Another year of "The War on Christmas" is over...Thankfully!

I may be dating myself but I'm old enough to remember when saying "Merry Christmas" wasn't considered a pejorative term.  And to wish someone"Happy Holidays" was not seen as "selling out" or diluting Christmas in any way but was simply the catch all phrase that encompassed the season from Thanksgiving to New Years Day.

But now America seems to be involved another war.  This is a war that has been raging for decades with major battles being played out every November and December.  On one side is the traditionalist who, in a world gone mad, desperately want to keep the CHRIST in Christmas!  And on the other side are all the others who want to diversify things a bit and who, lets be honest, probably have a little to much time on their hands.

Yes, it is the yearly fights involving the "War on Christmas."

Although for the most part I find the "War"... comical, I must admit chafing a little when I would hear some major store chain banning their employees from saying, Merry Christmas.  I can at least understand the argument about having a nativity scene displayed on a public ground (even if I don't agree with it.)  But banning someone's speech involving a holiday greeting...mmmm, that just gets under my skin!

From 2005 till 2008 I worked at Barnes & Noble and fortunately they had no policy on the matter so typically I would wish customers a Merry Christmas.  It was there that I realized that this "War" is indeed played out mostly by people with too much time on their hands as I literally wished thousands of customers "Merry Christmas" over my 3 Christmas tenure there and I had, maybe, two minor incidents where people said they didn't appreciate that.  Now understand this wasn't at a Barnes & Noble tucked away all snug in the Bible Belt, no, this was Boulder, Colorado.  Yes, the Boulder Colorado that didn't vote for Al Gore in 2000 because he was to conservative and where Buddhism is the religion de jour.  If they weren't offended, well, it made me wonder how much "War" there really was.

I did always wonder though why there weren't more nativity scenes in major department stores??  I mean, if you are an executive for Target or Wal-Mart, you must be thanking God every fiscal sales year that a little Jewish boy was born in a  Middle Eastern farm stable 2000 years ago.  Come to think of it, instead of a War on Christmas in the retail sector, there should probably be big "Thank You Jesus" signs at every chain department store across America .



That reminds me again of my Barnes & Noble days.  I would often have a customer look at the December bedlam in the store and comment, "Wow, it's really busy in here."
"Yeah," I would reply,  "well, you know...its Kwanzaa...happens every year."
The customer would smile awkwardly as they processed that little nugget...and then move on.

But I live in Hong Kong again!  I am safe from the battles!  There is no "War on Christmas" over here...just Christmas.  The city is decked out with Christmas trees & lights.  Some buildings say "Merry Christmas" and others say, "Season's Greetings"  with no venom or ill intention found in either one.  The malls are filled with school choirs singing both Santa Claus is coming to Town AND Away in the Manger!

It's much more peaceful and probably a little more what Jesus had in mind!

BYU Benches Star Player: "And so shines a good deed in a weary world"

There is a great scene in the movie Hoosiers where the small town high school basketball coach played by Gene Hackman benches one of his star players during a game because of an attitude problem.  As they begin to lose, the parents are screaming for him to get the kid back in the game.  Principals be damned, there is a game to be won!  Hackman doesn't buckle as there is a higher value he is trying to drive home to his team.

A real life Hoosiers moment hit the college basketball world this week when Bringham Young University benched its scoring star Brandon Davies for an honor code violation.  The violation?  He admitted pre-marital sexual relations with his girlfriend.

Of course now a chorus of ridicule is being heaped on the Mormon based university for it "puritanical" honor code that seems out of step with the times but what is encouraging is seeing a growing wave of support for this point of light in a weary world.

The Daily Show - Tales of Principled Behavior
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Even Jon Stewart on The Daily Show showed an admiration for the decision in its Tales of Principled Behavior section.  I include the video but with the disclaimer of a PG-13 rating. (The relevant section is in the second half of the clip)

Kudos to BYU for standing firm despite this action severely affecting their Division D Championship possibilities and kudos to Davies himself who has come to the games, sat on the bench, and supported his team.

Why the Left and the Right hate the Rally to Restore Sanity

A couple weeks ago I arrived  home late Saturday night from a great evening with friends and the family.  However rather than collapse in bed as is the norm (those that know me also know I am NOT a night person), Gabriel and I fired up the computer to catch the live feed of Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity on the mall in Washington DC.


First of all let me say...I loved it!  If I had been in America, this would have been the Rally I would like to attend.
Good music...good humor...good message!  No one angry...no ridiculous chants, just good times and celebrating America.  Sure there were a few nut jobs out there that made fodder for right wing bloggers; have a couple hundred thousand people show up and I guarantee there will be some crazies, but we should't judge the rally's message by these people.  To be fair, Glen Beck's rally shouldn't be judged by the minority of nut jobs that showed up to his.

And by making this distinction we've taken a step to "restoring sanity" ...something I am a huge supporter of.

