Last Wed. eve this years’ American Idol was announced. After nearly 100 million votes, 23-year-old Kris Allen from Conway, Ark won — and it’s reported that the voting wasn’t even all that close. Not that this will change the course of world events, but AI is the highest rated regular show on network television — the last of the “water cooler” shows. What makes this year particularly poignant is that the winner wasn’t the best singer — not by a long shot. Adam Lambert can “sing the phone book” as Randy Jackson often proclaims, and it would sound terrific. He had far more range, far more stage presence, much greater vocal skills and excellent enunciation of the lyrics. Superior all around. So, why did Kris win?

First, Kris might not have been great, but he is damn good! Second, his humble manner and absolute genuineness comes across particularly well, and the American Idol home audience really seems to warm up to those traits. Third, many would say this is the biggie, Kris Allen isn’t overtly gay — while Adam Lambert was comfortable glamming with the best of them.

As we out here in the Golden State (is granola “gold”?) gird our loins for Tuesday’s ruling by our Supreme Court on the challenge to Proposition 8, the Constitutional amendment that re-established the meaning of marriage as “between one man and one woman”, one has to consider that our mainstream media notwithstanding — the day-in, day-out common American is not gung ho on championing the gay/lesbian lifestyle as an accepted standard. Tolerated, fine. What we should encourage our children to emulate? Not so much.

But, as they keep saying on the show — “It’s a SINGING competition”. Therefore, the best singer should win? It’s also a “performance” competition, and talent is only part of a performance. There has to be that connection to the viewer, that spark to make tens of millions of folks to reach over, dial or text their vote. The guys are showing us the way through this cultural quagmire, as they seem to be good friends. As a writer over at TMZ blog states: “Just because several million more people like one over the other, it doesn’t mean “American Idol” champ Kris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert can’t enjoy a meal together.” Adam Lambert is gonna do just fine . . .

Kris Allen — you ARE, the American Idol. Good luck to both of ya!

We’re coming up on Christmas and damn if the PC crowd doesn’t go out of its way to act like the South Park town folk on the Mister Hanky episode. Michelle Malkin links to this at Star News Online.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was almost grounded at Murrayville Elementary School this week after a parent complained about the classic Christmas song’s inclusion in her daughter’s upcoming kindergarten concert.

The objecting parent was upset about the words “Christmas” and “Santa” in the song, feeling that they carried religious overtones.

That prompted the song to be pulled from the upcoming holiday concert, which in turn upset more parents.

But Rudolph will be shining bright next Tuesday after New Hanover County school administrators and lawyers determined the song was just, well, a secular song about a make-believe reindeer.

Cooler head prevailing — but you know there will be lots of these stories in the next 10 days.

The following is funny, even though it’s all too real.

Technorati Tags: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Murrayville Elementary School, Christmas

Wow, the elitist waging war on our culture sure have been busy! Earlier I wrote about a Florida University that can’t stomach holiday decorations. A little closer to home, (too damn close mind you!), more of those enlightened individuals known as college/university professors have decided that kindergarten kids wearing traditional Thanksgiving day costumes is demeaning to native Americans. Oh, please . . .

For decades, Claremont kindergartners have celebrated Thanksgiving by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and sharing a feast. But on Tuesday, when the youngsters meet for their turkey and songs, they won’t be wearing their hand-made bonnets, headdresses and fringed vests.

Parents in this quiet university town are sharply divided over what these construction-paper symbols represent: A simple child’s depiction of the traditional (if not wholly accurate) tale of two factions setting aside their differences to give thanks over a shared meal? Or a cartoonish stereotype that would never be allowed of other racial, ethnic or religious groups?

“It’s demeaning,” Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter’s teacher. “I’m sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation’s history.”

{…}

Raheja, an English professor at UC Riverside who specializes in Native American literature, said she met with teachers and administrators in hopes that the district could hold a public forum to discuss alternatives that celebrate thankfulness without “dehumanizing” her daughter’s ancestry.

Nice to know that someone teaching at the university level in SoCal thinks that “Jews (and friendly Nazis)” are part of “our nation’s history”. Excuse me Michelle, wasn’t that Nazi Germany? Getting your oppressed peoples a tad bit mixed up aren’t we?

Last week, rumors began to circulate on both campuses that the district was planning to cancel the event, and infuriated parents argued over the matter at a heated school board meeting Thursday. District Supt. David Cash announced at the end of the meeting that the two schools had tentatively decided to hold the event without the costumes, and sent a memo to parents Friday confirming the decision.

