Dreggas left this link in the comments.
Here’s the text of H.Res. 847, just so you know how important Christianity and Xmas are:
“Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.
Whereas Christmas, a holiday of great significance to Americans and many other cultures and nationalities, is celebrated annually by Christians throughout the United States and the world;
Whereas there are approximately 225,000,000 Christians in the United States, making Christianity the religion of over three-fourths of the American population;
Whereas there are approximately 2,000,000,000 Christians throughout the world, making Christianity the largest religion in the world and the religion of about one-third of the world population;
Blah, blah, blah, “Christmas is important.”
Every one of them. EVERY ONE OF THEM who votes for this should be kicked out of congress next term. Every. Single. One.
Now, pardon me while I go sit by my menorah and weep.
cleek
OMG
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of whatnow ?
Faux News
Whereas “Christmas” was moved to coincide with the pagan holiday of the Winter Solstice and the Christmas tree, yule log, holly & ivy are pagan symbols…
Tonybrown74
We should have the ACLU on speed dial for this one.
Joshua
I dunno, cleek. Some of the white-out they used on the Fourth must have dripped onto that one, too.
Anyway, GovTrack has a list of co-sponsors, in case anyone wants to know. I probably needn’t mention that they’re all Republicans.
jenniebee
well thank goodness there’s no constitutional provision forbidding the establishment of breast cancer awareness, folk art appreciation or national pizza day because then we’d all really be fucked.
Bubblegum Tate
“Whereas my Christmas list shall contain–but not be limited to–the following…”
Joshua
P.s.: Who else suspects they only did this so it’ll get tossed out and they can go on Fox News complaining that NANCY PELOSI RUINED [email protected]#[email protected]!#[email protected]#!one
gypsy howell
Oh for christ fucking sake. And to top it off, you know this is just fodder for jillions of rightwing email smears for years to come. “So-and-so DEMONcrat voted against Christmas and against Christians in 2007 when he/she voted no on HR 847… spew spew spew spew…”
(Yes, yes, I know – none of them WILL have the balls or principles to vote against it, but they’ll be smeared with it nevertheless)
Where do I sign up for the War on Christmas anyway? I’m ready to enlist.
chopper
but this isn’t a law, it’s a ‘declaration’.
i’m expecting the dems to counter with the Fluffy Bunnies and Kitties Are Nice Act of 2007.
TheFountainHead
Christianity ruins Christmas for me every year, without fail.
uh_clem
Well, I have to admit that the three “whereas” paragraphs are correct. So what do the “resolved” paragraphs say? Anything substantial, or just so much more blah blah blah?
Bubblegum Tate
I will pledge a lifelong vote to anybody who sponsors an Abortions For Some, Miniature American Flags For Others Act.
Anyway, is the wingnuts’ faith so fragile that it simply must have Congressional recognition lest it will die?
Jen
Look, it’s patently idiotic base-pandering trap-setting legislation, and they know it, and it has no effect whatsoever on any damn thing. Make your voting decisions based on their votes on health care, or torture, or Iran, or something important. (I guarantee if you look for another reason to vote against them you’ll find one.) You can’t draw a line in the sand over every moronic piece of legislation or there’d be nobody to vote for. Well, maybe that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
canuckistani
My family gets 15 seconds of Christianity every Christmas – when Linus makes his speech during a Charlie Brown Christmas. As for the rest, it’s been completely secularized. Suck on that, Bill O’Reilly!
ImJohnGalt
It’s officially now the holidays.
For we atheists, it’s shutting ourselves in our houses and playing Crysis, ignoring our family’s phone calls.
gypsy howell
Ummmm… and who does that leave?
Z
Its CHRISTIANS, not Christianity, who ruin Christmas every time. That being said, this is just a declaration that affects and changes exactly nothing, EXCEPT that it gives the religious right something to jerk off to and those of us who hate the religious right something else to foam in the mouth about.
Chris
Whereas Judiasm is the root religion of Christianity,
Whereas Jesus Christ was a Jew,
Whereas Jews of all sects have a long and storied tradition of justice, forthright action, and good sense,
—
somehow, I think that response would actually get taken up by the chickenhawks so they can look like they support Israel.
cleek
it has 58 co-sponsors.
here’s to hoping it dies in committee.
emald
Our esteemed congress is completely bug fuck nuts crazy. Our country seems hell bent on destroying itself in a frenzy of self hate disguised as religion.
Jezuz fucking christ on a goddamned crutch. The greed merchants and the crazy religionists can take their christmas and shove it. Christmas, from a country practicing torture for fucks sake. Loving good old christmas, while lying cheating and killing for profit. Funny, and really sad.
gypsy howell
Nah… c’mon now! It still leaves decorating trees, gift-giving, drinking, wassailing (whatever that is) kissing under the mistletoe, reindeer, partying, and all that other really fun stuff. You know — the PAGAN stuff!!
Jen
I dunno, haven’t looked at who sponsored it. I’m just saying that making voting decisions based on this kind of legislation is just as pointlessly symbolic as the legislation itself. It doesn’t affect anything. Ignore it. (Yes, I realize I’m talking to the blogosphere. Yes, I am evidently a masochist.)
jrg
It’s critically important that Republican-Americans fight to remember Christmastime, especially with the Secular-progressives marauding through small towns, destroying decorations, and enslaving the tiny minority of Americans who celebrate Christmas.
