Re: In What World Avenger?
Author: Avenger
Date: 12-12-2010 - 00:26
Your world - even if you weren't looking......
How nice they let you have "Christmas" decorations. Many gov't offices do not - separation of church and state you know! I suspect they don't permit it at my office, specifically because they got sued by some advocacy group - and since they (my agency) always seems to loose in court no matter how good their case, they just caved.
Far more appalling however, is the policy lecture we got a few months ago. Seems someone in another department got suspended because they kept a Bible in their office to read at lunchtime - and then claimed they knew of no policy against it. My boss was thus required by higher ups to lecture us on it. He told us that he couldn't care less, but that apparently she had left it out where someone saw it and got offended. He counseled us to keep it hidden if we had one. I personally think it is nobody else's business what one reads at lunchtime - But yes, anti-Christian bigotry is not uncommon. Only myopia or narrow-mindedness hides it.
True, you will find "holiday" decorations in most private malls and stores. - It helps sell stuff, which is all they care about anyway. But the streets in my town are no longer decorated. City officials declared some years ago that allowing such on city property would violate separation of church and state. As far as I know, that was their own idea - never heard of any court in this jurisdiction ever saying so.
> ....some guy getting paid 40 Million a year spews out.
Get real!
What newscaster even gets a cool million, let alone 40 million.
As I said - the stories were carried on the so-called mainstream media. 90% of my news exposure comes from ABC radio (occasionally CBS radio), and the local newspaper. The rest comes from the local TV newscasts; but only a few times per week, as I watch very little TV. Every single one of those news outlets carried the story often.
Certainly none of these newscasters or reporters gets the big bucks. But if there really is such a guy, he must have one astoundingly large audience ( > 100 million? ) and be extremely popular, to get a $40 million salary. But it sounds as if you think people really shouldn't watch him - I wonder why.
So why did you leave out the identity of this $40 million a year celebrity. Maybe if so many are watching this guy and you think they shouldn't; I should go watch too - just to see for myself why. I think I'll just do that; but I hope he is not on CSPAN or CNN; or one of those other cable news channels, as I don't have cable - don't watch enough TV to justify the expense.
When so many media outlets followed these stories almost every day for a month or so, to suggest that they are isolated and random events is just plain myopic. They happen all the time. They did seem to happen a lot more than normal last year. I heard many of them myself and wondered what all the fuss was about. While it is entirely possible the the whole thing was over-sensationalized media hype (that happens all the time too); I still might wonder why the big denial that the stories about it were presented - but I presume people only hear what they want to hear - and zone out on the rest; especially so if they happen to be narrow-minded.
The point was that these stories were what Smitty was referring to in his post - simple as that.
Now flame on if you must!