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4A ♦ THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2006 Houston flatly OPINION Daniel F. Evans , President Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Group Marketing Don Moncrief Managing Editor You can't kill Christmas There is no room at the inn. Or at least that apparently is the case in Chicago. You may have read recently where Windy City officials banned adver tisements for “The Nativity Story” from a local Christmas festival for fear it might offend non-Christians. And that was apparently just the first bit of snow that began rolling downhill and gathering into a giant snowball. It has since become the War on Christmas. There are stories out there of nativity scenes, Christmas carols and Santa Claus being banned from public squares. In Warwick, N.Y. Santa was reported ly deemed too religious for a school fund raiser. I n Wisconsin, a high school reportedly informed its student lead ers that “any” religious sym bols, decorat- ing or wording or whatever, if was associ ated with Christmas, it was prohibited. In one Ohio public school teachers were reportedly told to refrain from saying “Merry Christmas.” And on and on it apparently has gone this holiday season. It sounds incredulous and yet there it is. The obvious question is: How do you pre tend it’s not Christmas. How do you leave your house - we assume these people leave their house - and not see Santa Claus. How do you ignore signs of Jesus’ birth or a million lights? How do you not open your newspaper, listen to the radio or turn on the TV and not see advertisements for holi day shopping? (Do these Scrooges even give gifts?) The answer we all know is: You can’t. No matter how much they try to ruin peoples’ lives. No matter how hard they try to condition us. No matter how much they strive to make us politically correct in their eyes, this time it will not work. In their minds they may think they’re winning the war one battle at a time but in ours, they’re just misguided souls. Christmas is about love. They’re just another example of why that’s so important to remember. Letter to the Editor Adopting deserving pets People interested in adopting a canine friend should beware of a scam that is currently making the rounds on the Internet - online classified ads for purebred puppies. Customers who have respond ed to these ads have been bilked out of hundreds of dollars when the promised puppy never arrives. Consumers can avoid being scammed by never buy ing a puppy at all - not from a breeder, not from a pet store, and certainly not from anyone they can’t visit personally so that they can examine the condi tions in which the puppies were raised. Puppies pur chased through online ads or pet stores often come from puppy mills, which keep dogs confined to filthy cages and deny them veterinary care and socialization. Instead, people ready to make a lifetime commitment to caring for a dog should adopt from animal shelters and rescue groups. If you pay a visit to your local shelter, you will undoubtedly find many deserving dogs there waiting for good homes. Alisa Mullins, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Send your Letters to the Editor to: The Houston Daily Journal P.O. Box 1910 • Perry, Ga 31069 or Email: hhj@evansnewspapers.com Audrey Evans Vice President Marked ng/Advertisi ng Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus No matter how much they try to ruin peoples' lives. No matter how hard they try to condition us. No matter how much they strive to make us politically correct in their eyes, this time it will not work. Battle may not have begun for Obama Illinois Senator Barak Obama is the latest darling of the media. He is young, articulate and has cha risma. Though his political experience is limited to six years in the Illinois leg islature and two years in the United States Senate the media already has sent his popularity so high that he is exploring the possibility of seeking the office of President of the United States. Sen. Hillary Clinton has been the odds-on runaway favorite to become the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in 2008. Now the media has elevated Obama to the point that he is a threat to her. Naturally, she is fight ing back. The conservative Chicago Tribune last week called on Obama to “go for it.” The media has a way of latching onto someone, building him up and then shooting him down. Will Barak Hussein Obama suffer the same fate? He could. After all, national politics can be brutal and so far he has been given the buildup, not the scrutiny and criticism that are a part of presidential politics. Will the fact that his father is a Muslim hurt him? Will it help him? Obama’s father is black. His moth er is white. Will the fact that he is multi-racial help him or hinder him? I heard him say that he expects to receive the same kind of reception in !