Jesus died for our sins. We must continue to embrace his memory through cheap, toxic, plastic crap made by child slave labor in China.
Besides, it’s not as if congress has pressing matters to attend to at the moment.
It’s your party. You can cry if you want to.
Tim F.
God I can’t wait to forward this to my other Jewish friends. Wake up and smell the second class status, Wolfowitz and Feith.
Chris
Yes. In fact they don’t have any faith. Proclaiming hope for a loving and just god — all-the-while giving alms in hope of bringing forth this god — is an act of faith. Proclaiming you have express instructions from God is having an imaginary friend.
While the statement itself is implicit, it’s passage through Congress would be an explicit statement that declarations about the nature of Christianity and the nation are fair-play, which of course can lead to all sorts of incursions on the First Amendment. Usually, I’d scoff at that concept, but I’ve noticed there’s a healthy minority of people these days that don’t believe the Bill of Rights is binding.
Buck
As a wise man once said, “Christmas is Christ’s revenge for the crucifixion”
gypsy howell
Given their track record, we’re probably a lot better off if they focus their energies on this kind of pointless bullshit.
grumpy realist
Between the pandering to those who think the world is 6000 years old, those who think that belief==reality, and those who want to make the US into a Christian theocracy, I really don’t think the US is going to remain at the top of the heap for much longer.
As mentioned in another post, it’s like Saudi Arabia in the discrepancy between culture and economy. As soon as the oil runs out, Saudi Arabia is going to go back to being an economy that depends on date-gatherers and camel-herders, because that’s all the culture accepts. No science, no engineering, emphasis on religion over everything, throwing out 1/2 of their population, isolating them from full participation and segregrating them as child-minders–you can’t maintain a first-world sustainable economy on this.
My belief is that the US has for years has had an economy living off what was only a subset of American culture. Now we’ve allowed the Know-Nothings to take charge; we’ve been coasting along, eating our science and technology base and not slapping down anti-science idiots when we should have been. We’re already seeing certain technologies (stem cells) start to be done better abroad and if we continue on the track we have been it’s only a matter of time that other technologies following the same path: a community formed of creationists who refuse to believe in the scientific method are not going to develop cutting-edge biotechnology. The focus will move abroad–either to somewhere in the EU or to somewhere like China. Do a comparison of the number of graduates in science and engineering that China graduates each year vs. what the US is graduating. Look at the number of grad students we generate every year who go back to their own countries, rather than staying here, as they used to do. I was told some time ago that places like 3M are having a terrible time holding on to any of their researchers who originally came from China–China is offering them quite a lot to come back home and set up their own research labs, totally funded by the government.
The economy that the US religious right is in balance with is one based on subsistence agriculture and herding. Which means that if we continue indulging these jerks, within 30 years the US is going to look like Africa-with-a-handful-of-decaying-nukes.
And you know what? After watching the screaming that has been done by the nitwits on the right against people like me, who are female, liberal, intellectual, unmarried, and atheistic–I say the heck with it. Let the US get pulled down the drain. I’m just looking for a way out of here.
Chris
Also, fun note, introduced by a rep from IA, so it’s probably been cooked up by either Huck-for-IA, or the IA Republican Chair.
Jen
What’s important to me is if the Supreme Court curtails First Amendment rights. Congress does this kind of crap all the time, e.g. condemning Moveon.org. Moveon has First Amendment rights, and if the Supreme Court says they can’t publish their ad, then I’m upset. If Congress says “naughty, naughty, Moveon.org”, it’s just base-pandering trap-setting symbolic legislation like this nonsense.
Jake
I want to say the Christmas is Important crap is annoying but I’m too busy being bothered to hell and back by the Yah, Christians! shit, which makes up the Resolved section of the resolution.
So you don’t really need a fucking resolution to say how great your religion is, do you? Congratulations, you win!
;
Wheee! We’re the best! Look at us being the best! Everyone has to say we’re the best! Because of Christmas. And pay no attention to that pile of dead brown people behind the curtain!
Christians are of course free to continue to direct bigotry and persecution against everyone else.
Gee, isn’t there something in the New Testament about being quiet about your faith, not being a huge show off? Nah, must of imagined that.
Krista
Seconded. This bill is regoddamndiculous, and like others have said, it’s a trap. If the Dems vote against it, the right-wing will sound like pigs at a slaughterhouse, with their cries of how the Left Hates Christmas ‘n’ BabyJesus ‘n’ ‘Murrica, ‘n’ All That Is Good and Holy. If they vote with it, then they’ve just hauled out another support beam underneath the crumbling structure of the separation of church and state.
And part of me worries that a Dem win in ’09 won’t change SFA — the congressional Dems are too used to jumping to the Republicans’ tunes, because they’re too chickenshit to stand up and risk being branded by their opponents.
Sarcastro
Anyone notice that this piece of tripe doesn’t include Orthodox Christians who do not celebrate Christmas on December 25 but, rather, during the first week of January?
