Tis’ the season to be offended! Every year people of all faiths complain about the holidays, or if your Christian, the very phase "Happy Holidays". Jews cringe at door greeters wishing them a Merry Christmas. Atheists complain about public nativity scenes. And as for the Muslims, well nobody knows what they’re up to.
So it should be no surprise to hear about this story. We travel to the Sea-Tac airport in Seattle where management has taken it upon them to decorate for the holidays. But what holiday you ask? While there were no "Christmas" signs or nativity scenes present, 15 "Christmas" trees lingered suspiciously at each entrance.
Sure there were no tell-tale signs of Jesus’ birthday on the trees, but that wasn’t good enough for a Seattle rabbi with the Central Organization for Jewish Learning. He took it upon himself to hire a lawyer and demand that the undercover "Christmas" trees be balanced with an eight-foot menorah. If his demands were not met, than a federal lawsuit would be filed.
Now lets have a look at the facts: There are 15 trees that may or may not be Christmas trees. Now while we aren’t certain of their height, this Jewish Grinch is demanding one eight-foot menorah to make things equal. But is this fair?
Assuming the trees were at least 8ft tall, and there were 15 of them, that gives us a total of 8 * 15 = 120ft of Christmas tree. As of 2001, Jews represented about 2.2% of the US population, but we’ll round up to 2.5% for good measure. Now with a little math we can see that 2.5% of 120ft equals 3ft. So we can clearly see that the Jews deserve at most 3ft of menorah.
Where the hell does this rabbi come off demanding an eight-foot menorah? Who’s with me on this one? I say that the amount of holiday decorations should be proportionate to their respective religion.
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December 10th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Well…Let’s not forget that if we have to accomidate him, we have to accomidate all faiths. Are they going to put up a FSM statue as well?
December 10th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
I don’t know what’s up with Jews, why is it bothering them that much, I have no idea. Why they get offended with such thing.
I think Christmas for Americans is just thing to bring them togather, either it’s Christian or even Athiest or even Muslim, and enjoy some days off :)
December 10th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
I agree Mohamed. Makes you wonder why Muslim taxi drivers won’t let a blind person with a seeing eye dog in their cab or person with a bottle of champaign ;)
gasmonso
December 10th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
I’ve got a much easier solution. Just replace one out of every forty (2.5%) Christmas ornaments with a little menorah. It may look weird, but those of us who have been around since before strings of Christmas lights were popular will remember that Christmas trees were once decorated with candles. Or simpler still, place a regular-sized menorah on top of one of the trees in place of a star. Similar accomodations can be made for just about any denomination.
December 11th, 2006 at 12:20 am
To be fair, xmas these days has nothing to do with actual christianity. It’s the annual festival where we all make sacrifices to the gods of greed, envy and gluttony.
I’m actually more offended by the standardised corporate xmas trees and tinsel. The religious stuff mainly tries to send a message of good will to all mankind, which is something we can all agree on. Xmas trees send a message of, er, well nothing really other than maybe deforestation.
PS - I like this democratic attitude to religion idea, as it’s probably the only fair way to do things.
December 11th, 2006 at 1:34 am
h2g2bob,
I agree with you on this point, I hate how they deal with Xmas in USA, it’s just a reason to boost the market, it’s not about religion, the only way I look at it, that the childern get happy with what they get.
Gasonmo I know you are kidding, but actually I do the same with my wife’s family here in USA, you are welcome in my home as long as there is no drinking involved, inspite the fact that I really like her family, it’s just something I believe in, and I appreciate they understand, I always go in thanks giving and Xmas, even though I don’t believe in it, but I share them their happiness and it’s chance to see them.
One thing I don’t agree with the taxi drivers though, if the guy is blind, they should do it.
December 11th, 2006 at 1:46 am
Christmas never had anything to do with christianity.
The christmas tree even isn’t at all a christian symbol but a pagan one which the christians stole from north european cultures by incorporating their traditions into their religions to make christianity more appealing to them.
Nativity scenes might be a problem due to promoting a specific religion, but the trees are definitely something the christians should be angry about if anyone. In any case, putting up more religious symbols would not help anything, as everyone else would be offended by that.
