The unimportant news thread

Started by Lethevich, March 05, 2008, 07:14:50 AM

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Karl Henning

Who is telling Romanians they shouldn't say "Merry Christmas?"

We've had American wackos whingeing about supposed "wars on Christmas" for years now. You may recall that the disgraced former president, little energy though he could devote to governing, took opportunity to assure Evangelicals that they'd still be able to say "Merry Christmas," but it was all straw then, and remains straw this season.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

SimonNZ

Considering how little Christmas has to do with Christianity and how much more it is derived from paganism and regional folk traditions, I don't understand why...

...meh, forget it, I don't really care.

SimonNZ

Quote from: Florestan on December 07, 2021, 02:56:47 PM
Considering how little you know about Romania and Romanian Christianity*, I don't understand why...

* ie, nothing at all, like in nothing at all --- prove me wrong if I'm wrong...

Would understanding Romanian Christianity really make me think the so-called "war on christmas" is anything other than an utterly unimportant insincere nonsense barbarians-at-the-gate fearmongering click-bait knee-jerk culture war and cynical electioneering cudgel?

greg

Quote from: Florestan on December 07, 2021, 02:39:12 PM
https://www.politico.eu/article/european-commission-cancel-christmas-inclusive-language-lgbtq/
Dumb political correctness strikes again.
The ironic thing is their form of being nice is assuming non-Christians who don't celebrate Christmas are intolerant and easily offended.
Why can't we all just say "Happy xxxxxxxx?" whatever we celebrate and then just respond likewise?
At my last two workplaces, we celebrate Diwali each year (even though I never heard of it before then), and it's all good. Actually, I do miss the food for the last two years not being able to go in office.
It's a really psychotic attitude IMO, it's like some weirdo asking people if he's ugly, and if so, he'll cut off his face or wear a mask in order to not be offensive. It's so dumb.  :P
Wagie wagie get back in the cagie


Karl Henning

SAYING "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" | IS IT SUCH A RECENT THING?

... Contrary to popular belief, using "happy holidays" in United States goes back to as early as the 1840s. Peruse some historic newspapers and you'll get a sense of how far back it actually goes. The December 25, 1843 issue of the New York Herald and the New York Daily Tribune ran a poem entitled, "The Christmas Holidays" ....
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

JBS

Quote from: Florestan on December 07, 2021, 03:15:26 PM
Your understanding Romanian Christianity would hopefully make you realize, and possibly accept, that there are whole peoples out there which do not share, and do not subscribe to, your worldview. We know nothing about culture war or electioneering. If you will ever happen to come to Romania, just let me know --- I will show you our way, and if after that you will still want to go back to NZ, then so be it.

Simon's comments may not be applicable to Romania, but they are certainly valid in the context of the US. Christmas here is a weird amalgam of religious and secular in which the secular components allow those who wish to pretend the religious component does not exist to expect everyone else join them in that pretense. Some non-Christians (both atheists of Christian origin and those like me who belong to non-Christian communities) join in, others look for alternate ways of dealing with the fact that 95% or more Americans celebrate in some way. Meanwhile the gift-giving aspect has become a gigantic factor in the American economy.  Social conservatives bewail the fact that not everyone celebrates Christmas and declare there's a War on Christmas. And some very sincere Christians try to get everyone to understand that Christmas is at bottom a Christian holiday despite the heavy overlay of secularity and traditions that derive from pre-Christian Europe.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Karl Henning

Quote from: JBS on December 07, 2021, 05:41:17 PM
Simon's comments may not be applicable to Romania, but they are certainly valid in the context of the US. Christmas here is a weird amalgam of religious and secular in which the secular components allow those who wish to pretend the religious component does not exist to expect everyone else join them in that pretense. Some non-Christians (both atheists of Christian origin and those like me who belong to non-Christian communities) join in, others look for alternate ways of dealing with the fact that 95% or more Americans celebrate in some way. Meanwhile the gift-giving aspect has become a gigantic factor in the American economy.  Social conservatives bewail the fact that not everyone celebrates Christmas and declare there's a War on Christmas. And some very sincere Christians try to get everyone to understand that Christmas is at bottom a Christian holiday despite the heavy overlay of secularity and traditions that derive from pre-Christian Europe.

Those sincere Christians are welcome to their own observances, of course. They have to let go of their fantasy that they can regulate what Christmas means to everyone else.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

JBS

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on December 07, 2021, 06:24:58 PM
Those sincere Christians are welcome to their own observances, of course. They have to let go of their fantasy that they can regulate what Christmas means to everyone else.

The ones I refer to as sincere Christians are not the ones who think Happy Holidays is a Marxist slogan.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Karl Henning

Quote from: JBS on December 07, 2021, 06:33:57 PM
The ones I refer to as sincere Christians are not the ones who think Happy Holidays is a Marxist slogan.

