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The Spectacle Blog
I’ve lived in the Washington area for 30 years. Yet the stupidities of the federal government never cease to amaze me. Like this story from Perkins, Oklahoma on Koco.Com:
Federal Reserve examiners come every four years to make sure banks are complying with a long list of regulations. The examiners came to Perkins last week. And the team from Kansas City deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller’s counter and buttons that say “Merry Christmas, God With Us.” were inappropriate. [sic] The Bible verse of the day on the bank’s Internet site also had to be taken down.
Why? Well, anyone should see that a Bible verse and cross represent discrimination in lending:
Specifically, the feds believed, the symbols violated the discouragement clause of Regulation B of the bank regulations. According to the clause, ” … the use of words, symbols, models and other forms of communication … express, imply or suggest a discriminatory preference or policy of exclusion.”
Uh, guys, a lot of businesses put up Christmas decorations and play Christmas music. Should they all be prosecuted, perhaps under the Civil Rights Act, for discriminating against non-Christians? I mean, the malls are full of non-Christians running screaming from those stores, convinced that they will be discriminated against unless Uncle Sam comes to their rescue. If the Justice Department doesn’t act, the entire economy might grind to a halt!
I hesitate saying this is the dumbist thing I’ve ever seen in Washington, since there is stiff competition for that title. But maybe this is the dumbest thing this year.
It suggests another good reason to reconsider the Fed!
View all comments (11) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Doug Bandow
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/12/17/the-federal-reserve-a-mandate
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Herb Tarlek| 12.17.10 @ 7:55PM
I thought only paleocon whackos like Ron Paul wanted to end the Fed. Is whackoism catchy?
Tim*| 12.18.10 @ 7:53AM
"Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul is poised to chair the House Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee, putting the gavel of the panel overseeing the Federal Reserve into the hands of one of the central bank's most outspoken critics.
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, announced Thursday that Paul will head the subcommittee when Republicans assume the majority in the 112th Congress.
"This is the leadership team that crafted the first comprehensive financial reform bill to put an end to the bailouts, wind down the taxpayer funding of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and enforce a strong audit of the Federal Reserve," Bachus said in a statement, adding that the committee's "first priority is to end the taxpayer funded bailout of Fannie and Freddie."
MarkJ| 12.17.10 @ 8:09PM
Happily, it appears the Fed has reversed its decision. Given the timing, I suspect Ben "Brains" Bernanke suddenly realized he had a major public relations disaster on his hands.
BeeKay| 12.17.10 @ 9:07PM
Well, when atheism is the official state religion, there is no surprise that things like this happen.
Glad to see that the first amendment (freedom of speech, freedom of religion) mean nothing to the Fed.
Osamas Pajamas| 12.18.10 @ 1:42AM
I'm a right-wing atheist, and I'd gladly punch this Federal banking bureaucrat in the eye for demanding that religious holiday symbols be removed from a bank. I say Merry Christmas to my Christians friends and Happy Hannukah to my Jewish friends --- not because I am a Christian or a Jew --- but because I hope that they have happy holidays. Duh?! A right-wing atheist replaces "God" with a Sunday morning fishing pole at the creek or the beach --- and a left-wing atheist replaces "God" with a totalitarian state which murders people by the tens of millions. So its Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn versus Stalin and Mao and every other murdering statist jackass to come down the pike.
Robert| 12.18.10 @ 11:36AM
I once worked as an examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of KC and can testify to the utter depravity of that organization.
The cultural marxism was over the top.
In many years past, they would hold an annual Christmas party. Of course, the Christmas celebration was nixed. They first began holding annual December "holiday" parties. But that was not good enough for dedicated cultural marxists.
They changed the December "holiday" party to a late January "holiday" party. What "holiday" was being celebrated around January 20 was unknown. Dropping the "holiday" designation, they changed the late January "holiday" party to a late January winter party. The last vestiges of Christmas totally disappeared from the Kansas City fed.
