And A Happy Easter

 I am a believer. Many of you are not I  know and that is perfectly fine. It is an individual choice. I am not a believer to judge, preach, save or to pass judgement on anyone with the exception of one person, myself. Especially the save part. A belief in  something better as a reward for surviving our earthly travel is what has saved me from me on so many occasions. And for that reason I choose to believe in my Lord and savior.

Happy Valentines Day!

From The Count To You

And A Happy Holidays To You

From Average American Patriot:
@ Count Istvan

Greetings and Merry Christmas to you and the NewsHounds.

I haven’t heard from Jonathan and John T.

Give them by best wishes when you have a chance.

Feliz Navidad, Próspero Año y Felicidad!


--------------------------------------------------------

Thank you sir! I haven't seen John T in long time either. I hope he is doing well. Jonathan is still going strong though. 

The Lions Are On The Tube And There Is Dry Bird On The Table

You what that means?  

Happy Thanksgiving To One And All!

Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday

Supplies for the War On Christmas

It isn't often that I dabble my toes in the sludge at World Net Daily, but a link from Daily Kos to this screed lured me in...

check out WND's online store for your personal "Christmas-defense kit." What you'll find are three choices of bumper stickers:

• "This is America! And I'm going to say it: 'Merry Christmas!'"
• "It is STILL a wonderful life – Merry Christmas!"
• "Merry Christmas! An American Tradition"

They're all magnetized for seasonal use. Buy them separately or all together. Use them this year, next year and for many years to come.

In addition, there's the "Reason for the Season Auto Magnets," also perfect for your refrigerator or office file cabinet or desk. Part of every purchase goes to Christian charities.

It's the perfect way to make your statement this Christmas – that Jesus is the reason for the season. Buy one, buy 25, buy 50!

There's one more component of your Christmas-defense kit: It's the "Operation: Just Say 'Merry Christmas' Bracelet." They make great stocking stuffers, but why wait! Make your feelings about Christmas known to one and all. Wear them to pick up the kids, when you buy groceries and when you go to work. They're guaranteed to ward off the evil spirits of the ACLU grinches.

Read more: Get your Christmas-defense kit

So, here's the thing. First, doesn't it seem confrontational and not at all festive to rely on bumper stickers to convey your holiday message, presumably all about peace on earth and goodwill toward mankind? Are these people trying to get themselves keyed?

Second, I doubt that Jesus' message to his followers would be "buy one, buy 25, buy 50."

And, quite apart from the bankrupt philosophical viewpoint, this exposes decisively WND's most honest motivation in the whole "War on Christmas" hoopla - to score some $$$. It's part and parcel of what makes me laugh half the time I pass a so-called "Christian Supply" store. Who knew you required supplies, or that a prefabbed toolkit was needed?

I hope someday everyone will wake up to the absurdity of this whole thing and the "War on Christmas" can be consigned where it belongs: to the realm of mass delusion/deception. Until then...warm thoughts to you and yours, Gentle Reader, whether it's Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, Yule or Christmas or Saturnalia that you mark at this cocooning, renewing time of the year.

P.S.: Don't you love the phrase "magnetized for seasonal use"? Kind of like "sanitized for your protection"!

Wishing All Of You...

A HAPPY TURKEY DAY

Happy Halloween

Childhood memories...

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Cinco De Mayo

Mind The Store, Boys...

If I'm quieter than usual it's because I'm largely unwired for the next couple of weeks - ET Daughter and I are celebrating Spring Break by taking a girls-only road trip down the West Coast as far as Orange County, across to Arizona, and back, while ET Spouse stays home to babysit (aka, "spoil") the cats and do Guy Stuff. On the agenda: friends I haven't seen in years, outlet shopping (don't try to hide it - I can see you wincing!), Disneyland for a day, Arizona Ren Fest, and my brother's 70th.

Wish us safe driving, and I'll check in with y'all when we get back!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy Valentines Day

I totally forgot and had to run out and get something at the last minute. today I truly became a man

Merry Christmas And A Happy Holiday

A Sanity Break for our Fundie Observers

I came across an instructive article tonight at The Smirking Chimp, and have to say that I couldn't agree more!

