The War on Christmas

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AuthorTopic: The War on Christmas
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/12/national/main3609322.shtml
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
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Hell Alec, that stuff still bothers you? It happens everywhere too, just recently in Portland. Not to point any fingers, but I do hear people making comments like "they had that coming," and "why don't they just try to blend in?"

Those comments come from some of my most fundamental fishing friends. I have to wonder, what exactly is being worshiped these days?

Favorite quote from the piece on CBS News.
quote:
The Post said two of the suspects had been charged with hate crimes in the past.
So, I guess incarceration, or the fine, really had an effect on these young people. Wouldn't their parents be so proud.

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Synergy, et al - "I don't get it."

Thralni - "a lot of people are ... too weird to be trusted"
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It's heroes like Askari that give me hope for humanity. We should all hope to achieve the same level of caliber.

[ Wednesday, December 12, 2007 12:33: Message edited by: Enraged Slith ]

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Posts: 1233 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
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"That's when the Jews killed Jesus."

—Alorael, who isn't sure whether this is more worrying as a sign of baseless hate, a sign of ignorance of Judaism, or a sign of ignorance of Christianity. How long until Easter?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
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quote:
Originally written by Condition:

"That's when the Jews killed Jesus."

—Alorael, who isn't sure whether this is more worrying as a sign of baseless hate, a sign of ignorance of Judaism, or a sign of ignorance of Christianity. How long until Easter?

Of course the Jews killed Jesus on Hanukkah. The Romans did it on Passover.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
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Why don't people just deal with difference (like, in the non-hitty/bashy way?)

Oh, and in my neck of the woods, Santas aren't allowed to yell out "ho, ho, ho!" any more, because it "might be offensive to women". As a woman, if santa said "ho ho ho" to me, I'd yell back something vaguely festive and be about my business.

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Posts: 93 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2007 08:00
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Apparently, some department store idiot thought long and hard about how to justify his existence in the corporate structure. He came up with that restriction on the dialog of in-store Santas. That it was even thought of at all shows a remarkable leap in reasoning. I mean, how often would a whore sit on Santa's lap and get offended by the catch phrase? Any maths people out there care to figure out the odds of that actually occurring?

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Synergy, et al - "I don't get it."

Thralni - "a lot of people are ... too weird to be trusted"
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I don't know. How often do prostitutes mistake a slang term for mirth?

—Alorael, who denounces Santa censorship. The man has been belly-laughing at least as long as the world's oldest profession has been doing its thing. Or at least for a few hundred years, and that's the same thing.

[ Wednesday, December 12, 2007 14:15: Message edited by: Oracularity ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
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It is quite the irony of the ages, using love as an excuse for hate.

I've always wondered why Christians don't celebrate Chanukah. Jesus did.

On a completely different note...
[/sarcasm] why not celebrate Passover? Passover is cool; you'd think about the commonplace obsession with hellfire and brimstone, why not celebrate the final blow? Yeah! Stick it to them Egyptians! Oh wait... it's about a promise to protect, not destroy? Darn. Where is that Elijah character, anyway? He keeps wasting our wine...[/sarcasm]

EDIT: formatting.

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The Silent Assassin wishes you all a wonderful Our Lady of Guadalupe Day. The weather is hot, so is the company. The work, not so much.
Why does he get a vacation now, of all times?

[ Wednesday, December 12, 2007 15:03: Message edited by: Lenar ]

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Posts: 735 | Registered: Monday, January 16 2006 08:00
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"Bias attack" has to be just about the worst euphemism I've ever heard.

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Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
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I don't think that it's a concern of offending prostitutes, I think they're trying to say that women will take offense at "being called a ho" when they aren't one. I could understand if some punk kid said it to you, but when it's a jolly fat man in a suit around christmas, I think most women would go "oh, that's okay, Santa says ho ho ho and he doesn't mean anything by it!"

My gods, people can be stupid. If someone got offended by Santa saying ho ho ho, what SHOULD have been done is that the idiot in question should have been told "get over it!" no "aww poor baby, we'll make it illegal for Santa to say something he's been saying for ages without any trouble at all"

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Posts: 93 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2007 08:00
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One of the attackers who had previously been charged with hates crimes said that this couldn't have been a hate crime because his mother is Jewish. When he was charged with a hate crime for assault on a black man, he said that he was a two-star general in the Bloods and that most of his friends were black and Spanish.

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Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
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quote:
Originally written by Lucheiah:

no "aww poor baby, we'll make it illegal for Santa to say something he's been saying for ages without any trouble at all"
Because what the disadvantaged need is more condescension, right?

The explanation given by Salmon is a splendid one. No need to involve that nonsense into this; it's a slippery slope from there to babbling 'oh, boo hoo, poor widdle baby got his feeeelings hurt' at congregants in a mosque defaced with swastikas. That is something people do, and it is wrong.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
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When it a mosque defaced with swastikas, then yes, it's a horrible thing and action should be taken. However, when it's someone somehow construing insult from a shopping-centre Santa bellowing out "Ho Ho Ho!" then is it not the responsibility of thinking people to take a step back and say, "hang on a minute, would you care to explain why exactly you're suddenly offended by this? Santa has said ho ho ho pretty much forever, so let's apply a bit of logic to this - he's not saying it as an attack against women."

