What are They So Afraid Of ?

[onmyknees]

I recall last year the lovely Trish and some others laughed off the countless stories Fox News chose to cover regarding the erosion of Christmas. It was all just fabrication used to excite the right wing base they told me. Contrary to thier proclamations , I always felt that there was something to this. It wasn't a huge deal, but it certainly was fucking annoying. Did fox do what Fox does best ? Probably so.
So I'm nursing a hangover watching the Sunday morning shows and here's the biggest lib on the planet, NPR's Nina Totenberg and she says...."I was at ....forgive the expresion... a CHRISTMAS party" I thought...forgive what expression Nina? Christmas???? WTF

Is it a huge deal....? not at all. Will it hasten the fall of western civilazation? No But it is instructive insofar as it gives us a look at the progressive mindset, and provides just one small reason why middle America completely rejected liberal and progressive candidates this November. This kind of shit drives people in fly over country insane, so why do they continue to engage in this type of political correctness? I just do not understand thier fear . It's Christmas for Christ's sake ( forgive the pun)....you're not hurting anone's feelings by saying it.

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=hd6U8z8zSU

[russtafa]

Its also happening in Australia and probably Europe .They say it offends muslims but i'm sure its just an excuse and i have noticed they won't dare mess with other religions

[hippifried]

Ah! The annual "war on Christmas" rant. I was starting to think it was going to get spaced off this year. No such luck I guess.

[onmyknees]

Ah! The annual "war on Christmas" rant. I was starting to think it was going to get spaced off this year. No such luck I guess.

Nope...no such luck. I'd like to just kick back and enjoy Christmas , but looks like we're going to have to post a new story every day....for your benefit. If I miss a day...not to worry, it's not because there isn't an assualt on Christmas going on somewhere, it's just I'm otherwise occupied doing all those things us politically incorrect fuckers do at Christmas ..LOL

Minnesota Post: (http://www.minnpost.com/politicalagenda/2010/12/16/24296/one_fewer_stop_for_santa_this_year_hes_banned_from _head_start_classes_in_st_peter)
Santa Claus, as portrayed by Dennis Jackson, won’t be visiting students at the Head Start classes in St. Peter this year.
Jackson has made appearances the past four years at the classes for students who need help preparing for school, but this year officials said, “No, no, no.”
The reason: The classes have many immigrant children who don’t celebrate Christmas, says the Mankato Free Press.
Santa’s a little frosted, the paper says.
It kind of burnt me up,” he said.
The official explanation from Chris Marben, who coordinates regional Head Start programs through Mankato-based Minnesota Valley Action Council: “We have Somali families in the program. We’re respecting the wishes of families in the program.”
She didn’t say how many objections were made, but said more than one would be enough to cancel Santa.
“The simple truth is that southern Minnesota has become a much more culturally diverse society than it was a few decades ago,” she told the paper. “Part of our challenge in Head Start is providing an environment where young children from many different cultures can all feel comfortable.”
Jackson said rather than depriving the rest of the group of the Santa experience, parents who object should take their kids out of the class during the half hour he spends talking to the kids and giving them candy.


http://patdollard.com/2010/12/hostile-invader-muslims-get-santa-claus-banned-in-minnesota/

[russtafa]

Hippie hates Santa

[onmyknees]

I don't know Hippie, but he's probably a decent guy...but he does have an ax to grind with Santa !! LOL Here's today's story.


http://bcove.me/msrxmzi7

It Begins… High School Students Punished for Belonging to Christmas Sweater Club & Handing Out Candy Canes (Video)

Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, December 22, 2010, 5:03 AM


The members of the “Christmas Sweater Club” were put on detention because they were handing out candy canes – that could be used as weapons.

