Columbian editor emeritus Tom Koenninger serves up a stinking dung bowl of war on Christmas bullshit in an opinion articled headlined, “Despite PC Crowd, Merry Christmas!”
If you want to view a school Christmas program this year, you may have to go to the Inchelium School District on the Colville Indian Reservation. That’s 90 miles north of Spokane. You won’t find such a program in Clark County’s public schools, at least not by that title.
Santa and Christmas are banned in the schools because they are politically incorrect. The legal beagles declare they are constitutionally incorrect, a violation of church and state separation, even though the American Center for Law and Justice pointed out in 2004: “It is important to note that nothing in the U.S. Constitution prohibits students in public schools from exercising their constitutional rights to express their religious beliefs, especially during the Christmas season.” That goes for the public square, too, they maintain.
Or if you wanted to see a Christmas play at a school you could go see one at a local Christian school, there are over eight thousand of them in Clark County alone. Bet Tom never considered that basic fact, or more accurately, he deliberately chose to bitch and moan about not being able to shove his religion down my kids’ throats.
So to his “Merry Christmas” I issue a cheerful, “Go Fuck Yourself with a Holly Branch, Tom.” Pass the eggnog.
As for the “legal beagles” Koenninger laments, I think they’re called “The Supreme Court of the United States.” The dirty fucking hippies have to live by any horrid decision they make, like Bush v. Gore, but somehow upholding the separation of church and state is worthy of contempt. There are fine distinctions to be made, but that may be why the place is made out of marble I guess.
Koenninger goes on to complain about various examples of how poor, poor picked-upon Christians have to deal with things like sorting out whether a Christmas tree should be in a public school. Granted, there are reasonable positions to discuss, but that would require some small attempt at empathy, something always in short supply for righties this time of year.
Striving for the PC Christmas, a lot of self-proclaimed do-gooders have done silly things. Last week, an elementary school principal in Ashland, Ore., removed an artificial Christmas “giving tree,” which held tags requesting gifts for needy children, after a family complained it was a religious symbol. Dozens of parents were upset, noting the tree was not a religious symbol but a way to celebrate the season and help those in need. Last year, the director of Seattle Schools Department of Equity and Race, Caprice D. Hollins, distributed a letter suggesting Thanksgiving is a difficult time for “many of our Native students.” She referred staff to a Web site that declared the holiday “is a bitter reminder of 500 years of betrayal returned for friendship.” Oh, those rotten Pilgrims!
Those rotten liberals, asking people to do unto others as they would have done unto them, it’s offensive.
The War on Christmas idiots complain endlessly about some vague threat against Christmas, but Christmas is everywhere you look right now. I was taught it’s in the heart, but I guess that’s not good enough for some people.
Hell, some of us might be tempted to come back to the organized religion if it weren’t for petty, narrow-minded fools like Koennigner. That’s about the last thing I need on Sunday morning, listening to some self-righteous prick tell me the difference between good and evil, knowing that the prick’s newspaper works tirelessly to fuck regular working people over the other six days of the week.
If someone gets cancer without health care they’ll be comforted if they can watch second graders sing “Silent Night” on public school grounds, because nothing is more comforting than the tribal culture war against liberals. People may go bankrupt, lose their houses and lives, but it’s all worth it just to generate animosity towards those who try to defend Constitutional principles that conservatives find troublesome, ie all the ones that don’t involve guns.
I say we put a Hindu “giving cow” on top of the new Columbian building and see what folks say. Well, we’d have to ask the bank that actually owns the new Columbian building first I suppose. Nobody could have predicted…
Being the victims of drippy, muddle-minded ‘do-gooders’ who lack the common sense that plain-speakin’, right-thinkin’ ‘Murkins possess is a cornerstone of the conservative attempt to co-opt the loyalty of the low information voter.
Can I go to a Christmas pageant at a Christian school with an assault rifle? It is my right, after all.
Quit whining Jon. You are even more of a dumbass than originally thought. Sniveling little asshole. Merry Christmas!
John and his type have tried to get everyone to call Christmas trees “Holiday trees,” so as not to offend non-Christians, and to that, I say, fuck you, John.
I’m going to go out and buy a CHRISTMAS tree today.
re 3: Right!! And Jews are trying to get us Samaritans to call menorahs ‘fire extinguishers’.
Wonder what their game is?
re 2: ” Sniveling little asshole. Merry Christmas!”
There’s something about that statement that lacks conviction. I think it’s the ‘Merry Christmas’part.
‘Merry Christmas’, lint-brained shithead!
Proof? URL? Or is that another of your “hidden racist” remarks?
