Anyone else get this "Merry Christmas" e-mail??

[a kennedy]

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

Twas the month before Christmas
When all through our land, Not a Christian was praying
Nor taking a stand.
See the PC Police had taken away,
The reason for Christmas - no one could say.

The children were told by their schools not to sing,
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.
It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say
December 25th is just a "Holiday".

Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!
CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod
Something was changing, something quite odd!
Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.

As Targets were hanging their trees upside down
At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.
At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears
You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.

Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate me.
Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!

At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.
And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace.

The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.

So as you celebrate "Winter Break" under your "Dream Tree"
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.
Choose your words carefully, choose what you say

Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holiday!

[NMDemDist2]

1. ooo poor widdle Christians

good grief

:banghead:

[wicket]

38. This Christian agrees with you

Good grief indeed. Some of us don't like our religion being shoved down everyone else's throats! Grrrrr.....

[central scrutinizer]

53. Will this privileged majority ever catch a break?

geez, stop playing victim where there are plenty of real victims a Christian could minister to.

[hobbit709]

2. More BS from people

with too much time and not enough brains. Once again another phony issue to get the mindless ones worked up about.

[seabeyond]

3. my email to this person. why are you screwin up my christmas with

this hate?

[rpannier]

4. 'sniff' That's...'sniff'...that's so...'sniff'...beautiful. There's only one thing to say

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from my family to yours.

[HeeBGBz]

5. Oh I'll probably get that one send to me

:puke:

[bryant69]

6. Let's not get any sense mixed up on our rhetoric

Hanging christmas trees upside down? Is that like hanging flags upside down - a warning?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[meegbear]

7. No, I never get any good emails ...

forward to Bill O'Reilly and maybe he'll read on the air.

[noahmijo]

8. HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE

Where the hell do these christians get off thinking they own christmas anyway? the church just decided to hijack it and call it theirs-NOTHING MORE.

At the top of the senate there arose such a clatter to eliminate jesus?? which senate is that? THE CHRISTIAN REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED SENATE OF 12 YEARS???

I quit.

[RoBear]

9. When people assail me with shit like the "war on christmas,"

I try to remember to respond HAPPY SATURNALIA and tell them I'm planning to dance naked around the pagan fertility symbol in the living room.

[CTyankee]

11. and paint yourself blue n/t

[FairVotes4all]

10. Daschle?

hes not even in office anymore... what a moran...

[TayTay]

12. Wait a minute

why does Christmas come from a store? I thought it was a religious, not a secular Holiday.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!
Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
"Maybe Christmas ... perhaps ... means a ... little bit more.

Dr. Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Honestly, what is wrong with these people? I know we are a consumer culture, but to look for the religiousity of a Christian Holiday at Lowes is dumb even for the moran class.

[poverlay]

20. These are the same yahoos who's pretzeldent told the entire country after

9/11 that the only sacrifice they need to make is to shop more.

Shopping for freedom.

Fools one and all.

Happy Yule/Saturnalia to all.

[Ian David]

13. Hitler celebrated christmas

See:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=214x97928

[Missy M]

14. I wish someone would explain to me what saying...

'Merry Christmas" has to do with religion? If I say 'Merry Christmas' does that make me a Christian and if I say 'Happy Holidays' does that make me a heathen? This argument is by far the silliest issue I have heard of yet. The people promoting this nonsense need to get a life. According to the poem their faith is being taken away if Starbucks or Target say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. I guess their faith is not too strong if that's the case.

[displacedtexan]

18. Holidays = Holy Days

I don't even want to think about what these idiots' ministers
are NOT teaching them.

Oh, and...

Solstice is the reason for the season!

[Missy M]

22. They teach them ONLY what they want them to believe...

not the truth or the facts. The actual date of Christ's birth is even in dispute. To take it further there are some who doubt the existence of Jesus. We will never know what is.

[diamidue]

40. Happy Holidays

I like to remind these nuts that Bing Crosby recorded a song by that name back in 1957 that was, and still is, a huge seasonal hit. Did anyone back then complain that Bing Crosby was declaring war on Christmas??

[RebelOne]

15. I haven't received one yet, but I expect to from

my fundie friends and relatives.

[zbdent]

16. e-mail back some questions:

How come we know his exact date of birth, but the day he died depends on the lunar cycle?

Who took dictation during the conversation between Adam and God?

[Chorophyll]

17. Yeah. Christmas is SO not happening this year.

Just look around you. :sarcasm:

As for me, I can't get past, all those unnecessary, commas.

