Lou Dobbs: Bah Humbug! to the politically correct

Great article on CNN.com today by Lou Dobbs. I completely agree with everything here.

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.

more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/12/Dobbs.Dec13/index.html

Paladin said:

Great article on CNN.com today by Lou Dobbs. I completely agree with everything here.

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.

more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/12/Dobbs.Dec13/index.html

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LOL! I like Lou. :crazy: I read that some of the office workers at Sea-Tac brought in small Christmas trees of their own and placed them on their counters and desks, along with the original large trees!

ETA...He mentions the Supreme Court ruling that I mentioned earlier:
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."

...is extremely offensive, and dangerous...

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1130499506270

Dark Knight said:

LOL! I like Lou. :crazy:

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I do too. He seems to say things that give a swift kick in the butt to his targets and I usually end up agreeing with him.

cappuccina said:

...is extremely offensive, and dangerous...

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1130499506270

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If people like you think he is dangerous, then he must be doing his job. Go Jay! :woohoo:

If and when Jesus comes again, I hope He sues.

The general mean spiritedness perpetrated in His name is surely libelous.

Yes, Sea Tac should keep its Christmas trees. But Lou Dobbs and the rest of you who feel compelled to gloat over this should be ashamed.

Nova said:

If and when Jesus comes again, I hope He sues.

The general mean spiritedness perpetrated in His name is surely libelous.

Yes, Sea Tac should keep its Christmas trees. But Lou Dobbs and the rest of you who feel compelled to gloat over this should be ashamed.

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Why? I'm not gloating, and I have nothing to be ashamed of. How dare you.

Paladin said:

I do too. He seems to say things that give a swift kick in the butt to his targets and I usually end up agreeing with him.

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Right, Paladin, no gloating in this thread.

I just read your sig...I'd say you're at your worst right now. For arguments sake let's say I was gloating. Over what? Putting oversensitive babies in their place? Oh no! The horror!

Paladin said:

I just read your sig...I'd say you're at your worst right now. For arguments sake let's say I was gloating. Over what? Putting oversensitive babies in their place? Oh no! The horror!

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Cynicism and snarliness is not Christmasy. Lou Dobbs shoving his Merry Christmas in everyone's face and putting down objections does nothing for the spirit of the holiday.

Openheartedness, generosity, kindness and compassion are Christmasey JMO

I guess if I were to practice kindness, openness and generosity in this thread than I'd have to be open to all the unkindedness, tightness and meanness in the thread too.

If I could take on all the nastiness done in the name of Christmas so that there would truly be peace on earth for even one moment I would be willing.

Paladin said:

I just read your sig...I'd say you're at your worst right now. For arguments sake let's say I was gloating. Over what? Putting oversensitive babies in their place? Oh no! The horror!

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This is at least the fourth thread where I have spoken out against the "War on Christmas" nonsense. I promise you I am not "making up" my feelings on this subject.

Paladin said:

I just read your sig...I'd say you're at your worst right now. For arguments sake let's say I was gloating. Over what? Putting oversensitive babies in their place? Oh no! The horror!

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If you want respect, be respectful. If you want to be treated kindly by others, be kind.

Can't get more Christ in Christmas than that.

Nova said:

Right, Paladin, no gloating in this thread.

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I don't see any. :crazy: (Maybe celebrating, at most.)

Dark Knight said:

I don't see any. :crazy: (Maybe celebrating, at most.)

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Oh, DK, if only you would let me guide you, what a fine man you would be!

(This is supposed to be a friendly gibe, not a snark.)

windovervocalcords said:

Gloating is malicious satisfaction. Enjoying your "whatever" at someone else's pain or expense.

Very Christmasy. Not

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I didn't realize you were the authority on what was Christmasy. What Dobbs says is inline with my feelings not only about political correctness during the holiday season, but the whole year around.

Obviously you picked out the parts of the article you disliked and ignored the part where he balanced it off encouraging non-Christians to go ahead and enjoy their holiday without worrying about offending others.

You, Nova, and others who are sensitive about this kind of thing are overly obnoxious. You know why people are a little nicer around Christmas? Because they are (hopefully) receiving presents and getting time off of work, not because they genuinely like one another. Stop pretending.

Paladin said:

I didn't realize you were the authority on what was Christmasy. What Dobbs says is inline with my feelings not only about political correctness during the holiday season, but the whole year around.

Obviously you picked out the parts of the article you disliked and ignored the part where he balanced it off encouraging non-Christians to go ahead and enjoy their holiday without worrying about offending others.

You, Nova, and others who are sensitive about this kind of thing are overly obnoxious. You know why people are a little nicer around Christmas? Because they are (hopefully) receiving presents and getting time off of work, not because they genuinely like one another. Stop pretending.

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You lost me in your post. I am the authority on what I think is Christmasey. We are expressing opinions here, yours and mine have equal value. Yes?

I do get that Lou Dobbs speaks for you about political correctness. What you call political correctness I call cultural sensitivity and I hope it increases.

I think we may agree in one point, and that is I do not think it benefits anyone to have a "victim" consciousness. Many things are unfair. We ought to challenge each other to be more aware of and sensitive to each others feelings all year round.

