Today’s News All in One Post
[Guest post by DRJ]
I’m home with strep that I got from my kids so I decided to do a global post with the headlines that caught my eye. (You might want to wear a mask as you read this, lest you catch my germs.)
PRESIDENTIAL AND VP DEBATE MODERATORS NAMED:
The New York Times Caucus blog says the 3 Presidential and 1 Vice Presidental debate moderators have been named:
September 26 – PBS’s Jim Lehrer will moderate a Presidential debate on domestic policy at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS.
October 2 – PBS’s Gwen Ifill will moderate a Vice Presidential debate on domestic and foreign policy at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.
October 7 – NBC’s Tom Brokaw will moderate a Presidential debate in a town-hall style forum at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. According to The Caucus, this debate:
“… will entail vetting questions submitted by undecided voters of the Nashville region who were chosen by the Gallup Poll organization. The commission says the vetting process is primarily to avoid duplication. In addition, Mr. Brokaw will be allow to pose questions submitted via the Internet.”
October 15 – CBS’s Bob Schieffer will moderate a Presidential debate on foreign policy at Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.
DEMOCRATS REVISIT ENERGY AND OFF-SHORE DRILLING:
After reading this Politico report, Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have to single-handedly save the planet until January since she may have released politically vulnerable Democrats to back off-shore drilling and other aspects of Republican energy policy. Apparently she expects a big Democratic majority in Congress next year so she will wait until then to establish a conservation-based energy policy.
FLASHBACK – JOHN A. “JUNIOR” GOTTI ARRESTED:
John A. “Junior” Gotti, son of deceased Gambino family crime boss John Gotti, was arrested in Florida on conspiracy charges linking him to cocaine trafficking and the murder of 3 New Yorkers in the 1980s and 90s. His attorney described it as “tragic” and “laughable” that he and his family have to “continually go through this.”
RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS MAKE A COMEBACK:
Tyson Foods in Shelbyville, Tennessee, agreed to a new 5-year contract that gives its poultry processing employees a day off for the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr in lieu of Labor Day. Approximately 700 of its 1,200 employees are Muslim, most of them Somali.
— DRJ
Out of 4 “Moderators” for the debates, not one is impartial or professional, except as a propagandist for the left.
PCD (5c49b0) — 8/5/2008 @ 10:36 amBuy no ‘Tyson’ products.
Scrapiron (c36902) — 8/5/2008 @ 10:43 am#1 You were expecting Brit Hume? I think Schieffer is the most biased on that list. It could be worse, how about Katie Couric and Dan Rather? Or Chrissie Matthews and Keith Olberdouche? Libs don’t even want that duo from ABC- Gibson and ?
Yes, PC is alive and well. We need more taxpayer supported Muslim facilities though. Reid and Pelosi are on track with the dhimmification of America though. No drilling here, no new jobs, plenty of cash for sheiks and terrorist enabling.
No one other than Malkin seems to be picking up on it, but San Fran Nan apparently is idolized by the moonbats running Amazon. Her net book review was 1 star for a time until Amazon started purging the worse reviews. Quite a discussion going on over at Amazon about it, unless they’ve pulled that also. Has anyone here actually read her book?
madmax333 (0c6cfc) — 8/5/2008 @ 10:51 amI’ve heard that reiki can be effective 3000 miles over a phone line. Don’t know about viruses and bacteria. Some women do seem able to project their pheromones though.
Stopped buying Tyson when it came out how Hill “made” $100K in cattle futures courtesy of advice from someone at Tyson.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 8/5/2008 @ 10:57 amIf that wasn’t a convenient form of bribery and money-laundering, I don’t know what is.
Why not just let Olberdouche, Maddow, and Kos moderate the debates?
JD (75f5c3) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:03 amWhat the hell is the problem with Tyson’s holiday policy?
Labor day is a bullshit marxist holiday, and if most of your employees are Muslim, it’s freaking rude to celebrate Christmas and not their own holidays. These are gainfully employed Americans that deserve respect.
Now, all chicken corps are pretty corrupt. Pilgrim’s Pride and Tyson are the worst two when it comes to weird little payoffs. I don’t like Tyson, but this particular decision is exactly the one I would make.
A central tennet of Al Qaida’s jihad is making America’s war with Islamofascism look like America’s war with all Islam. Are we dumb enough to fall for that?
If it were me, I’d just have employees chose one of three or four holidays tuned to their religious choice, but if the majority are all one religion, and it’s a factory, that is probably impractical. It’s just a freaking day off.
Juan (4cdfb7) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:10 amShow me some employers in Muslim countries that give Christians time off for Christmas or Jews time off for Hanukkah, and you could have a point.
