PUBLIC MARKS from jasontromm

If you don’t celebrate Christmas this time of year, and you are easily offended, stop reading this now. If you are still reading, out of curiosity, but you celebrate a holiday other than Christmas this time of the year, please understand that no one wishes to deprive you of your own special celebration, but the United State, as a country, celebrates Christmas. Christmas, not those other things, is our national holiday. We welcome and accommodate other celebrations, but our main celebration this time of the year is Christmas. It’s a long tradition, and it’s going to continue.

A public-school handout urging young children in Virginia to attend a "Pagan ritual" tomorrow to "celebrate Yule" is sparking objections from concerned parents. "Amazing -- government schools ban orthodox Christianity, but allow an openly pagan organization to proselytize six-year-olds!" one observer who asked for anonymity told WND.

An autopsy on the body of a baby girl found at a Hialeah, Fla., abortion business shows her arrival is being considered a birth, but it also notes that her cause of death was "extreme prematurity." The autopsy was obtained by the front-line pro-life organization Operation Rescue, and posted online.

n a major victory for backers of San Diego's Mt. Soledad cross, an appeals court ruled today in favor of a voter measure that authorized transfer of the land beneath the memorial to the federal government. A panel of justices from the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled 3-0 that Proposition A was constitutional, overturning a decision by Superior Court Judge Patricia Yim Cowett that invalidated the measure. The court also reversed a $275,000 attorney fee award received by an ACLU-backed lawyer for plaintiff Phillip Paulsen, an atheist who died last month.

An abortion business in Huntsville, Ala., should be closed down after the state Health Department cited the location for violating 10 state laws, according to the front-line pro-life Operation Rescue. According to officials, the Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives was found to have been forwarding after-hours medical emergencies to non-medical personnel, routinely failing to document the gestational age of the unborn baby, and releasing abortion patients without following the mandatory 20-minute recovery period, according to a statement from Operation Rescue.

The Young Conservatives of Texas -- University of Texas Chapter announced today that they will be displaying an “ACLU Nativity Scene” on the West Mall of the University of Texas campus on Monday and Tuesday, December 4th and 5th. The group’s intent is to raise awareness on the extremity of the ACLU, and bring to light its secular-progressive efforts to remove Christmas from the public sphere. The display, the first of its kind in the nation, will feature characters that are quite a bit different than the standard crèche. “We’ve got Gary and Joseph instead of Mary and Joseph in order to symbolize ACLU support for homosexual marriage, and of course there isn’t a Jesus in the manger,” said Chairman Tony McDonald. “The three Wise Men are Lenin, Marx, and Stalin because the founders of the ACLU were strident supporters of Soviet style Communism.”

The six imams removed from a US Airways flight last week have apparently adopted my suggestion that if they really want to protest the airline, instead of boycotting US Airways, they should start flying it frequently.

A WND interview in which Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., called Miami a "Third World country" has ignited a war of words with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and other lawmakers insulted by the remark, which is now being echoed in news media across America. "Look at what has happened to Miami. It has become a Third World country," Tancredo told WND in a Nov. 19 story as he lamented how the nature of America can be changed by uncontrolled immigration. "You just pick it up and take it and move it someplace. You would never know you're in the United States of America. You would certainly say you're in a Third World country."

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks -- two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin. "That would alarm me," said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. "They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane." A pilot from another airline said: "That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry."

What would you do if armed terrorists broke into your church and starting attacking your friends with automatic weapons in the middle of a worship service? Would you be prepared to defend yourself and other innocents? Would you be justified in doing so? Is it time for Americans to consider such once-unthinkable possibilities? There is one man in the world who can address these questions with first-hand experience. His name is Charl van Wyck – a South African who was faced with just such a shocking scenario.

While the military "quagmire" in Iraq was said to tip the scales of power in the U.S. midterm elections, most Americans have no idea more of their fellow citizens – men, women and children – were murdered this year by illegal aliens than the combined death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since those military campaigns began.

In January Speaker-Elect Pelosi will remind Heath Shuler that while he could throw a somewhat average NFL pass back in the day, that on her team - she's the coordinator of offense and he'll only be throwing on her direction. One of my listeners described this situation perfectly this week calling the freshman class - the Crash Dummies. They will have no clout, no position, and will be in immediate and desperate need of support and organization.

State revenues will grow by more than $387 million during the next two years, and Gov. Mark Sanford thinks some of that money should go back to taxpayers. Sanford fought with legislators to have extra revenue returned to taxpayers last session, but mostly lost the battle. Instead, lawmakers chose to restore money slashed from state programs during recent lean budget years as well as spending for projects back in their districts.

