Will be taking a few days off around Christmas, and posting after that is likely to be light for a few weeks. I’m not going to shut the blog down entirely but I will probably take a bit of a break.
Yet another right wing myth demolished
A while back, there was a story floating around the right wing blogs about a soldier who got beat up by an anti-war peacenik in the parking lot of a Toby Keith concert (where anti-war peaceniks are, of course, known to lay in wait for unsuspecting soldiers.)
Well, gosh, as it turns out, the story was complete nonsense. As anyone with a functioning bullshit meter understood at the time. Alicublog updates us:
Yesterday Cornwell pleaded guilty to a felonious assault on Barton. In his statement to the judge, Cornwell did not denounce the Bush Administration or the Iraqi invasion, or cry “Viva La Huelga.” He told the judge that the fight outside the Toby Keith concert “started after the two exchanged insults about the other’s military unit,” according to the local news.
On a related note, conservatarians also got the “ecoterrorist” story completely wrong. But I’ll bet these stories will both live on in the great right wing pantheon of apocyphal idiocy. As Mark Twain said, a lie can make it halfway around the globe before the truth gets its boots on.
Where was Bill O’Reilly when they needed him?
When Oliver Cromwell took over England in 1645, Christmas was cancelled as part of a Puritan effort to rid the country of decadence. This proved unpopular, and when Charles II was restored to the throne, he restored the celebration. The Pilgrims, a group of Puritanical English separatists who came to North America in 1620, also disapproved of Christmas, and as a result it was not a holiday in early America. The celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed from 1659 to 1681 in Boston, a prohibition enforced with a fine of five shillings. The people of the Jamestown settlement, on the other hand, celebrated the occasion freely. Christmas fell out of favor again after the American Revolution, as it was considered an “English custom”, and it was not declared a federal holiday in the United States until June 26, 1870.
From Wikipedia. (Hat tip: reader Eric E.)
What he said
The social security issue comes down to this: The Democrats should be able not only beat the Republicans on this, but also to beat them over the heads with it. It needs to be the cornerstone of the identity of the Democratic party.
Without debating the wisdom of any of these things, I want to point out that the Democrats have been running from or are in the process of running from their core positions on: gay rights, gun control, welfare, trade policy, affirmative action, reproductive rights, church/state separation, public education, progressive taxation, etc… etc… etc…
While policies are not ideology, they are the real world manifestation of it. If there is one issue which the Democrats should be able to claim loudly and proudly as their own, without apologies, it’s social security. If they can’t figure out how to do that, and to get their members in line, then they really will have lost.
If the Democrats can’t win this one, and win big, then stick a fork in their collective ass and turn ’em over, because they are done.
From a reader
Nameless for obvious reasons:
Ever since Bill O’Really began his crusade to rescue Christmas from the dustbin of politcal correctness, the imminent demise of this rightfully and exclusively Christian holiday celebration has been the topic de jour around the Republican water cooler here at the office.
The amazing thing is the speed with which this message has been so thoroughly assimilated that everyone can speak with one voice without anyone have to explain what they mean when making snide remarks about this being “the Holiday season, because, you know, I wouldn’t want to offend anyone by calling it Christmas.”
Ha ha ha, wink wink, nudge nudge.