I'm curious
Today I am curious about many things, such as:
Some people seem to think Christmas is under siege (Bill O'Reilly, I'm looking at you). Now, how Christmas could ever be under siege in our fair land is beyond me, but let's say it is. First of all, no one would ever allow Christmas to go away -- people like their day off, and if we all canceled Christmas because it's a religious holiday, how would we watch Shaq and Kobe throw down? That would be horrible!
But let's look at Christmas. I don't need to tell you that nobody actually knows when Jesus was born (if he was born at all, but let's not go there). Christmas is a symbolic holiday that was fixed over 300 years after Jesus lived by good old Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor, who was a devotee of the cult of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), and desired conformity above all else in his big old empire. Christians weren't going away, so why not take their story of a resurrected god (not the only resurrection story in the Middle East, but the one with the most staying power), and combine it with elements of -- wait for it -- the sun returning after the winter solstice! Hey, Jesus had a big halo, you couldn't look directly at him (at least Paul couldn't, the big wuss), and he came back. So the festival to welcome back the sun became the birthday of the Big Guy. It worked. They ran with it.
But yes, I will admit that Christmas is symbolic. It's not the point to nail down the specific day. We celebrate the birth of the Savior of Mankind -- whenever he happened to tumble down Mary's birth canal and into the dirt. It's a time to reflect on what horrible people we are and how we should dedicate our lives to Jesus. Fine. What I don't understand about people writing petitions to Macy's and Bill O'Reilly wailing about menorahs in the windows and kids not being able to sing "Silent Night" is, how is this celebrating the spirit of Christmas? Are we all going to dedicate our lives to Jesus because Macy's tells us to have a Merry Christmas instead of telling us to have Happy Holidays? Are we going to reject Jesus because we just can't resist those damned dreidels? I would think that good Christians would be happy that Macy's isn't involved in wishing Merry Christmas, because, according to the Bible, Jesus and his gang were ardent socialists (explain that, Pat Robertson!), and Christians should reject mass consumerism. Why don't these holier-than-thou types who want us to promote their version of Christmas watch the Charlie Brown special and read the Grinch again? Yes, those tales are overtly Christian, but they're more about realizing that intangible things (no matter what religion you are) are more important than materialistic things -- and materialistic things include menorahs, Christmas trees, and Jesus fish.
Other things going on:
I'm curious about our president. Sure, I don't like our president, but we're stuck with him until January 2009 (so far away!) so let's make the best of it. At his press conference yesterday, he said Donald Rumsfeld cared about the troops. Well, of course we all care about the troops, but only one guy is in position to make sure they are protected from, I don't know, bullets, and that guy was asleep at the wheel. It's nice that he cares, however. I'm sorry to break out the Hitler analogies, but that's like saying Adolf cared about his dogs. Who cares? I don't care if Rumsfeld doesn't care about the troops. He could hate the troops, for all I care. But he had a job to do, and he didn't do it. In the real world, that gets you fired. In Washington (not just Bush's Washington either), it gets you a medal (probably).
Other curiosities about the president: he actually told the press they wouldn't get him negotiating with himself. I have a visual of that, and it's pretty funny. You would think the one person Bush would like to negotiate with is himself.
He also refused, during the election season, to discuss various things that might have made him look bad. Apparently Iraq's security forces are a bunch of cowards, and the training of them is failing. I don't fault Bush for not discussing this -- why he want to make himself look bad? But don't we have media for that? Couldn't they have bugged him about it?
Support for the war continues to plummet. Support for Bush's Secretary of Defense continues to plummet. It's only been six weeks since the election. I wonder how many people want a do-over.
Some people seem to think Christmas is under siege (Bill O'Reilly, I'm looking at you). Now, how Christmas could ever be under siege in our fair land is beyond me, but let's say it is. First of all, no one would ever allow Christmas to go away -- people like their day off, and if we all canceled Christmas because it's a religious holiday, how would we watch Shaq and Kobe throw down? That would be horrible!
But let's look at Christmas. I don't need to tell you that nobody actually knows when Jesus was born (if he was born at all, but let's not go there). Christmas is a symbolic holiday that was fixed over 300 years after Jesus lived by good old Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor, who was a devotee of the cult of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), and desired conformity above all else in his big old empire. Christians weren't going away, so why not take their story of a resurrected god (not the only resurrection story in the Middle East, but the one with the most staying power), and combine it with elements of -- wait for it -- the sun returning after the winter solstice! Hey, Jesus had a big halo, you couldn't look directly at him (at least Paul couldn't, the big wuss), and he came back. So the festival to welcome back the sun became the birthday of the Big Guy. It worked. They ran with it.
But yes, I will admit that Christmas is symbolic. It's not the point to nail down the specific day. We celebrate the birth of the Savior of Mankind -- whenever he happened to tumble down Mary's birth canal and into the dirt. It's a time to reflect on what horrible people we are and how we should dedicate our lives to Jesus. Fine. What I don't understand about people writing petitions to Macy's and Bill O'Reilly wailing about menorahs in the windows and kids not being able to sing "Silent Night" is, how is this celebrating the spirit of Christmas? Are we all going to dedicate our lives to Jesus because Macy's tells us to have a Merry Christmas instead of telling us to have Happy Holidays? Are we going to reject Jesus because we just can't resist those damned dreidels? I would think that good Christians would be happy that Macy's isn't involved in wishing Merry Christmas, because, according to the Bible, Jesus and his gang were ardent socialists (explain that, Pat Robertson!), and Christians should reject mass consumerism. Why don't these holier-than-thou types who want us to promote their version of Christmas watch the Charlie Brown special and read the Grinch again? Yes, those tales are overtly Christian, but they're more about realizing that intangible things (no matter what religion you are) are more important than materialistic things -- and materialistic things include menorahs, Christmas trees, and Jesus fish.
Other things going on:
I'm curious about our president. Sure, I don't like our president, but we're stuck with him until January 2009 (so far away!) so let's make the best of it. At his press conference yesterday, he said Donald Rumsfeld cared about the troops. Well, of course we all care about the troops, but only one guy is in position to make sure they are protected from, I don't know, bullets, and that guy was asleep at the wheel. It's nice that he cares, however. I'm sorry to break out the Hitler analogies, but that's like saying Adolf cared about his dogs. Who cares? I don't care if Rumsfeld doesn't care about the troops. He could hate the troops, for all I care. But he had a job to do, and he didn't do it. In the real world, that gets you fired. In Washington (not just Bush's Washington either), it gets you a medal (probably).
Other curiosities about the president: he actually told the press they wouldn't get him negotiating with himself. I have a visual of that, and it's pretty funny. You would think the one person Bush would like to negotiate with is himself.
He also refused, during the election season, to discuss various things that might have made him look bad. Apparently Iraq's security forces are a bunch of cowards, and the training of them is failing. I don't fault Bush for not discussing this -- why he want to make himself look bad? But don't we have media for that? Couldn't they have bugged him about it?
Support for the war continues to plummet. Support for Bush's Secretary of Defense continues to plummet. It's only been six weeks since the election. I wonder how many people want a do-over.
posted by Greg | 4:16 PM
1 Comments:
Why shouldn't people be down on Drew Brees? He never beat Penn State, that's why!
(so this post is a little late, so what?)
HAVE SOME!
-leapin
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