53percenter's Blog

In a year where we learned that trees and milk are racist, It’s probably not all that surprising that saying “Merry Christmas” is on par with a hate crime. According to Newsweek, not only is this holiday greeting racist, doing so pretty much makes you Hitler. Yup, this sorry leftist rag masquerading as a news source has managed to link “Merry Christmas” with the Nazis.

You think I’m kidding about this? Here’s a real headline that Newsweek thought was news: HOW TRUMP AND THE NAZIS STOLE CHRISTMAS TO PROMOTE WHITE NATIONALISM

The article is as unhinged as the headline. It starts out by griping that President Trump has frequently said that it’s okay to say “Merry Christmas” again. They accuse Trump of waging war on those who have been waging a war on Christmas.

Now here’s where the Newsweek article goes completely off the rails of sanity:

Wishing people “merry Christmas” instead of “happy holidays,” is thus in line with Trump’s decision to ban citizens of Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States…It fits neatly with his refusal to condemn white supremacists when they march against diversity, and with his condemnation of athletes who protest police brutality against black men.

With this in mind, the fight to end the war on Christmas is exclusionary politics at its most flagrant.

Don’t just take Newsweek’s word for it, they went out and found an “expert.” Richard King is a liberal professor who, “studies how white supremacists exploit culture” because that’s apparently a thing and he thinks…

“I see such invocations of Christmas as a kind of cypher, what some would call a dog whistle. It does not appear to be intolerant or extreme, but to attentive audiences it speaks volumes about identity and belonging—who and what are fully American,” said King.

And everyone knows that liberal college professors have the best opinions about everything.

“Much like ‘Make America Great Again,’ panics over the protests by NFL players, and the defense of Confederate memory, Christmas is a way to talk about peril, to assert a soft or hard version of white nationalism,” King said.

You got that? Saying “Merry Christmas” is now asserting hard white nationalism, or in other words, very very racist. But how do the Nazis factor into all of this, you must be wondering:

Trump isn’t the first political figure in history to co-opt Christmas. In fact, some see parallels between Trump’s speeches in front of Christmas trees and attempts by authoritarian regimes like the Nazis to manipulate popular celebrations to promote a political ideology. But by weaponizing Christmas in this way, Trump is bringing a dangerous tradition of politicizing religious holidays into the United States…

In this context, Trump has been using the so-called war on Christmas to wage a culture war that pits multicultural liberals against Christian conservatives.

Likewise, Nazi Germany’s propagandists rooted their idea of Christmas in visions of ethno-nationalism. They rewrote the lyrics of Christmas carols, promoted Nazified holiday traditions and launched numerous Christmas charity events for poor Germans. The ultimate goal was to draw a clear line between those who belonged and those who should be excluded, those who could not benefit from the joys of Christmas.

That may be the dumbest thing ever written and the worst parallel ever drawn, but I do kind of like the the new term “Nazified.” I think it would be better used however to describe the increasingly fascist left, who now thinks that people celebrating the birth of Christ are racist monsters.

Finally there is a competing dumb statement from another Newsweek expert. Joe Perry (not Aerosmith’s guitarist) is some guy who wrote a book and he thinks this:

“Trump and the Nazis share aspects of race-baiting and perhaps broader aspects of extreme conservatism—many political ideologies do,” said Perry.

Yeah, nobody on the left ever race-baits *cough* Sharpton *cough* Jackson *cough* every liberals ever *cough*. Also, Nazis were fascists, which is a leftist ideology. Leftists are not conservatives nor is conservatism “extremist” by any stretch of the imagination.

While all of this seems very stupid it’s actually good news. We now have another fun and simple way to trigger a hysterical liberal reaction. Simply wish a lefty a Merry Christmas and then sit back and watch the hilarity. It’s like shaking a bottle of carbonated crazy and then seeing it opened in a liberal’s face.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, RESISTANCE!

Follow Brian Anderson on Twitter

With only two more shopping days until Christmas, there is plenty of Bah Humbug to go around in Adams County, Pennsylvania where a family has been bullied into taking down a holiday display.

The Wivell family’s desire to honor the religious aspects of Christmas with a lighted decoration that simply says “JESUS” has raised the ire of some of the neighborhood Grinches who filed a complaint with the board of the Courtyards Homeowners Association in Mount Joy Township.

The HOA is contending that the “JESUS” decoration is a sign and therefore violates the community rules and that it must come down according to the association president.

There are always spoilsports who just can’t accept that people may actually enjoy Christmas and want to express their tribute to the lord and savior whose birth is the true reason for the celebration of the day.