The Rally's purpose is validated by the fact that both the Right and the Left came out to condemn it.  The Right, knowing Jon Stewart vents Left in his politics,  saw the appeal to neutrality and "sanity" as a sham and that the whole gig was nothing more than a last ditch attempt to rally "progressives" for the Democrats in the run-up to the election.

The Left, in turn, felt betrayed as they were secretly hoping that WAS the reason for the rally...and it wasn't (as the video can attest)

Let's face it, if sanity were to return to the public arena, a lot of people on both sides of the political spectrum would be out of a job.  A huge part of our economy now rests on convincing you that "those guys over there" are out to destroy everything you hold dear!

So Jon, and Stephen, you hit the bullseye.  You managed to de-fang both the Right and the Left and took us, at least for a day, on the long road back to sanity!  Cheers!

Restore the Sanity 2010

I try not to blog too often on Jon Stewart and the Daily Show...else I would hardly blog about anything else...but when he announced his "Restore the Sanity" rally for October 30 in Washington DC, I had to get on board.

Lets face it, things have gotten really weird...and it started long before Obama. When George W. Bush was in office I was always disturbed when I would see, normally calm, intelligent Democrat acquaintances suddenly have a Jekyll & Hyde reaction at the very mention of his name. Eyes would glaze over, teeth would gnash, and no reason could penetrate the notion that from the time W. got up in the morning till he went to bed at night, he was Satan incarnate.

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Rally to Restore Sanity
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Now it seems with Obama...its gotten even worse. If I mention to some Republican friends that although I wouldn't vote for him, I think he's articulate and has some good qualities I will inevitably be given a look of sheer incongruity.

"But Steve, surely you know he is a: (Choose 1)

A) Atheist
B) Muslim
C) Black Panther Christian

who was born in

A) Kenya
B) Indonesia (but don't ask me where that's at)
C) hell (and is the anti-Christ)

and he's trying to

A) create a socialist Amerika
B) make it legal for a man to be able to marry his own pet
c) take away all my rocket propelled grenade launchers

and I know all of this because:

A) Rush Limbaugh
B) Glenn Beck
c) Sarah Palin

told me so (by inspiration of the Holy Spirit). So here is your

A) handgun
B) shotgun
C) rocket propelled grenade launcher

and get ready, because this revolution will be televised on

A) Fox News
B) Fox News
C) Fox News

I give credit to Stewart in his promotion of the rally. Although he vents Left in his politics, he takes an equal swipe at both sides of the craziness. And they have both gone crazy!

I wish I were in the States in October because this is one rally I would attend. Its my kind of people...people who I can stand with and proclaim with one voice,

"WE ARE HERE...but only till 6:00 because we have a sitter!"

July 4th Cold War Comfort Food

Maybe its just me, but doesn't it feel good to be fighting the Russians again!

Last week's breakup of a major Soviet (sorry, I mean Russian) spy ring of deep undercover agents infiltrating American suburbia made me feel all giddy inside. What better gift to America this Fourth of July season then a little Cold War rewind.

Lets face it! We miss it don't we? The James Bond, cloak and dagger, balance of power games played out between the U.S. and the Soviets. As Jon Stewart's Daily Show commented, "its comfort food" for us like "curling up on the couch with a bowl of mac and cheese and an episode of Full House."

It was a nostalgic moment when we got to relive the glory days. Like the high school quarterback, who now finds himself at a boring 9-5 job, America, who is currently bogged down fighting enemies we can't begin to understand in Afghanistan and Iraq, got to pause for a moment and reflect on the good old days of worthy adversaries we could at least respect.

Come on, the Space Race? Reagan & Gorbachev? the Berlin Wall?...they were Godless Communists we could love and appreciate. Even the Chinese, who aspire to take the Soviet Union's spot on the Superpower stage, are all becoming Christian Capitalists. What fun is that?

Instead we are stuck fighting ugly hairy guys with names like Omar Sheik something something who run around blowing up innocent women and children instead of a beautiful Russian temptress named Natasha who is simply trying to steal the plans to America's new thing-a-ma-jig! Good times...Good times!

Ok, so the the Russian undercover ring was stealing information that could be found in any New York Times. That's not the point. These wonderful Russian spies gave the American people a gift on our 234th birthday that money can't buy.

They gave us the gift of love!

Crazies on the Left

I never liked Keith Olbermann! The MSNBC talk show host who camps out on the political Left irritates me more than the norm because he comes across with his deep voice and gravitas as someone who could be respected as a newsman on the level of a Tom Brokaw or Walter Cronkite. Instead, he uses his incredible talent to deliver unbalanced tirades about every burr that happens to be under his saddle that day. What a waste!

Now, a couple posts ago I took aim at the right wing pundits who I believe embarrass the Republican Party. I do this as a Republican because, well, someone in the party needs to do it. But sometimes, it just feels good when you're watching the Daily Show, and you see a person on the Left who screws up SO bad, even Jon Stewart can't help but make fun of it. Enjoy! (Sorry the clip's tag was broken so I had to get this edition from You Tube. I apologize for the title, but the clip is good)