Day: October 12, 2007

AFA Cranking Up Its Christmas Witch Hunt

Buck Banks

‘Tis the season. Since Halloween is almost upon us, the American Family Association has cranked up its annual witch hunt for companies that don’t include Christian messages or symbols in their marketing and advertising materials. In other words, companies that don’t commercialize Christmas by slapping baby Jesuses all over their packaging and ads are somehow bad, according to the AFA (which, by the way has $32 million in dough it has collected from dumb Christians).

The first victim of this season is that godless dough ho’ Mrs. Fields Cookies.

How did this come to the AFA’s attention? An anonymous call:

When Diane H. of Michigan called Mrs. Fields and asked to speak with a supervisor in customer service about why they banned Christmas, the supervisor told Diane that they do not offer anything with Merry Christmas because they don’t want to offend anyone.

Then Don “Wildman” Wildmon, chair of AFA, called for a boycott of Mrs. Fields products.

But if you go to Mrs. Fields’ Web site, it’s Xmas stuff out the wazoo. Did Mrs. Fields cave in just a day to the AFA’s bullying? Lord no:

So all Mrs. Fields is really guilty of is having the good taste to not start hawking its Xmas goods until after Halloween. Shucks, the AFA bully boys must be disappointed — “Curses! Foiled again!”

Use the AFA’s own mail-out system to send a letter of support to Mrs. Fields by going here.

Gore Wins Nobel Prize and MSM Only Yammers About Politics

Trish
Nobel Laureate Al Gore

Al Gore becomes a frickin’ Nobel laureate and all the mainstream media can talk about is whether he will now run for president. Like Gore’s been waiting until he could build his resume enough, say by winning a Nobel prize, to launch a campaign. ABC alone has devoted three web pages to the topic, while CNN is covering the story in its “Politics” section where it quotes an anonymous source on Gore’s prospects.

But he will not run, because he won’t take on the political machine assembled by Sen. Hillary Clinton, said the source. If the senator from New York had faltered at all, Gore would take a serious look at entering the race, the source said. But Gore has calculated that Clinton is unstoppable, according to the source.

Enough already. At least Reuters took a better angle on the “prize as presidency potential” coverage of the award. They are looking at the honor through the lens of Gore’s last run, not any future ones.

While Gore has grown in international stature since his narrow election loss, Bush has seen his credibility damaged at home and abroad by the Iraq war and other foreign policy woes.

Like Gore’s been waiting until he could build his resume enough — say by winning a Nobel prize — to launch a campaign

He is struggling to stave off lame-duck status and stay relevant while increasingly hemmed in by a hostile Democratic majority in Congress. His inner circle is steadily eroding with almost weekly departures of key aides and advisers.

And the president’s public approval rating, which soared to 90 percent after the September 11 attacks in 2001, has sunk close to historic lows, with some polls putting it below 30 percent.

Around the world, Bush has won few friends with his stance on Gore’s signature issue — climate change.

At a White House-convened summit last month, some of the world’s biggest greenhouse polluters called Bush “isolated” and questioned his leadership on the problem of global warming.

I’m glad Gore won the Nobel prize but, selfishly perhaps, I would have preferred he won the White House back in 2000. What a different — and better — world it would be if he had.