and I’m not even Christian. In fact, it annoys me when people refuse to say it. And please say Happy Hanukkah to me, not Happy Time When You Light All Those Candles For Some Reason.
Another one from Linda in Tennessee, found in her favorite bumper sticker hunting ground, the Costco parking lot in Nasheville:
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Comments
Your attitude is more universal than you might think, Professor….although I suspect you already know it. We live in a 90% Arab Muslim neighborhood, where some pundits allege they hate people like us, and virtually everyone says “Merry Christmas” to me, some even drop off small gifts. No one seems to have a problem with my die hard support for Israel and the Israeli people either … it has been the topic of multiple conversations, where I’m given the courtesy of listening, even if agreement isn’t generally there … as I explain why I feel as I do. No small thing, in my opinion, since they also all know I was Army until I retired.
I’m sure there are some nut jobs around here, but they don’t get in my face. It might be that the majority here are Shia’ refugees from their birth county’s tyranny. Whatever it is, the cases where things “Christian” are challenged, or hyped, it is invariably out of towners or a few locals who have political agendas unrelated to normal day to day life.
I live in the deep South (with an overtly Christian culture)so this was a real surprise for me yesterday. I went to Petsmart and on the glass front door was a list of stencilled holiday greetings. First on the list was Happy Kwanzaa, second on the list was Happy Holidays, and then there were a couple of others – no mention of Christmas anywhere. I live in the country and have 5 of my own animals and feed several strays so I spend around $50 a week on cat and dog food. That $50 will be spent at the grocery store from now on; no more Petsmart for me.
Gadem, check the prices of dog food on Legal Insurrection’s Amazon links. You should be pleasantly surprised at the prices. Buy an Amazon Prime shipping deal for, I think $75.00 a year and you can find most everything you wish to purchase qualifies for free shipping.
Speaking of dogs, this is an excuse to call to the attention of some of my newer readers Rocky The Border Terrier (1994-2011)
On principle, I refuse to say happy Kwanzaa and even publicly mock this anti-Christian ‘holiday’ created by a rapist.
The subject of this post is political correctness, but since Aridog has opened a can of worms, I’ll veer off subject here.
Out of curiosity (and the usual dearth of anything to be found worth watching on TV), we watched “Islamophobia” on the Vanguard program on Algore’s Current TV Friday after Thanksgiving. the founder of the English Defence League was interviewed/videoed driving through a Muslim enclave in England. A Muslim walked over to the car, shouted insults and slapped the Englishman through the open window. Following his non-physical retaliation policy, he simply continued driving, but as cell phones spread word of his presence, Muslim men poured out into the streets.
Perhaps in Algore’s alternate reality, the existence of the English Defence League is proof of Islamophobia, but in the real world, the spread of “no-go zones” in England, France and Europe will be the “USA-yet-to-come”, if not opposed.
http://www.geographictravels.com/2006/11/no-go-areas-of-france-and-rest-of.html
there are 85 Sharia courts in Great Britain. why must Sharia law be kept out of the US? because US law does not allow honor killings, wife beating and female genital mutilation.
http://thereligionofpeace.com/
Opening a can of worms was furthest from my mind here. My point, perhaps poorly posed, was simply that this political correctness is sponsored by a minority of agenda wonks and their self serving publicity efforts. In my neighborhood the vast majority of people do NOT have issues with Christmas, yet the stores, media, and wonks come out of the woodwork to raise issues about it. Just having a manger display in front of city hall is cause for righteous indignation by outsiders or small local agenda groups such as CAIR. We get nut jobs from Florida or California visiting to “protest” Sharia law here, when it does not exist here.
The lack of similar normalcy in England and Europe is not a problem we have in general here, in the largest Muslim enclave in the USA. The idea that we do is projection on the part of those who do not live here. I’d not live here if it was anything like what is described in Europe. Although secular myself, my better half is Roman Catholic, and we both try to live by the old cliche’ of treat others as we’d like to be treated … and it appears to work out that way. If it didn’t I’d hew to my tongue in cheek version: “Do unto others as they’d do unto you, but do it first!” So far, that has been wholly unnecessary.
