The Ghost of Christmas Present.
The War on Christmas continues apace. And leading the charge: preachers?
From The New York Times:
This year, church leaders are grappling with what may seem like an odd dilemma: Christmas Day falls on a Sunday for the first time since 2016, and that’s a problem.
“Christmas morning and Sunday morning are sort of in tension with each other,” said Timothy Beal, a professor of religious studies at Case Western Reserve University. “Most people who are churchgoers think of Christmas morning not as a religious time but as a family time: stockings and brunches and staying in your pajamas until midday or later.”
In other words, Ho ho ho, Baby Jesus. Happy birthday and all, but come Sunday morning we’ll be in our jammies, worshiping that golden plastic calf from the Church of St. Costco. Feed it four D-cells and it moos “Away in a Manger.”
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If you happen to find yourself with a little change left over after your holiday shopping’s all finished, please consider kicking a bit of the extra to Charlie Cunningham’s GoFundMe, which Jacquie Phelan uses to help underwrite his care following an awful crash in 2015. She would welcome your warm wishes and cold cash.
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And finally, John Fleck comes away from a Sin City water convo more hopeful that the states can reach some class of a compromise over Colorado River water use — management based on inflows rather than reservoir levels — before the feds step in.
Now that would be a useful Christmas present. Not this year — but maybe next?
Tags: Charlie Cunningham, Colorado Water Users Association, Eddie Izzard, Jacquie Phelan, John Fleck, War on Christmas
Mad Blog Media 
December 18, 2022 at 2:52 pm |
I just worry that if the Saudi owned farms in Maricopa and Pinal counties don’t get Colorado river water they will cut their oil production to punish us infidels. The confluence of water and religion, heh?
December 18, 2022 at 4:42 pm |
On of my former colleagues had the pleasure of being a recruit on Paris Island over Christmas. They got to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus on the 25th. Those DI ‘s are very creative
December 18, 2022 at 5:52 pm |
Hee, and also haw. That was one of my favorite scenes from “Full Metal Jacket.” It wasn’t in Gustav Hasford’s book; I wonder if R. Lee Ermey got to bring it with him from real life. He was given some leeway to improvise and might very well have added that to the mix.
December 19, 2022 at 8:34 am |
I just went looking for Gustav Hasford’s book. I think I’d need a second mortgage for it. Almost $400 for a new hardcover copy and only $75 for a used paperback. The local library system doesn’t have a copy.
December 19, 2022 at 10:22 am |
Seriously? Wow. I had no idea it was such a rara avis. I have a battered old paperback copy. And yeah, I don’t see it in any of my usual bookstores.
I guess Hasford made Stanley Kubrick really uncomfortable. Michael “Dispatches” Herr, who helped write the “Full Metal Jacket” screenplay based on Hasford’s book, “The Short-Timers,” and called him “a scary man, a big, haunted Marine,” had to run interference for the director.
December 19, 2022 at 4:09 pm |
I might have found a copy in a book collection via the linty. I’ll know more in a week or so.
December 19, 2022 at 4:23 pm |
If you’re into Vietnam fiction, one of my favorites is “Close Quarters” by Larry Heinemann. He was a draftee, did a tour during 1967-68, had plenty to say about it afterward. Philip Caputo gave him a nice blurb.
Heinemann won a National Book Award for a subsequent novel, “Paco’s Story,” which I didn’t find as compelling (neither did some critics). I need to revisit that book one of these days, because my tastes have changed.