Secrets of the City

Uh, what the hell? I like her other quote, because it’s more direct: “I’m all for free speech and free rights, just not on December 25th.”

What exactly do people do that is so unsettling? I’ve never been able to figure it out.

Also,, I like http://fuckchristmas.org/

She was on Bill O’Reilley, who has positioned himself as a defender of Christmas, which, despite it still being the biggest holiday in America, is apparently under seige because once in a while a misguided person will try and remove a creche from a city hall or whatever. Also, saying “Happy holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” just tells the world that you despise Christians and wish they would just go away, if I understand the argument right.

I’ve always thought “Happy holidays” included New Years. So, one December holiday + New Years = Happy holiday.

A couple years ago, people started wearing “I celebrate Christmas” buttons. I saw one at a store I worked at, but unfortunately the woman didn’t go through my line… I wanted to wish her “Happy holidays” because her button was just so unnecessarily obnoxious. (And I’m kind of a jerk.) My family celebrates Christmas but I’m converting to Judaism. However, I don’t freak out on someone if they do wish me a Merry Christmas. I just say thanks and go on with my business. There are bigger fish to fry.

I’ve always thought “Happy holidays” included New Years. So, one December holiday + New Years = Happy holidays.

A couple years ago, people started wearing “I celebrate Christmas” buttons. I saw one at a store I worked at, but unfortunately the woman didn’t go through my line… I wanted to wish her “Happy holidays” because her button was just so unnecessarily obnoxious. (And I’m kind of a jerk.) My family celebrates Christmas but I’m converting to Judaism. However, I don’t freak out on someone if they do wish me a Merry Christmas. I just say thanks and go on with my business. There are bigger fish to fry.

Oh, no! I thought I could sneak that second one in there because I quickly corrected a spelling mistake. Oh well.

I don’t know what other religious holiday closes schools for weeks at a time.

That local talk station called The Patriot used to run an ad about this time of year saying, “we’re not afraid to say it, Merry Christmas.”

Christmas greetings with a chip on your shoulder. Lovely sentiment, buddy. Right back at ‘ya.

I love it when Christians act all persecuted. It’s so cute.

And is just me, or is her head gigantic or what? Oh, and she has a face like a catcher’s mitt.

The whole Christmas thing doesn’t bother me a whole lot, except when I’m at the mall. Don’t insult my intelligence and go on about happy holidays when we both know the only reason you’re having all kinds of sales is because of Christmas, I says to the mall.

I think that increasingly there are people who live in two completely different realities. Among the beliefs in this other reality, where the facts themselves are completely different, Christmas is barely alive and “Happy Holidays” is a pagan, anti-Christian sentiment. I have no idea how to bridge these two realities, but I do know that these Jesus-worshiping, Obama-hating denizens of the other reality expect us to build the bridge, go over there, and beg them to let us enter their reality, rather than helping to build the bridge or meeting us halfway.

I was once admonished for saying “Merry Christmas” to someone. “He’s Jewish,” I was told. “Just say ‘Happy Holidays’ so he won’t be offended.”

Which was kind of funny because the person I greeted was a contract engineer at the radio station I had previously worked at and he had had no problem there whenever anyone wished him a “Merry Christmas.”

Well, from that year forward, I stopped wishing anyone Merry Christmas for fearing of offending someone who wasn’t a church-going Christian. In the past few years, though, I’ve relented. So what if someone gets pissed for whatever reason; atheists, included. Not my problem, dude.

If I do know someone is of another religion, though, other than Christian, I will instead wish them Happy Holidays. (Last year, IIRC, Ramadan happened around the same time as Hanukah, Christmas and Kwaanza so there are, indeed, more holidays in this period of time than just one.)

And sometimes I just say Happy Holidays for the heck of it because I don’t want anyone to think I’m of the same ilk as Bill O’Reilly and Michelle Bachmann … or Gretchen Carlson.

I don’t know that many people who offended by having happiness wished upon them, even for holidays they don’t celebrate. I’ve been wished a Happy Chinese New Year by a Chinese coworker (as in, a person from China, not an American with Asian ancestry), for example, and it didn’t occur to me that instead of feeling included her celebration of a personal holiday, I should actually feel insulted. Shows how much I know. Even though it was like ten years ago, maybe I’ll try to figure out where she works now and have her fired.