The only real christian holiday would be easter (except that the date on which it is celebrated and the tradition of searching eggs etc are also pagan), celebrating that Jesus became a zombie. Christianity the death cult. ;-)
December 11th, 2006 at 3:01 am
By all means believe whatever you want, but stop making demands based on religion and stop screwing ppl over because they do not fit within your dogmas.
In his post Gasmonso is using an example which we are struggling with here in Norway where blind people can’t get a taxi because many of the drivers are Muslims and won’t take a “dirty†dog into their taxi. Another example is the pharmacists who won’t sell specific drugs (birth control). There can be no reasoning with such thoughts, the solution: first laugh at any such claim and ask them to stop, if they do not stop, force them to stop. If I deny service based on a customers religion I’m breaking the law, but if they deny service based on their religion its OK???
Why is it that religious ppl demands that we all need to conform to their set of believes? Is it not enough that we are sentenced to eternal damnation? :)
December 11th, 2006 at 10:15 am
This kind of crap just vindicates what I would otherwise call a delusion of persecution in Christianity.
Every time Bill O’Reilly talks about the “War on Christmas,” I roll my eyes, knowing that nobody really cares about the use of the word Christmas or Christmas decorations, and I simply say that it’s a concoction by Bill and the like to create a wedge issue to keep people divided.
Then this joker comes along and lends weight to Bill’s argument. What can I say to those who believe as O’Reilly does now? This validates the War on Christmas idea. Thanks a lot, Jewish Guy.
December 12th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Gasmonso, your math is a little flawed. Remember, the volume of a cone is 1/3(Ï€r^2)(h). Assuming each tree is 2ft across (a reasonable figure, I’d say), that’s make the volume of each tree:
1/3(Ï€)(15) = 5Ï€ = 15.708 cu. ft
Geez, get it right :P
(And don’t ask me to calculate the surface area; that would just be cruel.)
December 12th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
I say we demand a 20 foot tall phallus… er, I mean “replica of the Washington Monument” to represent government dominance… er, I mean “all of the people” at once.
December 13th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
What always blows the average Christian moron’s mind is when I tell them the man Jesus was actually born closer to the time we celebrate Easter according to Roman and Jewish tax and census records. Christmas as we celebrate today was an attempt by Catholics to Christianize the Pagan solstice celebration. Santa, pine trees, and all of the various traditions associated with the current incarnation of Christmas are simply pagan traditions with Jesus kind of crammed in there for good measure.
February 14th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I would like to point out that, as a Jew (a bad one, but still…), I don’t give a damn about all the Christmas decorations. Hannuka has never been that major of a holiday in the Jewish faith…at least, compared to what Christmas means for the Christians.
I’ve come to terms with the fact that Jews are vastly in the minority when it comes to this kind of stuff. I have no problem seeing the Christmas decorations…or saying stuff like “Christmas and Easter Break” (That IS the whole reason we are taking off of school and work, isn’t it? Let’s be honest with ourselves…if Christmas was at another time of year, the break would be THEN, too.)
As for DeusExMichael’s comment, that’s reason number two that I’ve never really cared all that much…It makes me filled with glee to see that there are some Christians who spend their time saying how Pagans are evil…and then go decorate a pine tree, light candles, and sing about Yuletide cheer…especially after I tell them about it. Schadenfreude is sweet.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:12 am
Well. This is just another example of America’s #1 socialist pigs (Jews) trying to ruin something nice to serve their own selfish purposes. If it’s not the kosher tax it’s the holohoax. If it’s not the holohoax it’s the diary of Anne FAKE. If it’s not that, it’s whining about Christmas.
When will people stop listening to these fucking kikes and take back this once great land?
December 25th, 2008 at 12:16 am
The same people who complain about saying “Merry Christmas” are the same ones making money off of it as merchants at Christmas time. So figure out who they are, you can tell which stores have no Christmas marketing or require employees to say “Happy Holidays” and boycott the store- don’t buy from them.
Christmas is not supposed to be about materialism anyway so let the retail market collapse at that time and see what the merchants say then.