More liberal insanity…
Several members of the high school Christmas sweater club were put on detention for handing out candy canes before school.
WUSA9 (http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=126671&catid=188&provider=email) reported:

They call themselves the “Christmas Sweater Club” because they wear the craziest ones they can find. They also sing Christmas songs at school and try their best to spread Christmas cheer.
Now all 10 of them are in trouble because of what they did at their school.
“They said, ‘maliciously maim students with the intent to injure.’ And I don’t think any of us here intentionally meant to injure anyone, or did,” said Zakk Rhine, a junior at Battlefield High School.
The boys say they were just tossing small two-inch candy canes to fellow students as they entered school. The ones in plastic wrap that are so small they often break apart.
Skylar Torbett, also a junior, said administrators told him, “They said the candy canes are weapons because you can sharpen them with your mouth and stab people with them.” He said neither he nor any of their friend did that.
Next thing they knew, they were all being punished with detention and at least two hours of cleaning. Their disciplinary notices say nothing about malicious wounding but about littering and creating a disturbance.
“It was at 7 in the morning, before school even starts, so I don’t what we’d be really disrupting,” said Cameron Gleason, also a junior.
Principal Amy Etheridge-Conti says she can’t comment on the students’ discipline but did say there was a lot more to it than handing out candy and that the discipline was warranted.
The boys admitted their incident may have caused litter since some kids dropped their candy canes on the floor. But Cameron Gleason said he spent an hour cleaning up the dropped candy.
The boys’ parents think the school went overboard and maybe administrators were trying to stop their boys from spreading Christmas cheer.

[hippifried]

Hippie hates Santa
Oh no no... I AM Santa. Capital "S". Have been for years. When y'all have grandchildren, you'll understand.

I'm atheist, but I don't have a problem with Christmas at all. I see no reason not to celebrate the most influential persona in the world's history, whether anyone thinks it's myth, real, good, bad, or indifferent. I like a good party with good food & lots of family. I've got my spiral cut ham (I hope it's Kosher), sweet potatoes to be baked, cranberry sauce, Puerto Rican style Spanish rice & beans, & we'll be frying platanos. I don't feel ambitious enough this year to make one of my famous paellas.

[trish]

They said the candy canes are weapons because you can sharpen them with your mouth and stab people with them.Case in point ->

YouTube - Henry & Aaron's Perfectly Adequate Christmas Special (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhnAPalT25U&feature=player_embedded)

[russtafa]

CHRISTMAS is a part of our civilization and i hope all ways will be .I hope its not replaced by islam .buddisim is a cool religion i could live with but not dirty tea towels

[trish]

What are They So Afraid Of ?Looks to me like it's russtafa who's afraid.

[LaCosa]

Christmas is a Catholic feast day that began in Egypt among the Coptic Christians and eventually spread to Western Christendom.

I emphasize it is a feast day.

The Santa Claus thing is a secularized thing.

Unfortunately Christians in India, China, Vietnam, Iraq and else where are violently persecuted. These are the days for the Christian Church to suffer. Just the way it is. However, all those that persecute her will spend eternity torment, damned, in hell with Lucifer and his kind. What's more is the saved shall see the damned and be in bliss.

It's Darwinian so asking whether it is "right" or "wrong" the damned suffer is neither here nor there. They will.

In my own opinion - or hopes - I think God and the Holy Mother remembers the transsexuals and has an affection for them. I think so and I hope so. I would encourage all on here to pray to God and the Holy Mother. Their compassion and mercy is great. Their direction certainly truer than mine.

Pace!

[trish]

Thank you for pointing out that Christianity is not a necessary element of Western Civilization but a viral meme picked up by the Romans in their “negotiations” with Northern Africa and the Middle East.

I agree that that Christmas was originally a feast day, and that Christians in many places around the world were persecuted. The Americas do not number among those places. Quite the opposite. I do agree that persecuting anyone for what they think is horrid and worthy of punishment. That goes for the Christian god as well who damns people to hell for daring not to believe in him. Of course we all know, in our more rational moments, that there are no gods or other such supernatural beings. God’s violent rage against non-believers is a metaphor for the rage of Christians themselves against non-believers. If they only could, Christians would damn all non-believers to eternal agony, simply for what they think.