[Mad_Dem_X]

19. I'm sure I will be getting this in my inbox

sometime soon. Don'tcha love how they have to mention "Fonda and Franken"? LOL!

[Canuckistanian]

21. Strawmen roasting on an open fire....

Geez, when will they get the message that we don't give a shit?

What started as a goodwill gesture to Jews in urban areas has somehow become a major threat to the world's most powerful religion.

Get lives, you freaks.

[Toots]

23. You could make the same song about smoking

So blow smoke in their face and say screw you too. Just another way to be offensive to a lot of people while saying you have that right...

[valerief]

24. I delete all my spam without opening it up. nt

[teenagebambam]

25. Here's my poetic reply

Anyone may feel free to use.

‘Twas some weeks before Christmas, and all thru the town,
decorations were hung over trees not yet brown.
“Why the rush?” I did muse, “to be merry and gay,
when we’ve not even set our Thanksgiving buffet?”

Yet the ‘Christians’ were out, and they dared to declare,
“You won’t let us be Christians! It just isn’t fair!
We want to hear 'Christmas' when we go to the stores,
To buy our big-screen TVs and dress our daughters like whores!”

I puzzled a bit at their public distress;
Surely Jesus would not have endorsed such a mess?
It was He, after all, who was heard to intone,
“When you pray, go away, thou shalt do it alone!” (Matthew 6:5-6)

“You have every freedom in this land of ours,
To go pray in the courthouses, schools, even bars!
The problem, you see, is that if you had your druthers
You’d dictate the prayers that should be said by all others!”

“But our nation,” they cried, “is a Christian-y land,
We’re being oppressed, you don’t understand!
The Founding Fathers were God-fearing all,
They would want us to celebrate Mass at the mall!”

I puzzled some more, for a cursory glance
Through the History books showed a very slim chance
That the great men who founded our Nation would care
If you’re Christian or Jewish or something more rare!

Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Paine,
State-sponsored worship they all did disdain.
One can imagine just how much more
They would have detested religion pushed by a store!

“Besides,” I then thought, “I’m as Christian as you,
but have many friends – Atheist, Muslim, and Jew.
My ‘Happy Holidays’ doesn’t slight your belief,
But acknowledges theirs – so what’s your beef?”

But my words of good sense fell on ignorant ears,
Who continued to rail against their imaginary fears.
So to you, dearest friends, these two words I transmit;
Happy Holidays to all – even stupid hypocrrites.

[a kennedy]

26. I'm sending this back right now.....

and thanks!! :patriot:

[GenDem]

27. Great job, teenagebambam!

[Clark2008]

29. I'm stealing this - not very Christian of me, I know, but I like that!

:applause:

[trotsky]

32. That is a most excellent piece.

Very good job. :thumbsup:

[Fridays Child]

34. Way to go!

:thumbsup:

[ThomCat]

36. That is awesome.

I hope you don't mind if that gets well distributed. :applause:

[Shipwack]

37. I'm also "stealing this"

For my yahoo blog, giving you appropriate credit and linkage, of course.

Very, very well written and clever. Thank you.

[wicket]

39. I love it!

:yourock:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

46. This needs its own thread.

[Norrin Radd]

47. That's great!

Bravo.

[ninkasi]

48. You are awesome, teenagebambam

Thank you so much for posting. A whole lot of people need to read your post.

[grizmaster]

51. brilliant

[goclark]

28. A lot of Democrats feel that way

I'm Christian and I will not put what they are saying down.
It may not be how I feel about it but the poem does not offend me.
It is not mean spirited in my view.

It is more a "wish it could be like it was" poem.

I know how to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and Enjoy your New Year!

We must be a big tent and not be so quick to bash.

I'll leave the bashing to the Freepers.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

35. Zell Miller, Joe Lieberman, and who else? You? -nt

[goclark]

41. Unkind and untrue

End of Discussion

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

42. Defense of a nasty, paranoid, whiny, LYING piece of RW propaganda does tend to

foul my mood.

[Susang]

43. Bill O'Reilly

Don't forget him. He's pretty much the one who started this whole stupid thing. Fuck tolerance and diversity, there's a war on Christmas!!! :eyes:

[Bridget Burke]

50. The people who invented the "War On Christmas" (tm).....

Are the ones who try to make all Christians look bad.