Christmas display causes controversy in Adams County community https://t.co/5SWpdV5z1w via @fox43

— MAGA News Report (@MagaNewsReport) December 23, 2017

According to Harrisburg Fox affiliate, Fox 43 “Christmas display causes controversy in Adams County community”:

Is it a sign or Christmas decoration? An Adams County family is fighting back after the homeowners association where they live demanded the removal of a disputed item, a piece of wood that says Jesus on it, from their yard.

Mark and Lynn Wivell say they wanted to make a statement with their Christmas decorations this year.

“As part of our Christmas decoration, we would display the name Jesus to point out to everyone that we in this family believe that the reason for the season is to celebrate the birth of Jesus,” said Mark Wivell, who put the display up on Saturday,

But where the Wivells live, their homeowners association has a big say in what can go up or come down.

The HOA told them Sunday a neighbor found their Jesus sign offensive, and a day later said signage like this was not allowed.

But the Wivells contend that it’s not a sign, rather a Christmas decoration.

“We have ordinances with regard to Christmas decorations, and my Christmas decorations comply with the HOA ordinances on Christmas decorations,” Wivell said.

The Courtyards HOA board issued a statement to FOX43, in part saying quote: “It is, indeed, unfortunate that our attention has been unnecessarily redirected in this manner with a suggestion that Scrooge is alive and well in our community.  Many of our families will be in church on Monday with their spirit diminished by this attack.”

The family says many other people have supported their display.

“When this happened, we were really shocked,” said Lynn Wivell. “We have gotten tremendous support from our neighbors here at the Links and that just makes us feel so good.”

The Wivells plan on keeping the display up until January 15th, when the rules say all displays must come down. They still do not know who was reportedly offended by the display.

Additional commentary via the Gettysburg Times “Homeowners’ group wants ‘Jesus’ out of community”:

Wivell has lived in the community since 2005 and said he is familiar with the guidelines in the Public Offering Statement (POS), which residents sign when they move in. Being familiar with the rule that prohibits decorations in the yard, Wivell made sure to put the decoration in the mulch bed outside his home, he said.

Wivell argues it is “not technically a sign,” but a Christmas decoration that complies with the POS. The Courtyards board disagrees.

A second email sent to Wivell, this time from the entire three-member board, explained how the sign is in violation. Tom Fischer and Karen Landry also sit on the board.

Quoting the POS, the board wrote, “No signs or billboard of any kind shall be displayed to the public view on any unit ”

The email continued on to say it is a “key responsibility” of the board to address complaints from homeowners regarding “matters that are in conflict” with the community’s rules.

“We simply cannot decide to enforce some standards and allow other standards to be ignored,” the board wrote.

Having personally served on HOA boards it is not a stretch to say that they serve to attract some of the worst elements in any neighborhood including cranks, petty authority freaks and those who want to exploit their position to rule over their enemies.

The Wivells should tell the HOA to get stuffed, it is Christmas and like the Confederate statues that put a bug up so many liberal asses, if you don’t like it, don’t look at it.

Despite attempts by modern biblical scholarship to debunk the gospels account of three magi visiting the newborn Jesus in Bethlehem, the stories were “historically true” according to extensive research by author Dwight Longenecker.

In his new book, Mystery of the Magi: The Quest to Identify the Three Wise Men, Longenecker, a scholar and Catholic priest, states that an impartial study of the relevant data “shows beyond reasonable doubt” that the Magi of Matthew’s gospel were historical figures.

For many years, Longenecker writes, skeptical scholars have rejected the possibility that the infancy stories about Jesus could be historical for a number of reasons, such as the fact that they contain supernatural elements.

“The first problem with this is that the skeptic simply assumes supernatural experiences are impossible, therefore any story that contains supernatural elements must be a fanciful invention,” he notes.

“In the early twentieth century, Bible scholars began to write off the stories of Jesus’ birth—especially the story of the wise men—as pious fantasies,” he continues. “They did so without considering if the stories might, at least, be rooted in real events.”

Because of this prejudice, most scholars never did the necessary research to “sift out the historical element buried beneath levels of legend,” he says.

Moreover, the idea that there might be a historical basis to the magi story “became an academic no-go zone,” Longenecker says. “When one’s academic reputation might be at stake the motivation to challenge the academic dogma and entertain the possibility of a historical basis to the magi story becomes even more remote.”

As one Biblical scholar noted: “If you want a career in New Testament scholarship that’s somewhere you just don’t go.”