BTW racist headless, Puddy is happy you are trying to mock Puddy with your “name”. Oh and Merry Christmas – with “conviction” of course!
I’ll pray for all of you, and for myself for forgiveness for reading this dribble. I thought I was about to review a thoughtful article regarding, legal rights, religious freedom, tolerance; all in the holiday spirit. Someone needs some professional help with their anger, and intolerance issues.
What if He was? What if she was? Can you say Magi?
Merry Christmas…………..yes I know He wasn’t born in December! That’s the Pope’s fault, but that is another story. Maybe Jon can excrete all over that one too.
Christmas in the United States is little more then a tribute to consumerism, driven by a manufactured guilt from advertising and PR. There is nothing religious about it, except that it relies on the religious axiom of faith based “markets”, and that retail sellers rely on religious trappings to guilt people into buying their stuff. Undermining this well established “holiday” undermines the ability of maunfacturers and credit card companies to profit on the purchase of Crap That We Don’t Need and probabaly didn’t even think of buying for ourselves (the supposed “best gift”). Since we are supposed to separate religion fron State, we need to get this religion of “markets” and consumerism completely out of the discourse that is publicly funded, especially education.
Boxing day is/was a real holiday.
Xmas’ers: the liberals want to kill grandma on Xmas day.
At whom would Jesus whine?
if you care enough to read this article, including the comments, you are a total loser. get a life! =o
Happy Holidays to all!
Since we just got done celebrating Thanksgiving the way the Pilgrims did, why not celebrate Christmas the way they did, too?
I just don’t understand why, if the Christians have such strong faith, they need to have schools and government participate in the pageantry to make it real.
And…I really don’t understand how Happy Holidays is a dis on anyone.
Its all just silly stupid shit. Santa did not die for your sins.
destroy all xmas muzak earworms. everywhere i go–the bank, the grocery, the deli–i am assaulted by these songs that i can’t get out of my head. psy-ops in the war of xmas.
This is the part about Seattle that really pisses me off. In no other city I have been to do I see so much pandering to the PC “Happy Holidays” crowd, with people almost afraid to say Merry Christmas for fear of it coming across as breath taking and offensive. Unbelievable.
It’s not a threat again Christmas.
It’s against Christians.
Freedom FROM religion and all that, right?
Question for liberals.
You believe Christmas break in schools should be called a holiday break because not everyone is a Christian, correct? And calling Christmas break may offend some people.
But you do realize that Jehovas Witnesses don’t celebrate holidays at all, and that by having holiday break, and holiday trees, and holiday plays in schools, you may be offending them, so do you believe any mention of any sort of holiday or birthday should be scrubbed from all public schools, so as not to offend JW’s?
Merry solstice!
“Christmas” trees are pagan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree
I’m an atheist, but the pagans also have the holidays right (whatever your delusion may be):
The days are short and dark, the nights are long and cold.
A warm fire, a full belly, mild inebriation and good friends to share them with are all I ask.
Jon Devore spews;
Never has the attitude of the LEFTIST PINHEADED KLOWN KOMMUNITY been so clearly portrayed and contrasted.
As an Atheist Progressive, Jon seems quite vulgar & angry…whereas Tom is Happy.
Jon is Mr. Negative/Vulgar…
Tom is happy.
Who would you rather spend time with??
@14 A suggested antidote would be to go to http://www.somafm.com, and listen to their “Xmas in Frisko” stream for a while.
Just what the hell is “figgy pudding”, anyway?????
Merry Christmas, Jon. Without Christ there is no Christmas. Puddy understands why you are what you are Jon!
Merry Christmas HA Lunatics!
You know, “Peace on Earth, good will towards men” used to be a guide for how Christians treated everyone else. Now, for some Christians at least, it means that they get to demand non-Christians greet them with a “Merry Christmas”.
Then Political Correctness came along and all of a sudden you can’t have Nativity Scenes in “certain” locations. Why? ACLU lawsuits.
“Peace on Earth, good will towards men” went to the bye-bye with those ACLU lawsuits!
Republicans refuse to think.
The post quotes good old happy Tom as telling us that some-center-or-other says that “students in public schools” may freely and constitutionally “express their religious beliefs.”
But the question is one of the school and the public school system sponsoring an expression of specifically Christian beliefs. Sorry, but no can do.
Example
——–
Students: can sing Christmas carols as they walk to or from class or lunch
School: can’t put nativity scene in school lobby
Of course, if some-school-or-other were proposing a Ramadan festival complete with statues of Mohammed dictating the Q’uran, I am sure that it would appear to be a completely different matter to our Xian brethren and sistren.
