tuttle: No, not an idiot, but obviously raised different from you. A man doesn’t speak that way about women and he bases his words and actions on fact. For example, I’ve not offered a word of support for Obama here or in any other post, yet you claim I am fine with his failed policies. Then you use this false claim as a reason to offer an insult. It could be argued that you are out of touch with reality; but it could just as easily be said that you simply want to make insults and that it doesn’t matter if they have any meaning. I think it is as my father taught me that people who use language like you do, lake the ability to express what they think and feel. Of course it could all be an act and you are emulating the character name.

tuttle: No not racist, but to use such language makes you a cad.

You are very aptly named.

Marc: Of course I see a difference. This time it is Obama on vacation and he is a liberal. Back then it was GW and he was a conservative Oh wait, you probably meant that there is some validity to your rationalizing.

In a way it is a shame, but in true perspective, it’s just a drop in the bucket when compared to athletics. So why the fuss? Otherwise, Dr. Adams does get me thinking. Is there truly such a thing as “dirty money”? Should we be discerning when it comes to accepting donation and if so, along what lines?

Ah, times have changed. Remember the last administration (quite a stretch for some folks around here) and how the liberals used to howl at every vacation GW took? The conservatives at TH would leap to his defense with an answer for every complaint. Of course, now the shoe is on the other foot and what was once good is now bad for the conservatives while the liberal devotees of Obama seem to take delight in the president’s activities. On a nostalgic note, I recall my mother complaining about how much Eisenhower played golf. I thought of him as a great president, but my father chided me by saying that was just post-war hero worship.

Amy: Consider your two comments: "People think it's African, but it's not. I came up with Kwanzaa because black people in this country wouldn't celebrate it if they knew it was American. Also, I put it around Christmas because I knew that's when a lot of bloods [blacks] would be partying." Catholics combined many pagan elements into the celebration to entice pagans to leave their old ways & convert. Even the day is a nod to the older Faiths that existed. It combined the Winter Solstice (Dec. 19 to the 21 the actual day varied back then) & Sol Invictus (Dec. 25). The action and intent is almost identical, yet one is reviled while one is revered.

Amy: Yes, it is racially centered or ethnocentric yet so was much in my childhood but for some reason it is being viewed as a bad thing. Yet I remember clearly that when I was a child, living in an Italian neighborhood where Italian was spoken more than English, we practiced certain rituals so that we American born children would not forget our Italian heritage. And my people were raised to think Italian, talk Italian, act Italian, create Italian, buy Italian, vote Italian, live Italian and above all marry Italian.

RNV: what is is then?

Celebrating certain Italian traditions doesn’t make me less of an American nor are they designed to shun what other do. In some ways, it is like going to a good steak house. Not everybody likes steak so every good steak house has one or two alternative item on the menu. This provides for the opposite of segregation as it enables someone who doesn’t like steak to share in the pleasure of going out to eat with someone who loves steak.