Halloween under attack...

[Moooooo]

From Boston.Com

NEWTON -- When students at Underwood Elementary School walk to their classrooms on Monday, there will be no witches, SpongeBob SquarePants, or Johnny Damons there to greet them.

No skeleton paintings or Frankenstein tattoos, either.

The school's principal said yesterday he acceded to the complaints of a handful of parents who said that because the school's traditional Halloween celebrations offended their religious beliefs, they would not send their children to school if the revelry continued this year.

''Not everyone is going to agree with the decision, and I really understand that," said principal David Castelline, , who last year grew a beard and dressed up as Johnny Damon. ''But I felt the goal was really important to make it a respectful and open and welcoming place for all members of our community."

[Jake]

Those parents should be run out of the community for this.

[Moooooo]

I know, its crazy.  First Christmas, now Halloween.  Whats next, Thanksgiving?

[angus]

"Okay, People, the nativity scene offends Jews, better get that down.  And Santa Claus offends the church, so he has to go.  Oh, and the cutting down of Christmas trees offends the environmentalists, so we clearly can't have a tree in here."
  --Principal Victoria

"We better get those blinking lights down; the epileptics will be offended by them."
  --Mr. Garrison

[phk]

These theocrats should get deported to Afghanistan.

[Bono]

From Boston.Com

NEWTON -- When students at Underwood Elementary School walk to their classrooms on Monday, there will be no ... SpongeBob SquarePants ... there to greet them.

I don't know about them, but I'd be pretty thankful for that.

[dazzleman]

I know, its crazy.  First Christmas, now Halloween.  Whats next, Thanksgiving?

Liberal political correctness has gone way too far.  This is garbage.  When are sane people going to fight back?  Or maybe there aren't enough of us left.  That's the scary thought.

[opebo]

I know, its crazy.  First Christmas, now Halloween.  Whats next, Thanksgiving?

Liberal political correctness has gone way too far.  This is garbage.  When are sane people going to fight back?  Or maybe there aren't enough of us left.  That's the scary thought.

I believe the people that dislike Halloween are the christians.

[dazzleman]

I know, its crazy.  First Christmas, now Halloween.  Whats next, Thanksgiving?

Liberal political correctness has gone way too far.  This is garbage.  When are sane people going to fight back?  Or maybe there aren't enough of us left.  That's the scary thought.

I believe the people that dislike Halloween are the christians.

Maybe, or maybe not, but the idea that a small minority should be able to dictate to the majority and deprive the majority of something that it wants based on hypersensitivity is a liberal one.  Since liberal groups have been so successful at ramming their opinions down our throats, it's only natural that at some point, conservatives will seek to get into the act.

[phk]

I know, its crazy.  First Christmas, now Halloween.  Whats next, Thanksgiving?

Liberal political correctness has gone way too far.  This is garbage.  When are sane people going to fight back?  Or maybe there aren't enough of us left.  That's the scary thought.

I believe the people that dislike Halloween are the christians.

Maybe, or maybe not, but the idea that a small minority should be able to dictate to the majority and deprive the majority of something that it wants based on hypersensitivity is a liberal one.  Since liberal groups have been so successful at ramming their opinions down our throats, it's only natural that at some point, conservatives will seek to get into the act.

Should science be banned to?

[opebo]

I know, its crazy.  First Christmas, now Halloween.  Whats next, Thanksgiving?

Liberal political correctness has gone way too far.  This is garbage.  When are sane people going to fight back?  Or maybe there aren't enough of us left.  That's the scary thought.

I believe the people that dislike Halloween are the christians.

Maybe, or maybe not, but the idea that a small minority should be able to dictate to the majority and deprive the majority of something that it wants based on hypersensitivity is a liberal one.  Since liberal groups have been so successful at ramming their opinions down our throats, it's only natural that at some point, conservatives will seek to get into the act.

Liberalism only influenced the country for a very brief period in the 1930's, 40's, and 60's... your side has run the country the entire remainder of its history, and has undone most of the little that was accomplished during that brief liberal period.  So please, stop blaming everything on a long-gone and never fully tried ideology.

That said, I have no problem banning halloween from the public schools, though it is obviously much less of a threat than christmas.

[MaC]

I know, its crazy.  First Christmas, now Halloween.  Whats next, Thanksgiving?

Liberal political correctness has gone way too far.  This is garbage.  When are sane people going to fight back?  Or maybe there aren't enough of us left.  That's the scary thought.

I believe the people that dislike Halloween are the christians.

Maybe, or maybe not, but the idea that a small minority should be able to dictate to the majority and deprive the majority of something that it wants based on hypersensitivity is a liberal one.  Since liberal groups have been so successful at ramming their opinions down our throats, it's only natural that at some point, conservatives will seek to get into the act.

Liberalism only influenced the country for a very brief period in the 1930's, 40's, and 60's... your side has run the country the entire remainder of its history, and has undone most of the little that was accomplished during that brief liberal period.  So please, stop blaming everything on a long-gone and never fully tried ideology.

That said, I have no problem banning halloween from the public schools, though it is obviously much less of a threat than christmas.

Yeah, but if you do that you're keeping those 14-17 crowd in high schools from dressing up with really slutty nurse/dominatrix/cheerleader... costumes.  Surely you don't want that.

[Emsworth]

Perhaps I'm the only one here who agrees with the action taken by the principal (although for different reasons). Schools exist to educate children; they do not exist to engage in "celebrations." The school should commit all of its time, energy, and resources to actually teaching the children, rather than putting up frivolous things like skeleton paintings and pumpkins.