And Tyson is not the United States.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:13 amSo if 700 of 1,200 workers were Jewish and voted for Yom Kippur instead of Labor day, you would have a problem?
The majority of the workers voted in favor of the Muslim holiday. Considering that Christmas is also a day off for the folks at Tyson, I fail to see the issue…
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:17 amDrumwaster, nobody is claiming that the state should require a company to give employees time off for Eid-al-Fatr. But a company with a large number of employees who celebrate that day would be wise to make a business decision to grant them the day off … and such a company should be free to make that decision.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:20 amI’ve got no problem with them voting for an extra holiday (or even a replacement – who celebrates Arbor Day, after all?), so long as the employer agreed. But to make this a symptom of the larger conflict is just a bit excessive.
Are there any Muslim employers that would allow such a vote to take place if the employers were Jewish or Christian? I don’t think so.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:21 amYou guys probably haven’t heard yet but Dr. Stephen Hayne has been removed from Mississippi’s approved list of medical examiners. Here’s a link.
Jaybird (1994ca) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:23 amAfter reading this Politico report, Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have to single-handedly save the planet until January since she may have released politically vulnerable Democrats to back off-shore drilling and other aspects of Republican energy policy. Apparently she expects a big Democratic majority in Congress next year so she will wait until then to establish a conservation-based energy policy.
Read the piece (entitled “Pelosi: At-risk Dems back drilling” despite the fact Pelosi is NEVER quoted), which is a thinly-veiled love letter to Pelosi for her supposedly brilliant strategy of running out the clock on bipartisan legislation before November. Most maddening is this part (all bold mine):
In an email alert from MoveOn.org calling for participants in a D.C. anti-petroleum industry rally, they suggest that if oil companies are taxed and defunded, it would dry up a source of funding for Republicans. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe in June, Barbara Boxer said this about her longtime goal of windfall profits tax on the oil industry:
The Politico piece also indicates that the Dems are in two-out-of-three monkeys mode:
That last quote strengthens my belief that part of the Dems’ strategy was for Chuck Schumer to deliberately spur a run on IndyMac Bank in late June to trigger a chain reaction of bank failures over the summer.
L.N. Smithee (0931d2) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:26 amI see where the lefties had all their wishes come true – not one objective moderator in the entire bunch.
Dmac (c859cf) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:27 amDrumwaster, while the logical response to you is the we don’t need to sink to the intolerant level of some Muslim lands that treat Christians badly, the factual answer is that many companies in the middle east do give employees Christmas off (mainly because it’s a secular holiday). I don’t think there are major companies in Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc. that have a lot of Christians working for them.
That’s why Tyson IS America. It’s yet another company with an unusual and non-majority mix of employees, and owners smart enough to treat them well by respecting their views. This isn’t PC… this is good business. Those Muslims will do a better job at Tyson, be more loyal in hard times, and be happier because they are respected. That’s as American as apple pie.
It doesn’t matter to me that this isn’t the kind of Respect Somalia would give me (a Christian). These Somalians are Americans because they didn’t want to be Somalians anymore.
Juan (4cdfb7) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:34 amSince when is it considered a secular holiday? it’s Christmas – Christ’s Mass. The religious ceremony celebrating the birth of the individual on whom that religion is based?
It’s politely referred to as “secular” here in the US so that government employees can have the day without having to make a First Amendment issue over it, but it is no more secular than Ramadan is.
That shows that it ISN’T America – that it is unusual and non-majority.
I’m not faulting their business sense (I give my employees a day off whenever they ask – , just saying that if they didn’t get it, they wouldn’t be able to make it a case that the whole country is somehow anti-Muslim.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:48 amI can’t get worked up about this knowing that the “holiday” that the Muslim day replaced was honoring labor unions, and it was a labor union that negotiated the entire maneuver. At least they sacrificed what was important to them as opposed to, for example, the way the San Francisco Board of Supervisors targeted Army Street to rename in honor of Cesar Chavez.
L.N. Smithee (d1de1b) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:53 amThe Teamsters had negotiated Martin Luther King’s birthday as a holiday in Chicago twenty years before Congress legislated it.
nk (0d3a2b) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:56 amDrumwaster: I know many Jews who celebrate Christmas, because it is in practice both a religious holiday and a secular holiday.
It didn’t start out that way, to be sure. But very little remains the way it begins as centuries pass.
aphrael (e0cdc9) — 8/5/2008 @ 12:05 pmWell, if we want to get technical, Christmas didn’t start out as a Christian holiday either… 🙂
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 8/5/2008 @ 12:07 pmI know, I know: Saturnalia. (Or Kajuralia, if you’re a John Norman fan.)
