Denver's holiday traditions include a Christmas Parade and the lighting of the City and County Building in downtown Denver.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper recently announced that the phrase "MERRY CHRISTMAS" on the outside of the building will be changed to "HAPPY HOLIDAYS," in yet another politically correct attack on the institution of Christmas. And while they're at it, the city is stopping a church group from participating in the annual "Parade of Lights", and singing Christmas Carols.

Parade organizers claim that Christmas Carols may be offensive to some people.

...a church group who wants to march in the Parade of Lights and sing Christmas carols will not be allowed to participate in the parade. Organizers say the parade is about the holidays, not Christmas, but leaders of the Faith Bible Chapel say that's ridiculous.

"We can't pretend that Christ didn't exist and Christmas wasn't about his birthday, so we felt we could sing it and apparently that is not in social vogue anymore," said Pastor Gary Beasley, with the Faith Bible Chapel.

"This event is not one that has ever intended to have a religious message or a political message," said Susan Rogers, with the Downtown Denver Partnership.

She said no overtly religious symbols is allowed in the parade and that means participants can't carry "Merry Christmas" signs and can't sing traditional Christmas hymns.

If you want to participate, the address is:

Mayor John W. Hickenlooper
Denver City and County Building
1437 Bannock Street, Suite 350
Denver, CO 80202

This overall practice of trying to minimize Christmas and the birth of Christ is completely off-base and out of line.

It seems that Christianity -- which is the religion of the majority of Americans -- is under attack as never before, mostly by PC-types who want to plow it under a wave of politically correct sayings and propaganda. We have a rogue court who has ruled that the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is wrong, an elementary school principal who prohibits a teacher from using the Declaration of Independance in class because it mentions God (and of course, since the teacher is a Christian, the principal is "afraid" he might use the opportunity to preach in class, right?), and now we've got people insisting that Christmas Carols are wrong because they might "offend" people.

Well, quite frankly, in that instance, I don't mind offending people. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and I continue to sing and celebrate that fact from the rooftops. You are welcome to agree or not agree with me, but don't tell me that I can't celebrate that fact!

Oh. And the Faith Bible Chapel in Denver? Since they aren't being allowed to participate in Denver's Christmas Parade, they will walk the route an hour prior to the parade, singing Christmas Carols and passing out hot chocolate. God bless them!

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Idiot propaganda filmmaker Michael Moore, sans beard, dirty baseball cap and grungy clothes, showed up on NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno this week, and pretty much admitted defeat in the political game.

Moore told Leno that there was a reason President Bush was re-elected November 2, "He got more votes."

"The Republicans - I'll give them this - they had a story to tell," Moore continued. "The Democrats, often times, aren't very good at telling a story. And the [Bush] story was: Out of the ashes of Sept. 11 rose one man. And he stood on the rubble of lower Manhattan with a bullhorn and he said, 'I will protect you.' "

Don't worry though. Lest you think Ol' Chunky turned in his official moonbat decoder ring and joined the GOP, he also said that he would be back in four years to try again.

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WGCL (CBS 46) reporter Fred Powers seems to like his role as "stunt reporter" for the perennial ratings bottom-dweller in the local news race 'round these parts.

Powers has been set on fire, bitten by attack dogs, tasered, "rescued" from a building as part of a firefighter training exercise, and most recently, shot while wearing a bulletproof vest by local police as a part of a training exercise -- all in the line of duty, and usually as part of "sweeps month" stunts.

No wonder he's being dubbed the "human piñata" by TV wags.

Not coincidentally, his biggest stories tend to pop up during the sweeps months of February, May and November. (The current sweeps period ends today.) Because advertisers base what they pay partly on viewership during those three months, a shift of a ratings point here and there can mean millions of dollars for each station.

With such high stakes, it's not surprising that WGCL promotes Powers as the man who will do anything for a story, showing snippets of his escapades accompanied by a rotating 360-degree shot of the reporter, bionic man style.

"I have to admit I don't feel comfortable with that," said Powers, who often has an urgent, swashbuckling attitude on air. "I don't want to be promoted as the story. The story should be the focus."

Last month, Powers aired a live SWAT demonstration at a police training facility in Douglas County. He played a suspect holding a cop hostage. The police stormed the house on live TV and shot Powers, wearing a bulletproof vest, three times in the chest.

Powers' most infamous live demonstration aired in February, when police jolted him with a Taser stun gun.

The Georgia State Patrol was about to equip its officers with stun guns, so he approached Forest Park's police department, which already used them.

"I want to be Tasered," he told Chris Matson, the administrative captain.

"It was," Matson said, "an unusual request."

Powers convinced him that the goal of the segment was to show stun guns were not as dangerous as they appeared.

"We granted his wishes: We gave him 50,000 volts," Matson said.

When the dramatic moment arrived, Powers screamed and fell to the floor, immobilized for several moments. "You just freeze up, but five seconds later, I was fine," he said.

Powers was one of the first reporters to be "Tasered." Not surprisingly, dozens of TV stations nationwide copied WGCL in subsequent weeks.

Now. Tell the truth. How many of you watch reporter stunts like that to see if the reporter will REALLY hurt him/herself trying? Go ahead. Raise your hands.

I thought so. Me too.

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The best comic you're not reading, Chris Muir's Day By Day is back with new strips.

Chris is doing a book or three in 2005, so look for it at a bookstore near you!

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Seattle-based blog sister Ambra notes the convergence of the "signs of the apocalypse" that are coming together within the near past, and wonders whether something "is about to go down" in this country.

George W. Bush is re-elected.

Yasar Arafat Dies

Colin Powell, John Ashcroft, and Tom Ridge resign

A black Conservative woman is appointed as secretary of state

Dan Rather steps down

Kwiesi Mfume leaves post as President of NAACP

Tavis Smiley ends his NPR talk show citing lack of diversity

All 11 states seeking to allow homosexual marriage failed miserably

Mount Saint Helens erupted (Biblically, the natural is an indication of the spiritual, last time Helens erupted was 1980, also an election year.)

Ken Jennings finally lost on Jeopardy..ha.

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