I have a friend that once said to me that out of all the Christmas shows The Grinch showed the “true meaning” of Christmas. When I replied I felt the only mainstream show that does it is Charlie Brown Christmas Special, in that it was the only show that discussed the birth of Christ, he disagreed. I didn’t push it any further, after all it was Christmas and I wasn’t intending to pick a fight.
But that is the spirit that seems to be taking over Christmas in the mass media and pop culture. I would imagine that it must offend born again Christians quite a bit. Imagine how Jews would feel if the mass media decided to adopt Hanukkah as the national holiday but completely washed it of any of its original content. They decided the “true meaning” of Hanukkah was 8 days of just giving and getting stuff and singing entirely non-religious tunes to feel better about our selves.
Or better yet Imaging if the mass media and pop culture celebrated Earth Day by deciding the “true meaning” was bringing a keg of beer, plastic cups and box lunches packed in those Styrofoam clam shells to the park to listen to a band play classic rock tunes. After they got half loaded and were ready to go home they threw out what trash they remembered to pick up into big trash cans. I know some of you are thinking that that IS how they celebrate it but you must go on to imagine that If someone tried to suggest that the environment should be considered everyone would looked annoyed and just said, no that’s not the “true meaning” of earth day for me.
People can celebrate Christmas any way they want. They can of course celebrate Christmas and not be Christians, but they can’t say Christmas isn’t about Christ. Whether you believe he was a mere man, a man in touch with god, the son of god or he and god are one, his birth is what started it all.
If you want to celebrate Christmas you must give he who started it all, his due. If you can’t you should at least greet other people in the weeks leading up to December 25 by saying “Happy Gift Giving Day” or as one radio host puts it “ Merry Winter”. Or maybe we could celebrate next April 22nd as “Drunken Rock Band Picnic Day”.
None of this is likely. My friend is a good reflection of the mass media and pop culture. He would rather not acknowledge Christ as having anything to do with Christmas and is always sure to remind us on every April 22nd that “everyday should be earth day”.
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Apparently the definition of cease-fire as it is understood today needs to be looked at.
An estimated 60 missiles have been launched onto Israel from Gaza since the cease-fire came into effect. Israel has so far chosen to refrain from a military response. The Media Line
I heard this story on NPR on my way into work today and was amazed. The conversation that ensued regarding Israel’s ability to keep from fighting back in order to keep the hard won cease-fire seemed surreal. I wonder if anyone saying anything as incongruous as this could tell the parents of the 14 year old boy that was killed that their government needed to hold back on any retaliation to Keep The Pease.
I would be the first to admit I do not understand how the Israelis could be considering new settlements in the occupied territories. Though turning over those militarily strategic areas to people who don’t feel you have the right to exist might be suicide, I would think it would serve their purposes better to treat it like a demilitarized zone.
But as far as the cease-fire goes…if it means they can’t shoot back I think they would be safer with war. If a cease-fire in your neighborhood meant your neighbors could shoot at you and you couldn’t shoot back what would you do.
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In this post I am going to deal with the current wisdom that President Bush fabricated the concept and evidence that Saddam Hussein had or was unilaterally suspected of having nuclear, chemical and biological weapons WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) so he could convince the American people to let him go to war. I will leave the idea that Saddam never had connections to al Qaeda for a future post. Below I have excerpts from speeches from both president Bill Clinton and George Bush just prior to their each taking military action against Saddam.
“That regime pledged to reveal and destroy all its weapons of mass destruction as a condition for ending the Persian Gulf War in 1991.”
“Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. This regime has already used weapons of mass destruction against Iraq’s neighbors and against Iraq’s people.”
“The security of the world requires disarming Saddam Hussein now.”
AND
“Their mission is to attack Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.”
“Other countries possess weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles. With Saddam, there is one big difference: He has used them. Not once, but repeatedly. Unleashing chemical weapons against Iranian troops during a decade-long war. Not only against soldiers, but against civilians, firing Scud missiles at the citizens of Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Iran. And not only against a foreign enemy, but even against his own people, gassing Kurdish civilians in Northern Iraq.”
“I have no doubt today, that left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will use these terrible weapons again.”
“He will surmise that he has free rein to rebuild his arsenal of destruction, and someday — make no mistake — he will use it again as he has in the past.”
However you feel about sending in ground troops (both presidents attacked by air and with missiles) the concept that everyone knew he had WMDs is inescapable. I use the phrase “knew he had” very purposefully. As both presidents stated, and as is very well documented, he used chemical weapons against the Iranians and his own people. Read the text of the Clinton’s speech and Bush’s speech for yourself. As I said before I will get into the connection to terrorists in a future post but first we need to put to rest the concept that bush lied about WMDs.
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