P.C. Christmas

"Hello, it's winter".

A great column by Edward L. Daley at The American Thinker, Dec. 10:

Now that December has finally rolled around again, the time has come for all of us to take a few moments out of our busy, workaday lives and thank the American Civil Liberties Union for all it does throughout the year on behalf of each and every U.S. citizen.

After all, if it weren't for the unyielding efforts of ACLU lawyers, there's no telling how many school children this year would have been forced by their teachers to grapple with unsavory concepts like personal responsibility, religious freedom, sexual abstinence, capitalism, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, and the dreaded G-word (formerly known as God)....

And here's a fine rant by Darren Bernard at Minnesota Daily, today:

If I hear one more whiny group of secular fanatics throw another petulant hissy fit about “oppressive” Christmas trees, the true “connotations” of red and green or “tyrannical” Christmas songs, I’m going to start decking the halls with these nuts.

If liberals were half as upset about terrorists driving planes into buildings as they are about Christmas, we might have Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s head tattooed to the Oval Office door. But liberals would rather have Rudolph’s.

I don’t get it. What about Christ’s birth makes the far left repulse like Maureen Dowd from a cogent argument?...

Finally, a related item, by John Leo in U.S. News & World Report, Dec. 27, 1993.

And Joseph went up from Galilee to Bethlehem with Mary, his espoused wife, who was great with child. And she brought forth a son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

And the angel of the Lord spoke to the shepherds and said, "I bring you tidings of great joy. Unto you is born a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."

"There's a problem with the angel," said a Pharisee who happened to be strolling by. As he explained to Joseph, angels are widely regarded as religious symbols, and the stable was on public property where such symbols were not allowed to land or even hover.

"And I have to tell you, this whole thing looks to me very much like a Nativity scene," he said sadly. "That's a no-no, too." Joseph had a bright idea. "What if I put a couple of reindeer over there near the ox and ass?" he said, eager to avoid sectarian strife.

"That would definitely help," said the Pharisee, who knew as well as anyone that whenever a savior appeared, judges usually liked to be on the safe side and surround it with deer or woodland creatures of some sort. "Just to clinch it, throw in a candy cane and a couple of elves and snowmen, too," he said. "No court can resist that."

Mary asked, "What does my son's birth have to do with snowmen?" "Snowpersons," cried a young woman, changing the subject before it veered dangerously toward religion.

Off to the side of the crowd, a Philistine was painting the Nativity scene. Mary complained that she and Joseph looked too tattered and worn in the picture. "Artistic license," he said. "I've got to show the plight of the haggard homeless in a greedy, uncaring society in winter," he quipped. "We're not haggard or homeless. The inn was just full," said Mary. "Whatever," said the painter.

Two women began to argue fiercely. One said she objected to Jesus' birth "because it privileged motherhood." The other scoffed at virgin births, but said that if they encouraged more attention to diversity in family forms and the rights of single mothers, well, then, she was all for them.

"I'm not a single mother," Mary started to say, but she was cut off by a third woman who insisted that swaddling clothes are a form of child abuse, since they restrict the natural movement of babies.

With the arrival of 10 child advocates, all trained to spot infant abuse and manger rash, Mary and Joseph were pushed to the edge of the crowd, where arguments were breaking out over how many reindeer (or what mix of reindeer and seasonal sprites) had to be installed to compensate for the infant's unfortunate religious character.

An older man bustled up, bowling over two merchants, who had been busy debating whether an elf is the same as a fairy and whether the elf/fairy should be shaking hands with Jesus in the crib or merely standing to the side, jumping around like a sports mascot.

"I'd hold off on the reindeer," the man said, explaining that the use of asses and oxen as picturesque backdrops for Nativity scenes carries the subliminal message of human dominance.

He passed out two leaflets, one denouncing manger births as invasions of animal space, the other arguing that stables are "penned environments" where animals are incarcerated against their will. He had no opinion about elves or candy canes.

Signs declaring "Free the Bethlehem 2" began to appear, referring to the obviously exploited ass and ox. Someone said the halo on Jesus' head was elitist.

Mary was exasperated. "And what about you, old mother?" she said sharply to an elderly woman. "Are you here to attack the shepherds as prison guards for excluded species, maybe to complain that singing in Latin identifies us with our Roman oppressors, or just to say that I should have skipped patriarchal religiosity and joined some dumb new-age goddess religion?"

"None of the above," said the woman, "I just wanted to tell you that the Magi are here." Sure enough, the three wise men rode up.

The crowd gasped, "They're all male!" And "Not very multicultural!" "Balthasar here is black," said one of the Magi. "Yes, but how many of you are gay or disabled?" someone shouted. A committee was quickly formed to find an impoverished lesbian wise-person among the halt and lame of Bethlehem.

