Don't ask for an inch, then expect a foot.

[Arctyrael]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/10/airport.christmas.trees.ap/index.html

Frankly, I'm glad the airport made the decision it did. It is a very sensible response to the situation, with a duly sensible reason. Irregardless of your religion, it is the holidays. While your holiday may not be portrayed, just remember - without protraying hundreds of other symbols of Idolatry, your's isn't more important than any other holiday.

I laugh at it because I have Jewish friends that celebrate christmas with a tree because it is fun... I hope more retailers and businesses alike start offering the same steely regard to the holidays, as the customer's that go around expecting to see blazen displays of the idol's they worship. I'm sorry, but when I run a company, I'll do what I damn well want. If I want to 'fuck your God', as APC quotes in their song, I will.

 

[Strid]

Damn Jews, always in the way. I'm beginning to conclude Hitler was on to something we haven't uncovered yet.

 

[Elpon]

Damn Jews, always in the way. I'm beginning to conclude Hitler was on to something we haven't uncovered yet.

I just got the sudden urge to punch you in the teeth.

 

[Ryuoho]

I just got the sudden urge to punch you in the teeth.

I think he was joking elpon...

 

[Direwolf]

I laugh at it because I have Jewish friends that celebrate christmas with a tree because it is fun...

I got friends who do the exact same thing. "Christmas" Tree decked out in white and blue, I mean cmon the guy made a reasonable request, include a manoura (yea yea I know miss spelled) so why take down the entire thing. I have plenty of non christian friends, non christian myself. I have to say the only ones who get offended are... uhmmm... let me think... Gonna have to get back to you cause I cant seem to think of ANY of my friends who say, "ZOMG111 iz ze treez111 razizm111"

Something that is worth pointing out, and again I stress I am NOT Christian. We celebrate Christmas. We dont get hanackau or quanza or ramada or Iwannahavemonkeysexwithagoat holiday off. People are losing site of the fact that yes America IS a Christian country, and December is PRIMARILY about Christmas. Whats next stop celebrating the 4th because foriegners will be offended. I think the fairness issue goes as far as, someone wants a manoura, ask, more then likely they will slap one down there, if a town has a nativity scene display, construct a quanza...thing...(Dont know to much about it sorry) The Rabbi did not want the trees taken down, he just wanted to be included in the holiday spirit. I mean really these store LOVE putting that shit up, makes the place all bright and cheery. Me? Personaly I could care less what they put up. Hell a store wanted to paint a pentagram and hang the gutted entrails of a goat (Not a real goat that would most likely violate zoning codes), fine I dont give a shit not my problem, shop there if you wanna shop there dont if you think it offends you. How about we start restricting the shit people buy because it might offend people next.

Except for Christmas music, I HATE Christmas music, probaly cause thats all you hear for like 2 months leading up to it.

 

[Flymop]

Strids remark was a tiny bit too far joke or not.

About this, I agree with Arctyrael, the only people that go round causing crap like this are people who think they and their religion are higher, better and "right". Fair play to the Airport taking all the stuff down, I would of just told the bloke to fuck off to another Airport but hey thats me.

This is exactly the type of person who goes off one, which causes a lot of stress and anger to be pointed at them, and then wonder why.

I got friends who do the exact same thing. "Christmas" Tree decked out in white and blue, I mean cmon the guy made a reasonable request, include a manoura (yea yea I know miss spelled) so why take down the entire thing. I have plenty of non christian friends, non christian myself. I have to say the only ones who get offended are... uhmmm... let me think... Gonna have to get back to you cause I cant seem to think of ANY of my friends who say, "ZOMG111 iz ze treez111 razizm111"

If they go putting up a Manoura then exactly what the article said would happen and you, me and everyone knows it would.

Take the UK for instance (I know your Yanks but the same would happen), Xmas trees go up, Christians are happy, Jews get peeved and demade a Manoura up. Ok, Manoura goes up, Muslims and other ethnical minorities would then get peeved and demand their holiday figures up, which would cause hell of a lot of stress to everyone as the Airport would become a Holiday worshipping ground rather then an Airport there would be so many if you wanted/needed to please everyone.

Far easier and a lot more sensible to put nothing up at all. That way no one has nothing to complain about.

 

[Halifirien]

Another salvo fired in the so-called "War on Christmas." I bet Bill O'Reilley woke up with a hard-on over this.

 

[Flymop]

Forgot to say, "The Beginning step of Political Correctness". Us Brits are in the Political Correctness and Country nanny stage, looks like you Yanks arent far behind.

 

[Direwolf]

Far easier and a lot more sensible to put nothing up at all. That way no one has nothing to complain about.

Someone is always going to have something to complain about, thats basicaly a given.

Christmas is the biggest holiday of the year, our economy REVOLVES around 4th quarter results which are almost ENTIRELY driven by the Christmas and hanachu (Yes I dont know how to spell it and to lazy to check) buying of gifts. Dont believe me? Check when the almost all the video games are released, when all the big sales are etc etc. They call it Black Friday for a reason. People buy shit, and lots of it for Christmas, also travel alot more to see family. That is mostly why I dont mind the decorations, I apreciate the reasoning behind the holiday. Most Americans are really only caring about their family, giving of gifts and being together. The decorations are only an extention of this attitude.

But again they dont wanna hang shit they dont have to hang shit, I just think the whole mentality of pro-active political correctness is retarded. Or any political correctness for that matter.

Not like they are forcing them to worship 5 times a day and threatening decapitation if they dont. (As is happening in parts of Somalia) Wanna talk about forcing your religion down someones throat...

