If you're tiring of Christmas kitsch, and you've heard Burl Ives played one time too many in shopping malls, be thankful your town isn't displaying icons like this:

I've criticized the statue before, but it's still there. Now they're saying it isn't about Lenin, but about inspiration -- and art:

Lisa Perry, owner of the Fremont branch of the Twice Sold Tales bookstore, was one of those who had the idea to light up Lenin. The neighborhood used to light up a Christmas tree at the former headquarters of Adobe, but wanted to move it closer to the center of the business district, she said.

"I think it means different things to do different people," she said. "For me, it's more a symbol of a can-do spirit, and how people shipped this gigantic sculpture all the way here."

To John Hegman, founder of the Fremont Sunday market, though, it means all of that. "Art outlasts politics," he said. "Art is not supposed to be warm and funny or even pretty. It's supposed to make you think and interact and cause some sort of emotional reaction."

Doubtless the ACLU would defend Jesus in the public square as well as Lenin. . .

Well, wouldn't they?

So, in keeping with the local Christmas colors of Seattle, how about a statue of Hitler too?

After all, Lenin was red, and Hitler was green!

MORE: Speaking of public squares, Ann Althouse analyzes atheist intolerance in Madison in the form of an angry sign on a Christmas tree.

And via Dave Tepper here's a link to a green Hitler, with more here from Mrs. du Toit.

(Intolerance in drag, I guess.)

But why does intolerance so often come disguised as tolerance?