Day: November 20, 2004

On the Roots of Christmas

Hugh Hewitt has an amusing rant about Target’s decision to stop allowing Salvation Army bellringers at its store during the holidays. Hewitt tries to tie his objections to Target’s decision into the “roots” of Christmas, which he doesn’t seem to know the first thing about,

Now that you are back, you may be wondering what Wretchard’s wonderful writing has to do with Target’s decision to exile the Salvation Army. Everything, of course, because the roots of my dismay with Target have to do with the roots of Christmas.

. . .

Target has flourished because some 2,000 years ago a humble family that needed assistance was given aid by strangers, and soon thereafter gifts from princes. That’s the root of Target’s commercial success. So, until 2004, Target and much of retail America has honored that beginning by allowing a very well-run group of dedicated servants to take the kindnesses of millions of strangers and direct them to other humble people in need –out of a desire to serve the child whose birth is celebrated on the culminating day of the season. The kettle giving benefits every giver, just as Target’s past permissions really did benefit Target, both commercially and spiritually.

The more I have thought on this, the more I am convinced that Target is much more damaged than the Salvation Army by this decision, and not just in the year-to-year sales numbers. The folks sending e-mails and deciding not to but there but at the Salvation Army-friendly WalMart are asking Target to rethink, and hopefully Robert Ulrich, Target’s CEO is doing just that. It was the wrong decision, and those within Target who celebrate the season of Christmas for its original meaning already know that, and those who are complete and thorough-going secularists will even figure it out upon reflection. It isn’t just another charity asking for help, and it isn’t just another season.

Another example of just how little many mainstream Christians know about their own faith. Christmas — just like Easter — is pagan in origin.

December 25 was set as the date to celebrate Christ’s birth in the 4th century CE in order to coincide with the pagan Saturn festivals. The New Testament, of course, doesn’t mention Jesus’ birthday, and the early church apparently focused on celebrating only the resurrection. Most of the traditions surrounding Dec. 25, including gift giving, Christmas trees, yule logs and other things commonly associated with Christmas, long precede their adoption by Christians.

For this reason, the Puritans refused to celebrate Christmas, viewing it as an example of what they saw as the perverse mixing of Christian and pagan traditions by the much-hated Roman Catholic Church. In England, the Puritans actually managed to briefly ban the celebration of Christmas during Cromwell’s reign as Lord Protector.

Dumbest Dave Statement Ever?

Dave Winer has said a lot of dumb things over the past few years, but this one is his all-time lowest point (at least since I’ve been reading Scripting News),

With all due respect to Jeffrey Veen, who I know from my Wired days, his experience with the email model type of RSS reader is exactly why that’s the model you don’t want to use. It’s not like email. Let the river of items flow through your queue, scroll over them with a scroll bar, and don’t let the software tell you you’re falling behind. Your time is what’s valuable, there’s no value to the items you didn’t read. If it’s important it’ll pop up again. RSS is not email. Don’t sort them out into little boxes that you have to go to, make them flow to you, in a river, unsorted. I wish people would just listen to this simple idea, so many people are using RSS the wrong way.

Stupid users — you’re using the software the wrong way! Dave boiled down to his essence.

O’Neal to Be Arrested?

According to Detroit News,

Every Pacers player was allowed to leave the building. They host Orlando Saturday. There was talk that Pacers forward Jermaine O’Neal might be arrested. He and teammate Anthony Johnson both punched a fan — whose name was believed to be Charles Hadad — who had run onto the court after O’Neal. Johnson hit him first, O’Neal knocked him cold.

. . .

Hadad was carted off on a stretcher.

Detroit News is wrong — it was Artest who hit this Charles Haddad, and then O’Neal comes in and hits him again.

Sorry, but the fan got exactly what he deserved. He was clearly looking for a fight, and both Artest and O’Neal were more than in their rights to take action against the fan.

Source:

Brawl ends Pacers-Pistons game at The Palace. Chris McCosky, Detroit News, November 19, 2004.

Guess They Should Have Given Artest that Time Off

Holy shit — looks like maybe the Pacers should have given Ron Artest that time off that he asked for.

Best part — watching the fat-ass Piston fan get on the court only to be beat down by Artest. Then just as he’s getting up again, Jermaine O’Neal slides in and puts the fan down again. That guy deserves a good 3-6 months in jail just for good measure.

Worst part — images of kids and old people trying to stay out of the fray. Wow, Detroit Pistons fans really made an impression. They don’t actually play in Detroit, but the fans certainly carried on that Detroit ethos.

Oxford University Obtains Permanent Injunction Against Animal Rights Extremists

This month the UK’s High Court granted Oxford University a permanent injunction against a number of animal rights gruops and individuals that will limit how those gruops and individuals can protest against an Oxford animal laboratory.

The decision creates a 50-yard zone in which activists and groups named in the decision may not enter, except during once-a-week demonsrations. The injunction also forbids the activists and groups from protesting or loitering within 50 yards of the premises of contractors and within 100 yards of the homes of university faculty, staff, contractors, or the shareholders of the contracts or their families.

The injunction also prohibits those named in it from publishing the personal details of any of those protected individuals.

In issuing the injunction, Justice Grigson said that the injunction did not limit anyone’s ability to express his or her views, but

What it does restrict is to whom and where he expresses those views. A similar consideration applies in respect of his right to peaceful assembly and freedom of association. A right to freedom of peaceful assembly does not entitle a citizen, by means of a mass protest, to stop the lawful activities of others.

BioMed Central quoted Roger Morris of King’s College as commending the ruling saying,

For too long resaerch that will make a real impact upon our traetmetn of such diseases has been disrupted by a few urban terrorists. It is now clear that the govenrment and the courts are standing up for human rights as well as animal rights.

Cherwell Online reported on one activist’s take on the decision,

Robert Cogswell of SPEAK, which is also included in the injunction, said that the University was attempting to “restrict legal protest becuase they don’t want to have its lies highlighted by the SPEAK campaign” and trying to smear his gruop by associating it with extremists.

He also pointed out that those undertaking criminal action were unlikely to be deterred by the additional barrier of a legal injunction.

Groups covered by the injunction include Supporting and Promoting Ethics for the Animal Kingdom, the Animal Liberation Front, and Oxford Animal Rights Group.

Source:

Animal activists banned for good. Cherwell Online, November 12, 2004.

Animal rights injunction. BioMedCentral.Com, November 10, 2004.

Is Pro-Cockfighting Stance a Political Liability in Louisiana?

The surprise election of Republican David Vitter to Louisiana’s open Senate seat has some Democrats wondering whether the pro-cockfighting position of the leading Democrat candidate cost them the election.

Vitter’s win was a major upset — a Republican had not been elected to the Senate in Louisiana since the end of Reconstruction.

The major problem the Democrats had is that no less than three Democrats ran for the office, splitting the vote and media attention between them.

But exit polls also showed that Vitter received 32 percent of the votes from white women — a surprisingly high number. According to The Times-Picayune,

Some Democratic women said they were turned off by [leading Democratic candidate] John’s support for the bloody sport of cockfighting, an issue that was highlighted by ads from an animal rights group.

Source:

La. Dems diagnose party ills after loss. Bill Walsh, The Times-Picayune (Louisiana), November 14, 2004.