23
No, Pud, not “certain” locations. You can still have the nativity scene that you keep in your pants, for example.
Just public, government-funded locations. Is that so hard to say?
Then again, here are your hard-earned tax dollars at work. COngress can be breathtaking, no?
This week, 19 House Republicans unveiled a resolution (H. RES. 951) to make it clear that Congress likes Christmas.
Damn those secular politicans and their war on Christ!
I used to think schools were an inappropriate institution to rear children. That is the job of the parents, so I thought.
I think I’ve changed my mind though. Jon sounds like a horrible parent. If his children have to come home to this:
I feel sorry for them. I’d much prefer they get exposure to religion, even a religion I disagree with, than have to hear that from their father at home.
So how goes the writing of the new wingnut Bible? I hear that Phyllis Schafly’s kid is leading the effort. Yes, through young Mr. Schafly shall we learn the inviolate word of God and of Jesus’s hatred for those stinkin’ American commie-fascist progressives. But I can’t help but wonder, does young Schafly stick his face in a hat as he divines the word of God as Joseph Smith did? Just curious.
Kind of a funny thing….with O’Reilly and his ilk all bloviating about the Great Conspiracy Against Christianity, and the supposed banning of Christian symbology and terminology everywhere in the country (because all “libtardos” are atheists…right, Pudwax?).
Santa Monica, California, which is just about the most liberal city on the planet, has a great big statue of St. Monica overlooking the beach. Also, the local Catholic parish (named St. Monica’s, of course) has 9,000 registered families, and holds five standing-room-only Masses every Sunday. That’s in a town with about 80,000 residents.
@28 I wonder how Mr. Schafly is dealing with the passage in which Jesus says, “You cannot serve God and money”.
“Roses are reddish, Violets are bluish…
If it weren’t for Christmas, we’d all be Jewish”
….well, quite a few of us, anyway.
“American Center for Law and Justice?” Is that a stepchild of “American Center for Voting Rights”? It’s a Pat Robertson outfit …
So Puddy has a question to the HA Libtardo Christ haters. The reason for the season is the Gift of Christ by His Father in heaven. Christ gave up his omnipresence to redeem Man back to God from Satan by dying for our sins. So we celebrate His gift by giving gifts from our “heart” to our family and friends.
Since you leftist atheists don’t believe in Christ or His gift to humanity, why are you giving gifts to your friends and family on Dec 25?
It’s Illogical fools!
I’m not saying ACLJ (notice the similarity to ACLU?) incorrectly quoted the law. It’s just that one of those pesky fine distinctions eluded Mr. Koenninger because he’s not a lawyer. He’s only a journalist and you can’t expect those guys to know anything about law.
ACLJ is right when it says public school students have a right to exercise their religious beliefs. It’s not unconstitutional to get on your knees and pray when the teacher hands out the graded test papers. (Ya shoulda studied, but that’s water over the dam now.) The Constitution only prohibits the government from establishing a religion. Students can do it to their hearts’ content.
The fine distinction Koenninger missed is that, while students can practice religion in public schools, the schools can’t because they’re part of government.
What a doofus!
[Deleted — see HA Comment Policy]
@33 I think it’s terrific that you can get your sins forgiven, puddinghead, in the same sense that a nebula or exploding star is terrific. In other words, it’s incomprehensible, but it looks great!
@7 I’m going to pray that dunderheads who have no respect for other people’s constitutional rights never run this country again.
@10 You did.
It’s a SECULAR holiday. It’s ALWAYS been a secular holiday. They took a bunch of pagan holidays and turned them into a way to control superstitious sheep like you.
http://www.essortment.com/all/.....n_rece.htm
@15 Why don’t you stand in the middle of Aurora Avenue and yell “Merry Christmas” then see what happens? If a car hits you that’ll prove Seattle is anti-religion.
So by that logic the Cyniklown shouldn’t be such an asshole. What happened?
re 34: “So Puddy has a question to the HA Libtardo Christ haters.”
Spoken like a true disciple of Emmanuel – (God with us).
Once again racist headless doesn’t know his Bible.
Matthew 12:30 says:”He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”
So racist lucy seems the Bible has conquered your sorry foolish libtardo self again…
Here is another SMACK:
Mark 12:30-31 says:”And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
You demonstrate neither love!
Luke 12:30-31:”For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
John 12:30-31: “Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”
You honor the prince of this world racist lucy! Good job dude!
the loony left’s attack on christians continues……
I wonder how many church windows Rujax! will go out and smash on Christmas Day….
wow rujax, believing in Jesus Christ is a superstition. Then you must say Happy Holidays when you give “gifts” to your spawn. Saying Merry Christmas would make you a hypocrite!
