Have a "fill in the blank" "fill in the blank"

Scott Simon delivered a nice commentary (listen to it at this link: And So This Isn't Christmas?) on Weekend Edition Saturday, all about the right-wing fundie furor over the Bush’s holiday card (Geez, I never thought I’d be rooting for Laura Bush on something), and about the various boycotts and protests going on over the use of the term “Merry Christmas”, and the general manner in which the holiday is celebrated. One little quote from it:
I guess if you want your children to learn the story of Christmas, you just might have to take them into a church, not a Wal-Mart.

World O’Crap has been doing some good watchdog stuff on the American Family Association, Jennifer Giroux and others. Hell!! I'm afraid now that my secular greetings are going to offend someone!

Hmmm, well if you want to have a merry xmas, go right ahead, as long as you don't mind if I just have a few nice days off from work. That's called a "holiday" in my book, and on my calendar.

I’m one of those people who enjoys a certain amount of political correctness. It’s respectful and it's an attempt at not offending. I will agree that it goes overboard occasionally but that’s no reason to just throw it out. Moderation is the key here, just like it is with many things, and besides, everyone has their own personal lines drawn on what offends them and what doesn’t so you basically can’t please everybody all the time. Here’s something I got from a joke mailing list, and I enjoyed it even though it pokes fun at me here and there.

The Twelve Politically Correct Days Of Christmas

On the 12th day of the Eurocentrically imposed midwinter festival, my significant other in a consenting adult, monogamous relationship gave to me:

TWELVE males reclaiming their inner warrior through ritual drumming,

ELEVEN pipers piping (plus the 18-member pit orchestra made up of members in good standing of the Musicians Equity Union as called for in their union contract even though they will not be asked to play a note),

TEN melanin deprived testosterone-poisoned scions of the patriarchal ruling class system leaping,

NINE persons engaged in rhythmic self-_expression,

EIGHT economically disadvantaged female persons stealing milk-products from enslaved Bovine-Americans,

SEVEN endangered swans swimming on federally protected wetlands,

SIX enslaved Fowl-Americans producing stolen non-human animal products,

FIVE golden symbols of culturally sanctioned enforced domestic incarceration,

(NOTE: after members of the Animal Liberation Front threatened to throw red paint at my computer, the calling birds, French hens and partridge have been reintroduced to their native habitat. To avoid further Animal-American enslavement, the remaining gift package has been revised.)

FOUR hours of recorded whale songs

THREE deconstructionist poets

TWO Sierra Club calendars printed on recycled processed tree carcasses and...

ONE Spotted Owl activist chained to an old-growth pear tree.

Merry Christmas. Happy Chanukah. Good Kwanzaa. Blessed Yule. Oh, heck! Happy Holidays!!! (unless otherwise prohibited by law)*

*Unless, of course, you are suffering from Seasonally Affected Disorder (SAD). If this be the case, please substitute this gratuitous call for celebration with suggestion that you have a thoroughly adequate day.

- Christmas - Secular - Holidays -