Don't Be MIA on Election Day You might not be in the military, but you can certainly still fight for freedom, right here on our own shores. How? By voting! With the culture wars at full tilt, it is somewhat surprising that expected voter turn out is forecasted as low as 35 percent. This is particularly troubling since Democrats only need to pick up six seats to gain a majority in the 100-seat Senate. They need only 15 seats out of the 435-seat House to achieve their first majority since being swept out of power in 1994. To not vote is simply a vote for the opposition. As British statesman Edmund Burke once said, ''Evil flourishes when good men do nothing.''

The plain fact is that embryonic stem cell research is proving to be a bust. There are currently 72 therapies showing human benefits using adult stem cells and zero using embryonic stem cells. Scientifically-minded readers can review this medical journal article on the status of adult stem cell research. Adult stem cell therapies are already being advertised and promoted while no such treatments are even remotely in prospect for embryonic stem cell research.

Democrats can't not be crazy. They will instantly set to work enacting a national gay-marriage law, impeachment hearings, slavery reparations and a series of new federal felonies for abortion clinic protesters. The only way to get Democrats to focus on terrorists would be to convince them that the terrorists are interfering with a woman's right to choose or that commercial jetliners exploding in midair are a threat to America's wetlands.

As a national uproar continues over comments by Sen. John Kerry suggesting American troops were lazy and not bright, President Bush is hammering Kerry and fellow Democrats for their lack of strategy for winning the war in Iraq, while troops themselves are mocking Kerry. In a photo circulating the Internet today, soldiers were shown holding a banner with intentional misspellings reading: "Halp Us Jon Carry – We R Stuck Hear N Irak."

Mary, who has Muscular Dystrophy, tells in her own words that she wants to be cured, but not if it means destroying another human life, "After all, you and I began as tiny human embryos, too." Mary points out that thousands of patients have been successfully treated with adult stem cells, and none with embryonic stem cells, and directs viewers to StemCellFacts.org.

These should be easy days for Republican Gov. Mark Sanford who's far ahead of his Democratic challenger in cash and ads in the final week before Election Day. Despite leading the GOP ticket that's dominated state politics for a decade, Sanford's penny-pinching political style and libertarian leanings have peeved party regulars. He often says he's running his campaign like he's one vote short of securing his second term.

How important is global warming in Maine? Not important enough for local television. Michael Palmer, the general manager of television stations WVII and WFVX, ABC and Fox affiliates in Bangor, has told his joint staff of nine men and women that when “Bar Harbor is underwater, then we can do global warming stories.”

These are the nights when schools around America are filled with Harry Potters, soldiers, Draculas, and Disney princesses—at least those schools that still observe Halloween. There may be parades, parties, and picture-taking—and enough candy to keep dentists’ chairs occupied for the next year. But this Halloween I find myself contemplating something scarier than any Halloween fright mask—even a Nancy Pelosi “Speaker of the House” mask. It’s the thought of how money is spent in the name of educating the next generation.

Republican prospects in November's elections are decidedly brighter today as result of the ruling by the New Jersey Supreme Court on same-sex marriage. The court ruled that same sex partners must be granted the same rights and benefits afforded opposite-sex couples under New Jersey's civil marriage statues, but deferred to the state legislature the decision on whether the same sex arrangement should be called marriage. So the court essentially said that same sex partnership walks like a duck, looks like a duck and should be granted all the rights and benefits of a duck, but concluded it didn't have the authority to call it a duck.

Islam is being taught in the nation's public schools as a religion to be embraced because "organized Islamists have gained control of textbook content," according to an organization that analyzes textbooks. The American Textbook Council has concluded that the situation is the consequence of "the interplay of determined Islamic political activists, textbook editors, and multiculturally minded social studies curriculum planners."

Not all Americans can be classified as liberal or conservative. In particular, polls find that some 10 to 20 percent of voting-age Americans are libertarian, tending to agree with conservatives on economic issues and with liberals on personal freedom. The Gallup Governance Survey consistently finds about 20 percent of respondents giving libertarian answers to a two-question screen.

Some of Barbra Streisand's fans have some advice for the diva as she makes a rare U.S. tour -- shut up and sing. Not all members of her audience, who paid up to $250 (134 pounds) for a ticket, have appreciated her politics. During a performance at New York's Madison Square Garden this week, one concertgoer yelled out, asking if the concert was a fundraiser. Streisand replied: "Shut the f*** up!" ()() I couldn't agree more. Actors and singers don't have a right to push their views on people who pay to see them perform, not preach.