Fair enough.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Dry Brett Kavanaugh

A little old poll results (2019). More than 70% of Americans hold direct or indirect creationist view. Less than 30% of Americans hold a (genuine) evolutionist view.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspx

JBS

Quote from: Dry Brett Kavanaugh on December 07, 2021, 07:45:41 PM
A little old poll results (2019). More than 70% of Americans hold direct or indirect creationist view. Less than 30% of Americans hold a (genuine) evolutionist view.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/21814/evolution-creationism-intelligent-design.aspx

According to the generally used definition of creationism (see here for an example: https://www.britannica.com/topic/creationism) 44% of Americans are creationists, while the rest accept evolution.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

drogulus


     In my view only young earth creationists qualify. The notion that a Big Thing created things so that they appear to have processed from prior natural states leaves no work for a Big Thing to do. We have no record of a natural state popping into existence. As important, we have no record of "nothing", even as an "other than". Just as zero is not a number, but a mere numeral indicating absence of a number, "nothing" is all concept, no cattle. It doesn't even not exist.
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Pohjolas Daughter

I was very sorry to read this recent news:

Mark Cavendish: British cyclist assaulted by armed men during burglary at his home  https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/59585168

"British cyclist Mark Cavendish was assaulted by four armed men during a burglary at his home on 27 November.

Cavendish, 36, said he, his wife Peta and their children were threatened "at knifepoint" by the men and he was "violently attacked".

The Manx rider was suffering from two broken ribs and a collapsed lung sustained in a crash on 21 November.

Essex Police said none of the family sustained serious injuries but were "incredibly shaken" by the incident."


PD

Pohjolas Daughter

MusicTurner

#4214
Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on December 08, 2021, 09:45:07 AM
I was very sorry to read this recent news:

Mark Cavendish: British cyclist assaulted by armed men during burglary at his home  https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/59585168

"British cyclist Mark Cavendish was assaulted by four armed men during a burglary at his home on 27 November.

Cavendish, 36, said he, his wife Peta and their children were threatened "at knifepoint" by the men and he was "violently attacked".

The Manx rider was suffering from two broken ribs and a collapsed lung sustained in a crash on 21 November.

Essex Police said none of the family sustained serious injuries but were "incredibly shaken" by the incident."


PD

Yes, a crazy story, and cynically speaking, he doesn't belong to the class of high-caliber multi-millionaires, you'd suppose to risk such risky robberies. Without knowing any details, I'd still think options for solving such an assault case would normally be quite good.

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: MusicTurner on December 08, 2021, 09:54:13 AM
Yes, a crazy story, and cynically speaking, he doesn't belong to the class of high-caliber multi-millionaires, you'd suppose to risk such risky robberies. Without knowing any details, I'd still think options for solving such an assault case would normally be quite good.
I imagine that he's probably been at the receiving end for some nice endorsement deals over the years?  Perhaps they didn't even know whose house they were breaking into?  Or they thought that if he's out of the hospital, that he would be too incapacitated to be able to fight back?

In any event, I'm rather surprised that he didn't have an alarm system in place?  Or maybe he deactivated it because he was at home?

I do hope (with all of those street, etc., cameras that I've heard of that they are able to figure out who all did it...maybe caught the license plate at some point?) that they get the thieves.

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

MusicTurner

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on December 08, 2021, 10:38:12 AM
I imagine that he's probably been at the receiving end for some nice endorsement deals over the years?  Perhaps they didn't even know whose house they were breaking into?  Or they thought that if he's out of the hospital, that he would be too incapacitated to be able to fight back?

In any event, I'm rather surprised that he didn't have an alarm system in place?  Or maybe he deactivated it because he was at home?

I do hope (with all of those street, etc., cameras that I've heard of that they are able to figure out who all did it...maybe caught the license plate at some point?) that they get the thieves.

PD

He has earned a good deal, some years apparently 3 mio. Euros, but still, I doubt there's very much to find at his home ... and the risk of trying, while the family is at home, is considerable ...

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: MusicTurner on December 08, 2021, 10:42:29 AM
He has earned a good deal, some years apparently 3 mio. Euros, but still, I doubt there's very much to find at his home ... and the risk of trying, while the family is at home, is considerable ...
Very true!

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

André

Quote from: drogulus on December 08, 2021, 07:29:31 AM
     In my view only young earth creationists qualify. The notion that a Big Thing created things so that they appear to have processed from prior natural states leaves no work for a Big Thing to do. We have no record of a natural state popping into existence. As important, we have no record of "nothing", even as an "other than". Just as zero is not a number, but a mere numeral indicating absence of a number, "nothing" is all concept, no cattle. It doesn't even not exist.

That's an interesting POV.

MusicTurner