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Santa Monica Forced To CANCEL Christmas After Atheist Campaigner Launches Protest Against Town's Holiday Decorations 18 November 2012 A California town has been forced to axe its Christmas decorations after an atheist protester objected to a 14-piece religious display in the town centre and set up his own booths mocking Christianity and preventing church groups from celebrating the holidays. Officials in Santa Monica, California have snuffed the city's holiday tradition this year rather than intervening in the religious fight - prompting churches which have set up a 14-scene Christian diorama every year for decades to sue over freedom of speech...

As TV networks began to call the race for President Obama in the 2012 general election earlier this month, Karl Rove fumbled with his white board insisting the race wasn't over and that the votes from vital Ohio counties had not yet been fully tallied. A glimmer of hope that Mitt Romney could snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat remained visible through the squinting lens of Rove's roseate stubbornness. As his recount was underway last weekend in Florida, Congressman Allen West basked in the glow of adulation conservatives attending an event at the Breakers Hotel in West Palm...

...Conservatives are shell-shocked. The event in Palm Beach drew no consensus for the future of conservatism. After four years of economic, political and moral depredations, it becomes increasingly difficult to predict when the pendulum will swing back or if it will at all. We wander along a desolate path of stupefaction, adrift in our bumping and stammering hallucinations. Can a moribund culture ever be revived to resemble the best times in America's past? When Tuesday (11/19/2012), US District Court Judge Audrey B Collins delivered a 28-page ruling denying my client the right to continue a 59-year-old tradition of exhibiting Nativity...

<p>U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins rejected a motion from the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee to allow the religious display this season while their lawsuit plays out against the city.</p>

SANTA MONICA (CBSLA.com) — Two birds found dead in Santa Monica in the last three months have tested positive for the West Nile Virus, officials said. The most recent bird, an American Crow, was found on July 23 in the area boundaried by Ocean Avenue, Montana Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard, KNX1070’s Pete Demetriou reports. Download: santa-monica-west-nile-warning-2.mp3 The first positive bird was reported on May 17, Santa Monica city officials said. Residents are being asked that if they see dead birds to call 1-877-WNV-BIRD to have them picked up for analysis. “Mosquitoes become infected when they first feed on birds...

Pakistani Owner of Swanky Santa Monica Hotel: "Get the [expletive] Jews out of my Pool" By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus Published: July 30th, 2012 Latest update: July 31st, 2012 An upscale hotel on a Santa Monica, California, beach is an odd place to be singled out from a crowd and removed because you are Jewish, but that's what happened to 18 young professionals who are telling their story to a jury in a discrimination trial taking place in Santa Monica Superior Court this week. Ari Ryan is the grandson of a Ukranian Jew who lost most of his family in the...

Tuesday night the city council sought to expand that prohibition and voted 4-2 to ban smoking for all new tenants of apartments and condos inside their residences - with one exception. "I really don't think they should be telling people what to do if they are paying for the place they're living in," Jones said. Other cities have taken similar measures. Pasadena will make all apartments, condos and townhouses smoke-free by 2013 - a move Santa Monica is also looking into.

A mountain lion cornered in a downtown Santa Monica courtyard bolted after being shot with a tranquilizer dart, prompting authorities to use lethal force Tuesday morning, according to the California Department of Fish and Game. "We were able to get a dart in the lion. At that point, the lion was making its way out into the street and then we really have to be concerned about public safety at that point," ... The male, 3-year-old mountain lion -- estimated to weigh 80 pounds -- apparently jumped over an eight-foot fence to enter the courtyard area

In Santa Monica, A Matter of Mangers It may be Christmas, but the holiday spirit has taken a beating in Santa Monica. December 17, 2011 Unto Santa Monica a Christmas controversy was born this year. Atheists objected to the long-standing tradition of re-creating the Nativity story in a row of life-size paintings that sprawl down the Ocean Avenue edge of Palisades Park. Arguing that this was a religious display in a public park, they applied for space to offer their own message. In an effort to be fair, the city turned to a lottery to assign 21 plots of display...

Christmas in America is a season of time-honored traditions: The sacred performance of the annual ACLU lawsuit over the presence of an insufficiently secular "holiday" tree. The ritual provocations of the atheist displays licensed by pitifully appeasing municipalities to sit between the menorah and the giant Frosty the Snowman. The familiar strains of every hack columnist's "war on Christmas" column rolling off the keyboard as easily as Richard Clayderman playing "Winter Wonderland" ... This year has been a choice year. A crucified skeleton Santa Claus was erected as part of the "holiday" display outside the Loudoun County courthouse in Virginia...