In short, I have no use for self-anointed troublemakers … who would disrupt the peace we enjoy.
Mostly to annoy people, I as a non-Christian and politically incorrect person that I am, say,
“Happy ChristiKwanziChah”
As a Judaeo-Christian, I find that greeting very offensive. The idea of Kwanzaa is the rejection of the Judaeo-Christian God, the embrace of anthropocentrism and ethnocentrism. Furthermore, it’s view of Western slave history is ahistorical. Anybody who wished me what you did would receive the sharp side of my tongue. Invent what you want. Leave Judaeo-Christianity alone.
He wants you to be offended. Don’t take the bait by acknowledging the comment.
Yes, he appears to worship the Troll god….
Mostly to annoy people…
In other words, you readily admit you’re part of the problem.
Thanks for saving me the trouble of paying any attention to you from now on.
I, a christian, sometimes do similar to point out the absurdity of the politically correct fallacy.
I find it especially interesting, gadem, since the majority of the shopping beyond “necessities” these next few weeks is for Christmas.
I find it somewhat cowardly and of course, insincere, since they are trying so hard to appease a few people who probably don’t even shop there enough to make up for the lost income from folks like you that will be turned off and away from their store.
They are free to put up whatever they want…but then, you are free to shop anywhere you want. Seems ingenuous/silly to me.
Especially given their “diversity and inclusion” policy: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=93506&p=irol-diversity
Merry Christmas to you, Happy Hannukah to Prof Jacobson. Happy Solstice! Ancestors Day! And Happy Kwannza/Festivus/othermadeupholiday as well!
Frankly, for me it is all about the parties and being with people I enjoy being around.
And I say that as an atheist, with no particular axe to grind for any religious group.
Saying Happy Kwanza since 1966.
” It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated in 1966–1967.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa
From the wiki article:
Commercialization, political correctness, and greeting pleasantries of the season aside, Kwaanza (ditto Saturnalia, et al.) simply are not on a par with Christmas, and it seems to me should not be implicitly accorded that status.
Additionally, Hanukkah — which our family celebrates too, given a mixed heritage — is an uplifting but very minor Jewish holiday that also should not be held on a par with Christmas, as if it is the “Jewish Christmas” or holiday consolation prize for Jewish children. Doing so seems denigrating of both religions and obscures what is meaningful. Drove me nuts years ago when teachers in my kids’ elementary schools did that.
Perhaps I’m being overly sensitive, since “Happy New Year” also has been thrown into the celebratory mix. Perhaps it’s all only about brightening up a dreary time of year — with anything, the undifferentiated winter break festivities. But the “holiday season” celebrations and striving for inclusiveness in the public schools and employment sectors aside, this seems to me to facilitate the subsuming of something more important.
So Kwanza belongs right next to Planned Parenthood: based on hate, loved by liberals with a White-washed past. Too bad. We have enough hate without people actively campaigning for it.
Did you see something about the Chinese putting a stop to non-productive college majors? Like Africology maybe?
Happy Hanukkah to you, Professor!
Happy Chanukkah, Wm.
It is the essence of grinchliness to take offense, or to intentionally offend, acquaintances over a holiday.
I have observed people with a true reverence for God yet having a wide variety of viewpoints (including the agnostics!), and every one of them is happy to take a holiday greeting from any and all traditions. They seem to accept that their idea of God encompasses only a portion of what He is.
Yeah, Kwanzaa is a fake holiday of recent origin, and it has elements of a reaction against Christianity. That really doesn’t offend me, because I see it as a reaction against Christians acting in an unChristian manner. If somebody needs to recast the whole holiday in order to preserve its values, so be it. People do tend to confuse the sins of loudmouth believers with faults in the religion. They may be wrong, but they still hurt. Blacks aren’t the only people who hate Christmas because they’ve been mistreated by sinning Christians. The most vivid example of this I ever encountered was a bitter divorced woman who used to make a big deal about Christmas with her family, before she caught her husband….
