The wingnuts are getting increasingly bizarre in their claims about the mythical “war on Christmas,” now claiming that it’s all part of a North Korean communist plot. Seriously.
You might be a communist if…You ban poinsettias from a government school; You rename a Christmas tree a “holiday” tree in a state building…or You threaten your neighbors with unexpected consequences if they want to put up Christmas lights. North Korea has claimed that South Korea’s plan to place three Christmas light displays in the shape of large trees is “a mean attempt for psychological warfare.” Their official site states, “The enemy warmongers … should be aware that they should be held responsible entirely for any unexpected consequences that may be caused by their scheme,” according to the Associated French Press.
…
Here in America, a Texas school banned Santa; a California school went another step and also banned poinsettias and Christmas trees, alleging that each was too religious. In addition, Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island renamed a Christmas tree a holiday tree against the wishes of the tree’s donor and the outcry across his state. It appears Gov. Chafee is well-suited for survival at the North Korea border. His policies are better for kow-towing to the Commies than celebrating Christmas.
Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel, commented: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to millions of people who live in repressive regimes like North Korea, where their faith is tested everyday. America needs to be a beacon of hope to the world. It is an important lesson to Americans to not let the ‘grinches’ steal our Christmas spirit here in the land of the free.”
Actually, Christmas was once banned in America. By the Puritans of Massachusetts.
24 comments
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Ellie
December 17, 2011 at 9:27 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nice that the Liberty Council and Mathew Staver finally admit what they worship: trees.
Michael Heath
December 17, 2011 at 9:31 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re Liberty Counsel’s Press Release linked to in the Right Wing Watch article that Ed links to here:
They use this slogan right-under the top banner which has their name, “Restoring the Culture by Advancing Religious Freedom, the Sanctity of Human Life and the Family“.
Are there any legal advocacy groups who fight harder in the U.S. against advancing religious freedom or the family? This is just another prime example of conservatives delusionally projecting, and this case being bigots as well.
Michael Heath
December 17, 2011 at 9:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Notice how their press release, published on-line, failed to provide links to their assertions:
Aquaria
December 17, 2011 at 9:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You might be a communist if…You ban poinsettias from a government school
They’re extremely poisonous–they should be banned when children who aren’t old enough to know better might try to eat them.
You rename a Christmas tree a “holiday” tree in a state building
Because nothing says Christmas like a gigantic pagan tree to worship
You threaten your neighbors with unexpected consequences if they want to put up Christmas lights.
Citation of this ever fucking happening–even once. You can do to your own property whatever you damn well please that’s illegal and doesn’t disturb your neighbors.
If you have so many lights that it makes your neighbor’s house bright enough to be mistaken for day–only then would they probably complain.
North Korea has claimed that South Korea’s plan to place three Christmas light displays in the shape of large trees is “a mean attempt for psychological warfare.”
North Korea would say that kitties are bad if South Korea said they were good. It would say that being gay was bad if South Korea said it was good. You should relate to that Liberty Counsel, since anything that decent people like or enjoy or just don’t give a flying fuck about, you have to do the exact opposite. You’re both opposite-humping fools.
Get down off your cross, Mat. You’re the only one putting you up there–or keeping your sorry ass there.
Aquaria
December 17, 2011 at 9:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Or poinsettias have long been believed to be poisonous, so schools usually play it safe, even though I don’t think there is any evidence that it is. I know that when my mom brought one to school for us, that was the reason the school gave for not having it there, and they wouldn’t budge on that.
That was in the 60s, though.
raven
December 17, 2011 at 10:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
One of the high schools in my district doesn’t have any holiday decor. They had a battle between the xians and the seculars decades ago and the school just said to forget the whole thing.
Other schools in the district do though. Their guidelines say that Holiday trees are OK. I don’t have a problem with that.
The whole War on the War on Xmas is just made up anyway, an attempt by the fundies to politicize the year end Holidays. It’s part of their ingroup outgroup persecution-hate tactics.
raven
December 17, 2011 at 10:26 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
One of my friends in SoCal planted their poinsettia in the backyard. Last I saw it was about 15 feet tall.
matty1
December 17, 2011 at 10:27 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It came without orders sent forth by the state about how we must all say that Jesus is great.
It came to the atheist, liberal and gay -did no body tell them this isn’t their day?
It came without folks getting all in twist because one mention of their cause was missed.
It came without flag waving, came without fear, people did there own thing but still Christmas is here!
Erp
December 17, 2011 at 10:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
On the Puritans banning Christmas, I looked up the law they passed in England in 1647. It banned Easter as well as Christmas (and Whitsun and all other holy days); however, since those days had been used for recreation by “Scholars, Apprentices, and other Servants”, they allowed them to “have such convenient reasonable Recreation and Relaxation from their constant and ordinary Labours on every second Tuesday in the month throughout the year”.
dingojack
December 17, 2011 at 10:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dingo’s second rule-of-thumb:
Just plain ol’ Liars for Jesus™
Nothing to see here, move along.