OCEAN AVENUE — A coalition of 13 churches will open a truncated version of their annual holiday display Sunday with an impassioned plea to City Hall to restore 11 pieces of prize real estate that were snatched up by a group of activist atheists. An organization called Save Our Nativity Scenes, or SONS, requested that churches ring bells at 3 p.m. Dec. 11 to signal the start of a ceremony that will end in a flashlight vigil, urging city officials to reserve space specifically for the booths....

From the PREVIOUS thread:Strong opening weekend fuels film’s expansion to Tucson, AZ, West Palm, FL, Milwaukee, WI, Charlotte, NC, and Ontario, CA-- snip --Santa Monica, Calif. (July 18, 2011) ⎯ ARC Entertainment today announced "The Undefeated," which chronicles Sarah Palin’s rise from obscurity to national prominence, will roll out to additional AMC Theatres (AMC) beginning on Friday, July 22nd. -- snip -- This coming Friday the film will play in the following AMC theatres:-- snip -- Ontario Mills 30 - - 4549 Mills Circle, Ontario, CA  91764 And from www.movietickets.com, the show times are:Friday, July 22 -- 11:10am, 1:55pm, 4:50pm,...

Legendary Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger, who has been on the run for more than a decade, was arrested Wednesday in Santa Monica, multiple law enforcement sources told The Times. Bulger, 81, has been the subject of several books and was the inspiration for "The Departed," a 2006 Martin Scorsese film staring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. Bulger fled Boston in late 1994 as federal agents were about to arrest him in connection with 21 killings, racketeering and other crimes that spanned the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. He was arrested by the FBI inside a building...

Fugitive on run for 16 years wanted in 19 murders, inspired film 'The Departed' LOS ANGELES — James "Whitey" Bulger, a notorious Boston gangster on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list for his alleged role in 19 murders, has been captured near Los Angeles after living on the run for 16 years, authorities said Wednesday. The FBI tweeted his capture along with his girlfriend, Catherine Greig, early Wednesday morning. Santa Monica Police Sgt. Rudy Flores said the agency informed him of the arrest. Bulger, 81, was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang when he fled in January 1995 after...

[snip] Before Thursday's vote, commission staff reports twice recommended the project be rejected, saying it would disturb sensitive habitat and scar a scenic hilltop visible from much of the Malibu coast. Staff members also had expressed concern that the 156-acre development, if approved, could have paved the way for other earth-altering housing projects throughout the Santa Monica Mountains. Evans' house is planned as a 12,785-square-foot contemporary abode, called "Leaves in the Wind," so named for the undulating green roof meant to emulate fluttering leaves. A website explains that the five houses were designed to meet the highest environmental standards by...

Last week I posted on a clearly antisemitic piece of legislation in San Francisco and Santa Monica banning the Jewish religious tradition of circumcision. Judenrein in Sunny Southern California: Banning Male Circumcision. America, this is getting very, very ugly. Male circumcision is significantly healthier with or without the important religious significance. The Islamic practice of female genital mutilation (cutting off the clitoris) is sick misogyny. To equate the two is officially legislating Jew-hatred. Any doubt this was motivated by hatred and racism? Zombie over at PJM: Proof that S.F.’s circumcision ban is anti-Semitic As you may have heard by now,...

SMO — City Manager Rod Gould has denied two applications for new flight schools at Santa Monica Airport, citing the "particularly intense environmental impacts" the schools would have had. The move went against a recommendation from Airport Director Bob Trimborn but was in keeping with guidance from the Airport Commission, which last month voted 3-1, with one abstention, to urge denial of the applications. The schools, the Flight Academy and Angel City Flyers, had sought to operate a maximum of three airplanes for flight instruction. The Flight Academy, which is based in Washington state, had applied to operate one plane,...

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (KABC) -- Santa Monica started enforcing its new smoking ban law, making it illegal for some residents to smoke on their own balconies or patios. Starting Thursday, residents who live in an apartment or condo can't light up out on their balcony, deck or patio if it is within 25 feet of a neighbor's windows, doors or vents. This new law expands Santa Monica's smoking ban. It's already against the law there to smoke in common areas, such as a walkway or a courtyard. The city wants to protect people living in multi-residential properties from second-hand smoke....

A new policy dictating the selection of prepared food vendors at the Santa Monica Farmers' Market is drawing fire from Main Street merchants who are concerned that there won't be enough preference given to local restaurants.

A former champion surfer, Mary Setterholm suffered sexual abuse and turned to prostitution before finding a new path. Next month, she’ll begin the master’s of divinity program at Columbia University’s Union Theological Seminary. Real life stories of redemption and healing don't get much better than this. How long until Lifetime turns it into a movie? From the Los Angeles Times: It's another beautiful day in paradise and I'm out on the ocean, riding waves with a former national surfing champion and onetime prostitute who's about to join a seminary. Go ahead, try to name one other state where I could...