Bible scholars tell us that the first Christmas, the day of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, was nowhere near the winter solstice which has been observed and celebrated by numerous peoples around the world for centuries, especially in Northern Europe. That holiday was transformed by the opportunistic Christian meme and helped lubricate the spread of the world’s first proselytizing religion. However, several centuries later we find that this transplanted Christmas too has been transformed. The story of the magi and their gifts has metamorphosed into grandest marketing ploy in all of history. Nearly a third of our economy is driven by sales related to the Christmas holidays. You can complain about the establishment clause of the first amendment all you want, but there is always going to be a Santa Claus. There is absolutely no danger of Christmas ever being diminished or going away. Even atheists like me enjoy the festival of lights, basking in the pleasantry of getting together on Christmas Eve with the family, singing carols and exchanging presents. I give out candy on Halloween too, but I don’t believe in ghosts and goblins.

Hope everyone here had a pleasant winter solstice, a happy Hanukkaha, a merry Christmas and are looking forward to a great new year. As Perry Como used to sing: Happy Holidays.

[hippifried]

Well, this Saturday is the feast of the Circumcision. Don't forget to consume lots of pain killer the night before.

It's not Christians who are persecuted. It's the idolatrous proselytizers, who claim to speak for God & keep telling everybody else that they're damned. When you go out of your way to piss everybody off, you shouldn't be surprized when they get pissed off. The protestant heretics are just whiney because not everybody buys their fundamentalism. Yet it's these same fundies who shriek like a bunch of demonic banshees when they can't get official recognition as "the dominant belief" through taxpayer funding of their nativity scenes & other graven imagery. They just want a free ride. So much for the "protestant ethic".

[onmyknees]

Thank you for pointing out that Christianity is not a necessary element of Western Civilization but a viral meme picked up by the Romans in their “negotiations” with Northern Africa and the Middle East.

I agree that that Christmas was originally a feast day, and that Christians in many places around the world were persecuted. The Americas do not number among those places. Quite the opposite. I do agree that persecuting anyone for what they think is horrid and worthy of punishment. That goes for the Christian god as well who damns people to hell for daring not to believe in him. Of course we all know, in our more rational moments, that there are no gods or other such supernatural beings. God’s violent rage against non-believers is a metaphor for the rage of Christians themselves against non-believers. If they only could, Christians would damn all non-believers to eternal agony, simply for what they think.

Bible scholars tell us that the first Christmas, the day of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, was nowhere near the winter solstice which has been observed and celebrated by numerous peoples around the world for centuries, especially in Northern Europe. That holiday was transformed by the opportunistic Christian meme and helped lubricate the spread of the world’s first proselytizing religion. However, several centuries later we find that this transplanted Christmas too has been transformed. The story of the magi and their gifts has metamorphosed into grandest marketing ploy in all of history. Nearly a third of our economy is driven by sales related to the Christmas holidays. You can complain about the establishment clause of the first amendment all you want, but there is always going to be a Santa Claus. There is absolutely no danger of Christmas ever being diminished or going away. Even atheists like me enjoy the festival of lights, basking in the pleasantry of getting together on Christmas Eve with the family, singing carols and exchanging presents. I give out candy on Halloween too, but I don’t believe in ghosts and goblins.

Hope everyone here had a pleasant winter solstice, a happy Hanukkaha, a merry Christmas and are looking forward to a great new year. As Perry Como used to sing: Happy Holidays.

Trish....I apologize for the belated "Merry Christmas" . I certainly hope you had one. I made a point this year of responding to that "Happy Holidays" thing, this way.........." Holiday ?? 4th of July and Labor Day are Holidays...This is the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus"

[hippifried]

Nah. It's a paid day off, ergo "holiday". Celebrate whatever you want, however you want.