&o< ia~we bauTWk Tmtm VIETNAM! SYWCATE, INC ■ ' M Not undepstanding all the pandamonlum' As a seasoned newsman, and someone who likes to goof off on the Internet, I like to keep up with the news from around our state. I have noticed - no, make that, been bombarded - with coverage from our state’s largest newspaper concerning the birth of a panda bear at Zoo Atlanta. Coverage of the event in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has included a slew of front-page stories, daily reports on the panda cub’s prog ress, a contest to name the tyke, a blog called “Panda Watch” that breathlessly covers every move of the baby panda, and who knows what else. A “tradi tional Chinese naming ceremony” will occur this week on the anniversary of the panda’s 100th day alive, according to the AJC, with “singing and dancing performances” and remarks from a top official from the Chinese embassy. Recently, the newspaper announced the top 10 contenders for the panda’s name. The nominations included Xiao Tao (“Little Peach”), Mei Lan (“Atlanta Beauty”), Mei Li (“Beautiful”), Ming Xing (“Bright Star”), Ping Bao (“Peacefulness and Precious Treasure”), Cheng Ya (“Pretty Atlanta Girl from Chengdu”), Ming Yue (“Bright Moon”), Mei Tao (“Beautiful Peach”), Chang Jiang (“Yangtze River”), and Tai Ji, which was also my nickname in high OPINION the political arena that multi-racial Tiger Woods has received in golf. Tiger, it can be pointed out, brought a lot of talent to the game of golf and what Obama will bring to politics still is an unknown quantity. It seems almost inconceivable that candidates are lining up for the nomi nations of the two major political par ties this early. With no incumbent and no vice-president seeking to move up the race clearly will be wide open. Is Barak Hussein Obama a shoot ing star that will fade long before the Democratic Party names its presiden tial nominee? Will he be judged unready for the presidency but be offered an opportunity to be Sen. Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential nominee? A lot of scenarios will be played out in the next two years. At the present time only politicians and political junkies and the media are paying attention to the sparring that is going on. The media is the big player at present with Barak as their hero. EVERY NEWS ANCHOR'S DREAM Foy Evans Columnist loyevansl9@cox net Len Robbins Columnist airpub@planttel.net school. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an expert on the subject of pandas.l’ve never seen one in person or shot one, nor have I ever eaten one. I assume they taste like chicken. All I know about pandas is that they look cute and clean, don’t eat red meat, and don’t like to mate - which indi cates they aren’t from South Georgia. And that pandas spelled backwards is sadnap. I’ve never had one of those either. That said, I don’t get it. What’s all the hoopla about? We’re talking about the birth of an animal. My neighbors’ labrador had a lit ter of puppies recently and the only official that came for the event (held in a box in the carport) was the city water-meter checker guy. Why no news crews? Why no exhaustive media cov erage? Why no blog? No offense to the pandas, but a dog §■l^ s m HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL Will they turn on him? If history is any lesson, the young Illinois senator better be ready for some rough days ahead. ■ ■■ I learned recently how completely we have become dependent on electric ity. Ours was out for almost two hours recently. No heat. No television. No lights. No computer. I grew up without any of those and didn’t know any better. When the elec tricity went off recently I found myself a victim of the luxury electricity upon which our entire society is dependent. It was an interesting lesson. ■ ■■ Good News: The Federal Trade Commission is proposing a ban on all pre-recorded sales and telemarket ing telephone calls. We have a no-call list already, but this would be a vast improvement because, somehow, many telemarketers are getting around the ban. Will they exempt political candidates, the same as they are exempt from the no-call law? The FTC has not revealed which direction it is leaning on this issue. can bark when someone unwelcome comes sniffing around your house - like a burglar or a debt collector or a Congressman. A dog can jump up and lick your face when you’re sad or when you’re trying to shave. A dog can leave a smelly pres ent on your Oriental rug, just like a panda can - and you don’t have to ship a dog from the Orient for that to occur, just the rug. Yes, I realize that pandas are rarer than dogs. We don’t have to adopt stray panda ordinances in our cities. But if I were a dog (which I’m not - legally), I’d be rather put off by this whole pandamonium (please excuse that). I mean, dogs here have been “man’s best friend” for, I don’t know, a decade or so, and then one freaking panda is born, and we act like it’s the second coming. Are we going to declare a new holiday to celebrate the miracle birth - Pandamas? I find this pandamic (again, please pardon that. I can’t help myself) of media lather about this panda, and pandas in gen eral, rather absurd. We have plenty of native dogs, cats, horses, cows, weasels, and donkeys here that I consider more worthy of such lavish attention. Panda, schmanda. I don’t give a rip. Give me a dog any day. And we’ll call him Rex (“Rex”). 1