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Ceasefire in the 'War on Christmas': What are you? Nuts?
Fri, 11/27/2009 - 02:25 — Ben
Joel and I tackle the so-called "War on Christmas" in this week's Scripps-Howard column. Joel thinks the whole business is a construct of the theocon-Fox News-Industrial Complex, and urges everyone to chill out. I think the whole business is a construct of ACLU provocateurs abetted by lily-livered bureaucrats, and urge everyone to chill out.
It's the least plausible column we've done in quite some time.
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Chatter (tweets)
- robbl: RT @CraigyFerg: The fact that i am on twitter probably means its on the way out.
- benboychuk: Love that CBS promos for the next Survivor has Abraham Lincoln pitted against the Devil. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Tom DiLorenzo!
- Poochucker: Outrage re: notes on Palin's palm is rich coming from people whose hero takes a teleprompter into the shitter so he doesn't forget to grunt.
- benboychuk: @Stranahan Buck up, Lee. Could be plenty worse.
- benboychuk: Is Ethan Hawke playing essentially the same role in "Brooklyn's Finest" that he played in "Training Day"? If so, isn't that a little... odd?
- benboychuk: Instamonkey: God bless Tom McClintock http://tinyurl.com/yllofkj
- benboychuk: @PhilHendrieShow The Snickers spot with Betty White and Abe Vigoda. Betty White is a GENIUS.
- benboychuk: @jstrevino Yeah, I won't defend that episode. Truth is, my wife and I were latecomers to the David Tennant Doctor. Critical sense failed.
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"The Monkeys have been going through my garbage. I blame John Ashcroft."
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Comments
Bumper Sticker
I want to make a bumper sticker reading, "Keep Christ out of Xmas".
The "war on Christmas"
I agree with Ben Boychuk because this season is very hectic and confusing so this controversy is easily won by "Merry Christmas", what Joel Mathis failed to realize is that people aren't for the more complicated way of speech, and it's easier and more fun just to walk up to some one and go, "Yo, Bob, Merry Christmas!" Saying "Merry Christmas is just tons easier and say "Happy Holidays" makes you sound very boring and a giant political NERD!
Re: "War on Christmas"
I don't object to people who want to say "Merry Christmas." I do object to people who object to using any other term.
My default is "Happy Holidays." Why? Because often I don't know if the person I'm speaking to is Jewish or Muslim or some other religion that doesn't celebrate Christmas. Now, my hope is if I did say "Merry Christmas," they'd accept it in the friendly spirit it was intended. But I go with "Happy Holidays" because, well, it doesn't hurt anything and I feel it signals respect to persons of other faiths.
I mean: I am a nerd. Possibly boring. But I don't say "Happy Holidays" for political reasons. I simply want to be a nice guy, and to give the same amount of respect as I receive. The people who march around in a rage over "Merry Christmas," I think, often want to receive more than they're giving. I could be wrong.
PWNED!
"I am a nerd." Case closed.
War On Christmas & the Ever-Lovin Law of Unintended Consequences
(0) I greet people or say goodbye with a deferential nod and a "Merry Christmas!" back in the day.
(1) some stores & others start saying "Happy Holidays" with the best intentions
(2) some jackasses pick up on this, or simultaneously, start harping on "Merry Christmas!" as somehow 'racist' (grin) or 'religionist' or what-have-you. Courts are convened. Battles are waged.
(3) the "Merry Christmas!" crowd, exasperated or angered or hurt or what-have-you, counter-attacks. Now saying "Happy Holidays!" is invitation to scowling or worse.
(4) saying "Merry Christmas!" becomes more & more popularly interpreted as "Stick Those Other Greetings Up Yours!"
(5) I am now much more self-conscious about saying "Merry Christmas!" even though I have always done this , because I don't want to be seen as some hard-assed individual.
Sigh.
I should have known, however many years ago it was, that when the salesman told me the pod wasn't really a time-and-dimension travelling device, and that it was perfectly safe, and he got me to lie down in it, and then slammed the lid shut and threw the switch and I woke up here -- I should have known better.
But now, it seems, I am stuck here, and quite often, I just can't make out this United States the same way I could the one where I came from.
A possible compromise?
"Have a cool yule!" The trick is to sound like Casey Kasem when you say it. People may be bewildered at first. But if we all do it, surely it will catch on.
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