Darkness
The wreath, the mistletoe, the holly, the presents. Yup, all pagan. It’s a lovely holiday based on the stars all right. Has been long before Christ, is the piece of info lacking with congress and far too many others. Nothing wrong with the Christians ALSO deciding to add a holiday on top of an existing one (well, the forced conversions weren’t so nice…) but to insist on celebrating at the same time as peoples thousands of years before you (See: Feast of Poseidon, Early Greece, among others) and then complain and whine that YOUR holiday is getting undermined is just pathetic. I would be more impressed with the religious crowd if half of what they were doing didn’t seem to hinge on the base ignorance of its followers.
People with a fish on their car lose all right to complain also about the use of X-mas as an alternative moniker. Just for the record. More rife ignorance, that.
Zifnab
You know what? I don’t even want to see my Congressional Rep vote it down. I just want to see the Congressmen boycott the vote. Just don’t vote. It’s not worth their time. All 200+ Democratic Congresscritters should go off and make paper snowflakes or something. You know, something constructive.
Better yet, the Democrats should all come in bearing tissues to clean up the massive amounts of sloodge Republicans will be leaving in their wake on this one.
Bombadil
All but two of whom are Republicans (and the Dems are from Texas and North Carolina).
Jen
That sounds good to me. They can tell the press that they thought the spirit of Christmas was better served by spending time with their families.
J sub D
I’m an atheist, I like Xmas. The food, the decorations, the music, it’s all cool. That said, WTF? A waste of time and money. I’m supposed to take them seriously?
James F. Elliott
Fuck that. For this atheist, it’s all about getting schnookered, opening presents, and having dinner with family. I’ll put up with a little “a child is born” for some mashed potatoes and gravy.
JustSam
This is stupid, but it’s going to be awhile before they top the Freedom Fries legislation. With a bit of luck, that’ll be never.
It’s nice that they’re pointing out that Christians are a minority world-wide, though.
uh_clem
Michael D.,
I know we’ve had our differences in the past on this board, but allow me to be the first to wish you a Merry Chrifsmas!
Chris
Reality check: They can’t postively do this, only refuse to strike down the laws. On top of the fact that there’s always a significant period of time before Congress passes a violating law and a person that has been caused harm comes forward to challenge the law, etc…
I think you should get a little bit more worried about what Congress can abuse, knowing that SCOTUS might not strike it down :(
Jen
Hee hee, maybe it’s the start of Festivus, which begins with the airing of grievances…
Dreggas
I think I love you….
demimondian
Me, I’d like to see this resolution adopted…with a few amendments.
So, citizens, what say ye?
Darkness
I’m with you as an atheist that loves the holidays, and that give me an idea that this whole war on Christmas thing is really about avoiding that dilution. Really if the Hindus and the Druids and everyone is on board, it isn’t a Christian holiday anymore/again. Otherwise, this is all so irrational this harassing stores (fergodssake) about what precisely they say to people on the way in. Back in my day Christians decried the materialist angle of Christmas, now they are trying to appropriate it, lest they be forced to admit defeat on holding onto even a small chunk of the winter holidays. Hm. I think I may be onto something here…
DON’T take them seriously. That would be giving them far too much credit. Complain to your rep, politely, and go about your hall decking. That’s what I’m going to do.
Jen
I’m a lawyer, Chris, I know what the Supreme Court does, and there is nothing inaccurate in saying the Supreme Court is curtailing a right when they allow a law to stand. It is commonly phrased that way.
I don’t think there’s anything unconstitutional in Congress passing crap like this, it’s just a resolution that Christmas is good or kittens are good or Moveon.org is bad. It is, in effect, freedom of expression. I am not sure how you would demonstrate even your standing to sue, much less harm, by this kind of meaningless crap.
Tom Hilton
You know, the War on Christmas gets all the press…but let’s not forget about the War Against ‘Bless You’.
Notorious P.A.T.
But Michael, you are perfectly free to improve and upgrade yourself to full citizenship by adopting the one, true faith any time you want. Just like Frau Coulter said.
Nylund
I think they meant to write this:
Whereas Christmas has so little to do with Christianity that the Puritans who came to the US on the Mayflower didn’t even celebrated it (and frowned upon those that did).
Whereas it was banned in Boston from 1659 to 1681.
Whereas after the revolutionary war until the 1820’s, Americans didn’t celebrate it, viewing it as another custom of the British to be disposed of.
Whereas despite the Bible being written long after Jesus died, it has no mention whatsoever of the need to celebrate his birthday in late December, much less Santa Claus.
Whereas all of the above do not matter as long as it spurs consumer spending in time to make companies profitable by the end of the year.
All praise (Tickle Me) Baby Je$u$.
Joshua
The surest way to make this bill die a quiet death would be to attach an amendment requiring the recognition of Kwanzaa.
canuckistani
So where the hell is the Rapture so we can get rid of these nutbars?
Evinfuilt
Some families would be lucky to get that 15 seconds.
For me though, I shall raise a meatball up high and hope that the FSM delivers me more goodies this year.
Grand Moff Texan
On Easter and Christmas, you mean.
