Slews of Santas crash Kensington lighting

the same one, who a few minutes later, had his bullhorn smashed by the biker Santas.

HAHA HAHA HA . I would have paid $50 to watch biker Santa smash the Amerca haters bullhorn, as long as I had a crack at this screw worm socialist.

They could have a moon god celebration..

Funny you say that... Kensington, MD is just a short drive away from Takoma Park, MD. My latest issue of the Takoma Park (City published) Newsletter announces a "Winter Solstice Celebration," on Thursday December 20th. From the Newsletter, "...will mark the 11th year that Takoma Parkians will help ensure the return of the sun to our neck of the woods with candles and drumming..."

In all fairness, TP has in years past also had a large lighted Christmas Tree and a Menorah on the grounds of the city Library. There was nothing mentioned in the Newsletter about those items this year, and after a quick phone call this morning, apparently nobody at City Hall or Public Works Department knows anything about the status of the tree and menorah this year. Sheesh!

It is no longer politically correct to be a Christian anymore in America...that is the new National message

I don't have time to retrieve it, but the Baltimore Sun's article (not surprisingly) stated there were about 50 Santas. They couldn't be engaged in revisionism here, could they? < /sarcasm>

It sounds like the next phase of this is to expose the fraud in reporting...will these people ever stop? (Don't answer that...I know...)

Does this look like 50 Santas?

Here's a shot of doctor Raoul's costume, which got alot of attention from the media and the kiddies. Liberal parents grimaced while their kids read the sign aloud :-)

Thanks for the post - my 7 year old told a clerk the other day that "Santa isn't real" - kind of a shock to me! So I was going to track this down anyway - the source link is at the bottom:

Yes, Virginia,
There is a Santa Claus

The People's Almanac, pp. 1358-9. (Originally published in The New York Sun in 1897.)

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor--- I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.

Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

About the Exchange

Francis P. Church's editorial, "Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" was an immediate sensation, and went on to became one of the most famous editorials ever written. It first appeared in the The New York Sun in 1897, almost a hundred years ago, and was reprinted annually until 1949 when the paper went out of business. Thirty-six years after her letter was printed, Virginia O'Hanlon recalled the events that prompted her letter:

"Quite naturally I believed in Santa Claus, for he had never disappointed me. But when less fortunate little boys and girls said there wasn't any Santa Claus, I was filled with doubts. I asked my father, and he was a little evasive on the subject.

"It was a habit in our family that whenever any doubts came up as to how to pronounce a word or some question of historical fact was in doubt, we wrote to the Question and Answer column in The Sun.

Father would always say, 'If you see it in the The Sun, it's so,' and that settled the matter. "'Well, I'm just going to write The Sun and find out the real truth,' I said to father. "He said, 'Go ahead, Virginia. I'm sure The Sun will give you the right answer, as it always does.'"

And so Virginia sat down and wrote her parents' favorite newspaper. Her letter found its way into the hands of a veteran editor, Francis P. Church. Son of a Baptist minister, Church had covered the Civil War for The New York Times and had worked on the The New York Sun for 20 years, more recently as an anonymous editorial writer. Church, a sardonic man, had for his personal motto, "Endeavour to clear your mind of can't." When controversal subjects had to be tackled on the editorial page, especially those dealing with theology, the assignments were usually given to Church.

Now, he had in his hands a little girl's letter on a most controversial matter, and he was burdened with the responsibility of answering it. "Is there a Santa Claus?" the childish scrawl in the letter asked. At once, Church knew that there was no avoiding the question. He must answer, and he must answer truthfully. And so he turned to his desk, and he began his reply which was to become one of the most memorable editorials in newspaper history.

Church married shortly after the editorial appeared. He died in April, 1906, leaving no children.

Virginia O'Hanlon went on to graduate from Hunter College with a Bachelor of Arts degree at age 21. The following year she received her Master's from Columbia, and in 1912 she began teaching in the New York City school system, later becoming a principal. After 47 years, she retired as an educator.

Throughout her life she received a steady stream of mail about her Santa Claus letter, and to each reply she attached an attractive printed copy of the Church editorial. Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas died on May 13, 1971, at the age of 81, in a nursing home in Valatie,N.Y.

Source: http://beebo.org/smackerels/yes-virginia.html

Merry Christmas!

This is just beautiful.

Since then, the town has debated about how to make its annual tree-lighting ceremony as secular as possible.

enough said...

And all this time I thought there was only one Santa.

May shame run down the legs and squish in the shoes of those who did to you.

Whoo-ee, that's a lot of Santas!

I better get my damn pony this year...

Maybe common sense really WILL return since 9-11!! Bring back the creches in the Town Squares!!

The town's excuses don't cut it. The two complaining Jewish families would, as I understand it, have been satisfied if a menorah had been added to the display. The town pretended there was some legal problem in acceding to that demand, but there's a recent Supreme Court decision holding that adding a menorah to this kind of display is legal. I'm fairly sure the town was just seizing an opportunity to make Christmas less Christmasy.

By the way, did anybody notice how the American Taliban John Walker, a.k.a. Abdul Hamid, grew up in or just outside Kensington? This morning's Washington Post reports a neighbor saying Walker was "a normal, fun-loving boy who attended Kensington-Parkwood Elementary School in Montgomery County."