Here's how Ted Rall's piece on taking religion OFF the calendar begins:

We are a secular nation. We enjoy the constitutional right to exercise any religion--or none whatsoever. So why is Christmas a federal holiday?

The U.S. has no national religion. Yet Christians get special consideration. Aside from Christmas, they also get the quasi-Christian holiday of Thanksgiving. Financial markets are closed on both of those, plus Good Friday.

Devotees of other faiths must ask their employers for time off. Jews aren't supposed to work on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the first and second days of Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, Simchat Torah, Shavu'ot, or the first, second, seventh and eighth days of Passover. They have to take up to 13 days off from work each year, more than most employers offer.

The message to Jews and other non-Christians is plain: you are second-class citizens. Separation of church and state is a fraud. You wanna practice your faith? Do it on your own time.

You might think that the government's official embrace of Christmas is a cultural relic of America's puritan past. But you'd be mistaken. For nearly 100 years, Christmas was not on the calendar of federal holidays. On December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under the new U.S. constitution, Congress was in session. Ulysses Grant made it a federal holiday in 1870.

Could it be clearer? I don't think so.

Yet thanks to these rulings, almost a century into American independence, now everyone trots along in step with a calendar that commemorates Christianity pretty much exclusively. Someday, I really must do some research into the debates and discussions that brought us to that point in 1870, as well as those running up to the later 1950s decision (though our favorite trolls would have it that the Founders meant it to happen All Along) to add "In God We Trust" to US currency. I'm betting that both took lines fairly similar to today's squeals from the fundie right about how oppressed Christians are in society. Oh, yes, how silenced and marginalized you are, with your own dedicated broadcasting networks and such...

Here's what I'd do, if I ran a company that actually employed anyone other than me and my spouse, and required any kind of schedule accountable to the outside world.

I'd shut down from roughly mid-December until after New Year's. Paid. This is only fair to working parents who have to deal with school schedules - now probably so entrenched that even a Federal change in observances wouldn't alter anything - and probably encompasses most families' seasonal celebrations to some degree: most traditions have something happening around Solstice, and even if you don't, the days are short, so the down time is welcome. Besides, in most B-2-B enterprises, activity slows to a crawl at this time, anyway. Better the goodwill engendered by the time off, than the tedium of employees marking time when Nothing Is Happening Anyway. Any business will prosper more with the lights off and nobody home than the overhead for a token staff doing nothing significant.

All other time - sick leave + vacation - I would make completely discretionary, to be scheduled at the individual's option, with his or her supervisor's and department's approval. You want to take Valentine's Day or your Girlfriend's Birthday off instead of Memorial Day? Go for it! There would have to be some kind of formula which governs whether or not it is practical for the business to open or not, on any given day, based on the number of available staff on duty, of course. And a rationale for the employer saying no, we can't do that, but what about this? In the general spirit of compromise. But I fail to see why private, much less public, businesses should be involved in institutionalizing any one faith.

I used to get nudged by salespeople I worked with, for taking May Day off. "Communist," one of them teased me; and, another, "Pagan rites of Spring!" Oh, if only he knew!

Rall's point stands. Institutionalize one thing, for any One Group - majority or minority, doesn't matter: it's still a clear line-crossing of the Establishment Clause - and you de facto diminish the Other.

Sadly, I don't think his vision will materialize anytime soon. But I am deeply pleased that Rall had the courage to articulate the vision so accurately. You can't claim freedom of religion while enacting policies that favor one religion above others. And that is precisely what US policy has been doing for decades.

And now, in the spirit of his post, I'm taking the day off from blog commentary, to memorialize the post-Solstice blogospheric lull.

Merry Yule, y'all.

Happy Turkey Day

Happy Mother's Day!

For All Who Celebrate Such Things

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope Everybody, Well most everybody, has a good St. Patrick's Day. Stay safe and try not to make too big of an ass of yourself. If you do um don't post on Message Boards.

Some Board News:

You may notice the new reactions. They are my smart ass way of mocking Jeremiah. Do you like? Also Blue header or Green header?