around: Christians will stage a live nativity, as only unattended displays were banned from the Palisades Park. Now, a community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has found it’s own solution to a potential atheist-led lawsuit against a display in front of a local municipal building.  Read Full Story and See Video HERE

Wow, these photos below, from outside the U.S. Supreme Court, bring back great memories of being part of the Glory of Christmas and Glory of Easter pageants for the Crystal Cathedral as a family.

December 5, 2012

Twitchy:

Fox News’ Shannon Bream is on the scene as faith organizations stage a live Nativity scene outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

Faith Organizations to Display Live Nativity Scene with Animals in Front of the United States Supreme Court and the United States Capitol

This scene, sponsored by Faith and Action as well as The Christian Defense Coalition is part of “The Nativity Project.” The project seeks, in part, to bring attention to the hostility with which faith in the public square is met.

On Twitter, the camel is a hit. And, yes, that's a real camel at the Supreme Ct.

Wow, these photos below, from outside the U.S. Supreme Court, bring back great memories of being part of the Glory of Christmas and Glory of Easter pageants for the Crystal Cathedral as a family.

A full on Nativity scene outside SCOTUS 2012

Wow!

And for those that love the live animals in the nativity and pageants… check this out:  Animal Nativity

How Should Christians Respond to Atheist ‘Hatred’ & the War on Christmas? This Priest Has Some Advice

Related:

Christmas Trees

Hanukkah, Hanukah, Chanukah

European Markets or Christkindlmarkts Capture the Christmas Spirit

St. Nickolas Day

So Where Is the War on Christmas Coming From? – A Worthwhile Read!

Best Holiday Movie Classics – A Merry Christmas From Hollywood

God Rest Ye Merry Merchants – Christmas: An American Holiday and Tradition to Love and Preserve

Advent – The Season of Anticipation and Hope

The War on Christmas verses the Spirit of Christmas Series at AskMarion – with comments from Ben Stein

Red Kettles & Bell Ringers

Atheists intimidate Santa Monica into eliminating Nativity… And So the War on Christmas and Freedom of Religion Continues – Churches Thwart Nativity Ban By Putting Up Living Displays In Santa Monica

Black Friday Holiday Shopping Kick-off Overshadows True Meaning of Christmas

What Movies in History Best Captures the Spirit of Thanksgiving?

“Holidays Are Great and Fun To Share With Our Pets, As Long As We Avoid the No-No Foods”

Christianity & Gun Owners in the Crosshairs: Chilling Tactic Exposed

A great read: Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity

Technorati Tags: Nativity,War on Christmas,Christmas,spirit of Christmas,charity,holidays,Hanukah,American Traditions,American values,War on Christianity,War on Religion,The War on… The War on Christmas,nativity scene,Freedom of Religion,Bill of Rights,Nativity Project,The Christian Defense Coalition,SCOTUS,Glory of Christmas,Crystal Cathedral,living nativities,Christmas pageants