And so this is Christmas*

I've been saving up some little bits and pieces for your Christmas Day enjoyment. For those of you visiting today, thanks for hanging around. Many blessings today and every day. May the fog of world clear up soon.

[T]he national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of the nation rests. It will offer protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theatre, and in the press . . . in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during the past few years. -- Adolf Hitler

The Great American Treason

It's the Devil's Christmas, this year, as the wolves of war bay at the moon, and Lucifer's legions move on every front. Iraq, Iran, Russia, and the Caucasus – they're everywhere, looking for an opening. Christmas, the season of hope, is this year transmuted to the season of fear and ominous foreboding. Even as we celebrate the birthday of the Prince of Peace, the pagan acolytes of the war god plot in the shadows.

Justin Raimondo article

Why are Bill Kristol and Andrew Sullivan – a marriage made in hell if ever there was one – echoing Mad Dog McCain's barking for "more boots on the ground" if not to escalate and widen the fight? The dogs of war are baying up a storm as Christmas steals in with the night. So light a fire against the encroaching darkness, and cuddle up with whomever, while wolves howl in a distance that seems ominously closer. As we drift off to sleep, visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads, let's forget for a moment that the War Party never sleeps.

More Justin Raimondo

When Jesus was murdered by Rome as a political criminal -- crucifixion was the way such rebels were executed -- the story's beginning was fulfilled in its end. But for contingent historical reasons (the savage Roman war against the Jews in the late first century, the gradual domination of the Jesus movement by Gentiles, the conversion of Constantine in the early fourth century) the Christian memory deemphasized the anti-Roman character of the Jesus story. Eventually, Roman imperialism would be sanctified by the church, with Jews replacing Romans as the main antagonists of Jesus, as if he were not Jewish himself. (Thus, Herod is remembered more for being part-Jewish than for being a Roman puppet.)

In modern times, religion and politics began to be understood as occupying separate spheres, and the nativity story became spiritualized and sentimentalized, losing its political edge altogether. "Peace" replaced resistance as the main motif. The baby Jesus was universalized, removed from his decidedly Jewish context, and the narrative's explicit critiques of imperial dominance and of wealth were blunted.

This is how it came to be that Christmas in America has turned the nativity of Jesus on its head. No surprise there, for if the story were told today with Roman imperialism at its center, questions might arise about America's new self-understanding as an imperial power. A story of Jesus born into a land oppressed by a hated military occupation might prompt an examination of the American occupation of Iraq. A story of Jesus come decidedly to the poor might cast a pall over the festival of consumption. A story of the Jewishness of Jesus might undercut the Christian theology of replacement.

Common Dreams article

For centuries Christians around the world have accepted the Nativity story at face value - that Jesus was born in a stable in the little town of Bethlehem.

But a growing number of Bible scholars and archaeologists are rocking the foundations of Christian faith by suggesting they have identified a different birthplace for Jesus.

They claim to have amassed a considerable body of evidence for their theory but say Church leaders are in no mood to listen.

Aljazeera article

Ed: No, and for good reason – the account has St. Matthew making a switcheroo for political purposes. Political!?! Jesus? Christ! What are you people suggesting?! Read the article.

Why, oh why, does Bush hate Christmas? There, right at the beginning of Bush's press conference, he used such hateful language I could hardly believe what I was hearing:

Good morning and happy holidays to you all.

Happy holidays? Why does Bush want to banish Christmas? I can't wait to tune in to O'Reilly and listen as he has the courage to stand up against those who wish to banish Christmas. I look forward to the press releases from James Dobson and the Christian Defense Coalition on Bush's attack on Christianity. And next weekend I'll get on my feet and cheer as Pat Robertson hits the Sunday talkies coming to the defense of Christmas everywhere.

It Affects You post

Bill O'Reilly (who ought to be sodomized with a candy cane) is on to something when he belches forth, "This Christmas battle really stunned the secular forces," but it's not for the reasons he's thinking. It's not because we "secular forces" are taken aback at the ferocity of the defense of Christmas. If you tell a chimp not to throw its feces at you, the chimp is still gonna toss that shit. It's what chimps do. No, the "you gotta be fuckin' kidding me" response from the Left has more to do with the fact that, once again, the right has taken something insignificant, blown it up to something huge, and used it as a distraction from the shit that really matters. Social security "privatization"? Too complicated. Muslims and Jews who don't like Christmas? That's a Crusade we can have an Inquisition about. That speaks to the deep seated xenophobia of so many people, so flamed into rage by the right (like O'Reilly, who now has appointed himself the spokesman for the actions of Jesus when he proclaims that, because of the "attacks" on his birthday, "Somewhere Jesus is weeping." The Rude Pundit gets the feeling that if Jesus is weeping, it's probably watching the cars getting loaded with boxes at the valet parking at a Nordstrom's somewhere).

The Rude Pundit post

Happy Saturnalia

Okay, this whole "Happy Holidays" jihad is confusing me. As far as I can remember, people have been saying "HH" for many, many years now. Every time I've heard it, regardless of who's speaking it, I've always interpreted it as an act of kindness that's meant to imply "I know we may have different beliefs, but I hope your celebration is a happy one." Of course, with New Years in the mix, it's more than a pleasant inter-faith greeting. "Happy Holidays" is a nice, sincere expression of the whole season.

For a few humbugs out there, however, "Happy Holidays" has been stripped of its goodness and turned into a hideous attack on Christmas. Did you think you were being kind and inclusionary in your seasons greeting? Well, you were wrong! Little did you know that you were actually saying "Up yours, baby Jesus".

Talent Show post

And, just in case that doesn't get the message across, there's.....

The chicken nativity set (available at Our American Heritage - there are others, if you're not a chicken fan - the moose nativity is nice)...





*
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong
And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over
If you want it
War is over
Now...

---John Lennon
(hear it)


But, wait. Don't leave just yet, I found a little cheer...

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas (an .mp3 file - sung by my favorite guru at age 3).

And have a holly jolly, regardless of the news I bring you, okay?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.