Sometimes I think to myself... "Nick, you read way too much news". As a small aside, I do sometimes refer to myself in the 3^rd person when I talk to myself in my head. It's not as bad as the Jimmy episode from Seinfeld ("Jimmy thinks you're hot"), but I will grant you it's strange. Anyway, there have been some seemingly unrelated news stories the last couple of weeks that I'd like to compare and contrast for you. I personally think they are all intertwined.

The first story is from a few weeks ago where a school district in the state of Washington decided to Ban Halloween Festivities:

Hansen says the superintendent made the decision for three primary reasons. First, Halloween parties and parades waste valuable classroom time. In addition some families can't afford costumes.

It's the third reason some Puyallup parents are struggling with.

The district says Halloween celebrations and children dressed in Halloween costumes might be offensive to real witches.

Offensive to witches? I'm trying to find the follow up article I read on this, but can't. A leader of a local pagan group actually condemned the canceling of the festivities saying it was a shame. Good for them. I suppose it's offensive to goblins, ghosts, ballerinas, and soldiers too. I saw a lot more of those walking the streets this Halloween than witches. As if that's not bad enough, we then have this little tidbit this morning about a Texas School District:

A parent's concerns prompted the district 150 miles northeast of Houston to scrap its annual "TWIRP Day" - when boys dress like girls and girls dress like boys - in favor of "Camo Day."

TWIRP stands for "The Woman Is Requested to Pay," and for years Spurger schools hosted the day during Homecoming Week to give boys and girls a chance to reverse social roles and let older girls invite boys on dates, open doors and pay for sodas.

Plano-based Liberty Legal Institute issued a news release Tuesday reporting that it "came to the aid of a concerned parent requesting an excused absence for her children on official cross-dressing day in her children's elementary school."

Granted this is going a little beyond the old fashioned Sady Hawkins Dance concept, but you're kidding me right? Apparently they've been doing this for a long time. If you're that homophobic, and that concerned about messages for your children, then don't have your child participate. From everything I read, it wasn't mandatory. But why cancel it for everyone if just one or two parents don't want their child to participate? Actually, I'm surprised that a transexual association hasn't complained saying that the activity was offensive to transexuals and people who are "gender confused". I think that's the right term... but frankly I could care less what the politically correct phrasing is.

And in our final bit of political correct craziness for today... a local feminist group is protesting a college beauty pageant:

Concerned citezens [sic] are staging an anti-corporate demonstration on November 5th, at Lakehead University, 8:00pm. Everyone is welcome to protest the racist, sexist ideologies promoted by Maxim magazine at the Maxim Coors Light Girl Search taking place at the Outpost. Requests to cancel the event have been silenced by the Student Union, and University Administraion [sic] is showing no support. Demonstrate solidarity by attending the protest. Let Maxim, LUSU, and Adminstration [sic] know that discriminatory events are not welcome on campus.

So basically you're against the idea that women who choose to be judged would dare sign up to do it? Might I suggest that if you want people to take you seriously, you should first spell check your press releases. To a certain extent I can understand feminist organizations being against the objectification of women, yada yada. Of course, nobody is forcing these participants to sign up either. By all accounts, the women who do this, enjoy doing it. So who are you to say that they shouldn't? And if a woman's beauty is really unimportant to you, then why do you care at all? Sometimes I think, "thou doth protest too much". Is it jealousy? I don't have a clue. But I find it ironic that women "fighting for the rights of other women" are trying to restrict what women have the right to do... be objectified.

So to sum it all up... people need to grow thicker skins, and realize that the world doesn't revolve totally around you, and your views. Well, unless you happen to be in "The World According to Nick".