HillBuzz Open Thread: Tuesday December 27th, 2011
Since then, I’ve gotten a lot of emails from people asking what all the ornaments on the tree were and what they signified about American history. The trees were decorated by Denise McNulty of DMI Interior designs in Woodland, California. I sent her an email with an interview request and have a call in to the Reagan Library itself to talk to someone knowledgeable about the exhibit for any hidden or inside references in the trees. Until I hear back from them, however, I thought it would be fun to include a decade a day in the open thread and see what YOU can find hidden in the trees that’s designed to conjure images of life in the decade the trees represent.
I also am a fervent believer that Christmas decorations should stay up and dazzle in full glory through at least January 2nd (if not the Feast of the Three Kings). I love buying blank Christmas bulbs on sale wherever I can find them after Christmas: I especially go for the blue, white, and red ones. Though I didn’t have the time or energy to do it in 2011, I typically use these bulbs to make Christmas presents for my friends…and create homemade ornaments personalized for them that I give out for Christmas every year. At Christmas in 2007 I made a bunch of Hillary-themed ornaments that I gave out in Iowa to people I especially liked when we went canvassing door-to-door before the Caucus. I planned on making Sarah Palin ornaments this year to canvass for her in Iowa, but the Governor decided not to run and that scrapped my plans to be on the ground for the Caucus, regardless of how well I’d feel or how brutally cold the weather would be. There isn’t a candidate running who I’d invest the time to make ornaments for to give away to people in Iowa…but I keep stocking up on these bulbs because I know there will be such a person like that in the future…and that there is always my list of good friends to make ornaments for next Christmas.
To make ornaments, I just keep a shoebox that I fill with clippings of interesting graphics or fun pictures that I find in the magazines I read all year. Then, when it’s time to start making the ornaments, I look in the box and always find things that speak about the intended recipient to me. With a little glue and a dusting of colored glitter, I’ve got an ornament for a friend…at less than $1 in cost per ornament. I also find somewhere on the bulb to note the year and to sneak in some little message about how much the person means to me. I’m actually really sad that I didn’t get to do this in 2011, so it’s a project that’s at the top of my “2012 To Do List” for sure.
I mention all this because if you’d like to start a tradition like this yourself, then you should snap up all the blank, round Christmas ornaments you can find while they are on sale in the next week or so (before they disappear under a flood of Valentine’s Day candy). Thrift shops are also a great place to find this stuff any day of the year…or you can always go to a Michael’s or JoAnne’s Fabrics and pay five times what you would doing it my way.
But, back to the Reagan “An American Christmas” trees, what do the ornaments tell YOU about life in the 1770s?
What are the people in YOUR part of the country talking about today, as everyone gets back from the Christmas holiday?
Were there any interesting political discussion you can share that you witnessed over Christmas Eve or Christmas Day gatherings?
© 2011, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
Also Recommended:
Latest Buzz:
Help HillBuzz by Shopping Amazon
"Bee" Advised!
I look forward to your comments. Please follow these simple guidelines:
- Please do not complain about your comment not yet showing up
- Stay on topic of the article ("This is OT, but..." = bad!)
- I will STING if you troll, spam, bait, swear or attack someone
If you're fortunate to have the Kindle, you can now get a book compiling all of Queen Elizabeth's Christmas speeches:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006O422UW/?tag=booksont… (1952 – 2010)
And for Christmas 2011: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006OLOT74/?tag=booksont…
I Need Another $1.2 Trillion……
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-ask-debt-limit-hike-t…
Pelosi Spends the Holidays Sacrificing on Behalf of Her Beloved 99%
Pelosi spent the last two Christmas holidays in Kona at the same hotel in an elaborate suite that rents for $10,000 a night.
Pelosi has been escorted by local police during her last two holiday visits to Hawaii Island at a cost of $34,000 to local taxpayers.
http://michellemalkin.com/2011/12/26/pelosi-holid…
Long-time C4P commentator Bill Hughes has an interesting view on what may be going on with the Governor.
http://cityonahillpolitics.blogspot.com/2011/12/n…
Ron Paul's fellow libertarians advise him to man up and take responsibility for the newsletters:
http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/25/the-right-way-f…
Frankly, I think that he needs to be dragged, kicking and screaming, off the fence. He can't claim that he can't be bothered to check what people are writing in his name, *and* that he'd make a good President.
He can't use the letters to advance his political agenda when it suited him in the 90s, and then claim he never read them in the 2000s and 2010s. He can't claim he rejects the statements *and* then whine that it's only a scandal because those meeeeeaaaannnn meeja types have, uh, finally paid attention to him.
Truth exists independent of whether the meeja reports on it. If he thinks the statements are valid, he needs to man up and defend them. Otherwise, he needs to admit that he was at best lazy and stupid.
I like this new song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWQQYgacS98
Kinda old but I've been finding myself air guitaring when I'm listening to it.
If the NAZI Ron Paul manages to take down Gingrich and Bachmann in Iowa, get ready for RomneyCare to win the nomination. RomneyCare will have a WHITE MAN as VP pick so forget about Susana Martinez, Nikey Haley or Alen West. Mormons are anti minorities and anti Women.
