Tag: Culture

The water cooler (as if we had one) discussion at “work” the other night was over the supposed Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays flap much ballyhooed by the Christian police and in which Pres. and First Lady Bush have taken a stand abandoning Christmas. The consensus (almost) was that it’s ridiculous for Jewish people to mind being told to have a “Merry Christmas.” Right.

I noted that our company will be closed Monday, Dec. 26, which this year is the first days of both Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, although it has nothing whatsoever to do with the traditional Christian holiday. Everyone was silent for a moment, then agreed that whatever you want to call it, they’ll be happy to take the day off.

We at Pensito Review took a poll of our holiday efforts in each of our three corners. Jon, the California half, purchased and decorated the standard conifer, as he said, ala the “Currier & Ives snowy day that is LA in December.” He also put together the fabulous holiday greeting from the staff here at PR, which you can enjoy in the upper right column of our homepage until we need the space for something else. Note the absence of the C-word.

Buck, ever the sentimental one, and still recovering from the recent South Florida storms, said –

We did not do a “real” holiday tree this year, but opted instead for the plastic palm tree with permanent lights attached. It doesn’t have that pesky pine smell and hasn’t shed a single fake palm frond.

Here in North Florida (slogan: It’s not really South Georgia), Pepsi, Stinky, and I are still undecided about the tree situation. We may or may not purchase and furl (?) one but we’ll refer to it as a “seasonal display” if we do. And you?

Too expensive: Kenneth Lee Boyd has bought the farm with a lethal injection in Raleigh, N.C., for the murders of his estranged wife and father-in-law — in front of his children. He was the thousandth person killed by the gubmint since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Boyd told reporters he didn’t want to be remembered as a statistic, but that’s what he has become.

What’s wrong with the death penalty is not that it unfairly is applied to the income and racially challenged of America, nor that it is inhumane and cruel and unusual, it’s that it costs too much.

The typical capital punishment case, once it has run its course through the various appeals processes and courts, costs over a million dollars. The average cost of housing a convict is $50,000 per year. In other words, we could house a convicted murderer for 20 years for what it costs to put him on death row. Which means that since Boyd was convicted 17 years ago, besides the million-plus we spent on defending the decision to kill him, we also spent about $850,000 to keep him alive until we could kill him. That’s what’s wrong with the death penalty. Oh, and it’s also cruel and doesn’t deter crime.

Wildman Wildmon strikes again: The same bunch of cross-waving Bible-thumpers who boycotted Disney because it allowed gays to ride rides, eat food and buy junk at its theme parks are now going after retailers who eschew the term “Christmas” for the Annual December Retail Frenzy Season. According to Cybercast News Service, the mouthpiece for wingnuts, the American Family Association, led by founder and chairman Don Wildmon, analyzed the advertising inserts of two Southern newspapers and found them to be lacking in the “C” word.

AFA gathered inserts from 11 different companies placed in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal and Memphis Commercial Appeal on Nov. 27 — a total of 280 pages. Only one company — McRae’s/Belks — had a reference to “Christmas.” The other 10 used the term “holiday” a total of 59 times.

Who are these Grinches that failed to mention Christmas in 260 pages of insert promotions? Target, Kroger, Office Max, Walgreens, Sears, Staples, Lowe’s, J.C. Penney, Dell and Best Buy.

“Ask these companies why they banned ‘Christmas’ in their in-store promotions and retail advertising and they will tell you they didn’t want to offend anyone. They mean, of course, anyone except Christians,” AFA’s Wildmon said in a message to supporters.

“These retailers are willing to use Christmas to secure about 20 percent of their yearly sales, but they absolutely refuse to mention the Reason for the season,” he said.

Of course the AFA is mounting a petition drive to raise a million signatures to get the stores to start using “Christmas” in their advertising again by next year.

Is it just me or isn’t it absurd that Christians would want to link Christmas so closely with the secular suckiness of advertising and retail sales. So what if Target doesn’t want to alienate Jews who observe Hanukkah or African-Americans who celebrate Kwanzaa by including all “holidays.” Let’s hope the retailers don’t cave and the AFA’s effort is as pathetically unsuccessful as the Disney boycott was.