THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS CONTINUES, AND LED AS USUAL, BY THE LIBS!

[AQUAMAN]

I am both saddened and shocked to find myself repeating  prior posts, probably long lost in the archives here, of not fully enjoying this precious and favorite season for joy and fellowship with my fellow Americans. All  because of the something like a 10 year NEWBIE tradition of trashing Christmas here at home. It's because of SP's, the (secular progressives) or more commonly known as the "politically correct liberals" that permeate our daily lives. Yes, it's Christmas and New Years soon again, and now those SP's can freely and repeatedly attack our Christmas celebration. WHY & HOW? Why, I believe they have a set of knives and forks to eat with just as we do, but, they have nothing on their plate to eat, and therefore, have to slice and dice the rest that do. Philosophically speaking, that means, at least to me, that they are blanks on the role call of reality, no meat, potatoes, veggies, nor even a meager excuse to be happy.  Not even an appetizer of positive comments to chew on. Empty plates = empty heads. Angry and despondent people with all the time in the world to pick fights, instead of being peaceful and loving individuals. Too much time to devise a mechanism for division and confrontations. The USA has prided itself throughout history in defining our being as a christian god fearing nation that follows the biblical preachings of love of thy neighbor, forgiveness, charity, and loyalty. Can this philosophy be so terrible and bad for mankind?  HOW? How can we say Happy Holidays in place of Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one another? How can we now call a Christmas tree a Holiday tree like the Rhode Island Governor of a few days ago? How can we tear down the Nativity scene and birth date of the savior and God's only son, whom was the Prince of Peace? I'm far from a righteous bible thumper or preacher, but, I again ask, why tear down our institutions and traditions for the sake of illegal aliens and atheists? Does the traditions offend them so that this must occur every year constantly? Why can't everyone just accept these American traditions without fear, frenzy, and overzealous actions to squash them into the past? Let every citizen, whether legal or not, celebrate their own way of Christmas with the religion of their choice, albeit alien to us as Americans, but, can you just do it without this chaos and feeble ways of attracting attention to yourselves as martyrs? Leave true Americans alone, and vice-versa, is all I can ask for. But, that only seems a distant dream of yesterday now, or is it?

[AQUAMAN]

IDJ, I don't know you either, and your philosophies are yours to live or die by. Someone else mentioned the Wiccan religion, not me, so I assumed you to be that other someone, the only other one I ever heard of as a Wiccan. Like I said, some communicate better than others on forums, and words can be interpreted differently by many in certain moods and times of the day. Thanks for continuing to have humor and levity when these occurrences appear.

[Willy]

Aquaman, I accused Lisa of being Zannie. Would the real Zannie please stand up.

[Lisa O'Brien]

You did?  I guess the memory isn't what it used to be; whom I kidding nothing is like it used to be - sigh......

[Willy]

Lisa

When we were having our hurricane spat. I made mention of a particular person you reminded of. It wasn't important and I was just spouting off. It's all tidal surge under the bridge now anyway.

[Lisa O'Brien]

Willy -

Yes it's all under the bridge. I never hold a grudge anyway - I used to think it was cause I was just a nice person - but as I read our posts, maybe I don't hold grudge's because I can't remember crap!

[AQUAMAN]

Albino, that man standing next to the Corvette is Zora Duntov, a remarkable engineer and designer of America's sports car, truly a legend in his time, an individual that made wonderful contributions to the history of this car. You guys know this thread was about Christmas, not a bunch of other subjects that now seem to permeate here. Usually someone else puts this alert up to change to a new thread so it's not so watered down like it is now, jmo. It wasn't supposed to be a Peyton Place thread, just saying.

[Willy]

Aquaman

In that case, MERRY CHRISTMAS.

[Progressive Tiger]

Aquaman, I'm still looking forward to receiving some clarification from you. I am refraining from doing any other postings until you tell me whether I should be laughing at what you wrote about me or not.

[Progressive Tiger]

Aquaman, there’s no need for an olive branch because no hostilities have been declared. I simply wanted to know your intent before I responded to your comments. Thank you for responding in the way that you did. I can tell you are a “ stand-up guy.”

Your intuition about my career switch from the military to social service was right on the money. Other than for two years that I served as a Drill Sergeant, nearly all the rest of my 20 years in the Army involved armed conflict in many different countries. “Armed conflict” is a sanitized way of saying killing other human beings. When I left the Army I wanted to work in a helping or healing profession and I ended up going to school under the GI Bill, picking up a few degrees and eventually working in the child welfare field. It wasn't a conscious attempt to make up for 20 years of war-fighting, but I realized eventually that it was precisely that.

When I refer to the “child welfare field” I don’t mean children receiving welfare checks.  “Child welfare” in this instance means being involved in the well-being of at-risk or damaged youths who were abandoned by their parents or who were taken away from their parents due to abuse or neglect. I worked for large not-for-profit agencies which operated special education classes for behavior-disordered and violent youths, institutionalized residential treatment, foster care, independent living programs and psychotherapy for individuals and families. My career exposed me to teen pregnancies, horrific sexual and other physical abuse, chemical dependency, hard core Chicago street gang culture and thousands of sick families and violently angry young people up to the age of 18. Without these programs our clients would have been living on the street, in jail or dead.

My wife and I weren't “simple social workers” running a charity program out of a church basement. We were professionals running state-wide programs. My wife still heads one of the largest child welfare agencies in Illinois and she is a nationally-recognized leader in the field. In spite of my wife and I being liberals, our three boys frequently accused us of being the most ultra-conservative parents in the world, possibly even in the universe.

And now, Aquaman, my conservative buddy, don’t ever hesitate to yank my liberal chain if you find it therapeutic to do so. I understand four more years of Obama will not be good for your mental health. If you are going to yank, just make sure that I know you are smiling when you do it.  :-)

[XLFD]

For your two idiots examples, Tiger, I would beg to differ. 

It is found that child neglect and child abuse are far more common in single-parent families than in families where both parents are present.  I would also believe that Christian-based parents are not more likely to commit child abuse or neglect, and would bet they fall on the other side of the coin, with less child abuse.  But the hypocrisy involved makes these more conspicuous when they occur, such as in the Catholic Church, but studies show these are no more prevalent there than the general population. 

As for racism, if it weren't for a lot of socialistic leaning white people voting for Barack Obama, he would have lost both elections.  Meanwhile, black people, largely Democratic to begin with, polled atzero percent for Mitt Romney well into the presidential election.   Combatting racism has to be done on all fronts, but you will not see Democrats preaching color-blindness. 

 

[In Dulci Jubilo]

Although there is a great deal of data out there confirming that child abuse and neglect are more common in single parent families (mostly because of the lack of support/resources and the moderating influence that a second parent in the home provides) there is also data to support that the rate of child abuse can actually be higher in families that are strict Bible-based because of the heavily authoritarian nature of such homes.    

As the abused child of a two-parent, Christian-based home, I find such statements slightly difficult to digest.

[In Dulci Jubilo]

All of the generalizations made by you and your ilk are exhausting and nauseating me.   As a teacher who does NOT bring my personal politics into the classroom and also teaches my students about ALL religions, coordinates the Veteran's day programs, teaches patriotic music, teaches human decency and values, and whose colleagues do the same, I'm finding your statements bizarre and perplexing.   I welcome you to visit my school and classroom at any time so that perhaps you can see for yourself what is being taught, rather than relying on propaganda to formulate your opinions.