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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2007 : 18:32:29 [Permalink]
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---Grace 88.....(too polysyllabic)
You ask, and state:I also have never understood what is offensive about saying "Merry Christmas". I would still disagree if all things were equal but they are not. Chanukah is nowhere near the most important Jewish holiday. Kwaanza is not a religious holiday. I am perfectly fine if you do not celebrate Christmas, but the idea of being offended by having someone wish you a merry Christmas is not even logical. Political Correctness has clearly gone too far when you can not tell someone to have a good Christmas.
Am I missing something? Please fill me in. |
1. There is nothing offensive about "Merry Christmas". What person or persons has stated that?
2. The relative importance of the various religious holidays does not appear to be germane to your enquiry.
3. If someone or some group were to be offended by the phrase "Merry Christmas", it would not be a matter of logic, rather irrational emotionality.
4. As to political correctness, to the extent that some groups have advocated using "Happy Holidays" or another alternative phrase, it may well be possible that political motivation was the moving force behind that advocacy. As is becoming more evident every day in the ongoing political campaigns, religion has become a powerful factor in politics. Christmas is currently being used as a propaganda piece in the Republican political agenda.
A prominent example of this "Christmas" nonsense is the daily diatribe delivered by the demagogue Bill O'Reilly on Fox News. O'Reilly invented a mythical "war on Christmas" several years ago
in order to further pander to his fundamentalist audience. He "wins" the defensive position in this non-existent "war", destroying the enemy 'secular-progressives', every year and loudly trumpets his victory over the SP's. It's all in his head, a non-entity in fact, but it apparently sells to the several million religious imbeciles that are his audience!
I think what you're missing is the fact that Christmas, far from being a religious holiday, is today an artificial shibboleth created by merchants and the retail merchandising segment of our economy to sell enormous amounts of merchandise at a seasonal time when retail sales are usually low. So be it, that's what capitalism is all about!
A century or more ago, the holiday probably had religious significance, but retains very little today. Better be seen as a midwinter feast and festival, and wish anyone whatever you please. Most of those complaining about religiosity or the lack of it in Christmas celebration are either terribly naive or hypocritical persons with a hidden agenda.
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 12/20/2007 : 21:31:56 [Permalink]
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| Well said, bngbuck. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Starman
SFN Regular
Sweden
1613 Posts |
 Posted - 12/21/2007 : 04:52:29 [Permalink]
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Good ol' Pat had it right: | "Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history." |
Merry Kitzmas to you all!
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the_ignored
SFN Addict
2562 Posts |
Posted - 12/21/2007 : 09:10:47 [Permalink]
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For more about Huckabee, check this.
In an interview with TPM Election Central, Joe Carter, Huckabee's director of research, argued that while Huckabee does think both fall in the category of "aberrant behavior," he's not arguing that they're the same and sees them as being at "opposite ends of the spectrum" of such behavior.
As first reported yesterday by David Corn at Mother Jones, Huckabee said the following in a 1998 book he co-wrote called Kids Who Kill:
It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations#8212;from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia.
When we asked Carter if Huckabee stood by this quote, he didn't disavow the comment. But he sought to clarify its meaning, denying our suggestion that the quote equated homosexuality and necrophilia.
"He's not equating homosexuality with necrophilia," Carter told us. "He's saying there's a range of aberrant behavior. He considers homosexuality aberrant, but that's at one end of the spectrum. Necrophilia is at the other end."
Carter added: "No way is he saying that homosexuality is like having sex with dead people. That's not it at all." |
Woo Hoo. What a relief. |
>From: enuffenuff@fastmail.fm
(excerpt follows):
> I'm looking to teach these two bastards a lesson they'll never forget.
> Personal visit by mates of mine. No violence, just a wee little chat.
>
> **** has also committed more crimes than you can count with his
> incitement of hatred against a religion. That law came in about 2007
> much to ****'s ignorance. That is fact and his writing will become well
> know as well as him becoming a publicly known icon of hatred.
>
> Good luck with that fuckwit. And Reynold, fucking run, and don't stop.
> Disappear would be best as it was you who dared to attack me on my
> illness knowing nothing of the cause. You disgust me and you are top of
> the list boy. Again, no violence. Just regular reminders of who's there
> and visits to see you are behaving. Nothing scary in reality. But I'd
> still disappear if I was you.
What brought that on? this. Original posting here.
Another example of this guy's lunacy here. |
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 12/24/2007 : 06:37:04 [Permalink]
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| Happy Holidays |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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Tim
SFN Regular
USA
775 Posts |
Posted - 12/25/2007 : 16:43:01 [Permalink]
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Didn't McCain use the cross in his POW Xmas ad, too?
Anyway, Huckabee is obviously pandering to his core constituency. By taking the Christian right and dividing the rest of the Republican party he will have his best chance of winning the nomination.
Anyway, if Huckabee wins the nomination, rest assured that he'll turn down the religious rhetoric, and the press just might forget....
Can you say President Huckabee! |
"We got an issue in America. Too many good docs are gettin' out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their -- their love with women all across this country." Dubya in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 9/6/2004
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 12/25/2007 : 21:52:43 [Permalink]
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Yeah, he is driving that wedge pretty hard.
Its not bad as a political strategy goes, if you don't care about the long term effects of divisive political tactics.
Wedge issues have given the republicans the presidency for 20 of the last 28 years (would have been 28/28 if not for Perot).
But look at the party now, they are torn by their own wedge (there are almost no Goldwater style conservatives remaining, and they are called "liberals" by their fellow republicans), and they have (over the last 28 years) destroyed civil political discourse on a national level.
That is, imo, a high price to pay for political power.
To bad the electorate is too collectively retarded to recognize what is going on, and comprehend that they are losing more over the long term than they gain in the short by participating and allowing wedge politics to dominate.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Huckabee Christmas Ad