In the latest instance of decrying the purported "war" on Christmas, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly claimed that "it's all part of the secular progressive agenda ... to get Christianity and spirituality and Judaism out of the public square." He then added: "ecause if you look at what happened in Western Europe and Canada, if you can get religion out, then you can pass secular progressive programs, like legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage, because the objection to those things is religious-based, usually."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200511210003

That's from last year. The New Yorker finds some earlier roots:

COMMENT
BAH HUMBUG
Issue of 2005-12-26 and 2006-01-02
Posted 2005-12-19

Chestnuts are roasting on an open fire, with Jack Frost nipping at your nose and folks dressed up like Eskimos—or, to update the line for political correctness, with tots in boots just like Aleuts. It’s that magical season when lights twinkle and good will abounds. It’s time again for the thrill that comes but once a year: the War on Christmas.

The War on Christmas is a little like Santa Claus, in that it (a) comes to us from the sky, beamed down by the satellites of cable news, and (b) does not, in the boringly empirical sense, exist. What does exist is the idea of the War on Christmas, which, though forever new, is a venerable tradition, older even than strip malls and plastic mistletoe.

Christmas itself, in something like its recognizably modern form, with gifts and cards and elves, dates from the early nineteenth century. The War on Christmas seems to have come along around a hundred years later, with the publication of “The International Jew,” by Henry Ford, the automobile magnate, whom fate later punished by arranging to have his fortune diverted to the sappy, do-gooder Ford Foundation. “It is not religious tolerance in the midst of religious difference, but religious attack that they”—the Jews—“preach and practice,” he wrote. “The whole record of the Jewish opposition to Christmas, Easter and certain patriotic songs shows that.” Ford’s anti-Semitism has not aged well, thanks to the later excesses of its European adherents, but by drawing a connection between Christmasbashing and patriotism-scorning he pointed the way for future Christmas warriors.

www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/051226ta_talk_hertzberg

Concerned Women for America began their campaign in 2003:

It’s Time to Dump ‘Happy Holidays’ 12/23/2003
By Robert Knight

The phrase has become a way to avoid any recognition of Christmas.

Remember those little yellow smiley buttons that seemed so cheerful at first but then drove everyone mad because of their underlying insincerity? Well, “Happy Holidays” is even worse: It might even be a form of bigotry.

Oh, I know that most folks don’t mean it that way, but hear me out.

The phrase used to be another way to say “Merry Christmas.” Now, it’s a way to avoid any recognition of Christmas.

www.cwfa.org/articles/5040/CFI/misc/index.htm

CFAW was founded to fight the Equal Rights Amendment by Beverly LaHaye, wife of Tim (Left Behind) LaHaye. They are pillars of the Religious Right. Please check out the rest of their site. Do they speak for you?

[Dorian Gray]

30. No....

My friends know not to send those spammy chain letter-type things to me.

[trotsky]

31. A great graphic for this.

[stopbush]

33. Sounds GREAT to me...except for the final line.

[Golden Raisin]

44. There are days when

I wish all the Jesus-freak fundies would band together and secede from the Republic. I don't care if they run naked with only toy reindeer antlers on their heads at this time of the year. JUST DO IT IN THE PRIVACY OF YOUR OWN HOME OR YOUR OWN CHURCH. Stop demanding that the rest of us kowtow to your beliefs and opinions. These people are the first to scream about the Taliban and they are the exact same thing. I wonder, if Jesus came back today, would he be in Darfur trying to do some good or in the Bible Belt of the USA leading these freaks.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

45. You know, I live in Bush country/Bible belt. I've never met ONE person who mentioned their

concern about the "war on Christmas".

I mean, maybe there's someone who cares, but not enough to have ever spontaneously mentioned it in any conversation.

The only people I've ever seen who made a big deal about this are on FOX news.

I assume crap like this comes out of whatever anono-email propaganda factory Rove runs.

[Brazenly Liberal]

49. I have a standard response to that crap

It's not nearly as elegant and thoughtful as teenagebambam's, I must admit!

When I get anything like that, I write back to the sender saying, "What other religion's holidays are national holidays accommodated by public school schedules, postal service delivery schedules, government offices closing, most businesses closing, etc, etc, etc. The truth is that I regularly have to arrange MY life around YOUR religion. Please don't add insult to injury by playing the victim."

[underpants]

52. Oh LAWD what will those poor white christians DOOOOO?!?!?

I believe I am having the vapors

Great response.

[Sapphocrat]

54. I'll say it again.

Not only can freepers not spell, but they can't rhyme, and have no sense of metre.

See also:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2646407