The other 363 days of the year, the proportion is much, much smaller.
.
Brachiator
Huckster Huckabee has the answer for you! A recent Andrew Sullivan post notes as follows: “Here’s part of the text of a Southern Baptist Convention full-page ad in USA Today in 1998 that Mike Huckabee signed:
‘A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.'”
Apparently, for some evangelicals, a single atheist females makes the baby Jesus cry…
Jake
If we can add:
I’d be down with that.
Michael D.
It’s not a bill. It’s a resolution.In my opinion, congress should get out of the resolution business altogether.
Richard Bottoms
You support the GOP (and yes I know you can’t vote here) and then you get the vapors when the far right Christian fanatics in control of the party introduce idiotic bills, resolutions, or whatever like this.
I am unmoved by your shock and indignation.
But I will offer a solution: vote GOP assholes out of office at every level in the United States.
Fixed.
Chris
(Jen)
THAT’s the word I was looking for. “Harm” was the closest analog I could think of.
In my defense, I’m a language slut, and to say the Supreme Court “curtails” (positive act) a right because of a refusal (negative) to act is mixing a positive and a negative, and that doesn’t jive, jargon or no. Otherwise I get where you’re coming from.
And yeah, it’s constitutional for congress to pass an (assumed) unconstitutional law, but that’s still a bad thing, and as a design issue it’s a cost that requires extra bolstering through Congress, not SCOTUS.
I’m by trade a systems designer, and things like this take our government one step closer to a singular state where we get trapped and start going totalitarian on people until the system is deconstructed (Rebellion or military intervention) and rebuilt. These singular states are called that because there’s no getting out of them from inside the system. Black holes are called singularities for the same reason. They’re critical exception conditions, and it should be a frightening concept that you cannot fix the nation through it’s acting government.
Is this one issue that big of a deal? No. As a debugger, would I have to get out of my chair to stop a module that produces toxins like this? You better believe it.
This is what non-dorks call “Slippery Slope”
Anon
The numbers quoted include Mormons as Christians. So a vote for this is a vote against those who say Mormons aren’t Christians. It’s more a motion of support for Mitt Romney than anything, isn’t it?
Cindrella Ferret
Praise be! All glory to the FSM! Pastafarians everywhere unite and ask for our very own Resolutions.
Joshua
Considering what they use them for (i.e., this, condemning MoveOn, declaring a branch of the Iranian military as terrorists), then yeah. I’m agreed. Is there any positive argument in favour of Congress issuing all these dumb resolutions?
Splitting Image
“Whereas there are approximately 2,000,000,000 Christians throughout the world, making Christianity the largest religion in the world and the religion of about one-third of the world population”
This sentence is the most important part of the resolution. This is only true IF you count Roman Catholics as Christians, which a sizeable percentage of Protestants and born-again Christians do not.
This means that for the first time since the 1980s, Congressional Republicans have broken away from their evangelical base and made a heartfelt gesture to the rest of the country. I for one would be very grateful if I thought they knew what they were doing.
ThymeZone
A good deal of what congress does is just pandering. They added “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance during the term of Eisenhower, proving that even a great general can cave into such nonsense. In fact, why we even HAVE an official “pledge” is beyond me.
What is really disturbing is the openly Holier Than Thou “religious” discussions happening in the GOP presidential campaign. As if Article 6 didn’t exist.
That’s about as unambiguous a proscription as I’ve seen in the great document. It’s a shame to see it swept aside in favor of tv ratings.
Cindrella Ferret
And for all you who doubt the greatness of the FSM … The Saucestice is near and you will not be worthy!
That should put all you doubters on your knees.
Chris
Nope. Didn’t see anything explicitly mentioning different denominations. Foo.
Pb
I have a feeling that this might be a lame response to the earlier passage of this resolution in the House regarding Muslims, Islam, and Ramadan…
Yep, that’s exactly what it is.
RSA
According to ThinkProgress, this kinda crap came up twice recently in resolutions recognizing celebrations of Ramadan And Diwali. Some conservatives voted “Present”, which I think is perfectly appropriate when put in that situation. As in, “I’m here, okay? But this is all bullshit.”
Doubting Thomas
Just in defense of Michael, he has said he is not voting Repub this election, much to his credit.
Anon
Chris, see http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions
225 million Christians, including Mormons.
And http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#Pew_branches
5 million Mormons.
If they wanted to exclude Mormons they would have to quote 220 million, not 225 million.
Bombadil
He still identifies himself as one, much to his shame.
jenniebee
According to the flyers at Chik-Fil-A, opposition to HR-325, Resolution in Support of our Nation’s Poultry Farmers, is effectively pro-Cow.
I’m with Jen. Getting your panties in a twist over a freaking non-binding resolution is absurd. This is just another horse on the merry-go-distract-a-round. It has no more actual bearing on government policy than does the latest missing white woman, and if you think that it does, maybe it’s time to really seriously ask yourself if maybe, just maybe, your favorite color is Shiny.
Oooohhhhhh…. shiny!
Michael D.