“I have no idea how to bridge these two realities, but I do know that these Jesus-worshiping, Obama-hating denizens of the other reality expect us to build the bridge, go over there, and beg them to let us enter their reality, rather than helping to build the bridge or meeting us halfway.”

Anyone hypothetical person referring to, probably says the inverse.

Yeah, because, like I said, their facts are completely different from ours.

You know, every year when Christian’s bitch about this I think, “You must be either really sheltered or really dense that you have to invent things to be offended by.” People take themselves way too seriously.

@aliecat: Not only is their outrage an invention, but so is celebrating Christmas in December. Jesus was born in July, according to many theologians. It is thought December was chosen in the 11th century to correspond better with the timing of the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.

Nood, not to mention I can’t really pinpoint what the complaint is. Are they mad that people are afraid to wish *them* a Merry Christmas or that they’re pressured to not wish that to others? Cuz last I heard, wishing someone a Merry Christmas isn’t exactly the same as telling someone they have an ugly baby, nor is offending someone a crime. What, exactly, is their issue?

I have been scolded at work for wishing somebody a Merry Christmas, and told that our holiday party shouldn’t include holiday music. Make of that what you will.

(And I actually kinda agree with both points, since we’re a public institution)

Outrage and offended-ness is in a sad state in this country.

I attribute a lot of it to my feeling we just have it too damn good and have too much idle time on our hands.

I’m uncomfortable with celebrating religious holidays at work in general, but that’s just me

And I guess if someone is offended by being wished a Merry Christmas, I’d scoff at them just as much as I scoff at this Gretchen character…life is too short to walk around with such a chip on one’s shoulder.

I love it, too, when some of these wingnuts make the claim that the US was founded as a Christian nation. You should then see the horror on their faces when they’re told that most of the Founding Fathers were Deist, and the Fathers strongly believed in the separation of church and state. Jefferson didn’t hold clergy in high regard and had no patience at all for religious dogma; Washington almost as much.

Yet we have this, http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/cped/alternative_financing.asp to accomodate folks whose religion won’t allow them to pay interest. $325,000 in the just approved budget.

I’m a Jew and I’ve never been offended when someone wishes me a merry Christmas. Jews can have merry Christmases. My Christmases kick ass. Movies and Chinese food! What could be merrier?

I used to be jealous of my sister’s job at a Jewish charity with half-day Fridays for the Shabbat.

Now I work at a Christian institution that with a paid staff holiday from Christmas Eve all the way through the 4th.

That’s what I call a merry Christmas.

You know, I would be tempted to respond to these offensive comments by ridiculing something you all believed in. But by all acounts, you don’t believe in anything other than government.

What bothered Gretchen Carlson was that, given the opportunity for atheists to have their comparable “say” in the public square during the “holiday season,” they chose not to celebrate their beliefs but to ridicule the beliefs of Christians.

And I’d like to respond by recommending that someone buy maz some remedial reading comprehension classes for Christmas.

Oh, okay, ‘O wise one.

See what I mean by alternate reality with completely different facts? The comments where anybody ridicules Christmas or the beliefs of Christmas don’t exist in my reality. Good example, Maybe Maz.

I didn’t know trolls celebrated Christmas.

^ The beliefs of Christians, not the beliefs of Christmas.

“And is just me, or is her head gigantic or what? Oh, and she has a face like a catcher’s mitt.”

Why did you decide to bring this observation into the mix?

Because I’m petty…and it’s free speech and I still have 2 weeks to exercise it…

I would love to see Gretchen interview the cast of “A Klingon Christmas Carol” in costume and in character (them, not her).

The Klingons could enter the War of Christmas and kick some puny secular hoo-man butt!

Now that will be worth watching Fox News to see.

Hey, Bob…

There are no such thing as Klingons.

Just tell yourself that when a Bird of Prey uncloaks and opens fire on NE Mpls, Rat.

Isn’t she the putz that wears short-sleeved turtle-neck sweaters all the time? Based on this alone, how can she be taken seriously, anyway?

She’s two steps away from acid-washed jeans. Now that will make her precious baby Jeebus cry.

she frightens me.

Isn’t she the putz that wears short-sleeved turtle-neck sweaters all the time?

Oh dear. I love my black wool short-sleeved turtleneck. I didn’t know it was so loser-y. I hope the facts that it is very fitted (can a turtleneck be sexy? the jury is out) and I am a chipper, bleak-humored, non-jerk help offset the dorky loser-y putz-y side.

Wow, sorry for that poorly written sentence. Even I don’t quite follow.