[opebo]

That said, I have no problem banning halloween from the public schools, though it is obviously much less of a threat than christmas.

Yeah, but if you do that you're keeping those 14-17 crowd in high schools from dressing up with really slutty nurse/dominatrix/cheerleader... costumes.  Surely you don't want that.

They can do that at work!

[opebo]

Perhaps I'm the only one here who agrees with the action taken by the principal (although for different reasons). Schools exist to educate children; they do not exist to engage in "celebrations." The school should commit all of its time, energy, and resources to actually teaching the children, rather than putting up frivolous things like skeleton paintings and pumpkins.

Well, Emsworth, certain aspects of education may be furthered by 'celebrations'.. for example the School Dance may help to bring the awkward adolescent a bit closer to adulthood through social experience.  Some holidays are historically informative - such as Thanksgiving, which memorializes the genocide of the Natives by the whites.  And even Halloween is highly educational, informing us, as it can, of a wonderful pre-Christian era before brutal, oppressive, patriarchal, anhedonic, prudish, purritanical, and controlling monotheism conquered the world (by the sword).

[Emsworth]

Well, Emsworth, certain aspects of education may be furthered by 'celebrations'.. for example the School Dance may help to bring the awkward adolescent a bit closer to adulthood through social experience.

School dances should be abolished as well. The idea that the taxpayer should be compelled to even partially fund any person's private "enjoyment" strikes me as absurd.

Is it any wonder that American students are far behind their foreign counterparts, when people care more about whether Halloween decorations are allowed than about whether the children are actually learning anything?

You must be logged in to read this quote.

If a school wishes to teach about either of these, then it need only insert the material into the curriculum. Putting up a painting of a skeleton does not in any way enhance a child's education.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I know, its crazy.  First Christmas, now Halloween.  Whats next, Thanksgiving?

Liberal political correctness has gone way too far.  This is garbage.  When are sane people going to fight back?  Or maybe there aren't enough of us left.  That's the scary thought.

You think these people are liberals? I don't think anti-Halloween fundies are very progressive on abortion or gay rights.

These people should be fed to a lion.

[opebo]

Well, Emsworth, certain aspects of education may be furthered by 'celebrations'.. for example the School Dance may help to bring the awkward adolescent a bit closer to adulthood through social experience.

School dances should be abolished as well. The idea that the taxpayer should be compelled to even partially fund any person's private "enjoyment" strikes me as absurd.

Is it any wonder that American students are far behind their foreign counterparts, when people care more about whether Halloween decorations are allowed than about whether the children are actually learning anything?

People are not robots, Emsworth you nerd, they require a variety of stimuli in order to learn.  Even in the most rigorous of Asian schools there are celebrations of various kinds.

I don't know why you are so averse to the privaledged classes paying for a little bunting for the poor children to have their hoedowns.. you are sacrificing a great deal of human enjoyment on what is a highly mistaken 'principle'.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

If a school wishes to teach about either of these, then it need only insert the material into the curriculum. Putting up a painting of a skeleton does not in any way enhance a child's education.
[/quote]

You are quite correct, Emsworth, that learning about a thing is a sort of substitute for experiencing it (though a pale and poor one).  But for children who have grown up in our purritanical society, oppressed by all powerful parents who are members of prudish monotheistic cults, perhaps a pagan bacchanal is just what they need!  

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

School dances should be abolished as well. The idea that the taxpayer should be compelled to even partially fund any person's private "enjoyment" strikes me as absurd.

So do you oppose my university's "Welcome Week" activities, as well as the free movies they show in the auditorium and the indie shows they let us put on in the coffee shop?

[dazzleman]

I know, its crazy.  First Christmas, now Halloween.  Whats next, Thanksgiving?

Liberal political correctness has gone way too far.  This is garbage.  When are sane people going to fight back?  Or maybe there aren't enough of us left.  That's the scary thought.

You think these people are liberals? I don't think anti-Halloween fundies are very progressive on abortion or gay rights.

These people should be fed to a lion.

They may or not be liberal, but they have latched onto a liberal mentality and way of doing things.

As far as feeding people to lions, you're starting to sound like opebo.  I hate to break it to you, but if we start feeding people to the lions, your kind would be one of the first to end up in the lion's stomach.  So I wouldn't advocate for that too insistently if I were you.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

No this is neither liberal or conservative, it's like judicial activism, it's something both sides blame each other for and pretend only they do it when that's not true.

And the lions comment is hyperbole, it's just become a standard phrase here, although I wonder what you mean by my kind being the first to end up so.

[dazzleman]

No this is neither liberal or conservative, it's like judicial activism, it's something both sides blame each other for and pretend only they do it when that's not true.

And the lions comment is hyperbole, it's just become a standard phrase here, although I wonder what you mean by my kind being the first to end up so.

What do you think I mean?

In case you're wondering, I mean that in an unfree and intolerant society, the first people targeted are loudmouth people who have an inverse relationship between the strength of their opinions and their knowledge of the issues.

[Gabu]

They may or not be liberal, but they have latched onto a liberal mentality and way of doing things.

That's a rather convoluted way of blaming something on the liberals that the liberals had no part in.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Some Jehovah's witnesses had a fit about something at my elementary school. I can't remember what, though. Crazy religiouses are always trying to jam their belief down other's throats.

[King]

Whats next, Thanksgiving?

Yes.  The fact the the white meat of the turkey is preffered more than the dark meat makes Thanksgiving racist.