RomneyCare campaign will be like McCain: full of just WHITE PEOPLE so Obama will win again setting the stage for Jeb Bush in 2016.
Keep praying for Michelle Bachmann!
7 Reasons Why Mitt Romney's Electability Is A Myth
There are lot of issues with trying to run a candidate who doesn't seem to have any core principles. It makes it impossible for his supporters to get excited about him, because you can't fall in love with a weathervane. It also makes hard for independents to take anything he says on faith. Additionally, since politicians tend to be such liars anyway and you know Romney has no firm beliefs, it's very easy for everyone to assume the worst. Democrats will assume Romney will be a right wing deathbeast. Republicans will assume that Romney will screw them over. Independents won't know what to believe, which will make the hundreds of millions that Obama will spend on attack ads particularly effective. Ronald Reagan famously said the GOP needed "a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors." That's particularly relevant when it comes to Mitt Romney, who has proven to be a pasty, grey pile of formless mush.
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2011/1…
"Gingrich in 2006: RomneyCare has “tremendous potential”."
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/12/27/gingrich-in…
In all seriousness, does anyone have any idea what Newt would *do* as POTUS? Obama's evil would be at least predictable.
It was a very challenging Christmas for me for this reason — I see…Islamist Extremists Only Start Fires.Egypt's richest library goes up in smoke, destroying up to 200,000 books of incomparable historical value; this loss to humanity is indescribable.
Get over Palin. She made her millions teasing the whole world about her possible run for POTUS. Get over this woman already. If she were a real deal she would have endorsed the only true social and fiscal conservative left in the GOP field: Michelle Bachmann. Palin refused to run and now refuses to get behind Bachmann. This woman needs to disappear. Palin saying good things of a NAZI like Ron Paul and RomneyCare is just way up there.
Please don't tell me what to do, junior.
Love the idea of making Christmas ornaments to hand out. And definitely you have to keep decorations up until Three Kings Day — which IS the twelfth day of Christmas. Christmas Day is the first day of Christmas, not the last, as is often thought.
Occupy Charlotte protesters are pushing forward with meetings, fundraisers and eventually what they say will be a showdown at the Democratic National Convention.
I don't have a lot of "disposable income," but I'd pay good money to be a spectator while the Occupy XYZ crowd locks horns at the 2012 Democrat
Convention, and how the libtard LSM and the conservative press treat the subject and give / not give airtime coverage to it.
It may be worth it to support the Occupiers to be a "spoiled kids" embarrassment to the liberals!
I have a very bad feeling there is going to be Occupy violence at both conventions and that these Obama acolytes are going to start killing people.
In the public's mind, the Tea Party is part of the Republicans, and the OWS and other occupiers are part of the Democrats. I hope that the Occupiers go violent — and pray God's Angels protect the innocents nearby — and let all of America see how horrible the libtards and their spoiled offspring are.
The 1968 Democrat Convention was a horrible debacle for the libtards largely because of the protesters who made a mess everywhere, and then at their convention. Many political watchers say that their behavior galvanized the voters into voting Richard Nixon into the Presidency.
I don't see a problem, and the new Republican House, Senate, and Executive (DoJ) will be happy to prosecute the Occupiers who did violence and hurt citizens. (Not like the Obama DoJ that lets convicted minorities off the hook by not completing the sentencing part of the voter intimidation effort by the New Black Panthers.) Equal Justice under The Law will return to America.
Merry Christmas, Kevin and all us HillBuzzers!
And happy New Year!
Newt,
Please don’t be anywhere near Charlotte when the Convention’s happening.
Justin and I are not going to be anywhere NEAR Chicago during the G8 meeting in May when Occupy is threatening to throw the city into chaos. I am really and truly afraid of people dying in the chaos these people want to cause.
They claim they are going to disrupt the Iowa Caucus with violence. This is Obama’s ground army revving up for a major fight to the death in 2012.
I don’t want anyone I care about in harm’s way.
I have no idea where I will be… work is that topsy-turvy. I hope I won't be in bankruptcy, but I hear the scenery there is surreal. (Don't worry about me and Nance, God will see us through!)
I agree with you! 2012 will be wild. I hope that O's ground troops don't try a coup. It won't work! Conservatives own guns and have the "unorganized" militias. There are more registered hunters / gun owners than voters, and if there is a coup attempt, those non-voter gun owners will be startled into defending their country from foes, "both foreign and domestic."
I hope that the above paragraph is complete fantasy, but no matter what, Kevin is right! The best way to stay healthy is to avoid fights and riots. Get out of town when events like the G8 and a political convention are planned.
I live in (hugely) Democrat Maryland. They own the place, and so they assume that everyone here is a Dem. In town, I will just keep my mouth shut and vote my conscience.
Love you, Kevin!
I've been looking at the "year in review" and they talk about Quadaffi, Mubarek. Bin Laden, Al Walakai etc. I wonder if any of our "leaders" ever think that they might meet the same end as those folks listed above? I think that if the people are pushed far and hard enough no politician will be safe even in the USA.
A joke….unfortunately, it's on us:
A black guy,
an illegal alien,
a muslim,
and a communist
walk into a bar.
The bartender asks,
"What can I get you Mr. President ?"