Kwatt- “The Alternative Financing Program is available to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.”

Wow, sorry for that poorly written sentence.

I think of it as found poetry.

Aw shucks, that’s quite awesome, coming from a writer. Thanks, Kurtis.

How conevenient for all those Christians and Jews whose religious dogma prohibits the payment of interest. Sign me up!

Still no plan for Polonius.

Sorry, Jane…ever since my wife pointed the short-sleeved turtlenecks to me, that’s how I remember Wretched Gretchen. I’m sure your entire wardrobe doesn’t consist of them.

For the record, my wife (not me!) is the one who puts on Fox News occasionally. Keeping track of what they’re saying, she calls it.

Sort sleeve turtlenecks? That’s even worse than those short sleeve mock turtlenecks taht Tiger Woods has unleashed as acceptable golf “fashion”. (Full disclosure: I own one.)

This is what golf fashion is supposed to look like. If you can’t do it in plaid and baggy breeches, you shouldn’t do it at all.

Better than than this. http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41PG42KZDKL._AA280_.jpg

Wow:

The woman talks about her religious background, and the answer here is: You’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny.

The war on Christmas is a holiday tradition since 2004!

Mr. O’Reilly and company are just looking for things to be offended by. The entire display in Washington was an attempt to please everyone. It is going quite well don’t you think?

Oh, and season’s greetings everyone!

For the record, I refuse to wish anyone a “Merry Christmas” until the “War on Christmas” is over. That is right — er — correct, I’m at war with the war on Christmas.

Rat, are you suggesting those on Fox News are more mature than us?

*splutters*

The woman talks about her religious background, and the answer here is: You’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny.

Well, we’re all just spending time looking for things to be offended about, aren’t we?  I guess I could comment on lack of sense of humor, but I would think that would be obvious by now.

Oh, and season’s greetings everyone!

Season’s greetings!  DouglasG FTW!

Stupid war. Christmas isn’t even until Dec 7th, so what they should be upset about is that every one is so confused. The holiday on the 25th is Americas Credit Card holiday. I’m a radical Atheist and I’m happy with marry Christmas, since it has no strong religious connection. Almost all of our traditions come from pagan ones anyway, so it not fair of the christan’s to clam the holiday as there own, they just got to change its name when thy took over Rome.

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi FTW!

This whole pretended outrage is funny and sad.

I am an athiest. Many of my friends are athiests. We celebrate christmas, and wish each other, and others, merry christmas.

Face it: Christmas is a secular holiday. The x-mas tree, the yule log, even the date are pagen artifacts handed down from years of yore.

I have never met any jew or athiest offended by Merry Christmas. I have met some (not many) wackaloon christians pretending that their holiday is under assault.

this woman clearly went to the Ann Coulter school of self-promotion.

Christmas in the Old Country:

“Handmade figurines of Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have been spotted around Naples appearing alongside baby Jesus, the wise men and the sheep. The southern Italian city has traditionally been the home of Nativity figurine making in the country, but this year, it seems that beyond Mary and Joseph and the angel Gabriel, it is figures of Obama that is under most demand.”

http://current.com/items/89615116/obama_top_feature_in_italian_nativity_scenes.htm

Your quote, out of context, creates the perception that there’s a religious fervor to the inclusion of Obama as a wise man, and that this is an unprecedented. Neither is the case.

“As always, figurine-makers provide a chance to choose a more light-hearted approach for the scene providing replicas of personalities who have made the news during the last year.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE4BA5HR20081211

^ this is an unprecedented.

Meant to scratch the “an”. That html is verbotten.

I’d check e-Bay for one of those figurines, Kurtis.

But you can also get a plate

If you ACT NOW! you can get him on a dollar coin, too.

http://www.victoryplate.com/?directLoad&uid=186C3B5513344412F2E553233B9BFE05

I love that commercial, but it’s hard to pick a best part. I laugh at the part when they describe “the president elect, with confident smile and kind eyes…” but also enjoy the scene where the guy is working and looks over at his plate for inspiration. I also like the fact that 27 electoral votes are “undetermined” because they didn’t wait for Missouri and North Carolina results to come in. Lots of hilarity, but except for scale nothing new. It happens every election.

Don’t you think Dick Cheney had a confident smile?

Maybe he’s squinting because he’s only above ground a few days a year.

If he opened his eyes all the way, we would see the pinpricks of hellfire.

Cool!