Dingo
Tsu Dho Nimh
December 17, 2011 at 10:36 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/poinsettia.asp
Not lethal, but not pleasant to eat. They are bitter and cause vomiting if eaten in large quantities.
reverendrodney
December 17, 2011 at 10:52 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I wonder how soon before the Liberty Council discovers that days of the week and months of the year are named after, eek, pagan gods!
MikeMa
December 17, 2011 at 11:16 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Nothing too craven for Staver & the LC ijits. They obviously need the extra cash donations to pay
christmasholiday bonuses.The Gregarious Misanthrope
December 17, 2011 at 11:43 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Given Christmas’s enduring popularity just about everywhere, I would have to surmise that the War on Christmas was planned by Cheney and Rumsfeld.
Francisco Bacopa
December 17, 2011 at 12:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
North Korea does not have enough knowledge of the outside world to make any kind of propaganda effort against the outside world. Remember that “Your wives are having sex with Bart Simpson” think from Iraq in 1991? Anything coming out of North Korea would be even more misguided.
And for the record, poinsettias are not that toxic. They’ll make you throw up and give you the runs. That’s it. They also taste very bad, so it’s hard to eat enough to even produce this effect. They are not even very toxic to cats and dogs, who are much more sensitive to most plant toxins than humans are.
When I was a kid we tried growing poinsettias outdoors. We were careful to plant in full shade, but they still died in August. That’s a tough month down here. Okra loves it though.
raven42
December 17, 2011 at 1:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So they have… three examples of restrictions on government-funded Christmas celebrations. In the *entirety* of the U.S. Without ANY kind of corroborating references of course, so they might well have not happened at all.
cag
December 17, 2011 at 3:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Christ is to Christmas as man is to mantle. Just a word.
I surmise that J10 is not the subject of too many sermons at christmas time.
meg
December 17, 2011 at 5:14 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You might also be a communist if you drink vodka – just saying, it is a Russian drink . . .same amount of logic applies . .. .
timgueguen
December 17, 2011 at 5:50 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You’d think they’d be happy Santa was banned. “Jesus is the reason for the season” and all that.
jakc
December 17, 2011 at 8:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’d love to see a survey of Christians’ favorite Christmas Specials. Obey Santa gets mentioned more than Jesus.
dan4
December 17, 2011 at 10:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@4: “Citation of this ever happening-even once.”
Gosh, you’re stupid. Staver is obviously talking here about the North Korean/South Korean situation regarding the “Christmas light displays in the shape of large trees.” He’s NOT talking about some homegrown situation involving literal house-to-house “neighbors” like your idiotic call for a “citation” implies.
“You can do to your own property whatever you damn well please that’s illegal…”
(*Palm hits face*).
organon
December 18, 2011 at 9:18 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@#21–> The article gives a series of examples to attempt making a connection between what they see (imagine) as a war on christmas here in the US. This is an ongoing thing where persons strive to believe they are being persecuted and wish for others to believe that acts of agression are going to happen to them in their attempts to celebrate christmas. It seems to me that the statement in #4 was about the ongoing claims of aggression and of a war being waged against those who seek to celebrate christmas, without any examples of any real acts of aggession taking place. The Korean example is an actual act of aggression that has no lack of citation. In trying to extend that to what they see as happening in the US does call for citation of actual examples. It was the article that tried to compare what happened in Korea to what they see as happening here. If there is a war going on here, it is a war on an imagined war. In the last quote, it is clear that the intended word was “legal,” not “illegal.” It is in regard, or so it seems to me, to those who cannot conceptually distinguish public property from private property and that there are rules that apply to public property that do not extend to private property. I celebrate christmas, and no one gets in my way of doing it. It is fully legal. There are no acts preventing it. There is nothing oppressing my celebrating it. And I do so, fully enjoying that right. Now if I then go to the government to seek the government to force my celebration on the rest of the public, their not agreeing to do so is not proof that they are preventing me from celebrating christmas. There are those who equate things prevented from being able to be pushed on the public at large as being the government acting as agents of imagined persons seeking to stop everyone from being able to celebrate christmas. BTW, making an argument via attacking the person making the point, rather than the point itself, is ad hominem. Also, when fueling the insults with extra emotional expressions would seem an attempt at discouraging the other person from expressing view points that differ from ones own. This is a forum where there seems a relatively high percentage of individuals who are versed in logical argument and will tend to be unreceptive to arguments using informal fallacies.
interrobang
December 19, 2011 at 10:59 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I did actually see a picture of that South Korean Christmas light display, on the BBC website. It was very tall and had a huge cross on the top. It looked like a giant middle finger pointed at NK, to me. While I suppose it’s within SK’s rights to do that, I personally think it’s a stupid move. (As far as I’m concerned, provoking NK is always a stupid move.)
I suppose I’m more sympathetic to the communists here because I’d be pissed if someone put up a giant, lit display with a huge cross on top that was visible from my house, too. I’m very much of the opinion that people should treat their religion like they treat their genitalia — it’s okay to do whatever you want with it in private, and be proud of it if you want to, but keep it out of my face.
Then again, by wingnut standards, I actually am a communist, so that’s not surprising.
dcsohl
December 20, 2011 at 3:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So with the death of Dear Leader, I guess the War on Christmas won’t be happening this year, right?