Merry Conditional Christmas … Please Disregard If Not Applicable

I effectively quit Facebook a little over a year ago (Oct 20, 2015 to be precise). Effectively, but not completely. I stopped posting updates to my wall and stopped commenting on others’ posts, pics, etc. But as very few people followed me in my return to email–not that I went Jerry Maguire on them or anything–I still need to use its messaging, lest I stop contacting friends and family altogether.

When I go back, I try to be as quick as possible. Kind of like sneaking a quick peek at a nice skirt walking by. I open the main page, immediately scan the top row of icons and determine whether there are any messages or new contacts. Sometimes I click on the little globe icon to see if there’s any activity from “important” friends–but generally not.

And sometimes I get sucked in. Something catches my eye and my quick peek becomes a glance which then becomes an ogle. Before I know it, I’m sliding down that rabbit hole greased with the idiotic comments and clickbait that got me to abandon the blue and white digital cesspool in the first place.

Yesterday, Christmas Day, I went to check messages and deliver a few good tidings and seasons greetings to friends. Something caught my eye on my news feed. A very long-winded “Merry Christmas” full of qualifiers. So I scrolled own and saw another. Then another. And more and more and more.

Many people were posting something to the effect of “Merry Christmas! But Only If You Celebrate Christmas. If You Don’t Then, Sorry, Please Just Ignore This.” My evangelical atheist friends had to qualify theirs with: “Although I Don’t Believe in God, I Wish Those Of You Who Do A Happy Holiday Season.”

If you want to say “Merry Christmas” say “Merry Christmas”. People know who you’re talking to. Your Jewish friends aren’t going to hate you. Your Muslim friends aren’t going to get offended. And your Atheist friends… well they’re probably exchanging a few gifts anyways.

When Ramadan roles around, nobody says “Happy Ramadan… but only to my Muslim friends.” Muslims don’t add qualifiers to “Ramadan Mubarak” and Jews don’t offer conditional “Happy Hanukkahs”. No one really gives a shit if you say, write or sing “Merry Christmas”. Unless you’re writing it in the snow. On the hood of their car. With your pee.

This is not a rallying cry for that Bill O’Reilly and Fox News rubbish about the War On Christmas. People just need to stop being such annoying pussies and have a little faith in others. After all, it’s Christmastime!

The Ottawa Citizen Should Vet Their Ads

It’s not unheard of, or even rare, nowadays in this world of clicks and impressions and maximizing the online ad revenue of every single pixel. But that doesn’t make it excusable.

Today in The Ottawa Citizen, smack dab in the middle of an open letter titled “Fear-mongering shows contempt for a politics of mutual respect”, was an ad by Christianity.com justifying the genocide and apartheid currently underway in Palestine. It is promoting the very “wedge politics” and “fear-mongering” that the letter is denouncing.

Mind you, it only showed up when I read the letter on my phone, but was not there when I checked it on my PC.

The letter is not about what is happening in Israel and Palestine, and it is safe assume that it hit upon some keywords that Christianity.com was hoping to attract: fear-mongering, Harper, barbaric practices, etc.

Still, that does not absolve the news outlet of responsibility. Unless it was intentional. Then that, of course, is a different matter altogether.

Here’s a shortened screenshot of the letter:

What to Think EZ-Chart

Don’t waste any more of your valuable time researching or thinking! This little table can help you decide what to believe within seconds.

Thinking. Simplified.

Evil Sorceror Mike Hukabee

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.)

Saw this photo above a good article by Greenwald at The Intercept. Couldn’t resist applying some greenhorn Photoshop wizardry.

No Laughing Matter

I just watched a masked man militaristically execute an unarmed man laying on his back with his hands up on a Paris sidewalk. The man was arguably executed for his involvement in comics and satire. It is a sad world when this is the case.

I support free speech and I support freedom of the press and, well, freedom in general. I abhor religious fundamentalism just as I abhor racial fundamentalism, political fundamentalism and financial fundamentalism. I feel most people are generally against both religious fundamentalism and religious persecution.

I do not support organized religion. It has been proven to be at the root of a lot of death and persecution throughout history. However,it has also done a lot of good. How much is impossible to quantify. But some people need religion. However, blaming Muslims for the actions of Islamic Fundamentalists is like blaming Catholics for the actions of paedophile priests.

I won’t hate Muslims because that’s exactly what those thugs in black masks want me to do. They want to cause a divide between Muslims and Jews, Christians and Atheists. They want Religious War. They want to rid the world of Infidels and they will sacrifice millions of Muslims to do it. So as soon as you start blaming Muslims for the Acts of Assholes, you’re giving them what they want. You’re letting them win.