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/5/2008 @ 12:17 pmDrumwaster, if you don’t think the Christmas practiced around the world in 2008 is a secular holiday, then I don’t know what to say to you. You’ve entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts. Christmas has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus (who was born in the summer), but that’s besides the point.
Christmas commemorates the goodness of children, as recognized by Santa Claus. The holiday was celebrated long before Christians joined the rest of the world in doing so, and yeah, they have their own spin on the holiday, saying that it is Jesus’s birthday party, but that’s irrelevant. Muslims probably have their spin on it too. Christmas is practiced very similarly in Tehran and Dallas, with a Christmas tree, little lights, a feast, Jingle Bells, and presents in shoes or stockings.
Furthermore, you are contradicting yourself. We all know that many Muslims allow their employees time to celebrate Christmas in Iran and other nations. If you insist that Christmas can be nothing but a Christian holiday, then your point that Muslims would never permit time off for our holidays is bunk.
Lastly, you claim a factory with Muslims, because it doesn’t fit the overall American demographic, in unAmerican, when the existence of many different combination of races and religious views is the central definition of the American people. You don’t get America, apparently, if you don’t realize that this Tyson plant is extremely American. Chinatown, Jews in NYC, Irish workers, Indian students… that’s all American. We have no nationality, and define ourselves by other, better things.
So you know as much about Christmas as you do about America. I’m afraid you’re in for a long life of anger if you stay your course, where it’s OK that Saudi Arabia is stuffed with bigots against our kind, so we ought to be bigots too… for ‘fairness.’
Juan (4cdfb7) — 8/5/2008 @ 1:03 pmLooks to me like democrats do not care what the people they represent want. If that is so, was this nation not found on the principle of no taxation without representation? In otherwords, you do not get to spend my money how you please, but in a way I agree with. If not, violent revolution may be called for. At least vote the bums out of office. Pelosi first. She is treasonous.
Zelsdorf Ragshaft III (e18128) — 8/5/2008 @ 1:12 pmJuan,
Mongol (585420) — 8/5/2008 @ 1:17 pmTo say that “Christmas practiced around the world in 2008 is a secular holiday” is rather “obamish”… all right I made this word up, but the point is your statement is arrogant and ignorant. Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus and the rest – yes have a holiday. So it is a mix of both, but to make a blanket statement that “Christmas commemorates the goodness of children, as recognized by Santa Claus” is to place oneself is made up world of la la land. Oh and yeah “goodness of children”? lol
Actually, I think it was in March, but that is beside the point.
No, wait, it is entirely the point. We are not celebrating the actual day, but the fact itself. The name is a lingual abbreviation for the Mass (a religious ceremony) celebrating a man who is honored in at least three major world religions.
It has transmogrified to one that encompasses whole legion of persons who don’t have anything to do with that earlier ceremony, but the fact of the celebration, and its religious overtones, are not something that can be altered this far after the fact.
We do? Then it should be easy for you to provide a few.
I said nothing of the kind. What I said was this: “That shows that it ISN’T America – that it is unusual and non-majority.” I am not America, because I cheerfully consider myself unusual, compared with the “norm”, and I should not be used as an example of the country as a whole.
There is a world of difference between not serving as a good example of an ideal, and actually running contrary (“anti-“) to the ideals expressed. Please don’t assume that because I am one, that I am also the other, because I don’t assume that of you.
I also said that I have no problem with the business doing so if they choose (whether through employee referendum or unilateral management pandering), but your earlier claim was that if the company didn’t, it would be taken as proof that America’s war is actually with Islam, and it is that point that I have the disagreement with, because nothing could be further from the truth.
And if I choose to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, would that suddenly make it a secular holiday? What about Hanukkah? Which religious holidays suddenly turn secular if others choose to recognize it, too? (The very term “secular holiday” is an oxymoron.)
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/5/2008 @ 1:19 pmWhat happens if the non-believers celebrate the holiday with a beer bash? Will that be OK?
steve miller (0fb51f) — 8/5/2008 @ 1:24 pmMaybe YOU don’t have a nationality, but I am proud to be an American, and not one of those namby-pamby hyphenated half-breeds.