Hey, don’t shit on Chick-Fil-A. I’m not a fan, but I always liked their principle of closing on Sundays when they could be making a bunch more money. Sure, I don’t agree with WHY they close, but I respect that they’ve stuck by it.
demimondian
Shiny? Where? I want shiny!
Then again, I’m looking forward to the Saucestice, so what do I know?
Michael D.
Michael will also DEFINITELY not vote Democratic this time either.
canuckistani
RAmen!
OxyCon
As a Christian I know that Jesus was not born on December 25, Christmas trees are a Pagan tradition and giving material gifts isn’t taught in the Bible. But I still celebrate Christ’s birth, have Christmas trees and give presents. I don’t need some right wing asshole in Congress to tell me how important the holiday is.
Michael D.
Your argument is becoming tiresome.
You support the democratic party and then you get the vapors when a Rep from Louisiana gets caught taking $100,000 in bribes and then denies it, or when Jack Murtha gets dinged in the AbScam scandal, or whatever like this?
The rules of hypocrisy (which I link only because you are apparently unfamiliar with the term) apply to me and not to thee, Richard Bottoms. BTW, is that your name or the position you play?
Cindrella Ferret
Whoa! That a lot of Special Undergarments.
cindiloohoo
For all you other atheists – You can do like I do and celebrate the pagan holidays hijacked by the xtians (Christmas, Easter) and just call yourself a “cultural pagan.” The pagan traditions are the best part, anyway.
Christmas Man!
get a clue moonbat, the mormons are useful when we need to inflate our numbers, just like fetus’ are only useful until they pop out, then they’re just welfare indigents!
Jen
Okay, language slut, I understand where you’re coming from, but to pick a nit the SCOTUS is the highest court in the land. If they hear a case, decide that the law is o.k., and allow it to stand, and that decision changes the law, then I would call that an affirmative act. What “the law” is is not just statutes, but caselaw also, because the law is what the Supreme Court says it is. But I take the point that because they are not legislating, they are not taking the most direct of affirmative acts.
I think you’re misinterpreting me. I’m not saying that Congress is allowed to pass an unconstitutional law up until the time it is declared unconstitutional. I’m saying that this isn’t a law, and it isn’t unconstitutional.
It’s a resolution. It doesn’t *do* anything. It is symbolic. I don’t see that it violates the free exercise or the establishment clause, although clearly what is so annoying about it is that it has the feel of violating the establishment clause. Heck, maybe someone will try to challenge it on those grounds. But you have to show standing, first, and you have to show harm. I don’t know how you’re going to get around that because we are back to, it doesn’t *do* anything.
demimondian
Yeah, particularly the Druid ones. The burning people alive in wicker baskets part just ROCKS!
Dreggas
Oh Snap!
That was a good one, hehehe.
Richard Bottoms
I’m heartbroken.
jrg
Give me a break.
Half the time you post you’re up in arms about something the GOP campaigns on. Nobody said the dems are perfect, but holy cow – how egregious does the Republican party have to get before you accept the facts? They are less fiscally conservative than the Dems, they seek to eliminate separation of church and state, and many of them see your lifestyle as a disease… that’s just for starters.
Why on earth should the rest of us listen to your complaining if you refuse to do anything about it come election day?
Jen
If you vote for Nader, Michael, you better not live in a swing state or I’m coming for you.
*disclaimer: Intended for vaguely humorous effect only. No actual threat has been communicated in this post.
Ted
Michael will be throwing his vote away this time, and helping to elect more republicans, folks!
Ed Drone
[ For we atheists, it’s shutting ourselves in our houses and playing Crysis, ignoring our family’s phone calls.]
“Fuck that. For this atheist, it’s all about getting schnookered, opening presents, and having dinner with family. I’ll put up with a little “a child is born” for some mashed potatoes and gravy.”
Actually, Christians, too, get schnockered, open presents, have dinner and otherwise ignore any element of religion on this winter-feast day. You don’t have to be Christian to ignore Christmas, you know.
Ed
Richard Bottoms
Oooh, making fun of my name. How very Junior High School.
And, BTW I am a Top, bitch.
As for the crooks in them Democratic party, throw them in jail and replace them with upstanding progressive politicians. The sooner the better.
And at least our crooks scam silly stuff like bribes for highways and the like. The GOP specializes in defense contractors pushing weapons systems that get our troops killed and self-hating closet cases who can’t admit to their homosexuality.
You support a fag bashing, inept, lying, torture promoting, mean spirited, right wing Christian fanatic political party which is going to get its fucking ass kicked next year.
Thanks to George Bush 4,000 soldiers are dead, hundreds of thousands of them are maimed, millions of Iraqi’s are displaced and we are losing two wars, one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan.
The GOP and President Potato Head will go down as the worst thing to ever happen to the United States in 200+ years.
To quote Richard Pryor, “You may kiss my happy black ass.”
Dreggas
You know, interestingly enough, those burned in the baskets were honored because they believed it would help the tribe and atone for their crimes, this wasn’t always the case but was the belief and where we get the wicker-man from.
Of course a lot of christmas has to do with Druid traditions as the Druids were widespread, Mistletoe was a sacred plant as, like ever-greens, it was there year round and grew on the oak which was the most sacred of trees (interesting tidbit one of the great oak groves of the Druids was in france and is now the location of the Cathedral at Chartes).