Cash and the principals of Condit and Mountain View did not respond to interview requests.

But many parents, who are convinced the decision was made before the board meeting, accused administrators of bowing to political correctness.

Life is getting more and more like South Park’s Mr. Hankey episode.

This Christmas-themed episode of South Park opens as the children rehearse their Christmas play. They are performing a Christian Nativity, and when Kyle’s mother hears of this, she is infuriated by the play, because her son, a Jew, plays the role of Joseph. Mrs. Broflovski is offended by the Christian imagery, and demands that the religious elements be taken out of the public school Christmas pageant, since they don’t celebrate Christmas. (…)

Mayor McDaniels decides that anything offensive to anyone will be removed from the Christmas celebrations, including Santa Claus, wreaths, trees, stars, lights, candy canes, and mistletoe. (…)

Ultimately, the school Christmas pageant, along with the whole town, is stripped of all symbols of Christmas, as anything that does resemble Christmas is deemed offensive by someone (…) . Instead, the children present a minimalist song and dance created by Philip Glass. The parents, astounded by how awful the pageant has turned out, begin blaming one another for destroying Christmas, and a fight breaks out.

If that doesn’t sound a heck of a lot like this . . .

Among the costume supporters, there is a vein of suspicion that casts Raheja and others opposed to the costumes as agenda-driven elitists. Of the handful of others who spoke with Raheja against the costumes at the board meeting, one teaches at the University of Redlands, one is an instructor at Riverside Community College, and one is a former Pitzer College professor.

Raheja is “using those children as a political platform for herself and her ideas,” Constance Garabedian said as her 5-year-old Mountain View kindergartner happily practiced a song about Native Americans in the background. “I’m not a professor and I’m not a historian, but I can put the dots together.”

{…}

“Its always a good thing to think about, critically, how we teach kids, even from very young ages, the message we want them to learn, and the respect for the diversity of the American experiences,” said Jennifer Tilton, an assistant professor of race and ethnic studies at the University of Redlands and a Claremont parent who opposes the costumes.

Ya know? Sometimes a bit too much education is a debilitating thing. Don’t think that everyone that teaches at the college and university level are super-smart. From the way they carry on, a good lot o’ them don’t know “Mr. Hankey” from Shinola!

Michelle Raheja — You are truly deserving of Okie’s Head Up The Wazzoo Award!

Say “howdy” to Mr. Hankey for me . . .

Technorati Tags: Thanksgiving day costumes, Claremont, Michelle Raheja

We’ve discussed this before — that the college and university system is hell-bent on the destruction of Judeo-Christian culture. If you have kids going to Florida Gulf Coast University you better be all in with that ’cause they ain’t about to let a little Christmas cheer be spread around, not in their precious little secular enclave. The Fort Myers News-Press has the skinny:

Christmas is just 30 days away, but Santa Claus won’t be stopping by Florida Gulf Coast University this holiday.

He’s not allowed on campus.

FGCU administration has banned all holiday decorations from common spaces on campus and canceled a popular greeting card design contest, which is being replaced by an ugly sweater competition. In Griffin Hall, the university’s giving tree for needy preschoolers has been transformed into a “giving garden.”

The moves boil down to political correctness.

“Public institutions, including FGCU, often struggle with how best to observe the season in ways that honor and respect all traditions,” President Wilson Bradshaw wrote in a memo to faculty and staff Thursday. “This is a challenging issue each year at FGCU, and 2008 is no exception. While it may appear at times that a vocal majority of opinion is the only view that is held, this is not always the case.”

They received 44 anonymous comments, all against the decorations ban. The staff and students quoted in the article were all good with having holiday decorations. Only the Lilly-livered, oh-my-god-they’re-gonna-sue-the-pants-off-us, POS university administrators are for it.

Just another firefight in the Culture Wars.

Be careful where you send your kids to school — they aren’t just learnin’ math, science and history — they’re being brainwashed by the secular humanists in our midst. Send your sweet little Janie and little Johnny to the wrong institution and you might just get back your very own Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. There’s a holiday thought for the ages — oh, ya betcha!

Unrepentant William “Bill’ Ayres desecrating US flag:
“We didn’t do enough . . .”

Technorati Tags: Florida Gulf Coast University, banned all holiday decorations