Fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here, Andrew Bolt and Tim Blair scour the world looking for signs of the war against Christmas.
Bolt: No! Not the Jooos!
Seattle airport pulls down its Christmas trees. The outrage this should cause might be more self-protectingly muted this time, given the faith of this particular bigot.
Blair: No! Not the Catholics.
Usually in these cases it turns out that Muslims aren’t at all upset, and that the action has been taken by pre-emptive wimps anticipating Muslim anger. Which tells you something about how whipped are certain societies.
Saving Christmas so we don’t have to.
I think the standard symbols of Christmas are silly but just because it’s not very typically Australian to have snow covered pine trees and fat men in winter clothing in December.
We should have the Easter Bilby and the Christmas Surf Life Saver, or something.
Speaking of symbolism, what about the dead body of Pinochet dropped from a helicopter? Can’t believe this is the first post on this subject.
In the USA, for the past three years every December, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly have been screaming down the airwaves about how xmas is under attack from the commies, lefties, jews, muslims etc etc. Books have been written, shopping malls have capitulated, and americans are invited to snarl at their neighbours during the festive season.
Our very own culture warriors, Bolt and Blair are playing from exactly the same songbook – hoping to generate a headline. Its all part of the tiresome culture wars that we have imported from america over the past decade. These guys have got nothing to talk about now that the Iraq war is “going badly” and howard is looking tired and confused and Rudd is looking presidential.
How pathetic.
Not to worry to much though.
The Chinese and Japanese have embraced Christmas , all the decorations, the festive season music and the endless rounds of christmas drinking parties and dinners .
Only a few christians exist in these countries and the churches they follow vary for the traditional anglican and catholic to the more austere and evangelical.
So perhaps if want some of that traditional Chrissie spirit you might be best advised to head for an aetheist country.
In 20 years living here I’ve not heard of any complaints about these growing and ehthusiatic embraces of a foreign festival and I’m not sure how the locals would react if someone did complain.
Maybe Blair and Bolt should organise a Christmas Observance patrol? You know, patrol shopping centers and schools to ensure that the proper Christmas spirit is being adhered to; the right amount of tinsel, santas etc Would give them something constructive to do.
Further to what grace said, A Jon Stewart smack down on Bill O’Reilly from last year.
A War on Christmas carrol, which may be of interest to Mr Bolt and Mr Blair.
The British Grauniad, Friday Dec 8th, had an article on ‘The Phoney War on Christmas’. There, as in AUS and USA, the droids, steroids and tabloids of the lunar right spend December screeching that Christmas is under attack from the godless forces of Other Religions, Foreigners, Immigrants, and ultra-PC pinko lefty small-l liberal wimps. The Guardian exposes most of the British PC-Grinch stories of the last few years as the hallucinations we would expect of the lunar right. Tracking them back to the slim bases that they have in reality is fascinating, though.
NB, I was in Japan a couple of weekends ago, and the Xmas decorations in the shopping malls were way in advance of where they were in, say, the local W*stf*eld at home. Santas everywhere, and none of them nailed to a crucifix.
Mssrs. Bolt and Blair,
Scour no longer! I have been receiving the war dispatches over at The War on Christmas!
You are cordially invited to drop in and peruse to your heart’s content. You may even leave comments!
These pisstaking round-ups of the MSM are good value, Phil. Keep it up.
Hey I’m no Christian, but it seems to me that the true meaning of Christmas has been under attack for ages. Unless of course crass capitalism, credit card debt, gluttony and family violence are part of traditional Christmas celebrations.
Note – via QLD police, Christmas day is the biggest day of the year for domestic and family violence incidents.
Bolt and Blair would be better off going to IRAQ and begging forgiveness from the IRAQ people over the war they so keenly supported and backed.
As for Christmas, Bah Humbug, should only be for kids under 10
What would Jesus think about Christmas?
All I’ll say is I prefer it to Easter.
Not if my henchmen hadn’t been so incompetent.
You can’t get good henchmen these days.
We till doing Boxing Day lunch at your place, Jesus? If you do the seafood for the barbecue this year I’ll lay on a couple of cases of beer and wine—and none of your miracles like that time at Cana, you show off. If you ring the Buddha, Lord Krishna, and the Prophet (pbuh), I’ll organise Lilith, Shiva, Bacchus, and Aphrodite.
You know my number.
What would Jesus think about Christmas? says Katz.
More importantly, what does Bono think about Christmas?
Sounds like a blast DD. And yes, thanks to Iron Maiden I’ll never forget your number.
Buddha’s a bit too serene for my taste, but the upside is he’s easily pleased. Just give him an ipod full of Beastie Boys, he’ll be in his own personal Nirvana.
Krishna can’t keep his hands to himself, bit I’ll warn the wife and kids. Should keep Aphro busy at least LOL! BTW, can you get her to wear what she wore last time? w00t!
The Prophet? OK, I’ll let that one go. Humility and all that. Note to self: lamb & rosemary snags only.