Merry Christmas.
@44 “Loving one’s neighbor” doesn’t imply enabling, encouraging or even tolerating someone’s dangerous or self-defeating delusions. Seems they tried that with Maurice Clemmons and it didn’t work very well.
I’m an Evangelical Christian, and I have no problem with the schools not sponsoring religious displays. Sure, it seems it can get out of hand at times (choirs prohibited from singing standards?), but if that’s the price, so be it.
Why do I believe that way? Well, what’s good for the goose, is good for the gander. Do I want a teacher who’s an athiest, etc. to be teaching kids about Christ’s birth? Can you imagine how that message might come out?
How about if the teacher is a Wiccan? For that matter, if it becomes an “equal time” issue, do we want to include in the Christmas pagents in school include a message about the majesty of the Winter Solstice?
I think the best way to protect the integrity of the Christian religion is to keep it, and the government, as far away from one another as possible.
@41 Saw a guy do that a while back. The racket from the car horns was quite impressive. He was lucky though. A couple members of Seattle’s Finest escorted him away, still all in one piece.
@28: What does Phyllis Schafley, her son, or the passage “You cannot serve God and money” have to do with anything Jon or I said?
@51 Talking to yourself?
If you’re talking to me, then WTF does Jon’s parenting skills have to do with anything?
War on Christmas? I HOPE SO! The F**KING holiday last 2 months, and is only about shopping and pagan rituals anyway (trees, caroling, eating, the ‘Saint’ Nick thing)…almost nothing to do with the birth of Christ, which was NEVER in December anyway you religious TARDS! It was explicitly moved to Dec 25 LONG LONG after the origin of Christianity to counteract the then over abundance of pagan solstice celebrations (which still dominate the holiday).
This modern new age gaudy ridiculous commercial ‘thing’ the idiot right calls Christmas has nothing to do with the real idea. Christmas as we celebrate it is so out of bounds that the Pilgrams tried to outlaw it.
War on Christmas? It’s ABOUT TIME! Or are you idiots claiming to be MORE Christian than the Pilgrims? ROTFLMAO
@31: See @51
@52: I meant to say “@31,” who prefaced his comment with “@28.”
@53: Jon was complaining that he didn’t want his kids to learn anything about Christianity at school. I agree with that sentiment, but partly because I also think it’s the parent’s job to teach kids about religion and morality (and I mostly think that because the Constitution says so). But when Jon’s throwing around language like he is, when the rational solution is to either (a) close the newspaper or (b) express your disagreement in a civilized manner, I have to question whether Jon’s kids really would be better off learning how to be a good person from him instead of from Mrs. Mattingly at school.
Tough Love from the PuddWaxxer:
“Once again racist headless doesn’t know his Bible._
“Saying Merry Christmas would make you a hypocrite!”
“you must say Happy Holidays when you give “gifts” to your spawn.”
“Matthew 12:30 says:”He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” (Waxx is like the brother of the Prodigal son — a jealous, conniving monster)
“It’s Illogical fools!”
“So racist lucy seems the Bible has conquered your sorry foolish libtardo self again…
“Greater love hath no man….”
Well, with the Waxxter, that’s a given.
Why Does God Hate Christmas?
Last night, high winds brought down the Christmas tree at the state capitol in Tennessee.
http://www.timesfreepress.com/.....-christma/
I read of a congregation in the Southland where the faithfull gathered of a Christmas eve and the roof caved in and killed them all.
Must be part of His grand plan.
@58
Exactly, if New Orleans is flooded by a hurricane, it’s because God was punishing the city for its excesses. When a bus full of school children plunges over a cliff, killing everyone, it’s because God is mysterious and we don’t know what is in His mind.
There you go again headless blaming God for Satanic acts.
Wait a minute… Satan is your god… Puddy’s mistake.
Found this on the Nets:
On the 12th day of Christmas Obama gave to me:
12 KSM Jurors,
11 $Trillion Debt,
10% Unemployment,
9 Government Czars,
8 Cap and traders,
7 Convicted Felon/Tax Cheat advisors,
6 Climate Panels, FIIIIIVE Adoring Networks………
4 Years of Hell,
3 Crashing Polls,
2 Unofficial Party Crashers
and a Statist Ideo-lo-gy!
To the War on Christmas denialists: The War on Christmas is well underway. I visited a home recently where the owner of the house, rather than being a good red-blooded American, instead worshipped some Middle Eastern god. She had in her living room a sacred totem of renewal and fertility, around which her family gathered to sing songs of worship to their strange and foreign god. Her family also celebrated the birth of their god by holding a feast—while the sacred fertility totem was still erect mere feet away from their feast table! Do you realize how un-American such a blatant and obvious fertility rite clearly is? It was the most horrifyingly un-American thing I ever saw!
