War on Christmas

I can't even watch those they just make me feel sick.

 

A slight diversion, but interesting, none the less:

The FBI and Ayn Rand's war on It's a Wonderful Life

 

It's not just right before Christmas, Tennessee has to carry the war all the way into March.
They have passed a Merry Christmas bill.

This should be fun the first time a teacher decides to do Saturnalia or Solstice.

Tennessee's 'Merry Christmas' Bill Passes State House

 

I expect we'll be hearing about the War on Easter any day now, given Fox News week long rant last year.

Evidently, it is Obama's fault for empowering "secular progressives."

As far as I know, the annual White House Easter Egg Roll is still on this year.

 

Um...I hate to break this to Bill O'Reilly, but this has nothing to do with a "Judaeo-Christian tradition" (I'm not sure there even is such a thing): Jews don't celebrate Easter and we don't hunt for eggs. We just serve them with bagels and lox.

God, I really wish that these assholes could do their fundie Christian pissing and moaning while leaving us Jews out of it. Unless they want to start raising a ruckus about public schools being open on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, or supermarkets holding sales on bread products during Passover, or stuff like that. Which, TBH, we don't actually give much in the way of fucks about, but if you're going to use our name for upping the star power on your billboard, you might as well actually advertise shit that has something to do with us.

That really is annoying.

 

Dude. Kirk Cameron is a limitless wellspring of douchebaggery. And I think about how I loved Mike Seaver on those early seasons of "Growing Pains...!"

"Christian White?!!" ZOMFG!!

 

Student suspended for saying ‘bless you’ after classmate sneezed | FOX6Now.com
So why would someone get their panties in a bunch if they hear "bless you"?

Why not just ignore it?

What if I say - "May the force be with you"? If you don't think there are midclorians that can be controlled telepathically by Jedi Knights, as in Star Wars lore would you get equally offended?

what if I say "Peace be with you"? do you get offended? what if I say it in Aribic? What if I say it in Latin? What if I add the Catholic version "...and with your spirit"? What if a native American referenced the spiritual strength of your nature?

What if I say "live long and prosper" and give the Vulcan salute - as in Star Trek? If you never watched Star Trek and have no clue or even if you are a true Trekkie - isn't it the intent of the message in this and the other examples?

Can an atheisist give me some clarification on why the get upset and why they don't in these regards?

 

Ask and you shall receive.

Did a High School Student Really Get Suspended for Responding to a Sneeze with “Bless You”?

 

Bloody hell. It doesn't take much to create a tempest in a tea cup.

If the kid was actually kicked out of class for saying, Bless You (which it appears is not the case), it would be rather petty. Sounds like it's a teenager with an axe to grind.

 

How about addressing the broader point of my post.


Did a High School Student Really Get Suspended for Responding to a Sneeze with “Bless You”?[/quote]

Specific to this situation - a sneeze, someone saying anything in acknowledgement or "bless you" - is a disruption? What if the person asked "are you o.k.?" would that be a disruption? What happened to common sense or common courtesy?

Did the student simply lie about this situation - is that the point of the article cited?
--- merged: Sep 2, 2014 at 1:51 PM ---

Is it a grand conspiracy, orchestrated by a teenager or a regular conspiracy? Are you suggesting there is no basis for what happened, regardless of which version you believe is true? Did this student just want to skip out on class? Is she trying to get her teacher fired? Is she being manipulated by the religious right wing? so many questions - and of course there can not be any possibility of non-religious zealots going overboard - even a little bit.

 

My wife would give tests and tell the kids to be quiet.
Somebody would sneeze and the kids thought it was funny for the whole class (in intervals) to say "Bless You." in English and Spanish.
So yes, it can be a disruption.
There is a college professor who has cause all kinds of fuss because they put on their white board that they didn't want it done in their class during lecture time because the other student might miss something and that was a rude thing to do.
Can't say I entirely disagree.

You wanted an Atheist perspective, so I gave you one.
Now, you have a Jewish perspective too.

 

If a city spends $10,000 and puts up a Christmas display, and a person objects because they would rather have the potholes on their street repaired - I get that and to say it is a war against Christmas is silly. If the display is on unused public land funded by private citizens and the person objects because of artistic taste - I get that also. If the display is put up tastefully, first by one group and subsequently the city demonstrates unfair favoritism to one group over another - I get that. What I don't get is when a person gets offended simply based on the subject matter, has never shown interest in the use of the land, and more or less wants to send a message to Christians or any other religious group - that is what I don't get.

I have been to religious services of many different religions, I have interacted with people of many different faiths, I have been to places where certain religions are more or less dominate than others, I am a minority and know what is like to be a minority - in all of those cases I can respect the religious views, cultures and customs of others without being offended or feeling threatened. I even attended a Catholic school, as a non-Catholic from grades 1 - 8. In the US people have the freedom to express their religious views - I think our nation's greatness is rooted in that freedom. There are some things that are still not clear to me on this subject and it is clear that there are some who are active (I won;t say at war) in being against displays (verbal, artistic) of religion in public.

 

I think most of the people who are complaining about the displays are as you said, people who find the idea of one or two religions represented on public land, paid for with public money unfair.
There are a few places where they have Wiccan displays and such but not very many.
I know in one town they said only groups with a certain size congregation could do the prayer at their public meetings and I'm sure they will apply that to their Christmas displays as well.

It's just like the the display of the Ten Commandments in front of the court building with not other representation.
People freaked out that the Satanists want to put up their own statue next to it.

 

In many cases the counter argument is that common law stems from cultural standards as illustrated by the 10 Commandments. There is an historical context.