Okay, we confess that we are not experts in Christian theology, we are, after all, Orthodox Jews. But we suspect that the portrait of a Communist mass murderer—approximately 70 million dead—is not exactly in the Christmas spirit.

It doesn't take a Christian to figure this one out.

George Will once said (or maybe he was quoting someone) that taste reveals character, and character is destiny. It was in an essay commenting on the enormously baroque and incredibly ugly ink well Speer gave Adolph Hitler as a gift. Hitler loved it.

Taste reveals character, and character is destiny. This administration's destiny is not looking too good.

Saint Mao was covered in second grade. We had to wait until third grade to find out about Saints Che and Fidel.

Actually, I remember the nuns and priests in grade school being really anti-communist back in the 60's. There was one priest I remember in high school saying the Soviet Union could not last because the communists did not allow religious freedom. Less than 5 years later Karol Wojtyła became John Paul II and it was the beginning of the end.

Alas I think there are a lot of priests and nuns today that would be less inclined to remove Mao from a Christmas tree.

I wonder what Garrison Keillor thinks about the ornaments?

JKS

Kent:

I have been scanning travel slides I have made over the decades and am up to Berlin 1992. Berlin is a great city - if you are bored there - well, to paraphrase Samuel Johnson....

As an aside do you know that Hitler hated Berlin and Berliners - it was the only region, I am told, who didn't vote for Hitler in 1933...

Anyhoo (to quote our gracious host), the stadium, site of the 1936 Olympics, is especially interesting because it was undamaged in the war.

While the rest of Berlin was rubble (there is actually a man-made grass covered "hill" by the radio towers that is the cleaned up rubble from the city - 100s of feet high) - and (anyone reading this thus far must wonder "is there a point to all this?) - the stadium was undamaged because the allies intended on using it for housing German POWs (never used), and if you really want to see some garish art - the Nazi ideal of the "perfect man" you have to look at the statues in front of the entrance.

They almost look like gargoyles - overly muscular - definitely Michelangelo was not consulted.

The ugly inkwell prompted this thought...

Perhaps you are correct; taste is reflective of character. Certainly money alone can't buy it.

And it seems that good taste is usually recognized - even if one doesn't completely understand the object. A Monet is definitely preferable to me to a black-velvet Elvis painting.

My hotline to the Vatican says that the ornaments are just another manifestation of the lefts Godlessness...no surprise there then. Merry Christmas to all who visit here from all at OTW.

It's my understanding that the White House sent out plain ornaments to school children around the country and asked them to decorate them, with the stipulation that the ornaments had to be decoupaged. Given that these ornaments are all not-especially-well-done decoupage, that's my guess as to their origin. That said, the fact that the Mao ornament was put on a tree (or at least put somewhere visible on the tree, as opposed to hiding it at the bottom against a wall like is traditional to do with ugly but obligatory ornaments) is still quite telling.

Katie: Even if the source is as you surmise, it still should not have been hung. Tell me, had a kid made an image of Hitler or a swastika, would it be on the tree? As a mass murderer, Mao was quite in Hitler's league.

The White House Christmas tree was, according to Big Government, designed by:

...controversial designer Simon Doonan to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House. Mr. Doonan, who is creative director of Barney’s New York has often caused a stir with his design choices. Like his naughty yuletide window display of Margaret Thatcher as a dowdy dominatrix and Dan Quayle as a ventriloquist’s dummy.

The WH knew exactly what they were getting when they hired this man.

I suppose the fair question, now, is how you decide what is in good taste?

At one point I decided I must have good taste in clothing, because whenever I saw a suit I liked, it turned out to be the most expensive in the rack. Not sure that really works.

But Mao and Che chic strike me as no-brainers for bad taste. Which is usefully parodied here: http://thechive.com/2009/12/15/daily-morning-randomness-25-photos-14/funny-random-tf-18/

You know, it strikes me that this administration is a lot like an especially juvenile and nasty group of 14-year-olds left in the house while their parents are out of town. Think "Risky Business," complete with the hookers.

Except that both the Tom Cruise character and the Rebecca De Mornay character (the chief prostitute) are far more appealing people than Obama and *his* prostitutes.

A few quick comments:

1) "Alas I think there are a lot of priests and nuns today that would be less inclined to remove Mao from a Christmas tree."

Johnny, I think you have that wrong, outside the USA.

2) The Berlin Olympic Stadium was used by British Intelligence as its based after 1945.

3) Regarding Mao on the tree: I'm guessing they couldn't get pictures of Pol Pot, Attila or Genghis Khan.

And Robert, thanks for the Christmas wishes. I wish you and your family a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.