But no it’s the christians who are being stomped all over.
Jake
He lives in the Conservative Peoples’ Republic of Georgia where only the Wingers swing.
demimondian
Well, I suppose you won’t be surprised to learn that I did know that. That doesn’t change the fact that it was a hideous and horrific rite.
Jake
Fixed, ‘cos sometimes you just gotta.
Kynn
But what if they support the FAIR TAX?
Wow, that’s what you got? Something from 1980 where Murtha was not indicted, not charged, not prosecuted, and testified against other Democrats?
It’s cute to see you regurgitating Republican talking points uncritically. That way you can accuse other people of hypocrisy? Sheesh.
Zifnab
That was a horrible movie, btw.
And I am objectively anti-burning-people-in-baskets. Just goes to show you don’t have to be a member of a mainstream religion to be totally loopy.
BIRDZILLA
Dont you get tired of this liberal poppycock all the time i mean what now will they want to do send christmas MOVE OVER GRINCH
Dreggas
Nope not suprised and I agree it was a horrible rite, but it’s often painted as being something it wasn’t (ie savages pushing people into baskets then burning them). That being said perhaps we could convince Bill O that this is a part of the christmas tradition that has been sorely lacking and he should self immolate in a wicker basket on nat’l TV.
Dreggas
oh and OT again but here’s another gem:
Huckabee
Chris
Anon:
I know what you’re getting at, but that’s not the part going into the resolution. When they vote for this, they aren’t explicitly supporting mormons, just 225M American Christians. If any people are caught on this, they can dodge it by saying it’s a round estimate.
I repeat my dejection: Foo.
Jake
Well, there goes the MotherHucker’s shot at the White House. He might have survived the Quarrantine AIDS Patients/’Ware the Godless Homasectyewalls/Immigrants are Children of God stuff but the Wingies won’t tolerate this.
Dreggas
that was supposed to read: Huckabee “Ya can’t make this shit up.
Dreggas
bah Huckabee (the new internet symbol for heart) Saddam.
Chris
Admittedly, this is where talking about language gets pedantic. But I’m a disgusting pedant, so I love this shit. So hate me, not the language.
SCOTUS is required to bring — ah damn it. You’re right.
SCOTUS has to accept the case to hear it. By derivation not overturning the law is still a positive act.
Sorry, my bad. I keep forgetting that they get to refuse to hear cases. In my head it shouldn’t work that way, but I’m still wrong.
This is probably a design flaw, but Congress is a producing organ, so in theory everything they produce is supposed to be, well, DOING something.
So now Congress is doing what they’re supposed to be doing by passing stuff that doesn’t do anything. Sure, that’s probably the situation, but how many different ways do you think that can be interpreted? In my head, they’re proactively saying it’s OK for the law-making body to give a handjob to Christians exclusively.
Isn’t that still bad momentum that should be preempted before it hits (or doesn’t hit) SCOTUS?
Tom Hilton
The remake, or the original?
Anon
5 million is a large rounding error. Particularly when you’re allegedly rounding off to a more odd number. Rounding off from 220 to 225 is not how it’s done. If they were rounding off from 2.1 billion to 2 billion, as they did with the global number, that’s rounding.
What’s my point? Dunno. I would find it amusing to hear a debate that Christmas is good, except for the Christmas they celebrate in Salt Lake City. And Mormons aren’t even the most controversial group lumped under Christians. Quakers, JWs, U/Us and more. If a Christian group doesn’t celebrate Christmas, are they still being praised by this bill? Are they praising the few remaining Branch Dividians, who still claim Koresh is Jesus?
Joshua
\m/ Druids are f’in metal! \m/
Nylund
Maybe its a bit self-righteous of me, but I think that you can’t separate the pagan/secular parts from the Christian aspect of Christmas. Sure, you can go through the holiday never mentioning Christ, not going to mass, and do nothing but trade presents and pig out, but its still supporting the underlying social structure.
Despite my love of food and family, the mixture of consumerism and religion that Christmas currently represents on goes against my core system of beliefs and I won’t give those up, no matter how tasty mom’s ham is.
Dreggas
This shit writes itself
I agree with TZ if the GOP nominates this guy they have sealed their fate.
joshUA
Christmas the day the jews go to the movies
Jack Roy
Meh. My Festivus pole sits unadorned, but this sort of thing doesn’t bother me that much. Representatives introduce declarations that ice cream is delicious and this year’s Duluth county fair was the best of all time—why shouldn’t a day that a lot of people care about a fair bit get the same nonsensical acknowledgment? I mean, it unquestionably cheapens the sanctity of the day (to the extent you believe that it is a holy day), but for those of us who celebrate Chinese Food Day every Dec. 25th… why not?
ThymeZone
From Dreggas’ link, I thought it deserved special attention.
OMFG, can you believe these people?
Yes, please nominate this asshole. Please, Republicans, I beg you.
Dreggas
The Huckster seriously claimed he’s the only candidate you won’t see with Youtubes dedicated to shifting positions. No need the guys written word and the public record are enough. People wonder why I shudder and laugh whenever I hear the word “baptist” here’s a good example.
