Here’s another thread regarding some other stupid things in maryland that havent been mentioned here.
Wow, there’s a phrase I don’t hear often enough. Not just a jew but a FUCKING jew! Beautiful.
Anyway, as for the OP:
'Tis the season to be cranky and self-righteous, I guess. It’s sad.
And I thought we Bay Area residents had it bad having to put up with Berzerkeley. Sheesh!
This is one of the more fucktarded things that I’ver read in a while. Their logic escapes me.
Hey morons- this is a tree-lighting ceremony. The lighting is synonymous with the holiday as well. Notice that people aren’t lighting trees during any other time of the year. The proper response to their complaint of “feeling excluded” is derisive laughter, not heeding their demands.
As a jew who grew up in Kensington, seeing Santa at a city-sponsored event didn’t make me feel excluded. In fact, I feel excluded now: attending the ceremony would lump me in with the thin-skinned jagoff crowd.
Well, I’m not at all interested in arguing with anyone in this thread. If you’re ignorant enough to judge an entire population of people based on less than 1/26 of that population, than you’re truly not worth my time. Clearly, Maryland did not ban Santa. Montgomery County did.
I am angry because this is the THIRD pit thread about my home state in ONE WEEK that judges us all based on a few fuckwits. If Maryland was anything like what y’all seem to think (outrageous gas prices, overly expensive cigs, you can’t smoke anywhere, no Santa), then hell, I wouldn’t want to live here. But it is actually a wonderful place to live and I am sick of the entire state being lampooned because of one small group of people.
And linking to a thread about being PC that happens to concern Maryland as well as MANY OTHER STATES is just ridiculous. You know, I bet some fucked up shit happens in Missouri and Alabama, but I don’t see anyone getting all bent out of shape about that, huh?
How about “Montgomery County, a small percentage of Maryland’s general population, bans Santa” for a thread title?
I really just wanted to make the aforementioned things clear, in case anyone thought the entire state of Maryland had gone off its rocker and banned Santa. If you really want to participate in perpetuating such ignorance, be my fucking guest. I’ll continue to happily live here and sit in Santa’s lap as much as I damn well please.
It’s working! It’s working!
Note to Mods
So as not to continue offending delicate sensitivies, please feel free to change the title of this thread to something along the lines of Small town in a small county in the small state of Maryland, but not representative of the entire state of Maryland bans Santa
The thread title could be very misleading and cause people to think ill of the entire MD population even though the text of the thread is clear that it’s the two people and city council that look like idiots.
My mistake.
Well, shit fire and save the matches. Welcome to my world. Kansas gets slurred about every couple months or so, and Satan, Eve, and one other person here take great delight (or took, in Satan’s case) in portraying Kansans as being ignorant fucks because of the whole evolution crap. No one stood up for me or Kansas in that thread where Satan went completely bug-fucking insane when I dared to question Eve about her characterization of Kansas.
Your State is the Bad Guy du Jour. It can now join California, New York, Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Relax - in a month, it’ll probably be Idaho. Or Alaska - shit, who knows? 
Sounds a lot like a county here in Colorado, Boulder.
They did something similar back about 1997 – banning the angels from being displayed in a park. If I remember correctly, the angels were displayed every winter holiday season and I think were representations of those that have passed on. They were hung in trees around the park, not religious specific…
Granted, banning Santa (such a benign creature really) is kind of goofy. While I am all for the separation of church and state banning Santa but keeping the tree lighting ceremony creates mixed messages.
All Santa is anymore is a commercial entity to sell parents on the idea that they should fill their homes with presents up the wazoo and forget why Christmas is in existance. It’s not a religious holiday, it’s a boon to Wal*Mart, KMart, Toy R Us, etc…
I like mine better, drama queen.
Actually, it was the town of Kensington that banned Santa, not MoCo. And I’m not sure it truly constitutes a “ban” either.
[off-topic rant]If you want to bash Montgomery County for anything, bash em for their foot-dragging on the ICC (which has essentially killed it) and the awful Montgomery County Liquor stores. They’re so bad that MoCo cops wait on the MD side of Chevy Chase circle to catch people who go into DC to buy wine and liquor rather than buy from the county store which has unfriendly, unknowledgeable employees, overpriced inventory, crappy hours, and they only sell warm beer.[/rant]
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Nacho4Sara *
**
That’s dramaking… KING.
If you are going to insult me, I’d appreciate it if you did so with more respect 
What I don’t get… I’m missing some serious logic here… is that the whiners don’t celebrate xmas. So with Santa at the tree lighting, they
HELP??!! I’ve tried very very hard to make some sense out of this and I just can’t do it.