[trish]

Trish....I apologize for the belated "Merry Christmas" . I certainly hope you had one. I made a point this year of responding to that "Happy Holidays" thing, this way.........." Holiday ?? 4th of July and Labor Day are Holidays...This is the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus" How boorish. I’m usually happy to cheerfully return the greetings and smile warmly. The meaning of “Happy Holidays” was established in colloquial English decades before O’Reilly even thought to invent the war on Christmas. It was established before Irving Berlin composed his Christmas classic “Happy Holidays” which is sung in the film “White Christmas” and is found on the Christmas albums of myriads of various performers. Throughout the last century "Happy Holidays" and "Holiday Greetings" and "Seasons Greetings" has been printed on hundreds of millions of "Christmas Cards." There are lot’s of holidays that understandably fall near the winter solstice, including not only Saint Nick's Day but Hanukkah, various New Year's Days and of course winter break (in the Northern hemisphere) for millions of school children; but in the minds of most Americans (until Grinch O’Reilly declared there was a war on) it meant, and still does, the constellation of holidays that surround and include the center piece__ Christmas.

[onmyknees]

How boorish. I’m usually happy to cheerfully return the greetings and smile warmly. The meaning of “Happy Holidays” was established in colloquial English decades before O’Reilly even thought to invent the war on Christmas. It was established before Irving Berlin composed his Christmas classic “Happy Holidays” which is sung in the film “White Christmas” and is found on the Christmas albums of myriads of various performers. Throughout the last century "Happy Holidays" and "Holiday Greetings" and "Seasons Greetings" has been printed on hundreds of millions of "Christmas Cards." There are lot’s of holidays that understandably fall near the winter solstice, including not only Saint Nick's Day but Hanukkah, various New Year's Days and of course winter break (in the Northern hemisphere) for millions of school children; but in the minds of most Americans (until Grinch O’Reilly declared there was a war on) it meant, and still does, the constellation of holidays that surround and include the center piece__ Christmas.



That's funny Trish...... Boorish?? You partake and engage in a forum like HA that is replete with Gangsta wanna bees, outright homophobes, racists, reprobates, low lifes and bottom feeders and you think it's boorish that I prefer what 80% of Americans prefer which is to say, and have said Merry Christmas. LMAO.

You're so worried about offending, or not including someone, or watering down the original intent of things as to be inclusive of everyone's feelings that's it appearently has taken the place of common sense. There is one reason for this season, and it's not the winter solstice....but you believe what makes you feel good. You're smart enough to know this whole "War on Christmas" was a metaphor for a war on political correctness.

[trish]

That's funny Trish...... Boorish?? You partake and engage in a forum like HA that is replete with Gangsta wanna bees, outright homophobes, racists, reprobates, low lifes and bottom feeders and you think it's boorish that I prefer what 80% of Americans prefer which is to say, and have said Merry Christmas.Yes. It was boorish. If the people you were engaging were not the posters and lurkers here at HA, but simply people on the street, people at work etc. feeling good about the holidays and wishing you the same, then yes__ it was quite boorish of you to make something low and political out of it.
There is one reason for this season, and it's not the winter solstice....but you believe what makes you feel good.Did I say the reason for the season is winter solstice?? Where? Sure, we northerners would be celebrating and feasting the lengthening of the of the days ahead even if there never was a Jesus of Nazareth, just as we have done for many many thousands of years. But I believe I conceded, in the post above, that Christmas is the centerpiece of the constellation of holidays that Americans celebrate at the start of winter. It probably always will be. Christmas is in no danger. There is no war against it. If there's a war at all, it's the war waged by the cerebrally challenged against the rather old fashioned Christmas greeting "Happy Holidays." Go to the book store and check out any anthology of Christmas Carols. Christmas Carols by God! You'll find the song "Happy Holidays" right there among the H's. OH the Horror!!!

[trish]

YouTube - White Wine In The Sun by Tim Minchin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCNvZqpa-7Q)