A calm voice said, "Be of good cheer, Mary, you have done well and your son will change the world." At last, a sane person, Mary thought.

She turned to see a radiant and confident female face. The woman spoke again: "There is one thing, though. Religious holidays are important, but can't we learn to celebrate them in ways that unite, not divide?

For instance, instead of all this business about 'Gloria in excelsis Deo,' why not just 'Season's Greetings'?" Mary said, "You mean my son has entered human history to deliver the message, 'Hello, it's winter'?" "That's harsh, Mary," said the woman.

"Remember, your son could make it big in midwinter festivals, if he doesn't push the religion thing too far. Centuries from now, in nations yet unborn, people will give each other pricey gifts and have big office parties on his birthday. That's not chopped liver."

"Let me get back to you," Mary said.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 12/13/04 06:07:44 PM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.

Re: Newspaper Reporter Brags to Colleagues About Surreptitiously Manipulating News Conference

Confer.

Edward Lee Pitts, of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, is identified as a reporter for "Military Affairs".

I wonder, Faithful Reader, what education & experience of his specifically qualifies him to be a military-affairs reporter........

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 12/13/04 05:43:01 PM
Categorized as Media.

It Doesn't Get Much Plainer

Margaret Havemann writes at the Daily Michigan, the newspaper of the University of Michigan, Dec. 10:

Many students at top schools, like the University say that not only are they exposed to liberal viewpoints during lectures, but also that they must agree with their professors’ political views to succeed in classes, according to a new study....

Monika Chaudhry, an LSA freshman from Ohio, describes herself as very conservative. Even though she is taking English literature classes, she said most of her professors have liberal political views.

“I came to Michigan knowing that it was a very liberal school, so I was prepared to not take offense,” said Chaudhry.

But she said what tipped her off to the liberal bias was when her professors, who had been vocal about the presidential election all year, suddenly lost their voice when President Bush won last month’s election.

“This silence,” she said, “revealed a lot about their political views.”

John Campbell, a professor of political science with avowedly liberal views, said the liberal tilt in the social science faculty is only natural.

Those people attracted to teaching are usually those who are interested in current events, he said. And those who keep up with current events by reading the newspaper and watching the news are more likely than not going to be left-leaning, he added. “The liberal position just makes more sense.”

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 12/13/04 08:17:22 AM
Categorized as Educational.

Hollywood and The Passion of the Christ

Over the past couple of weeks, I've received two requests to support campaign(s) — I don't remember if they're related campaigns — to get Mel Gibson's movie nominated & awarded at the Oscars and, maybe, for some other award. (As you might gather, I don't pay much attention to those kinds of things.)

I have been pondering these requests. I have decided to decline to support them or give them any publicity.

Why in the world should good Christian people care whether the narcissistic, sycophantic, anti-religious, anti-family, anti-American, pro-baby-killing, pro-sexual-perversion, hypocritical filthy-rich Marxoids of the entertainment world give awards to a particular movie?

If, at bottom, you just want the Hollywood Vacuumheads to admit that good Christian people actually exist — well, forget it. I should think it far more likely that they would deliberately use the occasion to snub us than to admit, even grudgingly, that we exist. Besides, I rather imagine that they'll be eager to use the occasion to pay back the American heartland for having denied the White House to the savior of the leftist, globalist cause in the November election.

If that's what you'd like to prevent — again, I ask why.

And I'll give the last word to Cardinal Newman:

.... Look around, and see what the world presents of high and low. Go to the court of princes. See the treasure and skill of all nations brought together to honour a child of man. Observe the prostration of the many before the few. Consider the form and ceremonial, the pomp, the state, the circumstance; and the vainglory. Do you wish to know the worth of it all? look at the Cross of Christ.

Go to the political world: see nation jealous of nation, trade rivalling trade, armies and fleets matched against each other. Survey the various ranks of the community, its parties and their contests, the strivings of the ambitious, the intrigues of the crafty. What is the end of all this turmoil? the grave. What is the measure? the Cross.

Go, again, to the world of intellect and science: consider the wonderful discoveries which the human mind is making, the variety of arts to which its discoveries give rise, the all but miracles by which it shows its power; and next, the pride and confidence of reason, and the absorbing devotion of thought to transitory objects, which is the consequence. Would you form a right judgment of all this? look at the Cross....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 12/13/04 07:35:19 AM
Categorized as Media & Religious.

Re: The Bleg from the Core I

I am happy to be able to report to you, Faithful Reader, that generous responses to my bleg will cover my Internet expenses for November, December, and January. So, I will not have to bleg again until February.

Thank you.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 12/13/04 07:15:43 AM
Categorized as Blog Stuff.