The sad part is that if a troop of skinheaded Nazi punkfuckers were to put on a demonstration during the tree lighting, nobody would be able to do anything about it… freedom of expression and all.
I can only hope that as many citizens as possible show up dressed like Santa.
For all you non-Marylanders out there, you have to understand that Montgomery County is where we keep all the holier-than-thou-more-liberal-than-Ted-Kennedy-and-The-ACLU-combined-busibodies-who-came-from-somewhere-else-and-owe-their-entire-being-to-big-government-'cuz-they-work-in-Washington-but-wouldn’t-be-caught-dead-in-the-city-oh-no-and-think-that-government-regulation-is-the-answer-to-everything-and-then-we-would-all-live-in-an-Orwellian-utopia-so-there-ought-to-be-a-law. The rest of the state (Read, real people) pretty much holds them in the same contempt displayed by other posters here.
I remember taking a child development class in high school, and one of our assignments was to critique television shows geared towards children. One girl did a Xmas show, and her problem with it. “THey talked about God alot.” Teacher: “And?” “Well, what if they don’t want their kids to believe that?”
You fucking moron! Christmas is a RELIGIOUS HOLIDAY, fuckwit! I swear, I wanted to slap this bimbo.
If they are that adament against their kids believing in god or whatever, they probably wouldn’t be celebrating Xmas in the first place.
(What next-go after Rugrats Hanukhah?)
Yeah, and those are the Montgomery County Republicans! The Dems tilt even more leftward. (I even wrote Connie Morella a letter asking for my vote back.)
Yeah, I just moved out of Montgomery County–across the Potomac a ways. You know, MC is so fucked up that you can’t even take your shopping cart out to your car! The fronts of the stores are gated in so you have to leave your cart, and drive back to the store yo get your things.
Not that I buy liquor all that much, but I spent half a day looking for a liquor store when I first moved here. Oh sure, beer/wine stores are everywhere, but I think there was only one place to buy liquor within 5 miles of where I was living.
About the Santa thing…why do we in this country give so much weight to the concept of minority veto power? Why should hundreds (or thousands) get put out because two “don’t like it?”
I’m getting ready to hit the sack, but let me point out one thing: Maryland is a state that you can shoot a load across, but, in terms of popualation, we are the fifteenth (out of fifty) largest state in the Union. Yes there are complete fucking morons with power in this state, but they are not always representative of the pop.
Everyone is so surprised that the city council caved in to two families over the majority and that they were supported by the mayor. This is not news. Just watch your local school board in action some time!
In other news, Santa Claus (the jolly fat man in the red suit has become more of a Cultural Entity than a religous entity. Certainly the St. Nick or yore was a religious anchor, and the “original” SC pinnings were base on religious trappings (as well noted by Dragwyr.)
Here are my suggestions on how this can be handled (since the City Council won’t back down lest they look [even more] like fools.
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To the two families… DON’T GO!! That’s right, snatchie, stay home and watch Das Boot on cable.
-
To civil Kensington people (and others nearby)…
a) Since many of the City Council members are business owners, don’t shop in Kensington. Take your business elsewhere.
b) Boycott the ceremony. Take your family to a different town ceremony. (not likely to happen)
c) and my favorite… Everyone in Kensington and parts surrounding should go the the nearest costume shop and rent a santa costume. Then dress up as Santa and take your family to the tree lighting ceremony. Imagine the fuming anger of two smug-ass families when they show up at the ceremony only to see 600 Santas smiling and waving!!
(Heck, there are enough of us dopers locally to make a good showing!)
And to Sara, you are such a nice girl to stick up for this state. I’ll see that Santa puts a little something extra in your stocking this year. 
And you say this like it’s a bad thing, Dave?
Actually, Montgomery County is a little too conservative for me, since it has a Republican in Congress and all. I think I’ll move somewhere even more liberal, like Sweden.
And you are allowed to take shopping carts to your car in Montgomery County. Certain stores forbid it, but it’s not a county-wide measure.
FOX45 News just reported that Kensington has re-invited Santa. They claim that they un-invited Santa because, in the wake of Sept. 11th, they wanted a fireman, policeman, and mailman to do the tree-lighting ceremony duties. But because of the uproar, Santa’s back in the game.
I don’t know who I believe, but I’m inclined to think there was some poor research done when the first news report came out.
Well crap! Now what am I going to do with these 25 Santa costumes I rented?!?