 

[Shaunessy]

Wrong, St Patricks day is the biggest holiday of the year. Even the Brittish drink like an Irishman on that day.

 

[CmdrFly]

Unless St. Patty's brings in $25 billion... wait, it probably does that in the UK alone.

Dire: Kwanzaa. Hannukah. Dictionary.com.

I'm with Arctyrael on this one too. Equality is starting to piss me off, but everyone's got their rights to represent themselves and not be excluded in this great continent of ours. Isn't that why it's called a holiday tree instead of a Christmas tree now?

I got Elpon's joke, wrapped in the context as it was. Hitler uncovered the Jew's secret plan of world domination, something along those lines.

 

[Rorschach]

Christmas and hanachu

Is that the newest Pokemon? Pikachu's Jewish cousin?

Anyway, I can see the "slippery slope" that the store might be afraid of, but in the end who else more will ask for representation other then Jews? Islam? And of so, so what? It just means that more people will be willing to give you business since you dont mind representing them. But its not like each and every religion of the world will be knocking at your door looking for their symbol. Besides, other then the big 3, who else has holidays during this time of year that will be looking for representation?

 

[Lukas]

Many moons ago, a friend of mine and I were at one of those pretentious department stores that are just so up-scale with their predominantly soccer mum customer base. The store manager must've thought himself quite the clever twit, because he had put up a banner with "happy hannukwanzamas" or some other stupid portmanteau. We made a big fuss about how the banner didn't appropriately respresent agnostics or atheists for laughs and to make the store attendant person sweat for a few minutes. Bwaha, good times.

The article reminded me of some of John Safran's work (australian comedian). He once posed as an atheist door-knocker in Salt Lake City, it was hilarious. Not quite related to the whole holidays thing, but it did touch on political correctness and religious senstivity. Check it out on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRmC0DaE6rE

 

[Ruffyreborn]

the airport did the right thing. Why should they spend more of they money to make a guy happy? Thats ridiculous, threatening to sue because they didnt have the huge tree HE wanted.

Present day America seems to be dwindeling a lot. Or maybe, its just that when I was a kid, I didnt notice these things.

 

[Shaunessy]

Unless St. Patty's brings in $25 billion... wait, it probably does that in the UK alone.

Holidays aren't about money. It's about how many parties you can find on any street corner during the day. Course I really don't know if what I said is true because I can't remember what I did for the last 14 St. Patricks days....

 

[Khajit]

Is that the newest Pokemon? Pikachu's Jewish cousin?

Besides, other then the big 3, who else has holidays during this time of year that will be looking for representation?

Actually christmas falls on the night of the solstice which is an important day for many "pagan" religions as it is the longest night of the year.
Chirstmas only occurs on the 25th because it was adapted from a pagan religious holiday. Jesus wasnt born in the middle of winter. If he was Jesus would have been born a christsicle.
Airport did the right thing. they were getting sued if they had said no outright. I personally would have told them im a christian and I want to fucking celebrate my own religion in a place I own.

 

[Shaunessy]

Actually christmas falls on the night of the solstice which is an important day for many "pagan" religions as it is the longest night of the year.
Chirstmas only occurs on the 25th because it was adapted from a pagan religious holiday. Jesus wasnt born in the middle of winter. If he was Jesus would have been born a christsicle.
Airport did the right thing. they were getting sued if they had said no outright. I personally would have told them im a christian and I want to fucking celebrate my own religion in a place I own.

Um... Bethlehem doesn't really get that cold.

 

[Raesvelg]

Um... Bethlehem doesn't really get that cold.

Irregardless, the dates for Christmas and Easter, All Saints Day and... damn, I forgot the last one, were all chosen because of their proximity to "pagan" holy days. The early Christians were nothing if not pragmatic in the organization of their religion. Just read the varying books of the Bible and you can figure that out, lol.

As for the rest... honestly, I don't see any real association between Christmas and Christmas Trees past, well, the name. Some people need to have the stick removed from their ass on certain issues, and I was the one outspoken atheist at a Catholic school. If I'm telling you to relax, just freakin' relax.

 

[crookedmidget]

Please forgive me, but I can't help post this article that was in another Firefox tab. The title of this thread made me do it... LOL

http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...ZE.xml&src=rss

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Condoms designed to meet international size specifications are too big for many Indian men as their penises fall short of what manufacturers had anticipated, an Indian study has found.

The Indian Council of Medical Research, a leading state-run center, said its initial findings from a two-year study showed 60 percent of men in the financial capital Mumbai had penises about 2.4 cm (one inch) shorter than those condoms catered for.

For a further 30 percent, the difference was at least 5 cm (two inches). A poor fit meant the prophylactics often didn't do the job they were bought for, and led to some tearing or slipping off during use.

"One of the reasons for a failure of up to 20 percent (of condoms) is the association of the size of the condom to the erect penis," the council's Dr. Chander Puri told Reuters, adding another reason was couples often put them on in a hurry.

Puri said many men in India, which has the world's highest HIV positive caseload, were too shy to ask for condoms.

"We need more vending machines for condoms of different sizes so people can pick a condom with confidence that is suited to their needs," he said.

The Times of India reported the ICMR survey had studied 1,400 men between 18-50 years of age in cities like Mumbai and New Delhi as well as in rural areas in a report. It entitled its story "Indian men don't measure up."

 

[CmdrFly]

Irregardless, the dates for Christmas and Easter, All Saints Day and... damn, I forgot the last one, were all chosen because of their proximity to "pagan" holy days.

I thought Christmas was not 'chosen' so much as 'assigned'. Christmas = the day of Christ's death, isn't it?