Foofighter
The only important thing in Christmas is offering and receiving gifts ( mainly receiving, I agree), but as a kid in France, I never gave a damn about the Why.
Jake
sHuck getting the nod would be a twofer:
1. We could dance by the light of the GOP as it burns to the ground.
2. We could laugh at Talevangicals rubbing their smacked asses.
I don’t think he can pull it off though. Given recent events I expect a statement regarding Mr. Huckabee from a male prostitute any minute.
RSA
Only good things are acts of God, I guess. Would he prefer “an act of Satan”?
Bubblegum Tate
Doesn’t anybody celebrate Christmas by arguing with their family anymore? What the hell happened to tradition?
Zifnab
The one with Nicholas Cage. So, I guess the remake.
I did like the cut to black where they all jump him, and you can hear in the background, “Oh god! You broke my leg!” … … “Oh, oh for the love of god! You broke my other leg!”
Michael D.
Kynn:
I think a lot of Huckabee’s support is because of that. Doesn’t mean I support him on the whole though.
Dreggas
well since my grandmother quit drinkin for medical reasons we can no longer laugh at her when she mispronounces things. Come to think of it since the grand parents went to Florida for the winter like typical snow birds my parents have been reporting quiet and uneventful christmases…
Michael D.
Hahaha! That’s why I don’t go home for the holidays. I can’t spend more than 4 days with them!
Chris
Me too. Just to watch the whole of the people south of the Mason-Dixon rise up as one and start blasting to physically separate them from this country. Of course they’re smarter than that.
I’d love to take your note and run around and convince the baptists that that’s the meaning, but there’s far too much wriggle room for the pols to get out of it.
Maybe we need to plant some chain emails
Do that, get MSNBC to cover it, I’ll tape it and do really private things while watching that tape over and over again. Watching the hypocrite sectarians fight each other to the political death would be sooooooo gratifying.
Anyone got a cigarette?
OniHanzo
As my first baby-eating, secular round into the War On Christmas I just want to throw this one over the trenches.
Theocracy? What theocracy?
jrg
“An act of Richard Simmons”?
jcricket
You don’t get the candidate you want, you get the candidate you deserve.
Dems, with their capitulating and middle-of-the-road weaseling, deserved Kerry. Now we know better (I hope).
For Republicans, Huckabee is the logical heir to GW Bush. I have nothing but schadenfreude if the fundie takeover of the Republican party leads to Huckabee going down in flames and taking the GOPs 2008 with him.
mark
Whereas, upon entering influenza season it behooves us to bless one another as frequently as possible …
Michael D.
Mark: But who gets to say the “Bless you?” Does it have to be the boyfriend? Or can it just be anyone at the table? That’s the question.
Richard Bottoms
I am guessing you’re unclear on the concept of who a Top is.
Ted
Huckabee’s wandering eye bugs me.
Dreggas
yeah I am guessing he doesn’t…
Dreggas
It’s the eye of Jebus…it’s watching you…
Dreggas
Maybe this is the Jesus that was talking to Romney
demimondian
Now you listen to me, b*tch! I said you’re gonna spank my ass, and I meant it. And after your done, you’re gonna get down on your knees and apologize for talking back to me about it.
Bubblegum Tate
It would be truly awesome if the voice of the talking Jebus got switched with the voice of a talking Barbie. When young fundies hope to get a nice dose of El Bible, they instead get “math is hard–let’s bake cookies for the boys!” The power of Christ compels you to go to the mall and look at handbags!
Dreggas
I can’t buy Marilyn Manson CD’s at Wal-Mart but you can buy your daughter these Craptastic!
Dreggas
Or it was used in a remake of the talking Tina episode of the twilight zone: “I’m talking jesus and I’m gonna crucify you!”
Dreggas
*shakes head* ya know, that’s kinda funny…ok it’s really funny…but just wrong in so many ways, kinda like the Eddie Murphy “What if Mr. T was gay?” routine…
CalD
Death! Death to Christmas!
(Or as I like to call it, XMAS! ~ muah-ha-ha-ha-ha!)
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Free At Last
Tim F (if you’re still around),
Didn’t realize you were on friendly terms with Paul and Doug. I hear they play a mean game of dreidl.
Aaron Kulkis
Thanks, everyone, for just displaying just how much you absolutely hate most of America. We always knew you did — but now you’ve all gone and proven it.
JWW
Merry Christmas all,
When you read an article with a predetermined hate, you you should expect no less than a hateful answer. I don’t say push, shove or force feed anyone your belief but it does seem every other religion has only two targets, the christians and the jews. Even those with no religion find a way to attack these two as though the other 100’s of other religious groups don’t matter. Why would that be?
Richard Bottoms
The Dhali Lama might disagree. Anyway, the point is the silly notion of Christians somehow being persecuted in the USA.
War on Christmas my ass.
Dreggas
Maybe because they’re responsible for the majority of the persecution of other religions, or at least Christianity is? Next stupid question.
Rudi
Iran isn’t a problem and Iraq is a beacon of democracy, let’s forget about House Foreign Affairs and fight against the “War on Santa”.