Lilith. Sheesh, it’s been a while. She’s a blast, but you wouldn’t want her for a mother LOL! Note to self#2: send the kids to mum’s place.
What’s Shiva doing down there? Always seemed a decent chap to me. I’ll have words with Peter if he wants.
Bacchus? “A couple of cases”? Dude, you better lay on some serious plonk. Not that I want to tell you your job or nothin’
Shall I ask Dad? We wouldn’t want to look like anti-semites, now.
Hey, who stole my gravatar?
Damn you FDB!!!
Joe2 – I’ll ask him at our weekly meeting tomorrow and get back to you.
Shiva gets let in everywhere, let me tell you that he’s always there organising the start of the party, and stays right until the end to shut it down too. (Unlike me, as I seem to be getting old in this form).
How could I have forgotten? I’ll get in touch with Selassie I and his bunch too, and they can bring their own gear.
He says he doesn’t, but we all know he does.
Yeah some people need to lighten up and enjoy it.
Happy Christmas everyone.
It will always be Saturnalia to me. Damn those Christers to hell for hijacking the best party around to preach goodwill and eggnoggy mercy.
It’s not a real yule tree until there’s a real angel on top, pinioned by the wings with a staple gun, while we swig brandy and jig to pagan drums and the Best of the Brothers Johnson, Vol 1.
Saint, I love it!
And it highlights a number of things Bolt and co always overlook. One is that in many parts of the world where there are different relgions side by side, it’s common for people to join in with each other in celebrating each other’s feasts. In Syria Christians and Muslims celebrate each others feasts together, will even even share shrines to important saints. Likewise in many parts of India, HIndus, Muslims Christians and others celebrate each other’s fstivals and many saint shrines are chared sites of veneration for Muslims and HIndus and Sikhs (even some Christians) Bolt would be better off writing a column on the joys of Diwali. I like how in Brisbane the Buddhist festival of Vesak has become a publicly observed event at Southbank every May
Or if they want to focus on the real enemies of Christmas then they should turn on the commercial corporate sector who’ve radically transformd the festival over the last few decades. After all, as the YouTube clip reminds us there are 12 days of Christmas starting on Dec 24/25 and going through to Epiphany on jan 6. And traditionally the Christmas doesn’t end until Candlemas on Feb 2. But for the corporates, Dec 25 is just a day of rest to prepare for the real festival of profligate consumption
THE BOXING DAY SALES!!!!
BTW I really want to put a bomb under officeworks for their nauseating ad and it’s sale catalogue version of a favorite carol of mine, Joy to the World. And a pox on SBS for playing it relentlessly
That’s right, Michael, ecumenism is the way of the future. I know I love to make *personal* visits around the Muslim world just before the end of Eid, bringing bottles of duty-free Scotch, German skin mags and Turkish hash cakes.
Nabakov, to my infernal mind the best celebrations aren’t calendar-based at all, but geographical. I mourn the demise of the age of sail/steam and large passenger liners—the Equator-crossing boozed-up orgies of passenger-hazing used to beat every ‘religious’ festival you could think of.
A large charge of Christmas cheer to you, Devil Drink.
Enjoy yourself and remain whole.
Those Evil PC UK Teachers have struck again….
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,20961564-5005361,00.html
Kids told straight – Santa’s not realFrom correspondents in London
December 21, 2006 12:53pm
Article from: AAP
A SCHOOL in England has been forced to apologise after a teacher told his nine- and 10-year-old students that Santa wasn’t real.
The apology came after the teacher at Ladysmith junior school in Exeter, in England’s southwest, stunned her young pupils by teaching a lesson that revealed Santa was a myth.
Letters the children had sent to him over the years never really got to Santa’s home in Lapland and were instead dealt with by Britain’s Royal Mail service, she told them.
But there was worse to come.
The teacher then asked her students to pretend they were mail workers, and to make up replies to children explaining why their requests for certain presents had been rejected, The Guardian newspaper reported.
I think comicstriphero has the best war on Christmas:
http://comicstriphero.blogspot.com/2006/12/tis-season.html
Couldn’t we just destroy Christmas in order to save it?
The war hasn’t come anywhere near my neck of the woods, having attended 6 choir performances with my warbling waif, who managed to sing every known xmas carol, good or ill.
the socialist teachers who organised 5 of these events – one at the local nursing home – which is always a bit scary for the kiddies, with a few of the demented inmates screaming up the back and the other 4, at a nameless international five star hotel – the godless socialist teachers from the local public primary school, who werent being paid, had a group of 40 children singing worn out favourites to disinterested businessmen, and their adoring parents.
her final performance was for the Sydney Children’s Choir at the Sydney Recital Hall which was pretty damn good, and will be broadcast apparently on Xmas eve on ABC local radio throughout the nation. Accompanied by a chamber ensemble with harp solos etc. Voices of Angels, indeed.
Hark, jingle, away!