Here I go again with cultural sensitivity. Some of us do not like being referred to as a "non-christians". I am not a "non" anything. I am a "something" lol. (Other than Christian)

How did I get to be your unfriend? This is just an alternate view. Who or what do you refer to in the "stop pretending"?

windovervocalcords said:

Ah shucks.

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p.s. Stop ruining my country. :hand:

...snippet from the link I already posted, above:

..."But there is another side to Jay Sekulow, one that, until now, has been obscured from the public. It is the Jay Sekulow who, through the ACLJ and a string of interconnected nonprofit and for-profit entities, has built a financial empire that generates millions of dollars a year and supports a lavish lifestyle -- complete with multiple homes, chauffeur-driven cars, and a private jet that he once used to ferry Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

That less-known side of Sekulow was revealed in several interviews with former associates of his and in hundreds of pages of court and tax documents reviewed by Legal Times. Critics say Sekulow's lifestyle is at odds with his role as the head of a charitable organization that solicits small donations for legal work in God's name.

For example, in 2001 one of Sekulow's nonprofit organizations paid a total of $2,374,833 to purchase two homes used primarily by Sekulow and his wife. The same nonprofit also subsidized a third home he uses in North Carolina.
At various times in recent years, Sekulow's wife, brother, sister-in-law, and two sons have been on the boards or payrolls of organizations under his control or have received generous payments as contractors. Sekulow's brother Gary is the chief financial officer of both nonprofit organizations that fund his activities, a fact that detractors say diminishes accountability for his spending.

According to documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service, funds from his nonprofits have also been used to lease a private jet from companies under his family's control. And two years ago, Sekulow outsourced his own legal services from the ACLJ, shifting from a position with a publicly disclosed salary to that of a private contractor that requires no public disclosure. He acknowledged to Legal Times that his salary from that arrangement is "above $600,000" a year.

Sekulow's financial dealings deeply trouble some of the people who have worked for him, leading several to speak with Legal Times during the past six months about their concerns -- before Sekulow assumed his high-profile role promoting President George W. Bush's Supreme Court nominees.

"Some of us truly believed God told us to serve Jay," says one former employee, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal. "But not to help him live like Louis XIV. We are coming forward because we need to believe there is fairness in this world."

Another says: "Jay sends so many discordant signals. He talks about doing God's work for his donors, and then he flies off in his plane to play golf."

Still another told Legal Times, "The cause was so good and so valid, but at some point you can't sacrifice what is right for the sake of the cause."

Sekulow shrugs off the criticism and makes no apologies. "I wouldn't pretend to tell you we don't pay our lawyers well," including himself, says Sekulow. "As a private lawyer, I could bill $750 an hour, but I don't." He does lease a jet, he says, and he does sometimes use it to reach the golf course -- but with donors or vendors, he insists. "We've been doing this for 20 years and never had a blip" of financial irregularity.

Nothing in the relatively loose regulations that govern nonprofits prohibits family members from serving on boards, drawing salaries, or spending money. But critics say the extravagant spending burns up money that Sekulow solicits from donors for legal causes. Citing the high cost of litigating Supreme Court cases, Sekulow wrote in a 2003 fund-raising letter, "We are asking God to prompt every member of the ACLJ to get involved personally in this effort." He added later, "Please send a generous gift right away."

Bruce Hopkins, a partner at Polsinelli Shalton Welte Suelthaus in Kansas City, Mo., and author of 11 books on nonprofit operations and governance, says that Sekulow is "certainly engaging in practices where higher scrutiny is warranted."

Charity watchdog Bennett Weiner agrees that the kind of family board involvement and transactions with family businesses that are indicated on the IRS Form 990s filed by Sekulow's nonprofits "would lead us to ask questions and seek more information." Weiner is chief operating officer of the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, which publishes standards for nonprofits. The ACLJ has not responded to several requests from the alliance for information. Weiner stressed he could not comment specifically about the ACLJ.

The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, created in 1979 to improve the public's trust of Christian nonprofits, also has set standards for its members requiring independent boards of directors made up of people "not related by blood or marriage to staff members." Sekulow's organizations are not among the council's more than 1,100 members.

A review of publicly available tax and court documents, as well as interviews with several former employees, paints a stark portrait of Sekulow as a hard-charging man who emerged from bankruptcy and allegations of securities fraud in the late 1980s to build a complex network of personal, business, and nonprofit entities. At times, those financial dealings have alienated employees and been criticized in court..."

A true Christian would be embarassed by this man, not arrogantly promoting him...

Paladin said:

p.s. Stop ruining my country. :hand:

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Wow. Do you listen to Michael Savage or something?

You think I am powerful enough to ruin "your" country. Do you mean the US?

"Of the people and for the people?" All of us. The plurality of the United States of America?

What on earth are you talking about?

Today you may consider me your enemy but I was merely a stranger or someone you ignored previously. We may yet find friendship. It's possible.

There is no reason at all for me to be attached to and help my friend or to hate and harm my enemy.

If I were to strive for only my own self-peace, there would be no reason for me to have been born human.

...really...I am asking seriously, because paranoid thinking is not okay...and is usually a sign that someone is having difficulties of some kind...

Bush is ruining this country, not a gentle, intelligent, kind and tolerant soul like WOVC...

Here's what your president is doing to our children...