JWW
As for the Dahli Lama, I see that as valid, but we are not talking about a communist state and its efforts “China”. I am very sorry that the persecution has been allowed to continue. I was speaking of America.
Dreggas,
You speak of history. I didn’t think that was possible for you, now I see that history can only be important if it serves your cause.
Yeah, the Christian faith still continue’s to try and sell their message but they don’t kill for anymore, they usually make better neighbors for non-christians, as a whole they tend not to isolate people only because of relgion. Yes their are some sect’s who do so, but most don’t. Most could care less.
Dreggas
Hmmm that makes no sense given that I quite frequently refer to history when making an argument especially given the numerous ways in which it is so often repeated, especially by this admin.
Krista
Oh you betcha — throw in holiday stress, the subconscious accounting of everybody’s successes and failures that year (and seeing how your own year compares), add a shitload of Pinot Noir, two females who have quick tempers and are WAY too much alike, and one female (i.e. yours truly) who tries to not take sides, but just winds up pleasing nobody and you have the recipe for some FANTASTIC holiday blowouts. Maybe this year I’ll follow my husband’s lead and my stepdad’s lead and disappear into another part of the house, vodka bottle in tow, when the fur starts flying.
JWW
Dreggas,
Seems as though this blog uses only a specific historical event to strengthen a point of view. They don’t create the picture that may have been a hundred years in the making or the outcome after the event takes place, just the event “it is an easy way to lay blame”, not fully inform. As I said, the only history on this blog is self serving. By far it is not a place to find the truth, just a cause for the blind and lazy.
jake
Good golly, Richard are you so firmly bound (no pun intended) to one role? Better watch that. One day it’s refusing a spanking, next thing you know you’re shopping at Wal*Mart and from there it’s only a short step to voting for the great Elephantine Satan.
jcricket
I recently heard a Jewish comedian say something like: “Great job Jews, with all the stereotyping, why’d we have to go invent a game where we carry around bags of gold coins?”
Kinda funny.
But I digress…. In between my time conducting a stealth war on Christianity from the comfort of my couch (I conduct this war my fast-forwarding through Christmas-themed commercials via my Tivo) I also eat Latkes, which are made with the blood of Christian children.
Mmm, christians. Tasty, tasty christians. Lard-filled.
John S.
Shorter JWW:
History has a liberal bias! I looked up the crusades on Conservapedia, and it says they weren’t all that bad:
Leave it to you moonbats to take the narrow view that crusaders were villains and amoral.
JWW
John S
I would expect someone here to do such deep reading on any given subject. I find the Crusade to be wrong, but it took a little more than a journal entry on the web for me to make a decision. Shallow as you just proved yourself to be, I don’t fault you. You are, as with the rest, way to occupied to find any real answer, your satisfied with anything that meets the criteria of your thought process.
Chris Johnson
This is the one that worries me because it’s as good as a call to holy war. You always cry persecution when you pre-emptively ‘defend yourself’. Worldwide.
I realize it’s nothing more than a political ploy but I’ll still be awfully pleased if anyone has the cojones to resist it. When there is brass in Iraq outright saying it’s a holy war and our God must beat their God, I think I can figure out what the ‘christians’ are doing about their sense of ‘persecution’.
That combined with our sub-Inquisition standards of evidence and legal recourse tell me it’s not really still okay to pat christians on the head and say there there, we’ll do something to make you feel less persecuted. I say shoot that resolution down. Fuck ’em.
JWW
I really do think you may be overlooking the obvious matters of America.. Answer this, when did Ho Ho Ho in the normal mans mind ever represent the word “whore” until the media made you think of it day after day? I say never, and it is now being banned in some places. The main way to change and form a mind is through repetition, the same with a muscle group. We allow ourselves to be influenced in the right or wrong in this manner. If I owned the NYT, BG, CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, or CBS and you watched or read my “repeated” information daily for 30 days it would become a fact in your mind. (New England coming out) Irregardless of the truth, when your mind sustains daily input of the same story with nothing to compete with it, that story will become truth, in your mind.
Chris Johnson,
I say the resolution is a waste of time. You make a mockery of yourself and anyone who believes in anything. Find a hole!
rachel
Hint: JWW’s got one in his head where his brain may have once been.
where
Jeremiah 10, King James version…
r€nato
I have EU citizenship and I know a lovely place in Italy, hint hint ;-)
r€nato
Rush says they’re ‘phony’ Christians.
Christ came before everything. Ev.Ery.Thing.
r€nato
I’d like to know how Xians are persecuted in the US since the resolution itself states they are 3/4 of the population.
cindiloohoo
“Yeah, particularly the Druid ones. The burning people alive in wicker baskets part just ROCKS!”
As opposed to dunking them in a pond, torturing them, and THEN burning them alive at the stake. Oh, and, of course, then confiscating all their property from the grieving family. Yep, the druids were just amateurs compared to the xtians.
Dreggas
looks like they’re taking it to the subways too
JWW
Rachael,
Thanks for the kindness. Someday I’ll return the favor by giving you a much needed flea bath and an internal parasite remover. My says stray canines can be cleaned up and make good pets.