—Badtux the Snarky Penguin
@45 I wonder how many homeless beggars you’ll flip off on Christmas Day.
Here’s a concept people like “lebowski” will never understand:
“Vt. Church Sells Stained-Glass Window to Help
Homeless
“By Audrey Barrick|Christian Post Reporter
“First Baptist Church in Brattleboro, Vt., is selling its Tiffany stained-glass window to continue helping the homeless.
“The more than 100-year-old window, which depicts St. John the Divine, is being sold to help make necessary repairs in the building so that the church would be able to keep its homeless shelter open.”
http://www.christianpost.com/a.....index.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: 99.5 of every 100 Republicans would ask how much the broker’s commission is if they find a buyer.
@62 Does she give good blowjobs?
@61 Yawn. You need a new ghostwriter. Your material sucks.
That’s pretty harsh towards a bunch of dead people that would wish you the best in life if they could.
@54
YES!!!!
Shameless Republican Liars #09-65789425-01 and #09-65789426-01
White House gatecrasher Tareq Salahi is the son of a Palestinian immigrant who founded Oasis Vineyards, one of Virginia’s first successful wineries.
After his father couldn’t run the family business anymore, Tareq’s fighting with his mother over management issues eventually drove Oasis into bankruptcy, but not before a REPUBLICAN governor appointed Tareq to the state wine commission and he established himself as, well, a tireless and shameless promotor:
“In 1999, Salahi played on the American team at a polo match at Windsor Castle in Great Britain. He was afterwards invited to a private reception honoring HRH Prince Charles, then a player on the British team. At the exact moment that Salahi was to extend his hand to Charles for a simple ‘grip and grin’ photo, an associate suddenly emerged from behind a curtain and thrust a magnum of Oasis Vineyards Special 2000 Millenium Sparkling Wine into the hands of the surprised prince.”
(From Wikipedia)
Sheesh.
One of Tareq’s friends, Nathaniel Casey Margenau — the top-producing ReMax real estate agent in the world for 1999-2003 and a George W. Bush appointee, stepped up to help Tareq buy back Oasis Vineyards from the bankruptcy trustee … but backed out when he discovered the shambles that not only the financial books but also the vineyard was in.
(In 2009, the Virginia Real Estate Board fined Margenau $2,800, suspended his real estate license for 2 years, and ordered him to attend ethics classes for renting out properties he was supposed to sell without the owners’ knowledge or permission.)
In addition to promoting his family’s wine business by giving away product samples to foreign princes, Tareq created an event called the America’s Polo Cup to promote the sport. He claimed Land Rover, Cartier, and Ritz Carleton were sponsors, but all of those companies denied any connection with it and called that a “fabrication.”
Tareq’s wife, Micheala Salahi, who co-crashed the White House dinner with her husband, claimed to be a former Washington Redskins cheerleader and Victoria’s Secret model, but both of those organizations denied any past or present connection with her.
The Salahis threw a lavish wedding in 2003 with a guest list top-heavy with prominent REPUBLICANS and headlined by Supreme Court Justice Kennedy. Before marrying Tareq, Michaele Salahi (nee Michelle Holt) held a string of retail jobs.
(From Wikipedia)
Tiger Woods Mistress Wanted In Washington
The Tiger Woods saga keeps getting more lurid. According to KING 5 News, 11 mistresses have been identified so far (can you say “sex addict”?), the latest of whom is a Las Vegas exotic dancer who is wanted by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services for nonpayment of child support. Major sponsors have begun to drop him. My guess is Tiger’s lucrative career is over.
This obviously has gone on for a long time, and my guess is the media has known about it for a long time, but bit their lips and kept their keyboards silent — until the car accident. That blew the lid off. Now his life is unraveling. Maybe he had a little too much hubris. Fame and fortune have a way of swelling people’s heads and causing them to lose touch with the ground. He’s golf’s Balloon Boy.
@70 should read “My guess is Tiger’s lucrative endorsement career is over.”
Goldy’s edit function timed out before it would save. AOL is really slow tonight — it’s crawling. I may switch change to a new internet provider soon. A tin can on a string works better than AOL, and costs less too.
re 67: I was being harsh to God, not the victims of his divine and infallible will.
But what I really wanted to talk about was the affair that Marvin had with Tiger (or, should I say, ‘Cheetah’) Woods. It’s not just trumpets Marvin, is it.
@64….did you say something Goebbels Rabbit?
nah, didnt think so.