I am an AMERICAN. And I can think of no higher claim.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/5/2008 @ 1:24 pmYou mean they don’t? Man, I’ve been hanging out at the wrong parties…
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/5/2008 @ 1:24 pmThanks for this gem of ignorant babble about secular Christmas. Sure it may have been denuded of religiosity by our materialistic secular culture in schools, malls and offices in modern-day USA, but that doesnt make the holiday (root of word: Holy Day, ie Holy Day of Obligation) is not a religious holiday …
“Drumwaster, if you don’t think the Christmas practiced around the world in 2008 is a secular holiday, then I don’t know what to say to you.”
I think “You are right.” to him would suffice.
“You’ve entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts. Christmas has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus (who was born in the summer), but that’s besides the point.”
Um, we dont know what time of year Jesus was born.
What we do know is that Christmas is Christ-Mas, the Feast of the Nativity, and has been such in Christendom (both East and West) for almost 2 millenia.
“Christmas commemorates the goodness of children,”
No, it celebrates the goodness of the birth of Christ Jesus.
” as recognized by Santa Claus.”
Hmmm. Santa Claus, why that’s another (germanified) name for good ol’ Saint Nicolas, who was in real history a … Christian Saint! A Christian Saint who lived in what is today Turkey back in the early centuries of the Christian Era.
He was a very real Christian Saint whose real acts of kindness to children been made into a mythical figure who is a giver of gifts to kids; Funny how that Christian saint is proof of the secular nature of Christmas.
” The holiday was celebrated long before Christians joined the rest of the world in doing so,”
FALSE. December 25th is a completely undistinguished day.
It lies near the winter solistice, so some of its traditions adopted from other pagan traditions.
That doesnt make them the same holiday at all.
” and yeah, they have their own spin on the holiday,”
There is not ‘spin’ on a HolyDay, there is its *establishment* by the church and its practice as a celebration of a certain liturgical event: The nativity. It’s as stupid as saying the Superbowl isnt really a Football game, thats just the ‘spin’ the NFL came up with.
” saying that it is Jesus’s birthday party, but that’s irrelevant.”
NOT TO THOSE 1 BILLION TO 2 BILLION WHO CELEBRATE IT AS THE FEAST OF THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!
” Muslims probably have their spin on it too. ”
Their spin is that Jesus (PBUH) was a prophet, and I suppose some then dont mind celebrating this religious holiday.
“Christmas is practiced very similarly in Tehran and Dallas, with a Christmas tree, little lights, a feast, Jingle Bells, and presents in shoes or stockings.” well, there are Christians in Tehran, and for that matter Baghdad …
One big part missing from your description: GOING TO CHRISTMAS EVE MASS AND SINGING CHRISTMAS CAROLS AND WATCHING THE KIDS PUT ON A NATIVITY PLAY.
Christmas is a Christian holiday, as are other Christ-related holidays (like Easter). Jesus is the ‘reason for the season’ for most of those who celebrate it.
Enjoy your upcoming “Winter Break”.
Travis Monitor (8d33ce) — 8/5/2008 @ 1:56 pmWell, it is now…
Once upon a time it was the feast of Jupiter…
Us crafty Christians changed when we celibrated the birth of Christ so such observations wouldn’t get us chucked in to see the kitties…
Once Charlemagne converted, though, Christians ceased to be as persecuted, but the day never got switched back…
But hey, whatever helps you sleep on Christmas Eve after maxing that credit card, I suppose…
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 8/5/2008 @ 2:07 pm“Show me some employers in Muslim countries that give Christians time off for Christmas or Jews time off for Hanukkah, and you could have a point.”
Why is the practice in Muslim countries relevant to what Tyson does?
afall (de7003) — 8/5/2008 @ 2:08 pmBecause he wishes to employ a variataion of the “they do it to” defense…
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 8/5/2008 @ 2:12 pmDRJ,
Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Strep can be wicked.
Rick Ballard (0a8990) — 8/5/2008 @ 2:44 pmNot at all. I employed the reverse. The fact that we can even have this conversation shows that the original allegation is without merit.
Try to keep up, won’t you?
Still waiting for the list all those Muslim companies where employers offer Christmas off for their foreign workers, though…
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/5/2008 @ 2:50 pmActually, the winter solstice was dedicated to Saturn, which was why it was called Saturnalia.
But go on, tell us why that is still what we celebrate.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/5/2008 @ 2:52 pm“Still waiting for the list all those Muslim companies where employers offer Christmas off for their foreign workers, though…”
Can you explain why you are waiting for this?
afall (de7003) — 8/5/2008 @ 3:07 pmSee #23. (Which was a response to the third paragraph of #20.)
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/5/2008 @ 3:18 pmThere’s only one time you mention a list and thats in the post I quote: 8/5/2008 @ 2:50 pm.
afall (17b293) — 8/5/2008 @ 5:09 pm