Annual War on Reason Post

[Originally Published 9-Dec-2005 - I still feel the same way and have little to add, except that maybe this year there is some room for hope and a few less people watching Fox News.]

[ 2007-12-25 Update Ned's post reminded me to do this again this year.]

The War on Christmas is already old news. The fact that people actually discuss it doesn’t surprise me anymore, but it only adds to my post-outrage fatigue. How is that people in this 21st century, living in the wealthiest nation on earth, with access to instant information can be so willfully ignorant? How many people know that Constantine and The Church decided to merge the winter pagan celebration and other European customs with the birth of Jesus for political reasons? How many Christians have ever even heard of Yule?

The very idea that mega-corporations are bowing to pressure from “secularists” because their advertisements say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” should be classed as satire. Does anyone who truly understands the teachings of Jesus Christ actually believe that he would condone the way our culture celebrates his “birthday?” That he would prefer that the corporations who, in order to increase their wealth by appealing to the greed in his potential disciples use the term “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”? That he would turn a blind-eye to the suffering of so many at the hands of so few and actually promote the corporate agenda whose only purpose in life is to generate wealth through exploitation? That the actions of our president and our government and our corporations and all of us are perfectly acceptable but the words “Happy Holidays” are offensive?

Please.

The Best Scrooge Was George C. Scott

From The Archives. Seems even more apt today than it did two years ago.


By now, I’m certain everyone who has stumbled across this blog has seen the Cheney video.

“Go F#$k yourself Mister Cheney.” As people have pointed out, he is genuinely amused by the episode. He smiles and immediately turns it to his advantage by referencing John Kerry.

It reminded me of George C. Scott’s brilliant portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge. Over the years, the Alistair Sim Scrooge has been celebrated as the standard by which all others are judged, but I do not share that opinion. I think Scott’s Scrooge is by far the best, because he is gleefully mean. He is his own audience, and he is greatly amused by his miserliness and his callous indifference to suffering.

The classic scene is when he is approached by businessmen for a contribution to charity. He welcomes this opportunity to express his disdain for the poor. He appears to live for moments such as these. When he first encounters them, they say something like, “Mr. Scrooge, I don’t believe you’ve made our acquaintance” and he mutters with a wry grin, “Nor do I wish to.” They then go on to explain to him about the suffering children, the whole exchange about “Are there no prisons? No work farms?” The defining moment though, is when they tell him that conditions are so bad that some would rather die, and he says, (paraphrased from memory) “Well, if they’d rather die then let them die. It will reduce the surplus (laughing!) population.” There is the difference. Alistair Sim delivers those lines in anger, but Scott delivers them with glee, reveling in the fact that he is so clever in his meanness. He is proud of being such a scoundrel. He loves being a miser.

That is precisely the way I see Dick Cheney.

By the way, I still haven't figured out exactly why, but I find it wildly enteraining that the off-camera protagonist chose to call him "Mister" Cheney.

Matchbox

Derek and the Dominoes, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins doing Matchbox live on TV.

Very cool.

Refuckingpublicans

I just googled that word.

Zero hits.

Does that mean, then, that I can lay claim to that word?

At least now, if someone else (after a few days)googles that word, they'll end up here.