They did something else that was particularly blasphemous. They had a cultural marxist committee called "Reflections of Us". At Christmas time, this group would publish documents that were distributed to all employees. The theme of course, being "reflections of us". How do we people of different cultures celebrate ourselves during our various holidays all around the world. Whatever mention of Christmas was made in these fed publications, was totally Christ-less and disrespectful. For instance, we celebrate our December holiday by sending each other kwanzaa cards or whatever. It was all about "multi-cultural" individuals celebrating themselves. As a Christian, I was totally offended. But, of course, according to cultural marxist doctrine it's OK to offend a Christian.
This same "reflections of us" group also celebrated homosexuality. Pro-homosexual publications were sent to every employee's inbox. There was opting out of this garbage.
Under its president, tom hoenig, the KC fed was run like a soviet institution. The most petty, mentally unstable individuals were promoted into management. These childish individuals would brook no criticism. They expected their underlings to constantly praise them. Normal, stable individuals with a conscience were passed over for promotion.
The Kansas City fed is a despicable nut house. It's run by arrogant, mentally unstable children. There is no adult supervision.
Michael| 12.18.10 @ 12:02PM
I refuse to leave my money in the hands of adult persons who believe in imaginary magical buddies.
If their critical thinking and decision-making skills are such trash that they are taken-in by an obvious swindle like "there's this guy who rules over everything who you can't see and for which there is no evidence and if you give me 10% of your income every Sunday, I will make sure you get 40 acres and a mule in Paradise Gardens after you die" then they are too dirt-stupid to make any serious decisions.
And the guy above... really? You are that far gone that you literally think the Kansas City Fed is JUST LIKE the Soviet Union? Religion = insane.
Robert| 12.18.10 @ 2:22PM
Michael, maybe you should become a government bureaucrat. And, no, you misquote me. I did not say it was JUST LIKE the Soviet union. But, having worked there, it felt like the soviet union in many ways.
The KC Fed was filled with maniacal bullies ready to pounce at the least perceived offense. People were accused of racism and sexism on the most bizarre of pretexts.
The worst people were promoted into management. These were people who weren't particularly intelligent or capable, but, yet, possessed extremely high opinions of themselves. The word for such people is malignant narcissist. Disagree with them on anything, come up with a better idea, they would become furious.
The place was hideous.
The previous poster Michael is your typical liberal. He overestimates himself and his intelligence, and he thinks he knows about things in which he has no experience or acquaintance.
Joe | 12.19.10 @ 3:12PM
As a Christian it comes to the point that a lot of us are getting sick and tired of the hits from all sides, first you took our prayers in the school when other religions were given designated place for them to practice their religion. You took out the 1o commandments when most of our laws were based from it. We could not even perform a simple pray over to other people who are in need, took out the Christmas, cant say Merry Christmas , complain about our Christmas tree, what do you expect, this is predominantly Christian nation, what do you people expect? Anyone that dont like Christmas, its up to you, then dont celebrate it, and considering this is our HOLY DAY, then you go to work and we party, you dont have to great us with warm wishes for all you know, we could still love you but if you want to be left alone, so be it.
We tolerate as much as we can, in the spirit of applied patience, but there will come a time when we shall all collectively say, you dont like it, deal with it. Deal with it.
Callawyn| 12.19.10 @ 4:51PM
How is this not a clear violation of the first amendment? Congress empowers the Fed to make regulations, yet "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". Here we have a federal regulator forcibly preventing expression of religion (displays put up by a private business and its employees).
Not that I'd expect many judges to actually enforce the clear meaning of the Constitution.
David| 12.19.10 @ 8:47PM
@ Joe
Actually, our system of laws are based on a premise of justice. The 10 commandments, while admirable in their message, do not address the totality of justice, as in crime, punishment and redress of grievances.
Our law system is actually based on Hammurabi's Code, which is why it is inscribed on the Supreme Court building. Also, Hammurabi's Code predates the writing of the Jewish Torah by 1000 years and the Rabbinic date of when Moses was delivered the 10 Commandments by more than 400 years.