As a result, within the vast realm of Biblical scholarship there is surprisingly little research and writing on the stories of Jesus’ birth, and there is almost nothing which takes seriously the possibility that the story of the wise men is historical, he says.

Assuming that the Magi story is pious fiction, scholars have not bothered to investigate the political, historical, geographical and cultural connections that come together to show that the visit of the Magi was historical.

In this work, Father Longenecker sets out to fill this lacuna in Biblical scholarship, examining the possible identities of the three men know simply as magi, wise men, or kings.

Longenecker comes to the conclusion that the visitors from the east were historical figures, and most probable Nabataeans, who “shared an ancient ancestry and world view with the Jews.”

Herod the Great, as it turns out, was brought up by the Nabataeans, and with a Nabataean mother, was forging an alliance with the Nabataean king at exactly the time of Christ’s birth in 6 BC.

“As Herod was old and ailing, it makes perfect sense that the Nabataean wise men travelled to Jerusalem on behalf of their king to pay homage to Herod’s heir,” Longenecker suggests.

While Biblical scholars as a body give little credit to the infancy narratives of Jesus, this does not reflect the faith of common Christians.

A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that a majority of Americans still believe in the essential elements of the Nativity story surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem.

A full 68 percent of Americans, in fact, say that the three wise men were guided by a star and brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus.

An absolute majority of American adults—57 percent—believe in the full biblical account of Jesus’ birth, with all of the elements related by Saints Luke and Matthew in their gospel narratives, Pew found.

Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome

An elderly California couple were stopped this week in the middle of their journey to deliver very special packages of holiday joy to friends and relatives in Vermont.

83-year-old Patrick Jiron and his wife Barbara were pulled over in York County Nebraska for failing to signal for a turn on Interstate-80.

Deputies quickly noticed a distinctive wafting out of their Toyota Tacoma pickup truck and after conducting a search, found 60 pounds of weed having an estimated street value of $300,000.

The couple claimed that they were not planning on selling the ganja but rather were going to give it away as Christmas presents.

There’s no gift like pot for the holidays? Senior citizens headed to VT busted with 60 lbs of pot for Christmas, cops say. https://t.co/23km26CYQf #btv #vt @bfp_news http://pic.twitter.com/rzah2hDkx3

— Adam Silverman (@Wej12) December 23, 2017

Via the Burlington Free Press “Cops: Senior citizens headed to VT had 60 lbs. of pot for Christmas”:

There’s no present like pot for the holidays?

Nebraska police say that’s what a pair of seniors bound for Vermont told them they planned to do with more than 60 pounds of marijuana found in their car during a traffic stop earlier this week.

Patrick Jiron, 83, and his wife, Barbara, 70, of Clearlake Oaks, California, were apprehended following a traffic stop earlier this week on Interstate 80 in York, Nebraska, according to the York County Sheriff’s Department.

Deputies said they spotted the Jirons’ Toyota Tacoma pickup truck Tuesday swerving and failing to use a turn signal along the stretch of rural interstate highway in eastern Nebraska. Officers “detected the odor of raw marijuana coming from the vehicle,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement Friday provided to the Burlington Free Press.

Patrick Jiron, who was driving, agreed to a search of the truck, and deputies discovered the pot under a topper in the back of the pickup, police said. The marijuana was packaged in more than 25 clear plastic bags and at least one empty bulk-sized container of cheese puffs, according to a photo the sheriff’s department released.

The drugs had a street value in excess of $300,000, police said.

Patrick and Barbara Jiron told deputies they were headed to Vermont and also Boston “to distribute the marijuana to family and friends as Christmas gifts.”

The Jirons received citations on suspicion of possessing marijuana with the intent to deliver. Patrick Jiron was jailed, posted bond and was released, according to the local Nebraska newspaper, the York News Times. Barbara Jiron was not jailed.

The New York Times reported that the couple were cited for:

Charges of possession of marijuana with the intent to deliver and of lacking a drug tax stamp.

A drug tax stamp is a stamp displayed on a container used to hold drugs that certifies the dealer in possession of them has paid the drug tax, which Nebraska law requires dealers to pay “immediately upon acquisition or possession of marijuana or controlled substances,” according to the Nebraska Department of Revenue.

The tax on marijuana is $10 per ounce or per portion of an ounce, which means the tax bill for the Jirons would add up to roughly $9,600.

Pot has been legalized in both Massachusetts and California although not Vermont and it isn’t clear as to whether the couple was able to continue on their journey without their gifts.

There surely will be lots of people who may be disappointed that they aren’t going to find a bag of the buds under their Christmas tree.