So, I say “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men of good will.”
Our culture is the whole ball game … and the left is still trying to march through the institutions to destroy what’s made us a great nation … our Judeo-Christian foundation.
Dennis Prager, a Jew, wrote a wonderful column, which he uses as a basis for a speech he gives to corporations about not renaming the Christmas Party the “Holiday Party.” As he says, being invited to the Christmas Party as a Jew or Muslim or atheist, etc., shows that Americans are inclusive.
I love the fact my kids have come home on numerous occasions with dreidels with which they’ve played and sung songs.
That’s America.
America is not Kwanzaa … no matter how much the educational packets the teachers buy around this time for lesson plans tell them. Kwanzaa gets equal billing with Christmas and Hannukah in school performances even though, as my son says, “None of the black kids in school celebrate Kwanzaa.” It’s madness, their trying to push this down our throats.
Of course, the lefty parents (who are always very strident) eat it up. A few years ago, when our son’s class “Winter Party” was being organized, the room mother told my wife to bring plates, napkins, etc., “… with no design on them. If you want a design, make sure it’s snowflakes.”
I told my wife I’d consider divorce if she didn’t bring plates and napkins with baby Jesus on them, to which she replied, “You do it. These people are insane!”
I don’t know why, but it’s always around this time of year that there are a couple of young law-student looking types with petitions on clipboards outside my local Trader Joes asking customers exiting the store to sign something for the ACLU. The last time they asked me, I politely said with a smile, “No thank you, but I wish you guys a Merry Christmas!”
The sour, silent expressions I got were priceless. I was up for a little light-hearted back and forth … to show good will … that we can agree to disagree and still kid each other. But no … these little legal jihadists looked like they wanted to stone me then and there. That’s what’s wrong with these people … no sense of humor. Taking life and oneself and one’s ideology that seriously is a dangerous thing.
LukeHandCool (whose kids’ frequent singing of “Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel …” gets it stuck in Luke’s head and he can’t get it out for hours sometimes. And who always thought it was cool (especially as a shameless namedropper) that his childhood best friend, a Jew, was second cousins with William Shatner … but Luke’s son has that beat … his son’s best friend is the grand-nephew of Bugsy Siegel … now that’s cool … if true … Luke still has to confirm it with the boy’s father).
Our culture is the whole ball game … and the left is still trying to march through the institutions to destroy what’s made us a great nation …
Precisely.
While the pro-slavery and pro-choice people to denigrate or tolerate denigration of individual dignity and normalize progressive involuntary exploitation and selective liberty were a black mark on America, the Christians have demonstrated a far better record of respecting others than their nearest competitors: atheists, Muslims, and others who realize their faith through a left-wing ideology (i.e. authoritarian).
When in America, do as the Americans do. Merry Christmas!
Retail stores are so worried about offending some non Christian buyers that they don’t realize that Christians are the majority shoppers this season and they are really offending them. And every season for that matter. The name of the game is Christmas presents. Of all kinds. These stores will lose customers and for what? It’s kind of crazy in this down climate where no one has much money but people are willing to buy toys and presents. You have to wonder about their mentality.
I have been in stores and been wished happy holidays even in the deep south. I always respond with Merry Christmas. There were a few times when it bothered me so much that I told them “no, not happy holidays, its’s Merry Christmas.” The employees of these stores have no choice though. This is the store policy so there’s no use in getting mad at the hapless employees. I did it hoping the employee would report it and maybe change the store policy.
The white fleurdelise on azure is the flag of Quebec. The license plate was not shown. How encouraging to see a Quebecoise with the chutzpah to publicly make that statement.
Canada´s prime minister is also a brave man to defend Israel no matter the cost. http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20101108/harper-israel-101108/
I generally agree with this statement, however, although we have a Jewish home and celebrate Hanukkah, my in-laws are Catholic. Most of my Russian Jewish relatives celebrate New Year with a New Year tree. So I order “Happy holidays” cards from Shatterfly.