The war on Christmas

As the Christmas season once again approaches so does the so called war on Christmas. A yearly event between the believers who believe they are simply celebrating their holiday and non believers who feel that God is being forced upon them. In New Jersey a sign has been hung that reads "Keep Christ in Christmas", while a banner normally doesn't cause this much of a racket, unnamed sources have asked The Freedom From Religion Foundation to step in. While the city claims the banner is hung from private property, and others claim it to be unconstitutional due to hanging over a public area (road).

christ in christmas sign

I personally believe that some people are to easily offended but I can see Christians being upset if atheist hung their own sign which they do propose to do, the sign would read:

“At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

Currently studying the supreme court in government class I feel one they would refuse to hear the case and two even if they did the banner would be allowed to remain, though it is in support of a specific religion and hangs in a public area there is equal opportunity for any religion to hang their own signs. I do however have to disagree with the Knights of Columbus because the banner does seem to directly take a shot at other religions and people not of the faith who celebrate the seasonal sensation most commonly referred to as Christmas. Had the banner read Merry Christmas or something along those lines I believe it would have been more appropriate.

Animosity

On Saturday Xavier faced rival University of Cincinnati in a game that ended 9 seconds short due to a fight which broke out at the very end of the game. Comments by kilPatrick in the pregame may have caused tension when he stated his beliefs about the level the team was at, singling out another player from the rival team saying Hollaway wouldn't make the bearcat starting lineup. Though it looks like Xavier began the fight with the shove at the end of the game that cleared the Cincinnati bench that may not be the case.

Xavier vs University of Cincinnati

the list of suspensions however were not that long with Yancy Gates and two others receiving 6 game suspensions for the Bearcats and Xaviers Tu Holloway receiving a one game suspension with two others receiving four game suspensions.

suspensions

I personally feel there is a growing amount of violence in sports especially professional and I feel players especially like Yancy Gates who threw a blindside punch bloodying the eye of a Xavier player should be punished more harshly than they are. Violence like that should not be a part of the sport and any player, not clearly defending themselves but being the source of aggression should lose any scholarship they have and be kicked off the team the rest of the season at least. I believe if we increased the severity of the punishment athletes would think before acting.

Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer has been "smeared" by Defense giant BAE. The company wrote that Dakota was mentally unstable and an alcoholic, seemingly with no evidence to back it up. All this happened after Dakota protested the sale of the best military equipment available to Pakistan a country we sometimes have problems with.

defamation?

What a hero did for this Country

I personally believe it is disgusting that a company would make false accusations about a hero to save themselves. I also believe we should not be selling our advanced scopes to Pakistan who recently fired upon us  then after we retaliated with a missile strike the spoke out against us for our actions and ordered us to stop using the Pakistani base we fly predator drones out of.

open fire

retaliation

Joel Travera, an army vet received a $450,000 home but not for no good reason. Shortly before Joel's 21st birthday he was injured in a rocket attack on his humvee. The attack killed three of his comrades and left Joel himself blinded and without the use of his right leg and four fingers and severe burns on 60% of his body.

Simply Amazing we need more of this in the news 

the hero

Joel Travera is a true American hero and his sacrifice is great. I however wish Joel's story and the story of other vets. were in the news. Not just the tragedy though, the news stories we see everyday seem to be extremely depressing and horrible. I think stories like this were hero's are recognized and helped where they need int needs to be in the light of the media.

Occupy

With the occupy movement becoming violent in some areas people question how to handle the situation. Protesters are sometimes violent towards police some protesters (a small sect) is putting out antisemitic views and struggling businesses are being hurt. While the Occupy situation proclaims a peaceful goal of fixing our broken nation it seem that they may be damaging it even more.

Marchers Promote Tolerance and Protest Torched Cars and Anti-Semitic Vandalism in Brooklynand-anti-semitic-vandalism-in-brooklyn/

Crime Stunning Revelation by NYC Police Commissioner: Protesters Had a ‘Countdown’ & ‘Charged’ Cops

Occupy Oakland Shut Down a Port Already Struggling for Survival

While I personally believe that the protesters have a right to voice their opinions and protest in a peaceful fashion I think it must be just that peaceful. There have been to many instances of of violence in the occupy movement that seem to be simply over looked by the media because it seems to fit their agenda. I feel as if even one of these events would have happened under a tea party rally it would have been played over the news for weeks if not months. In fact news sources and the media in general tried to make the tea party to look as if they were racist when the openly spoke out against racism and even forced a man at the rally who was promoting racism to leave because they did not what those ideals to be mixed in with their movement.

Rep. Carson

Study Finds Tea Party 'Not Racist'

"What would you do"

Obviously stealing is wrong but the fact that more people didn't take a bigger role in stopping the theft of gas on this weeks what would you do blew my mind. while a few people gave glances some stopped and stared and others made some remarks as they drove away a surprisingly small amount of people actually did anything about the problem. This personally upsets me because I know how expensive gas is with almost all my money going towards gas I would be devastated if my gas was stolen. Usually I use the remainder of my money on gas seeing as I can't work many hours while also juggling school and sports. I would hope someone would stop the person stealing from me the same way I would for them.

Troops to Africa

President Obama has announced that he plans to send troops to Central Africa to teach locals how to defend themselves and fight against Lord's Resistance Army a violent group that kills, abducts forces children into taking part in hostile acts, and forces women and children into sexual enslavement.
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-10-14/africa/world_africa_africa-obama-troops_1_obama-orders-south-sudan-central-african-republic?_s=PM:AFRICA
Many applaud the president for taking a more active role in the region, but we have know about the LRA for more than a decade. The group formed in 1987 and for many years was at war with the Ugandan government. The real question should not be what will we do in Central Africa to stop these travesties but why have we not already taken care of the problem. The U.S. has since 2008 provided aid to Central Africa and non-lethal supplies but we have not taken actual action against this group until now. Another question we should be asking ourselves is with the president executing U.S. Citizen Anwar al-Awlaki without trial for speech crimes (a very controversial topic seeing as some feel even though his message was clearly disturbed and morbidly wrong disgustingly so that he still had freedom of speech.)
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/a/anwar_al_awlaki/index.html
Why have we not already executed military action against Joseph Kony (the leader of LRA) and other high ranking members of the group as Obama now plans. Why has the U.S. allowed such a terrible and ongoing tragedy to stay for the most part out of the public's eye only to go in now years after the problem started?

Qaddafi's Death

After 42 years of dictatorship Qaddafi is ousted and killed, The way he was killed though leaves many questions.http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/24/libya-transitional-leader-orders-investigation-into-qaddafis-death/