Back to the OP, though, I salute the young Muslim man for coming to the victims' aid; I'm disgusted by the attackers' attitudes and I wish people would just behave in a civilised way (i.e. saying thank you when wished a happy chanuka instead of pounding someone's head in).

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I watched a segment on the news concerning the fact the surgeon general stated that Santa Claus should lose the belly as it sets a poor example for children. The news segment later added that Santa used to smoke a pipe.

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Posts: 1384 | Registered: Tuesday, February 6 2007 08:00
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quote:
Originally written by Excalibur:

I watched a segment on the news concerning the fact the surgeon general stated that Santa Claus should lose the belly as it sets a poor example for children. The news segment later added that Santa used to smoke a pipe.
Watching television, especially the news, causes brain rot.

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Synergy, et al - "I don't get it."

Thralni - "a lot of people are ... too weird to be trusted"
Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
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quote:
Originally written by Excalibur:

I watched a segment on the news concerning the fact the surgeon general stated that Santa Claus should lose the belly as it sets a poor example for children. The news segment later added that Santa used to smoke a pipe.
In all seriousness, it's generally taken as a positive development that there's far less smoking on TV and in movies than there used to be - part of a social stigma on tobacco in general that has come with the general recognition that it's a terrible and addictive drug with little going for it.

I do resent the belly thing. Obesity is a class issue; we pay most people too little to buy decent food on a day-by-day basis, so they stock up for two weeks, gorge themselves, go hungry for a few days waiting for pay, and then stock up for another two weeks, filling the gaps with McDonalds and other horrible junk food.

When your paycheck forces a binge cycle on you, treating your weight like it's an issue of personal laziness is monstrous.
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
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To add to what Alec has said about the obese class.

Due to the recent flooding in my zip code, I have been volunteering with cleanup. Part of that was cleaning and repairing the building which houses the food bank. I was astounded, and depressed to learn that 99% of the food in any given food bank is prepared food. No raw ingredients, just packaged and ready to eat. It is that type of mentality which creates obesity. It isn't okay to have 100% of your diet be breakfast bars, lunchables, and Hamburger Helper.

Bleagh.

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Synergy, et al - "I don't get it."

Thralni - "a lot of people are ... too weird to be trusted"
Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
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Unless you have a hire assistant, it is extremely inconvenient to purchase food on a daily basis. Unless you are genetically predisposed, obesity is mostly a matter of willpower, not when your paycheck arrives...

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Lt. Sullust
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Posts: 2462 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
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I agree. I get paid fortnightly, so payday is when I pay my rent and buy food for the fortnight. I get anal and plan our meals in advance so I know what I have to get, and neither my husband or I are obese despite buying fortnightly. Sure, we occasionally get maccas or pizza but we don't live on it continually for a few days at a time. It's a matter of thinking about what you're eating, buying healthy food and eating a balanced diet, it has nothing to do with how often you go shopping for food.

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quote:
Originally written by Lt. Sullust:

Unless you have a hire assistant, it is extremely inconvenient to purchase food on a daily basis. Unless you are genetically predisposed, obesity is mostly a matter of willpower, not when your paycheck arrives...
That's easy to say when you're rich enough to buy an oven and keep it in working order. If you can't spare several thousand dollars for that, cooking your own meals instead of buying them premade becomes a non-trivial task -- and if you have a stove but no oven, most of what you do cook is likely to be fried.

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I suppose I hadn't considered that...or the convenience of having a refridgerator for that matter. Cooking food doesn't have all that much of an impact in my mind, it's more a matter of convenience. Certainly you wouldn't have access to as large a variety of food, but there would be more than enough to get by. Not being able to store it in a refridgerator, though poses definite problems. Then the time of year is a great deal of concern. Foods such as fruits won't last long in the summer. There are still healthy options available; however, it certainly makes things more difficult.

[ Thursday, December 13, 2007 04:48: Message edited by: Lt. Sullust ]

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Lt. Sullust
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quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

That's easy to say when you're rich enough to buy an oven and keep it in working order. If you can't spare several thousand dollars for that[...]
God, I hope you're exaggerating.
Posts: 353 | Registered: Monday, January 9 2006 08:00
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Ah, the thread title brings back memories. It's that time of the year again. I wonder if ORLY and his pundit colleagues will try this OMGantichristianpersecution stunt again this year?

[ Thursday, December 13, 2007 10:55: Message edited by: Arancaytar ]

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quote:
Originally written by Arancaytar:

Ah, the thread title brings back memories. It's that time of the year again. I wonder if ORLY and his pundit colleagues will try this OMGantichristianpersecution stunt again this year?
Loose lips and all that? :P

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Synergy, et al - "I don't get it."

Thralni - "a lot of people are ... too weird to be trusted"
Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00

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