Less horse poop at downtown parade

[guido911]

Inhofe was an donkey with his making this into an issue but if he wants to skip the parade because of the name of the parade, as a citizen he certainly has that right. But a sitting city councilor is now trying to force a privately funded event to be more Christian by granting (or not granting) city permits? Are you kidding me? Talk about idiotic and chilling government intrusion.

You are not saying that government acknowledgment and recognition of Christmas is somehow unconstitutional?

[Hoss]

You are not saying that government acknowledgment and recognition of Christmas is somehow unconstitutional?

I think he's saying that it's intrusive; hence his use of the word 'intrusion'...I agree.  It is intrusive.  Unless the City is footing the bill for this, who cares what it's called.  Jeez, this is such a non-issue.  It's just Inhofe appeasing the base of the Evangelicals and being an attention-whore to boot.

[guido911]

Okay. Who farted?

[Hoss]

Okay. Who farted?

Every time you speak, Tony...funny, you won't respond to me directly like a child.  You're a gas.  Oops, there I go again with the flatulence.

[guido911]

'As long as the Dec. 11 parade does not violate "reasonable time, place and manner" restrictions, the City Council would have no legal basis to turn down its special event application, said Joey Senat of Oklahoma State University and Freedom of Information Oklahoma.'
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20101202_11_0_Counci261960

Do we have to wait till a judge affirms that?    I feel a censure coming on...

There is far more to this from a legal point of view than what you have posted. Since this thread began, I have looked at this entire issue from my "common sense" point of view. As this issue has heated up, and folks are throwing around legal terms of art and words that suggest a councilor may be acting in an unconstitutional manner, I have done a little research. The federal cases that I have looked at (and no, I did not look at all of them), indicated that Christmas is more than a religious holiday. There are secular elements of the holiday (Santa, Christmas trees), there is federal recognition of the holiday (national holiday, time off for federal workers, seasonal postage stamps), and there are cultural/traditional elements that Americans as a society follow. Government gets into trouble when it goes from acknowledging Christmas to "observing" it. Indeed, if the government's "primary purpose" is in a non-secular, celebration so-to-speak, mode, then it becomes problematic.

I really do not know how that very general explanation applies to the councilor since all I know is he is voting "no" on granting a permit because the word "Christmas" has been removed from the parade's title. Is he allowed to vote "no"? I guess so. I guess the injury the parade backers will purportedly suffer is if enough councilors vote no.

[RecycleMichael]

I thought it was the "PSO Parade of Lights,"

To be really inclusive...the new name should be "Parade of Lights and Darks".

[guido911]

To be really inclusive...the new name should be "Parade of Lights and Darks".

What, no response to my referee joke earlier? I'm heartbroken.   

[sgrizzle]

Who gives a bleep? No one cared when it "changed" two years ago :/ People need to get a life and worry about real problems.

Technically 2008 was still the "Christmas Parade" according to materials. The only parade in the last few decades to not say Christmas was 2009 and the people in charge did it purely out of paranoia, IMHO. The problem in this case is that no-one, even Elliot Nelson, really has a compelling reason why an event put on by a private organization that has no reason to worry about lawsuits, changed it. There was no big push from anyone to make them change.

They even went so far as to photoshop the poster artist's work:

[sgrizzle]

P.S. My guess is that part of the reason PSO backed out is that last year's festival was incredibly hard to pull off with the loss of DTU and an organization who had no steering committee and little-to-no board members with any idea how to run things. There was a lot of burning the late night electricity between board members and PSO to get the thing off the ground last year.

[dsjeffries]

I was at Cracker Barrel tonight, and noticed that they too have begun a war against Christmas (and even partnered with those damn Yankees):


I'm calling KRMG and KFAQ right now to organize a statewide protest of their apple butter and biscuits until they put the word 'Christ' back on that candle.

[sgrizzle]

I was at Cracker Barrel tonight, and noticed that they too have begun a war against Christmas (and even partnered with those damn Yankees):


I'm calling KRMG and KFAQ right now to organize a statewide protest of their apple butter and biscuits until they put the word 'Christ' back on that candle.

That;s not unexpected. Everyone knows Yankees are godless heathens.

[BKDotCom]

How about the Republican National Committee's ornament:

Has Jim Inhofe boycotted his political party?

[DolfanBob]

I was thinking about this last night when a commercial came on about a Winter Festival.
I thought, hey wait just a minute. I like Spring, I enjoy Summer. So why dont we just be all inclusive and change that to 'Season Festival'
There. All Seasons included and no hurt Season feelings.
Just a example of how ignorent over thinking something can become. As far as I'm concerned. This is just how higher educated individuals show their dominance and take away all the innocence of a......wait for it. 'Holiday Event"
I do not remember my parents or anyone of their generation protesting the use of the word Christmas. It was what it was.
So just keep on confusing the next generation and the generations that follow how nothing is innocent and fun anymore without confrontation and questions about it's origins.
So with that. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

[Townsend]

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Whoa whoa whoa, careful there.

[Conan71]

We could call it "the holiday formerly known as Christmas" and someone could come up with an enigmatic symbol like the Artist Formerly Known As Pince did.